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Critic Reviews
- Critic score
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ABC can add to that list of achievements the season's most entertaining new hour, straightforward division: V.
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The pilot for this drama is good. I have a few quibbles with it--some of the character drama is a bit clunky--but overall, I found the first hour of the show to be solidly entertaining and suitably suspenseful.
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As an adventure series bristling with ideas, it's V+. Or as we grade 'em on Earth: B+
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No gold mine of symbolism is worth a damn when the show itself doesn’t have good old storytelling mojo behind it. And, based on the premiere, V has enough narrative drive and character definition to pull viewers into the creepy suspense of its dystopian world.
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It could be complicated, but Peters' tightly written teleplay makes it easy to follow. In addition, the pilot raises provocative issues without getting didactic. That, combined with mythology less dense than, say, ABC's Lost, should make this an attractive viewing option.
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Welcome to ABC's V, the final, the most fascinating and bound to be the most controversial new show of the fall television season.
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The surprisingly timely V plays off concerns about universal health care, terrorism, sleeper cells and journalists' access to leaders. But the series is, above all, a first-rate thriller filled with twists, shocks and heroic figures.
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the new V begins with an entertaining, well-made pilot that tweaks aspects of the original story but generally retains many of the show's familiar elements.
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The best science fiction always has something to say about the present, and the show does that without skimping on the soapy or dramatic elements.
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As the plot of V progresses, no doubt we will see the subtle strangulation of democracy by fascism--already the press has been corrupted--and that is a story that cannot be told often enough. Especially when it comes, like the V's, in such a fine, fun and attractive package.
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As enjoyable and exciting as the pilot is, it’s undeniably more simplistic than either Lost or FlashForward in its us-vs.-them setup. But I was instantly seduced and hooked by its lavish production values, the immediately gripping storyline and a strong cast.
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Judging by the first episode, V seems like a solid adaptation.
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V doesn't have an original premise - the humans versus aliens thing is as old as moving pictures. But the special effects are better, and if ABC can get you to buy into the storytelling then it might have another genre hit on its hands.
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Terrific special effects (except for the giant supermodel in the sky), good action, good acting, and, if they let them, the Visitors could probably put on a helluva good runway show, too!
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Despite the concept of Visitors infiltrating the ranks of humans feeling uncomfortably similar to that other successful sci-fi reboot, Battlestar Galactica, the terrorism angle boasts some of the update's most enticing intrigue.
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Suddenly this might as well be "Fringe" or "Warehouse 13" or "The X-Files" or "Eureka" or any one of hundreds of shows that involve FBI agents and international espionage and terrorist thugs and secret plots to take over the universe. Come on, now. Isn't there a new way to handle the alien invasion story?
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V has to rise and fall on its story and its characters. Based on the pilot, both of those areas are spotty.
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V has its fun moments, but mostly this is pure bunkum, or 1980s-era TV with a thin 2009 veneer.
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For sci-fi fans, the new V, like a Visitor, clothes itself familiarly, with actors from "Lost," "The 4400," "Firefly" and "Smallville," but until we see something we haven't seen before, we should probably go easy on the devotion.
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Indeed, if the show is to have the symbolic import that we expect from a science-fiction story, this is the only possible way to read V as a coherent text. The only problem with this analysis lies in its generous presupposition that the text is, in fact, coherent.
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The ideas in V, about alien encounters and mass delusion and media manipulation, are enticing. It’s too bad that they’re floating around in a show that at this early stage, is so slapdash and formulaic in its storytelling.
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Given the rather sophisticated allegorical treatments that TV audiences have been treated to in recent years courtesy of “Battlestar Galactica,” “The 4400” and the like, I find V’s first episode falling short, other than a fairly obvious allusion to Hitler Youth in the aliens’ outreach to teens.
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The show does a good job in tonight's premiere of sorting out the good guys and filling viewers in on the disturbing backstory. In fact, it may do too good a job because there doesn't seem to be a lot of mysteries left.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 96 out of 169
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Mixed: 39 out of 169
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Negative: 34 out of 169
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Jun 30, 2012
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Aug 8, 2011
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TonyDec 4, 2009