Yea or Nay: Comic-Con Hair

Kittens, we're going to need to retire to our fainting couches as soon as we're done here.

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V S1E12: Red Sky

"It's time for you to decide which side you're really on."

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V S1E11: Fruition

"My daughter needs her mother's comfort."

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V S1E10: Hearts and Minds

"Don't worry, daughter. We'll get him back."

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V S1E9: Heretic's Fork

"What is the baby gonna look like?"

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V S1E8: We Can't Win

"Because once they're dependent on it, we can turn it off. "

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V S1E7: John May

"I want those bodies on this ship."

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V S1E6: Pound of Flesh

"You ready to put your son in the war?"

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T Lo Interviews: Morena Baccarin

SQUEEEEEE!!!!!!

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V S1E5: Welcome to the War

"Now my eggs need nourishment."

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V is for very, VERY excited.

Darlings, we are of peace. Always.

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V S1E04: It's Only the Beginning

"We landed a punch."

Kittens, we couldn't wait to see last night's episode. Not because we were anxious to see what happened next; we already knew what happened next thanks to a screener sent to us by those lovely folks at Warner Brothers. The reason we couldn't wait is because the screener was a rough cut sans special effects (with some unintentionally hilarious results) and we were eager to see what the engine room and the V armada looked like. Well, now we know. Kinda cool that the Vs fly in V formation.

It's all coming together a little bit more. We can't say we know exactly what the Vs are planning, but they clearly built their plan banking on human fears and paranoia. You have to remember that this isn't a strict remake of the original V so it's not a foregone conclusion that they want to eat us. It looks to us like whatever the plan is, it's a bit more complicated than that.

So what do we know? We know that they're sucking humans further and further into relying on them to "save" them, by opening up "medical centers" where they can magically treat a host of ailments that we backwards humans haven't conquered. We know that they've been secretly experimenting on humans and that they plan on introducing a drug they call R6 into a common flu vaccine. We know that Valerie is pregnant with a little V hybrid and that Chad is dying (or was fooled into thinking he is). We know that Georgie is a loose cannon and a pain in the ass and we know that we won't shed a tear when he gets killed. We also know that Tyler is an idiot and we also won't shed a tear whenever he finds out how he's been used by the Vs. Whatever else Tyler is, he's "The One" and we don't think Lisa means her future husband when she calls him that. We know that "The Bliss" entails Anna acting out her own little Chanel No. 5 commercial for the V population, which makes us think she's as much a religious figure as she is a political one to her people - and that makes her far more dangerous and powerful than we originally thought. We know that Father Jack really is Action Priest and we know that Erica, for all her other good points, is kind of a lousy mother. We also know that there are cute gay Vs.

Okay, maybe that last one was just us. But did anyone else get a "I wish I could quit you" vibe from Fifth Columnist Joshua and his little compatriot, who sacrificed himself for the good of the movement? There were an awful lot of longing glances between them, wouldn't you say?

Thankfully, the creators realized that they needed to step up their game and they did so with this episode. We still see problems (and apparently so do they, hence, the hiatus): Erica needs work, the show needs to rethink its style, and the dialogue is sometimes painfully clunky, but the tension level rose dramatically with several major plot advancements and some juicy cliffhangers. How long is Ryan going to let Valerie think she's carrying a normal baby? Now that Erica knows her idiot son is in tight with the Vs, what will she do about it? Will Father Jack live? Of course he will, but now the Vs know who he is and that can't be good. Will Chad become a full-on V supporter after they save his life? What is R6? And what happens when that V armada shows up in our solar system? And the one that they're going to drag out as long as they can: Who is John May?

We know this: we can't wait for the show's return in March.

[Photo Credit: ABC TV]

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Labels: V Season 1, V Series

V S1E03: A Bright New Day

"It's a bright new day in America."

In a way, it's a little frustrating designating ourselves cheerleaders for this show. We're not completely ignorant of the flaws so far, but we like the show in spite of them and because we see a tremendous amount of potential in the concept. There was a hint of a germ of an idea in the pilot when political buzzwords like the deliberately familiar "hope and change" as well as the anvil-heavy "universal healthcare" were tossed around. A lot of people jumped on that and assumed that the show was somehow an anti-Obama tract dressed up as a science fiction show but we think it goes a bit further than that. We touched on this when we wrote about the pilot, but we want to revisit it for a second here to explain why we see such potential.

The original V debuted in the early '80s and we suppose someone could make the argument that it was somehow a response to Reaganism but frankly we think that's a stretch. Anyone with a base understanding of recent history knows that the differences both political and cultural between 2009 and 1983 are vast and we think the show is attempting to play off of that. We live in hyper-politicized times and for all the talk of cold war-era fears being reflected in the television shows and movies of the time, our art has only really tangentially touched on post 9/11 fears, even though we'd argue as people who lived through both periods, the fear of nuclear annihilation was no greater than the current 21st century American fears of terrorism, immigration, economic collapse and environmental degradation. In addition to those fears weighing down on us, we are stuck in the grips of a two-decade long "culture war" that shows no signs of letting up. This is why we think the show has such potential: because it can easily play off of the post-millenial hysteria and use it to give the story more layers and more meaning.

Unfortunately, it's just not quite there yet. We have reason to hope, however. Production on the show was halted after only 4 episodes were completed and the showrunner was replaced. There's a retooling going on at the moment and we hope very much that it happened because someone involved with the show saw the potential that we see. Because of that, these first four episodes have the feel of a prolonged prelude. It's when the show returns in March that we'll really see if the creators involved get what they have on their hands.

Part of what frustrates us about the show is that very few of the characters have any, well...character to them. With the exception of Anna and her daughter (!!!!) Lisa, the rest of the characters have a stock feel to them. Further, the show has no style to it. Everything is shot and art directed in as bland a "network television" style as possible. Take away the aliens and it could easily pass for any basic police procedural on television. In particular, the show suffers terribly from a "Canada passing for New York" aesthetic that sets our teeth on edge.

Another thing that irritates us is that the show doesn't quite have the courage to "go there," to use a phrase. When Ryan had the gun to Cyrus' head last night, we were shouting "Kill him!" Not because we're bloodthirsty but because if you're going to do a story about the potential annihilation of the human race by alien invaders, then you need to take the tension to that level. The literal fate of the world is at stake and everyone who knows that seems to be pussyfooting around quite a bit. It may seem unfair to compare this show to Lost but to our way of thinking, it's unavoidable. Both shows have large ensemble casts and a sci-fi-influenced plotline. The difference is, Lost was never afraid to go there and as the seasons went by, the body count went up and up as the stakes got higher and higher. We need to see that level of intensity here. We need to feel like the stakes really are that high.

None of this is to say that we don't enjoy the show. We do. Immensely. And in fact, we think last night's episode was the strongest yet as multiple plot strands were introduced and existing plot strands moved forward slightly. The creators need to realize what a gold mine they have in Morena Baccarin as Anna. Almost every other actor on the show appears to be struggling a bit to find their character and she alone gives off the impression that she knows her character inside and out. Sure, we love her because she's fabulous and wears fierce clothes, but we also love her because she inhabits the skin of that character (no pun intended) 100%. She's both fabulous and creepy as hell and that's not an easy trick to pull off, especially when you're not dealing with the strongest of scripts. Laura Vandervoort as teen slut V Lisa deserves some credit too. It's funny. We didn't see the "Mother" line coming at all but just before that we were discussing that she was just as fabulous and as coolly creepy as the Anna character is. Now we know why.

Elizabeth Mitchell still seems to be struggling a bit in her role. She needs to be bumped up a bit in the scripts in order to go toe to toe with Anna's character because whether they intended it or not, she is Anna's counterpart in the resistance. This is further illustrated by the fact that her child is about to sleep with Anna's child and if it's anything like the original series, that will result in a hybrid baby, which means both of them will be grandmothers to the same child. Right now, she's a generic TV series FBI agent.

We actually like the work they're doing with Father Jack, who is a bit of a moron when it comes to the spy work he's taken on, but that only makes sense for the character. If he had inexplicably become "Father Jack, Action Priest" overnight, we would have been rolling our eyes. We're glad they finally got the four main characters of the resistance together. We think that took a little long, actually. They shoved so much information at us in the pilot that we assumed every episode was going to move that quickly.

But we're being a little unfair here because like we said, a LOT happened last night. Along with getting the resistance up on its feet, we were treated to several intriguing twists. Number one would be the revelation that Anna is Lisa's mother. Never saw that coming. Also never saw coming the revelation that apparently, there are Fifth Columnists on board the motherships. Is Dale dead? It would make no sense for him not to be, but that's kind of a shame. He had the makings of a great villain. Also, what did Cyrus mean when he talked about being "reconnected" and "the bliss?" And who are the other sleeper agents in the FBI office that Dale mentioned? And how did Ryan seemingly reduce Cyrus into a pile of ash? And how many sleeper agents need to turn on Ryan before he realizes he can't trust the guys? Most importantly of all, who the hell is John May?

It kind of sucks that there's only one episode left before they go on hiatus, but we have to admit, much as we love it, we realize it needs the time to iron out the kinks. Until then, we are of peace. Always.


[Photo Credit: ABC TV]

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Labels: V Season 1, V Series

V S1E02: There is No Normal Anymore

"You still don't understand humanity."

Should have called it "The One Where Everyone Has an iPhone."

We want Anna's magic mirror! Clearly, they're not shying away from the potential camp appeal of the character, because that scene of her virtually trying on clothes seemed tailor-made for the gayboys in the audience. There were four gays watching the show in front of our TV last night and we all squealed whenever Anna appeared. Being the fashionable sort of gays, we quickly ditched any discussion of the rest of the series and got down to discussing her wardrobe. We were all in agreement that the show needs to have a sequence (like in the Sex and the City movie!) where Anna poses in couture for a Vogue editorial. This is why we can't be television writers. If it were up to us, Mad Men would be 40 minutes of Joan, Betty, and Trudy modeling clothes.

Not that we missed anything (we did watch it 2 and half times after all). Things are briskly moving along and we were happy to see them pickup right after the pilot's closing scene because if there was one major flaw in the pilot, it's that they skipped 3 weeks in the timeline, wiping out a lot of connections that needed to get made. A story like this requires some careful setting up of the particulars and if you're jumping around too much, you're not establishing a baseline from which to move forward. Look at the first season of Lost. The entire 20+ episodes covered...what? Maybe a month in the lives of the characters? That's why later seasons of the show paid off so well, because they did the work early on of setting up each character's story and place in the storyline.

We still think the show is strong, but all shows suffer from a form of first-season-itis and this show is no exeption. You can feel the writers kind of hashing it out on screen: who are these people; why do we care about them, if at all; how would they act in this situation or that one; that sort of thing. Clearly, Elizabeth Mitchell's Erica is being set up as a major player, if not THE major player in the resistance, so last night's episode felt like an attempt to really get to know her. Unsurprisingly, she's cool under pressure in the same way Juliet was on Lost, able to think on her feet, and savvy enough to know that she can't do it alone. She and the priest make a good team. We hope they resist the idea of pairing them in a romantic way. We don't think we're seeing Mitchell at her best, though. Four seasons on Lost convinced as that she's very good in these types of stories and she's just not quite there yet. It felt like she was struggling to find some hook in the material to hang on to.

Speaking of Father Jack, we like that they didn't try and portray him as a square-jawed heroic type (especially since he's literally square-jawed). Granted, the writers apparently think that a priest's job consists of moving boxes (seriously, what's with all the boxes?), but it was a smart choice to portray him as in over his head on this situation and looking to other, more knowledgeable people (like Erica) for help.

The kid is a douchebag but he's designed to be a douchebag, so no problems there. We do like Lisa, the teen slut version of Anna. The scene where she expressed doubts that he could be a V Ambassador because, well, because he's a douchebag (some concepts are universal), was masterfully played. You knew as the viewer that she was playing him but could also appreciate how well she was playing him.

We have to admit, for whatever reason, Ryan, the V in love with an earth woman, isn't really grabbing us yet. It's not the actor because he's so gorgeous we could look at him all day, but the storyline just isn't coming together for us yet. Not that it doesn't have a ton of potential. We had a minor discussion last night of the possibility of their being a V hybrid baby in the show's future and if Ryan and his not-yet fiancee were going to be the happy parents.

Still, the idea of V sleeper agents is a great one. Whether the V traitors like Ryan and his little automotive friend will come together or not, the idea that anyone could be a V is tantalizing. Who knows what's going to happen to Erica now that her former partner is awake? If he tells his people about her, then she's got a massive target on her back. Part of us wonders how long the show is going to pretend that these people can get back to their lives. If the Vs know who Erica is, how can she reasonably be able to go to work every day? At some point, she's going to have to go permanently underground.

Anyway, like we said, the show's still in that fetal stage, but it's developing nicely and the possibilities for storylines are looking mighty big. We're still on board. Especially if there are more Anna fashion shows in the future.

[Photo Credit: ABC TV]

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Labels: V Season 1, V Series

V is for Very Excited.

Who's excited? We are!

Last night saw the series premiere of ABC's remake of the classic '80s sci-fi series, V and kittens, it's good. We're both old enough to have some very fond memories of the gerbil-eating lizard aliens but because we haven't seen the original show in 25 years, those memories are hazy. In fact, "gerbil-eating lizard aliens" just about sums up the totality of our memories of the show. Oh, and the hybrid baby. Everyone remembers that. And the deliciously Alexis-Carrington like villainy of the V's leader, Diana. Any geeky gayboy of the '80s surely remembers her.

Anyway, V was something of a pop culture phenomenon for a very brief period (even by pop culture phenomenon standards) and after 2 highly regarded and much watched mini-series and one ill-advised and lackluster one-season series, V faded into memory.

Well, apparently there are some middle-aged geeks out there in TV land with better memories than us because after a quarter-century of dormancy, V is back in the public eye, re-tooled for the hyper-partisan, post 9/11 world of 2009.

The new show first came to our attention because it was the reason our beloved Elizabeth Mitchell was leaving behind her ass-kicking portrayal of Juliet on Lost to go and pursue bigger things. Since Lost is ending this season, it was a smart choice on her part. She's going from a supporting character to the star of a series. And how nice to see an adventure series where both the hero and the villain are portrayed by women.

Of course, there are multiple heroes and villains on this show, but Elizabeth's character of Erica, the FBI agent who unwittingly becomes involved in the resistance is definitely front and center and it simply can't be argued that Morena Baccarin's Anna, the delicious and charismatic High Commander of the Vs (she's an alien in Prada) is one of the biggest draws on the show. With the poise of a supermodel and the charisma of a political leader, you simply can't take your eyes off her in every scene she appears in.

It just occurred to us that we've gone this far without explaining the show at all. It's simple, really. If it's anything like the original series, it's an examination of fascism using aliens as the aggressors. In last night's episode, the V's (for "Visitors") suddenly appear in massive spaceships hovering over all the world's major cities. The public rightfully panics until the face of the beautiful Anna appears, broadcasting a message of peace and cooperation worldwide. After that, it's a matter of dueling political philosophies and an examination of propaganda and public devotion. If that sounds a little heady for an "alien invasion" story, you're right. But that's what set the original V apart from other, lesser sci-fi shows and if this one is done correctly, it will do what good science fiction is meant to do: examine the real world through the lens of a world that doesn't exist.

Thankfully, it's not all philosophical discussions. There's some suspense, intrigue and a little bit of action in there too. In fact, jaded as we two are, even we were shocked by two "didn't see THAT coming" reveals near the end of the episode.

It's too early to say if this is going to work. The show has gotten some press for running into problems and to our frustration, the network is only going to air the first 4 episodes this month and then go on hiatus until March. Still, we're looking for something to be the new Lost and after the distressingly bad performance of the much-lauded Flashforward (Anyone else watch that? AWFUL.), we have hope that this will be the show to fill the void. If next week's episode is as good as the premiere was, expect us to geek out here on the blog with a weekly recap. If you didn't catch the episode last night, according to Hulu, the episode will be available online on Saturday (you can watch the first 9 minutes here). We make no guarantees about the future of the series, but the premiere was damn good (not flawless, but very, very strong) and set up multiple intriguing plotlines.

[Photo Credit ABC TV]

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Labels: V Season 1, V Series