'Splain Me Sumthin: This TV Show Called "V"

[Nuclear Unicorn]

Haven't seen it. I hear it's based on a series from a long time ago.

Aliens land with promises of good stuff but turn out to be harvesting people for food. Brave freedom fighters step up and thwart them. An allegory of Nazi Germany, yatta yatta yatta.

The new one is just about the same only with lots of stuff that can be called allusions to Obama...even "free healthcare". Presumably the aliens are still here to harvest people.

If the show sticks to the same "freedom fighter" storyline does that make this a serialized version of The Turner Diaries?

Does the healthcare and people-for-food thing play into Palin's "death panels" slander?

If I've totally been misinformed about the show I'll accept that but from what I'm hearing this sounds scary.

[begin_within]

1. It makes me feel old that I remember watching the original "V"

which started as a TV-movie if I recall correctly, then became a short-lived series. Sometime in the 1980s. I guess they ran out of ideas again and had to revive "V." As I recall the first TV movie was pretty good.

[Ian David]

7. The miniseries were both good. The regular series became "The A-Team with Lasers." n/t

[proteus_lives]

19. Ditto.

I feel old and I watched as a small child.

[Deja Q]

26. 1983. The miniseries was so popular that NBC ordered a follow-up in 1984, "The Final Battle".

Kenneth Johnson wasn't as involved in TFB and it shows -- soap opera replacing solid, engaging plot. TFB's first part is all-in-all good, even if you overlook the fact the humans would not be able to clone alien technology that quickly (amongst other nitpicks)...

Johnson was against the ill-fated 84-85 TV show...

[dbonds]

2. After watching it last night, it is NOT an allegory to Obama.

They have changed up the premise from the original a bit to have the aliens have infiltrated the earth for a long time and aliens have terrorist cells. The health care part is just one of the ways the aliens try to create devotion to them. The rest of the story is too far off to be any type of allegory, not even a nazi one like the original series.

[Deja Q]

29. And had aliens looking and sounding like us (BSG) and the FBI people (any show)...

Meh.

I think you're right; it's not an allegory...

It's still rubbish, though... (I've not seen the whole thing but I don't think I need to... I've sat through enough remakes the last few years to smell them...)

[jbnow]

37. I've read some comments that people thought it might

hint at Obama but it was not hints but very blatant. Something about them looking nice and hope and peace. I don't really remember. I was reading reviews of the HBO Obama show but some freepers comments were about how they watched V instead...and to them it was all about Obama.

Maybe you can make sense of that having seen it and knowing how they think of him. I didn't see it

[iceman66]

3. I watched it, and

except for a few throwaway lines about 'hope' and 'universal health care', there really aren't any allusions to Obama.

Frankly, the show is not cerebral enough to constitute any sort of political allegory.

[Sebastian Doyle]

4. Uh, oh...

You're about to be assaulted in here... take my word for it.

Some people are "really sensitive" about this particular piece of right wing horseshit being exposed for what it is.

[Speck Tater]

5. Health care for all was briefly mentioned in passing. Not really a plot point. nt

[Ian David]

6. I'm going to bet that our worst fears for this series will be realized.

It's shaping-up to be The Turner Diaries with Aliens.

[elocs]

8. Can't a tv series simply be entertaining? Need it must always be an allegory or have deep meanings?

[targetpractice]

10. I remember the original "V" being discussed nationwide in social studies classes...

...as an allegory to the rise of Hitler and Nazism. That was a very big aspect of the original show.

So, I would imagine that a remake would also be purposefully allegorical somehow.

[elocs]

17. I had a poly sci class in college back in '74 where the teacher explained to us

all the deep inner meanings of Peanuts. All these years later that man is now the head of the department.

[Curtland1015]

9. It seems to just want to play off the news for effect.

Yes there's crap in there about universal health care and hope, but there's also crap in there about starting unnecessary wars and terrorists. I don't think their aim is to attack the left. It's just a clumsy attempt to draw world events into their crappy sci-fi miniseries.

[adamuu]

12. smartest comment on this page.

(no offense to the others)

[Silver Gaia]

16. I agree with this, except I didn't think it was "crappy."

As far as television sci-fi goes, it was pretty decent. Fast-paced and fun. It got good ratings, too, so will probably survive as a series. However, I think the stuff I've read today about it being aimed at Obama (as in the aliens being representative of his administration) is definitely pure crap. It's spin and nothing more.

ABC did replace one of the showrunners after the pilot was filmed, and I've read some speculation that it might have been because of the political stuff that was included. Who knows... could have been... or could have been something completely different. I suppose if we find less political references in the 3 episodes to follow this month, we can perhaps assume they didn't want a political tone as a part of the show.

ETA: Something else to think about... According to this article: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/tel... , they shut down production in late August for a "creative hiatus" AFTER the first two post-pilot episodes had been filmed. That puts the filming of the pilot episode itself (what was shown last night) at late spring to early/mid-summer, which would have been PRIOR to all the August town hall mayhem. I really don't think anything in the pilot was INTENDED to have anything to do in a negative way with the Obama Administration because the things people are picking up on as a political slant really weren't being used large-scale by the right-wing at the time of the writing and filming of the pilot episode. The timing is off.

[Curtland1015]

23. Eh, maybe you're right.

It wasn't TERRIBLE, and the special effects, for a tv show anyways, were pretty darned good. It all just seemed a little flat to me. Maybe I'm just thinking too much about the original as I watch it...

[valerief]

11. Ah, the new "24" now that torture is out of vogue. nt

[MGB67]

13. As the Rockman said to Obleo

"You see what you want to see and you don't see what you don't want to see."

[Canuckistanian]

33. Don't go messin' with the bees

Still sound advice.

[blogslut]

14. The show came in second place to CBS' NCIS

http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/11/04/tv-ratings-tuesday...

While "V" garnered the largest share of the advertiser-targeted 18-49 audience, one should note that the majority of people that did not vote for Barack Obama in 2008, belong to an older demographic. In other words, IMHO, the people most likely to "buy into" the Obama-is-V mindset didn't watch the program.

As well, this new version of "V" has been plagued by production problems. The series is on its third show runner. The program stopped production this last summer and has only 4 episodes in the can. While it's possible more episodes will be completed, so far the future of "V" is unknown.

I watched it on Cast.tv last night. It was okay. Nothing to write home about. I can't remember if I watched the original - an indicator of how little its effect was on my life. When it comes to sci-fi films/series from the eighties, Alien Nation was far superior.

[baldguy]

15. It's still an allegory for Nazi Germany.

It's just the same wingnut fantasies that turn everything from the flag, to baseball, to apple pie into Symbols Of The Great Christian Republic turns a story about a fascist takeover of America into a substitute for a free & fair election which they lost

[Deja Q]

30. the wingnuts don't even know the meaning of the word, "Christian"...

[Orsino]

32. Yeah. I remember an image from the original miniseries...

...in which an elderly Jewish couple sadly watch us all get taken in again.

[InvisibleTouch]

18. It's not as good as the original...

...but it's pretty good, so far. There was a reference to "universal healthcare" that might have been interpreted as an anti-Obama slam, if one were really determined to see it that way ... but it was also stated that the Visitors had infiltrated all areas of public life, from politics to religion to law enforcement, where they'd been active for decades causing corruption, instability, and needless wars. One could interpret that to mean that the vilest Republicans and fundies of recent years, were in fact Visitors in disguise. But that would be a heinous insult to the Visitors.

[Silver Gaia]

20. Yes, I caught that, too. It was really much more damning

of the previous administration! Maybe the right-wing is just trying to make it seem the other way around to deflect that idea, just twist and spin as usual.

Also, I added something to my post upthread (#16)... I think the timing of the writing and filming of this episode was off for it to have been intended as a slam on Obama.

[Touchdown]

21. "Free Healthcare" means pretty much Mengele heathcare.

Don't read too much into it. The pilot wasn't that clever.

If this thing lasts, which based on last night it just might not, then we can start analyzing any "Turner Diaries" allegories. So far, it's a poor representation of "The Shock Doctrine" that a DUer pointed out last night.

A dramatized Shock Doctrine would be cool. I just don't think the producers of V are that smart.

[Touchdown]

22. Post 4 is talking about me.

He just can't let it go!

[Beregond2]

24. Yes, I noticed the

obvious Obama allusions, but they are too random to mean much. It's a crappy show in any case. It is almost exactly like the original, even up to having the aliens be big lizards in human drag. Come on; really? With todays effects, they couldn't do better than that?

There was one hilarious bit. Two guys were watching the hovering spacecraft. The first said: "It's 'Independence Day' for real!" The second rolled his eyes and replied: "Which was a rip-off of many earlier sci-fi movies." It was as if they were sending a signal to anyone with half a brain: this is going to be garbage, so change channels now!

Stick to "Flash Forward," a far more original and interesting show.

[InvisibleTouch]

25. It's actually quite different from the original...

...with enough common elements to be an alternate universe take on the original story, so to speak. But the disguises are different, the voices are different, the ships are different, the uniforms are way different, and the basic premise is a little more sophisticated. Some of the changes I like, some I don't. There are characters who are obvious retakes on characters from the original series: Anna being a less-effective and less-attractive version of the incomparable Diana, for instance, and Ryan being this version's equivalent of the traitor Martin. Furthermore, it looks like we're heading in the direction of a new Starchild, from glimpses in the preview, except that the human parent is male this time, and the female parent is the Visitor. Some characters who are totally new, however, and it'll be interesting to see them develop. (Watch the relationship between the FBI agent and the priest, is my guess.) The Visitors' human-skin disguise is more cleverly done this time, and I guess we won't get a revelation scene like in the original, where the "Halloween mask" was torn away.

In any case, obviously, I take issue with your description of the show as "garbage." Nothing can replace the esteem of the original in my mind, but I'm definitely willing to give it a chance!

[Silver Gaia]

27. Hey, I love FlashForward, too! ;) It's a great series, IMO!

No reason I can't watch and enjoy 'em both, though!

Honestly, I think fans of the original 80s series would've hollered bloody murder if they'd done anything BUT have "the aliens be big lizards in human drag." Seriously. It was what people wanted. Anything else would've been deemed a sacrilege.

I agree that the supposed allusions to Obama didn't mean squat. I don't even think they really WERE allusions to Obama. As many here have said, I think it was meant to be allusions to Nazis, just like the original.

Besides, in regard to the "universal healthcare" comment, if they're planning on eating us for dinner eventually, they probably want to ensure that their dinner's a healthy one. Hey, we humans give "universal healthcare" to our livestock, too.

[Deja Q]

28. In the remake, when the visitors landed, did the

high school band play the theme to The Phantom Menace?

[InvisibleTouch]

36. Unfortunately not...

...but that would have been a nice touch!

[Touchdown]

40. The ID4 comment was a slam on ID4's producers.

The giant ships in ID4 were a direct rip off of the giant ships, that were the same shape, in the original V. There's a bit of subversive rivalry in many Hollywood productions as jabs at each other. Like that AWFUL Armageddon. Some little dog chews on a Godzilla toy in the beginning. Godzilla, another AWFUL movie was competing with Armageddon for Summer box office in 1998.

[Orsino]

31. Well, for the time, money and effort aliens would spend getting here...

...they could eat very well indeed--food that would actually match their chemistry, and be nutritious.

Never mind the effort of learning our language and customs, and mounting a propaganda campaign.

[PopSixSquish]

34. Well if the Story in this Version Follows the Original

there is some sort of "terrorist event" which in turn is used by the Visitors and their collaborators to impose marshall law and start rounding people up. I think they set up the scientists by saying that they have kept the cures to all of these diseases hidden over the years.

Sounds like the Bush administration to me...

[Interloper]

35. When will they remake "THEY LIVE"

The remake for "THE PRISONER" is coming sood on AMC

[X_Digger]

38. Tinfoilers see political overtones..

.. in Massengill douche commercials..

it's 80's schtick sci-fi brought up to date with cgi.

[AntiFascist]

39. It seems to carry an interesting message...

that fanatical devotion to something should be questioned (the word "devotion" gets used a lot). I can see where making the association to both Nazis and Obama is dangerous in that it feeds into the entire confusion of left vs. extreme right. I understand that the producers are in the process of having the show retooled.

[Egnever]

41. Why not watcch it and find out for yourself?

Honestly the show is so bad that it could scream obama is satan at the top of its lungs and i doubt that after this week more than a handful would notice.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

42. Truth be told, I'm not much of a TV watcher

I watch a lot of cooking shows (I am, admittedly, a lousy cook) and I watch Sons of Anarchy with my BF (actually I just started when I was sick for 2 weeks...OMG that show gets my heart-racing!).

Still, I had heard people IRL talking about it and a few blurbs the web. Judging from the responses in this thread A) much ado about nothing B) split decision as to its actual general quality

VERDICT: meh