Bad promo shot for the new V.

When Kyle and I saw commercials on CTV for V, we were pretty excited.  The original series was filmed in the Eighties, and we quite enjoyed its allegories to fascism, Nazis, and the holocaust, couched within a compelling story of alien domination over Earth.  Although it was pretty campy (how could it not be, with a half-reptile, half-alien baby and another alien eating guinea pigs involved in the plot?), the story of the rebel group attempting to overthrow the rule of the aliens, known as the Visitors, was very interesting and complex.  

Unfortunately, this is not so of the new reimagining of the series that premiered last night.  We watched it with our friend James, with whom we had watched the original series.  Perhaps we’re just biased towards the original series, as the pilot of the new one got many positive reviews.  We, however, didn’t think it was nearly so enthralling, for several reasons

The first major reason is that the underlying plot of the show has fundamentally changed;  in the original, the Visitors established their power over the Earth through political channels, and eventually expanding into the type of fascism favored by Hitler (for example, beginning an anti-knowledge pogrom and exterminating all the scientists and doctors who might expose them as reptiles).  This time, however, the Visitors (called "the ‘V’s" in this version) began to establish their control before appearing to mankind via terrorist sleeper cells (the intro to the show suggests that the Visitors are responsible for assassinating JFK and for 9/11).  The impact of 9/11 on the plot of the new V is quite evident;  clearly, the writers are still seeing terrorists all around them (it’s no coincidence that the show is largely set in New York City and included images of planes crashing in Manhattan).  Thus, the entire allegory of the original is completely undermined;  this was my favorite part of the original series, so I am quite disappointed.  One of the most striking moments in the original series is when one of the character’s grandfathers, who survived the Holocaust, teaches some kids how to properly vandalize a Visitor propaganda poster by spraypainting a "V" on it, for victory.  In contrast, this time the kids who have fallen prey to the Visitor’s propaganda are spraypainting Vs on walls in order to further spread pro-Visitor propaganda, completely deriving the title of the series of its significance in the old version.  Instead of being a clever allusion to historic events, the new V is rather like 24, but with aliens, and minus Jack Bauer.

Cover of the original series dvd.

The other complaint we had with the series is that they gave away too much up front.  Within a one hour pilot, we discovered that the Visitors are not as kind and good as they seem;  we discover that they are reptiles, which was a huge moment in the original series (we saw the leader, Diana, eating a guinea pig), but was just told to us by a resistance character in this version (rather like a scene where a bad guy tells you their entire plan, instead of letting you discover the plan through a series of revelations); the Visitor’s modus operandi is exposed without any suspense.  In fact, every major revelation that was gradually given to the viewer in the original series was given in the new one in about five minutes.  Why bother watching when anything that creates tension in the series is already resolved in the pilot?

Finally, Kyle brought up a good point last night;  the original series is all about what everyday people do when encountered by things like corrupt or evil governments and persecution;  the main characters are a scientist and his family, and their suburban neighbors.  The new series, however, has main characters who are FBI agents attempting to expose terrorist sleeper cells, as an example.  As bad as the original special effects seem to viewers of this generation, it’s still easy to place yourself in the situation of the characters, asking yourself things like "what would I do if faced with a choice whether to turn in my persecuted neighbors to the government?"  That relatability is gone in the new reimagining, unfortunately, as many of us cannot really imagine what it would be like to be an FBI agent who discovers her partner is really an alien, or what it would be like to be an undercover alien attempting to escape his terrorist connections to live a peaceful life with his human fiancee.

All in all, I would give the pilot of V a pretty dismal rating.  If you had no knowledge of V’s predecessor, it would likely be more interesting; unfortunately, the series, thus far, pales in comparison to the original, both in execution and plot.  Perhaps the only point in which I would rate the new version higher than the old is the category of special effects;  of course, the reptile makeup and the gigantic ships are far superior to that of the Eighties.  Unfortunately, fancy effects are not enough to make up for a weak plot that has been done before (and done better, in series like 24).