V

[juise]

Any thoughts on V pilot?

My brother-in-law was over for dinner tonight and was interested in watching the pilot, so we did. I was a toddler when the original series were airing, so I do't really have a good point of reference about how this compares to the original.

Overall, I enjoyed the premise. I haven't ever watched 24, but I get the feeling that (overall) the whole "sleeper cell" thing has been overdone in Hollywood. Having said that, the reveal that the supposed sleeper cell meeting was one for human defenders was pretty cool. I liked that Juliette's partner was an alien, but I wish that they would have waited a couple episodes to reveal that. I kinda feel the same way about the guy who was about to propose. I would have liked the whole "alien traitor" storyline to come out a little later.

It felt like they crammed too much into one episode. Maybe ABC feels like it has invested so much in the show that it had to make the premier very rich to ensure continued viewership.

Another thing I wasn't fond of was the plotline with the "peace ambassador" son. The scene with the attractive alien co-ed were pretty unbearable. I also thought that the signed permission slip was pretty weak. With all that advanced technology, they're going to be fooled by a forged permission slip. I'm sure they have a bunch of hanging folders full of permission slips on their ridiculously advanced alien crafts.

There will clearly come a time when the visitors will use him to gain leverage against his mom. I am curious whether the covering droid scanned her face and she is now is some database.

[hughgs]

Any thoughts on V pilot?

My brother-in-law was over for dinner tonight and was interested in watching the pilot, so we did. I was a toddler when the original series were airing, so I do't really have a good point of reference about how this compares to the original.

Overall, I enjoyed the premise. I haven't ever watched 24, but I get the feeling that (overall) the whole "sleeper cell" thing has been overdone in Hollywood. Having said that, the reveal that the supposed sleeper cell meeting was one for human defenders was pretty cool. I liked that Juliette's partner was an alien, but I wish that they would have waited a couple episodes to reveal that. I kinda feel the same way about the guy who was about to propose. I would have liked the whole "alien traitor" storyline to come out a little later.

It felt like they crammed too much into one episode. Maybe ABC feels like it has invested so much in the show that it had to make the premier very rich to ensure continued viewership.

Another thing I wasn't fond of was the plotline with the "peace ambassador" son. The scene with the attractive alien co-ed were pretty unbearable. I also thought that the signed permission slip was pretty weak. With all that advanced technology, they're going to be fooled by a forged permission slip. I'm sure they have a bunch of hanging folders full of permission slips on their ridiculously advanced alien crafts.

There will clearly come a time when the visitors will use him to gain leverage against his mom. I am curious whether the covering droid scanned her face and she is now is some database.

I didn't watch the "pilot" but my hatred of TV rehashing makes me think that you could get a feel for the trajectory by watching the original series.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086822/

[JasonEvans]

First, let me say that I am extremely disappointed in juise for not simply titling this thread with the title of the show. It would have set a record (I think) for the shortest thread title in history. At the worst, he would have tied the record. Everyone would have known what it was about so there would have been no need to edit the title for clarity. A missed opportunity, my friend!

Let me just add that any because I mentioned the possibility of such an honor/record for shortest thread title, I will be on the lookout for blatant attempts to unnaturally make short post-titles and I will frown upon such efforts ;)

Ok, as for the show--

I agree that it would have been nice to save some of the reveals, like Tudyk and Morris Chestnut being aliens, for later on but the show is in a hurry. ABC has announced that there will be 4 episodes in November and then the show will go on a 3-month hiatus only to resurface in March after the Winter Olympics are over. ABC only bought 13 episodes and it will be interesting to see if they try to turn it into a full series or just have the whole story play out over the 13 eps. As you all know, I am a big fan of shows knowing where they are going so I am in favor of 13-and-that's-it for this show. Tell your story and move on to something else!

The show faces a real challenge in reshaping the story from the original. So far, they seem very similar. That's ok, but if you want to surprise me and millions of other sci-fi fans, you are going to have to strike out on your own at some point.

I found the acting and writing to be very pedestrian last night. None of the characters have drawn me in all that much and I would not really care if any of them got killed at this point. Juliet's son is going to bother me a lot, I can already tell. I hate that the journalist caved so quickly and so obviously.

I have been sitting here trying to think of more to say about the show bu mostly coming up blank. It was ok, but never surprised me or really drew me in. I'll keep watching, but I am not overly enthused about it.

--Jason "is there anyone out there who loves it?" Evans

[hurleyfor3]

C'mon, Jason, if we want to just call the thread V, we can!

Going in, my only requirement was whatever else they did, the aliens had better be lizards. And they are! So I'm happy. (Does that count as a spoiler alert? From like 1983?)

Although that first episode did move kinda fast. In the original miniseries -- which was a BIG deal when it came out, btw -- I don't think we found out they were lizards until the second (two-hour) episode.

[brevity]

Haven't watched V yet, but FlashForward rules apply here. Whenever possible, each role shall be referred to by the actor's previous/better character. Thanks for getting the ball rolling with Agent Juliet. We can add Inara Serra, Hoban "Wash" Washburne, Supergirl, and Bailey Salinger.

I still think of Morris Chestnut as Ricky from Boyz n the Hood. Joel Gretsch is tricky: for me he was Sedgewick Bell, the adult Emile Hirsch in The Emperor's Club, but you could go with his roles in Taken or The 4400.

[bigj4194]

Haven't watched it yet. but I plan on it. I'll let you know my thoughts when I get done watching it.


Haven't watched V yet, but FlashForward rules apply here. Whenever possible, each role shall be referred to by the actor's previous/better character. Thanks for getting the ball rolling with Agent Juliet. We can add Inara Serra, Hoban "Wash" Washburne, Supergirl, and Bailey Salinger

Morena Baccarin has been Adria (an Ori) from Stargate SG-1 before.

thoughts to follow

[Maxwell1977]

Not a good start - they're obviously lying. How are they losing water - dumping their waste out the airlock? Naturally the show introduces religion right away.

[Mal]

Haven't watched V yet, but FlashForward rules apply here. Whenever possible, each role shall be referred to by the actor's previous/better character. Thanks for getting the ball rolling with Agent Juliet. We can add Inara Serra, Hoban "Wash" Washburne, Supergirl, and Bailey Salinger.

I still think of Morris Chestnut as Ricky from Boyz n the Hood. Joel Gretsch is tricky: for me he was Sedgewick Bell, the adult Emile Hirsch in The Emperor's Club, but you could go with his roles in Taken or The 4400.

OMG, I'm old/out of touch. I feel like I'm listening to a bunch of teenagers talk. Save for Boyz n The Hood, I have no idea what/who this post is even discussing. Can't our cultural references go back to revolving around "90210" and "Swingers?"

[Jeffrey]

I haven't ever watched 24....

I haven't ever missed 24.

[brevity]

OMG, I'm old/out of touch. I feel like I'm listening to a bunch of teenagers talk. Save for Boyz n The Hood, I have no idea what/who this post is even discussing. Can't our cultural references go back to revolving around "90210" and "Swingers?"

"OMG"... that's funny. And my teenage days are nearly 20 years behind me.

My point, which started in the FlashForward thread, is that we shouldn't have to learn character names for a new show if we recognize the actors for something (better) they did before. In that thread, I don't really want to refer to Joseph Fiennes as FBI agent Mark Benford; the dude was Shakespeare. So, Agent Shakespeare it is.

Implicit in this, of course, is that by the time FlashForward ends, Joseph Fiennes will still best be known for playing Shakespeare. So it's a form of criticism as well.

[budwom]

The aliens made vague references to needing some of earth's minerals (or maybe it's human livers, wrapped in bacon...we'll see)...which is reminiscent of a recent humor piece in The New Yorker in which aliens visit earth because they urgently need our gravel supply.

[Mal]

brevity - no, I get the concept, and was reading the Flash Forward thread early on. I'm just noting that I have no idea who and what the hell the actors/prior roles/movies you're referring to are. Which makes me feel insufficiently pop culture literate, which makes me feel my age. (Incidentally, do you have kids? If not, that's my excuse.) I can't even participate in the little game you're playing because these are all new faces to me and I can't connect the dots of imdb profiles for actors younger than me. I used to be good at this stuff, and now I'm lost.

I'm glad you caught my ironic use of "OMG," though. ;)

[JasonEvans]

C'mon, Jason, if we want to just call the thread V, we can!

Ok, who changed the title?!?!!? I want names!!!

--Jason " ;) " Evans

[brianl]

I came in the house last night and my wife was already 40 minutes into the show. I thought the whole Flash Forward series was bad enough.

Doesn't she know that the downstairs TV will always air Duke basketball games before any weekly series?

And no, I don't have a DVR, but may be forced into one soon.

[JasonEvans]

And no, I don't have a DVR, but may be forced into one soon.

Welcome to the 90.

Once you have mastered the DVR, lets talk about getting you some HDTV ;)

--Jason "just foolin' with ya" Evans

[juise]

Do I at least get a footnote in the record book for starting the thread that eventually became the thread with the shortest title?

I really did consider the single-letter title, but I thought it might be a little obnoxious. I'm glad to be overruled by ranking board members. :) I apologize for inducing extreme disappointment, though.


And Mal, if you like Sci-Fi, you could pick up on a couple of the references by watching the series Firefly. They used to have them all available to watch on Hulu.com, but apparently that stopped in September. You can still watch the first five episodes.

[brianl]

Alas, thanks to DirecTV I have that. I'll admit, living way off the road in the county is very peaceful 90% of the time.

My only issue is that I'll never have fios or some other type of fast internet.

Satellite internet is about as good as it gets, and I'm lucky to be able to listen to audio feeds of the games.

But at night the stars as a big as basketballs!!

[Jarhead]

Okay, now that this tread has gone completely off the tracks, let me ask a question. Did anybody think that that space ship must have been made out of old aluminum foil? Better yet, did it remind anyone of the recent media blitz covering the balloon boy out west? As for the show itself, it does not get anywhere near the standards set by Star Wars, Star Trek, A Space Odyssey, or even Stargate. I remember a tv show episode from a number of years ago, Twilight Zone. Remember that? This episode was about a space ship that arrived on Earth, and after some discussion and promises from human-like aliens, the Earthlings welcomed them, eagerly. As the show was reaching its conclusion hordes of Earthling lined up to go aboard the space ship for a trip into space. They were all handed a booklet entitled "To Serve Man." As the last of them were getting on board someone waving the booklet came running up, shouting for the people to stop, but too late. As the space ship soared away, he looked around at the covering media and spectators, saying sadly, "It's a cook book." Rod Serling could be almost as funny as Alfred Hitchcock. Oh, yeah. I didn't like V, at all

[ChrisP]

Perhaps I'm just a simpleton but...I thought V was ok. I remember watching the original as a kid - and I caught the marathon replay this weekend on the ScFy channel. Man...was the old miniseries cheesy! But it was kinda cool to see Mr. Wilhelm as "The Leader".

Ok, maybe I just have no taste, but I try to go into these things with no expectations and just enjoy it. I did think some of the acting was rather wooden (and other performances a little over the top), but I liked the overall concept. Especially the part about the aliens having been on earth for a while and being responsible for creating the type of conditions that would make their "official" appearance on earth a welcome sight. And yeah...they probably revealed a little too much too soon but as someone who HATES to wait, that did appeal to me as well.

[JasonEvans]

Regarding the show, one huge problem I am going to have is the notion that a race of Visitors who are able to travel through space, hover over cities in gigantic ships, and clearly have technology faaaaar beyond our own -- if their weapons do not totally dominate us.... well, I am going to have a problem with that.

Mankind is at least 50 years away from the technology these people possess, perhaps more. Think about what our weapons and technology weas like 50 years ago. Heck, if you took the Israeli army of today and put it back in time 50 years, it could single-handedly take out Nazi Germany, the United States, the Japanese, and England in about a week or two.

The show better explain why the Visitors need to bother to pretend being nice to the humans.

--Jason "I think too much for shows like this... sigh" Evans

[cato]

Heck, if you took the Israeli army of today and put it back in time 50 years, it could single-handedly take out Nazi Germany, the United States, the Japanese, and England in about a week or two.


From your lips to Quentin Tarantino's ears.

[bigj4194]

Having just finished watching the first episode I think the show will be an interesting one partly because i love SciFi shows. As for Jason's comment earlier about the 13-and-done way of presenting the show...I think that's a good idea. I think a lot of shows end up getting away from the plot they wish to convey and the premise of the show by trying to do too much. This show seems like it only has 1-2 plot lines and if they try to develop too much it won't end up being a good show.

As for Adria/Anna (Morena Baccarin) from what i can tell she plays a similar character to the SG1 character where she was the leader of a religion and told lies to everyone. made me laugh. she will henceforth be known in my posts as adria :)

[elvis14]

Perhaps I'm just a simpleton but...I thought V was ok. I remember watching the original as a kid - and I caught the marathon replay this weekend on the ScFy channel. Man...was the old miniseries cheesy! But it was kinda cool to see Mr. Wilhelm as "The Leader".

Ok, maybe I just have no taste, but I try to go into these things with no expectations and just enjoy it. I did think some of the acting was rather wooden (and other performances a little over the top), but I liked the overall concept. Especially the part about the aliens having been on earth for a while and being responsible for creating the type of conditions that would make their "official" appearance on earth a welcome sight. And yeah...they probably revealed a little too much too soon but as someone who HATES to wait, that did appeal to me as well.

I'm pretty much a simpleton with ChrisP on this one. I enjoyed the show in part because I was watching with no expectations. I try not to judge a show too much by the first episode. Often times the first episode will end up being the best or the worst episode.

[juise]

As for Adria/Anna (Morena Baccarin) from what i can tell she plays a similar character to the SG1 character where she was the leader of a religion and told lies to everyone. made me laugh. she will henceforth be known in my posts as adria :)

Sadly, Brevity already claimed "Inara Serra" (Firefly) for her earlier in the thread.

As a Firefly fan, I concur with his assessment. :)

[bigj4194]

Sadly, Brevity already claimed "Inara Serra" (Firefly) for her earlier in the thread.

As a Firefly fan, I concur with his assessment. :)

I can't believe I forgot she was in firefly!!!!!!! I'm mad at myself right now. Inara >> Adria. Thanks for the correction juise.

[JasonEvans]

Strong second episode in my mind. I enjoyed it and like where the show is going.

I did not like that the V hovering seeker robots had such lousy imaging on them. Uhhhh, taking a super high-quality picture of everything and everyone around you is something we've been able to do for quite a while. I mentioned to my wife that my lousy 5-year-old cell phone camera kicks butt compared to that floating V surveillance device.

But, aside from that, I mostly enjoyed this episode.

I think we will have fun over the next couple episodes guessing who is and is not a V pretending to be a human. The older priest is a given, of course.

--Jason "it will be interesting to see how the audience holds up versus last week" Evans

[moonpie23]

i can't stand what they've done to Inara. the once voluptuous beauty from Serenity is now a stick-person with a hard face...

that turned me off big time...

[JasonEvans]

Much like FlashForward, I will do weekly ratings reports on this show.



18-49 Total Viewers
Week 1 5.0 13.9 million
Week 2 3.7 10.5 million

This is a bad slip but is not unexpected. Most shows experience a dropoff from their premiere episode. The key for V will be holding onto the 10+ million who watched this week. If it can stay in this range, it will be a nice hit.


-Jason

[bigj4194]

I too thought this episode was a strong second episode. i hope they don't try to do too much with the plot/character development to convolute the full story. though i do think it will be interesting to see how they bring Steve the Pirate back into the fold of the show with Juliet knowing he is a visitor.

just thought id throw in some other character references :P

[bluebear]

I liked the second episode much better as well. They crammed way too much into the first show.
I like the concept of the uncertainty over who is an alien and I hope that stretches out (in a planned way) for a while. I agree with Jason though that the old priest has to be an alien...

[godukerocks]

Well we all knew that Tyler was going to eventually be lured, but the fact that the girl is Anna's daughter makes the whole situation much more interesting.

Not a bad episode, in my opinion. The cameras in jackets present a new scenario; everything is under the V's surveillance. Too bad the last episode of the year is next weekend.

[bjornolf]

Regarding the show, one huge problem I am going to have is the notion that a race of Visitors who are able to travel through space, hover over cities in gigantic ships, and clearly have technology faaaaar beyond our own -- if their weapons do not totally dominate us.... well, I am going to have a problem with that.

Mankind is at least 50 years away from the technology these people possess, perhaps more. Think about what our weapons and technology weas like 50 years ago. Heck, if you took the Israeli army of today and put it back in time 50 years, it could single-handedly take out Nazi Germany, the United States, the Japanese, and England in about a week or two.

The show better explain why the Visitors need to bother to pretend being nice to the humans.

--Jason "I think too much for shows like this... sigh" Evans

Maybe their super advanced weapons run off of whatever mineral of ours they need? ;)

[JasonEvans]

18-49 Total Viewers % change
Week 1 5.0 13.9 million ---
Week 2 3.7 10.5 million 24.4 down
Week 3 3.1 9.3 million 11.4 down

And doooown she goes.

V shed another 1.2 million viewers this week. It showed an even larger drop (16.2%) in the 18-49 demo. Not good. The show was already going to have trouble maintaining audience because of ABC's plan to shelve it for a couple months after next week's episode. Hmmmm.

The numbers are not bad at this point, but there is not a lot of room for continued erosion. Another 10+% drop next week would put it in the low 8-million kinda range, which is a dangerous place to be, especially for an expensive show (which V is).

At least they won't plan on dragging out the plot over many seasons. This sucker is looking like a single-season show if you ask me.

--Jason "FWIW, I liked last night's episode though I thought making the hot Visitor Anna's daughter was not a WOW moment like they clearly planned it to be" Evans

[JasonEvans]

Maybe their super advanced weapons run off of whatever mineral of ours they need? ;)

I like that they have super hi-res cameras hidden in their coats but the floating surveillance/droids that they sent into the resistance meeting 2 weeks ago were unable to capture decent images of any of the folks in the meeting.

So they brought Alan Tudyk back from the dead so they could promptly kill him off just as he recalled that Juliet had seen his lizard face? Really? Seems like they could have done a lot more with him than that.

I like the notion of the 5th column and the implication that the Vs are all addicted to some drug that essentially has them enslaved by Anna (or someone-- we only heard them say "she"). There is a lot the show can do with this as it moves forward.

Making the assassin be a V was obvious and not all that clever. Plus, the public, the press, and the human authorities would be clamoring to know who the assassin was and would want to question him for themselves. I mean, the way it appear now, it seems the Vs executed a human. Lame.

The show feels like it is trying to do everything right, but is not really thinking all of it through to its logical conclusion. Ahh well.

-Jason "I'll keep watching" Evans

[hurleyfor3]

I expected by now there would be a couple scenes of the aliens eating hamsters and getting their skin ripped off in public. I'm disappointed.

[JG Nothing]

At least they won't plan on dragging out the plot over many seasons. This sucker is looking like a single-season show if you ask me.


Great. Juliet died or is relegated to a minor role because of a mediocre show that may not get more than one season.

[Heelkiller1]

I expected by now there would be a couple scenes of the aliens eating hamsters and getting their skin ripped off in public. I'm disappointed.

That was the the coolest part of the old show. They need to step it up if they want a second season.

[brevity]

I like the notion of the 5th column and the implication that the Vs are all addicted to some drug that essentially has them enslaved by Anna (or someone-- we only heard them say "she"). There is a lot the show can do with this as it moves forward.

I'm pretty sure Ricky Baker and the 5th Column turncoat said "Anna" in that scene. So Inara's not only the leader now (note the 29 Captains scene) but presumably has been for some time.

The good twist of the episode came before the ending, when the doctor turned out to be 5th Column. That's not the end of Steve the Pirate, if we believe the future promos ABC gave us at the end of the first episode. They showed him confronting Juliet and holding her stupid shaggy-haired son hostage.

I was under the assumption that Inara replaced the protesting widow with a Visitor in her cloned skin, but no mention was made of it later.

Of course, the concept of "cloned skin" makes me wonder if the Visitors have created their human coverings in the image of actual humans killed in the past. Like, say, Georgie's family.

[JasonEvans]

The good twist of the episode came before the ending, when the doctor turned out to be 5th Column. That's not the end of Steve the Pirate, if we believe the future promos ABC gave us at the end of the first episode. They showed him confronting Juliet and holding her stupid shaggy-haired son hostage.

I was under the assumption that Inara replaced the protesting widow with a Visitor in her cloned skin, but no mention was made of it later.

Of course, the concept of "cloned skin" makes me wonder if the Visitors have created their human coverings in the image of actual humans killed in the past. Like, say, Georgie's family.

I thought they showed us that scene with Steve the Pirate holding a gun on Juliet and it was just a nightmare she was having while in the shower.

Of course, they could bring Steve the Pirate back by just putting his skin on a different V. Would that work? We have no idea how the Vs take their human skin shape. I too suspected that the protest woman was a V in disguise. If that is the case then the Vs can clearly pretend to be anyone they want to be and we can get Steve the Pirate back with ease.

I sorta hope the show does not go that direction though, as it becomes an annoying plot device where we trust no one and even the main characters can be made to do "bad" things by simply turning them into a V.

--Jason "I expect the next episode to include a big reveal about someone unsuspected being a V" Evans

[Exiled_Devil]

Great. Juliet died or is relegated to a minor role because of a mediocre show that may not get more than one season.

I'm pretty sure that Juliet's role in Season 6 was decided based on the plots of the show, not outside considerations.

And I'm pretty sure that she is in a few episodes in Season .