V Takes on Obamamania
A remake of the cheesy 1980's mini-series features a subtext that parallels America in the age of Obama.
The first episode of the new series V demands a second viewing. Maybe even a third.
Did a major television network really greenlight a show mocking the hope ‘n’ change express via an invading alien horde?
The series, a sleek upgrade of the cheesy 1980’s model, follows a smooth-talking, hope-spreading alien race who come in peace. But their platitudes are only skin deep. Lizard skin deep, for those who recall the source material.
The show, airing on Tuesday nights on ABC, earned praise from many television critics, though the folks at the New York Times and the New Republic weren’t pleased one bit.
What a shock.
To be fair, the show’s first hour-long episode is far from perfect, rushing to tell a story better told in a two-hour format.
Elizabeth Mitchell (Lost) leads the ensemble cast as an FBI agent trying to track down a sleeper cell while keeping tabs on her wayward son. Her mission gets temporarily pushed aside when 29 spaceships suddenly appear over the Earth’s biggest cities.
The ships bring a message of hope from Anna (Morena Baccarin), the leader of the race quickly dubbed the “Visitors.” Every aspect of the first episode moves at warp speed, to borrow a phrase from another science fiction franchise.
Anna says her fellow aliens need some raw material found commonly on Earth to sustain her species. In return, the Visitors will share their medical and technological advances.
A smarmy reporter named Chad (Scott Wolf), an able stand-in for today‘s docile media, asks if she means “universal health care.”
Chad feels a tingle up his leg when he gets the chance for a one-on-one with Anna. But that chat, along with other aspects of the Visitors’ playbook, isn’t quite what it seems.
“We can’t be seen in a negative light,” Anna tells Chad at one point, and it’s hard not to think of the Obama administration firing off another salvo against that rebel alliance Fox News.
Frankly, the social commentary in episode one comes on too thick at times, a result of the rushed nature of the series’ introduction. We get “I Heart Visitor” T-shirts and smitten teens tagging the nearest buildings with a big red “V.” The Visitors need these young troops to help transform the Earth for the better.
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Christian Toto is a freelance writer and film critic for The Washington Times. His work has appeared in People magazine, MovieMaker Magazine, The Denver Post, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and Scripps Howard News Service. He also contributes movie radio commentary to three stations as well as the nationally syndicated Dennis Miller Show and runs the blog What Would Toto Watch?
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15 Comments
1. Gordon Winslow:Mr. Toto, how long has it been since you watched the original “V” miniseries? It (not necessarily the sequel miniseries or the weekly series) was not cheesy, and the special effects were quite good by the standards of the day. If it’s been a long time, give it another shot. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
I enjoyed the first episode of the revamp but agree that it seemed like a two-hour show chopped into a one-hour show. I’m hoping the makers have that out of their system and will put a little more work into developing plot lines and characters going forward.
Nov 8, 2009 - 1:18 am 2. suztours:While you are right about the comparisons to “O” (it was the first thing I thought of while watching the first episode) and the campaign last year (and the continuing campaign-type rhetoric emanating from the White House), the BEST verbal exchange in the first episode of “V” was at the end:
FBI agent: “They’re arming themselves with the most powerful weapon out there.”
Nov 8, 2009 - 4:35 am 3. eon:Priest: “What’s that?”
FBI agent: “DEVOTION.”
Frankly, I was surprised that a show with such an obviously “non-P.C.” view of present-day politics was greenlighted at all, let alone by ABC, which is engaged in a race to the bottom with NBC for the dubious distinction of being “More O-Maniac Than Thou”.
I find myself wondering if this is evidence of a schism between the news and entertainment divisions of ABC, or even “buyer’s remorse” on the part of the entire corporation.
As for Chait’s whine in NR, it tells more about “progressive” mentalities than it does about “right-wing” ones. Clearly, “sophisticated, enlightened progressives” (like Chait) cannot tolerate any criticism of, not just their most recent Anointed One, but any aspect of their dogma. Also, they are so used to being showered with uncritical (and often unthinking) praise from the mass media for whatever they do, that they seem to go into a panic, or even a fugue state when any portion of that media (other than the Demon Incarnate, i.e. Fox News) disagrees with them, even slightly. Plus, calling ABC a “right-wing” entity is so divorced from reality as to be bizarre. The fact that Chait makes that statement tells more about him than it does about ABC.
If the “philosophy” that progressives like Chait revere is that vulnerable to even slight criticism, or their own belief in it is that shaky, maybe they should consider the possibility that the problem is not everyone who disagrees with them, but themselves.
There’s an old principle in engineering design that goes, “If nobody else does it that way, there’s usually a very good reason”. No engineer worth his salt will design any system in a way that consistently fails to deliver the expected performance just because somebody else did it.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for “enlightened intellectuals” who follow- and worship- “progressive” dogmas. This probably explains their adverse reaction to “V”. Most people don’t like to hear that they aren’t really as good as they believe themselves to be at whatever they do.
“Progressives”, like Chait, become apoplectic if anyone has the gall to suggest, even gently, that they are anything less than Perfect.
clear ether
eon
Nov 8, 2009 - 4:59 am 4. Phranc:On the lead up to the new series the SyFy station had the original ‘V’ on for 2 days. I found the story then to be very compelling when compared to today. The Utopian promise masking true intentions. The show was dedicated to resistance fighters past, present and future. The use of propaganda in the original is akin to what the Obama machine used to get elected. The old Jew who refused to allow his neighbours be taken because of what he suffered under the nazi was a gripping part of the story. In the original the iconic V was spray painted on a propaganda poster by that old man when he showed youths how to deface the poster. He exclaimed that it stood for victory.
The show was far from cheesy and had deeply rooted messages of resistance to tyranny. It’s not so much a dig at Obama specifically as it is a dig against the tyrannical wolf dressed as the utopian sheep. Obama just happens to fall into the meme.
Nov 8, 2009 - 7:46 am 5. blotto:Eon: Nice commentary. Progressives must react as they do because every thing the believe is based on either a lie or something that has caused untold death and misery. So they must keep a tight leash on criticism. Ergo that Islamic maniac that murdered the soldiers at Ft.Hood. Progressivism and Islamic fundamentalist made a Faustian deal and share a common goal. And it must be preserved no matter how pretzel shaped they and progressivism become.
Nov 8, 2009 - 8:15 am 6. BackwardsBoy:“It’s grating that a potentially interesting concept was hijacked by right-wing political paranoia.”
And we’re supposed to ignore the left-wing fantasy of “climate change” that’s infiltrated and spoiled countless other potentially promising sci-fi shows?
Nov 8, 2009 - 10:08 am 7. Gary Ogletree:Fox News = The Rebel Alliance. I like it.
Nov 8, 2009 - 10:09 am 8. Suzi:When we saw the pilot in July at San Diego Comic Con, we were shocked and delighted. We’d come to see it for two of our favorite actors were in it (Morena as Anna, and Alan Tudyk as an FBI agent)…but we were hooting and ’squeeing’ (like little fangurls) at the ‘message’ the show brought! I kept hearing that ABC was going to ‘change’ and ‘tone down’ some aspects of it, and seeing that they are changing so many people who ‘run things’, I’m sure I can guess what those changes will be. *sigh* Well, at least we had the pilot. I am eagerly awaiting the next installment. Unfortunately, they’ve condensed the next SIX episodes into FOUR (what the?), meaning, I’m sure, alot of what made conservatives and ‘freedom fighters’ *squee* will be removed. Too bad. I thought someone at ABC had actually grown a spine to stand up to the “O” machine. Then, we’ll have a very long hiatus (after the Olympics), which will most likely lose a huge hunk of the fanbase (and yes, there is already a huge fanbase built in with some of the actors and the theme of the show). Still, it will be interesting to see how the show plays out.
Nov 8, 2009 - 10:18 am 9. Yonks73:While watching V (which I loved by the way) I kept saying to myself how this is just like the O election. Glad to know that was intentional. Maybe there is hope in overcoming Obamainsaneia!
Nov 8, 2009 - 10:55 am 10. myth buster:Just watched “V for Vendetta” three days ago. Truly sunlight is the best antidote to tyranny.
Nov 8, 2009 - 12:22 pm 11. Krupskaya:The pilot is available on abc.com.
I didn’t expect to do more than glance at it, but I ended up watching the whole episode. It’s fascinating and quite well done.
Nov 8, 2009 - 1:32 pm 12. HyphenatedAmerican:The first time when Obama was mocked (although only very attentive watcher like me noticed this) was in the movie Transformers-2. The US government (straight orders from Obama) decided to abandon the allies of the planet Earth, because it was decided Earth could make a separate peace with the enemies. The military were furious at the president’s decision. Note though that Obama’s name was not mentionned directly – until in the end, when it was said “President Obama was evacuated from the White House”.
I believe this is a beginning of a new age – an age when American liberalism died. I am writing an article on exactly this subject. Stay tuned and don’t forget to go to my website.
Nov 9, 2009 - 12:36 am 13. liuk:Pilot was ok, but the line with “universal health care” was so obvious that it sucked. It was like hints about Abu Ghraib, WMD or fabricated war on terror in liberal media and satire.
Nov 9, 2009 - 2:32 am 14. Banned by Huffpo:I loved how most everyone drank the alien kool-aid . . . now, who does that remind you of?
Looking forward to the next episode!
Nov 10, 2009 - 10:09 am 15. Don Rodrigo:Lizard-tongue-flicking Obama communications director and Mao-lover Anita Dunn is stepping down soon from her White House post. It had been intended all along that she was moving on, which is just as well. I mean, to have a TV show about progressive alien lizards while a top White House staffer does repeated reptilian imitations would have been problematic for the President.
Nov 10, 2009 - 1:49 pm