Thursday , March 28 2024
V aired episode two last night. We're still liking it.

Revisiting V

I am very happy to report that after a second week of V (the 2009 one, not the old one), I'm liking the show more and more.  Oh, in case you couldn't tell, we're probably going to be talking a lot about what happened in the episode last night, so if you don't want to know, don't continue reading.

Now, while the show has flaws (and we'll talk about those), I really did enjoy the fact that the producers didn't keep the evilness of the Visitors hidden.  There seems little to make anyone believe that the Visitors aren't out to try and destroy humanity.  Of course, they were evil in the original series, but I wasn't going to put it past the producers to try and flip the story on us – the resistance being evil, the Visitors being good.  They still could do that, but it seems increasingly less likely.

The biggest issue that the show might face at this point is the creation of the Resistance.  There are good aliens hidden among us, there are bad aliens hidden among us, and Elizabeth Mitchell's Erica and Joel Gretsch's Father Jack are going to be our leaders in forming the Resistance and right now they're scared of their own shadows.  If that remains the case, if the Resistance doesn't come about in relatively short order, the show could end up floundering.

Obviously there's a danger in the show progressing too quickly, moving the storyline ahead too quickly, not really letting the here and now develop, and not really allowing the producers themselves to figure out where the show is heading.  On the other hand, if our leads just sort of dither around every week, hold off on forming the resistance, and do very little except covering their oh-so-light tracks, it could get awfully dull. 

It could also get really dull if we get bogged down in a domestic dispute between Erica and her son, Tyler.  I can't imagine that anyone really wants to see the show go down that road.  No, what I think we all want is lizard on human fighting.

At this point I think that things are actually going to progress a little more slowly than I'd like, finally starting to move forward at good speed in two weeks.  The show is only doing four episodes before going on hiatus until next year, and two weeks from now is when episode four is airing.  See where I'm headed there?

Wow, here I am, opening with my really liking the episode and then revealing my fears for how the whole thing could possibly falter, especially because the domestic dispute I don't want to take place is going to take place.  No.  Stop that.  We're not going there.  Last night was fun.  It was a good episode.  It moved things along just enough to see where they might be headed. 

A lot happened in the first episode, so last night was more of a "take a breath but give a glimpse ahead" kind of a thing.  I like where it's headed.  Lizard aliens versus humans is just fun, and I think lizard aliens versus humans is exactly where we're headed.  Everything about the show makes it feel as though ABC is sinking a lot of money into it, so hopefully the fights will be good ones.

Where exactly will the show go?  How much will things change come the new year?  Well, the show has replaced showrunner, Scott Peters, and Peters was responsible for last night's episode (though according to Sci-Fi Wire he'll be staying on as a writer).  The address of the warehouse that Erica and Dale ended up in during the first episode, the warehouse they kept going back to last night, was 4400 Pier Ave.  Peters also executive produced The 4400 (and Joel Gretsch was also in that show).  I thought it was a cute reference, but it may be the sort of thing we don't get more of down the line.

As long as we get a Resistance and they do something though I think we'll be okay.

About Josh Lasser

Josh has deftly segued from a life of being pre-med to film school to television production to writing about the media in general. And by 'deftly' he means with agonizing second thoughts and the formation of an ulcer.

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