I saw the pilot episode for V on Sunday night when it got shown in Australia. (Oh, goody – now three shows I’m interested in are running against each other: House, Bones & V. At least I’ve already missed all of this season of House, so I’ll just wait until it comes out on DVD.)
My initial reaction: not all that impressed. Cast was good, but the menace of the original miniseries was gone. I admit, I don’t think I saw the original miniseries in 1983. I think I saw it in 1985 or 1986 when it got shown in Australia along with the second miniseries and the series. It was still an alarmingly long time ago. There are friends of mine who weren’t alive then. Me? I was just starting secondary school.
It helped that it was a miniseries. You had more time to build things up. One hour for the pilot is criminal, especially for a show like this. They’ve also stripped out the Nazi imagery of the original miniseries in this new attempt, which – I suppose – makes it slightly more relevant, but there isn’t anything to replace it with yet that makes any sort of sense.
So, I’m waiting to see if this is going to develop into something interesting. It isn’t there yet.
They haven’t aired that many more episodes here. It has some neat things and I’ll DVR the episodes and fast forward through some parts. I’m still watching though if it gets canned I won’t be shedding a tear.
My wife and I watched the first two episodes on Hulu, but we haven’t gotten around to finishing it up. Enjoyable, but not ridiculously compelling… at least, not in competition to so many other fine programs (and work and school and family and *ahem* gaming…)
That being said, it’s fun to see Morena Baccarin, Alan Tudyk, Linda Vandervoort and Elizabeth Mitchell working together.
V
Mmmm, I tend to agree – over-produced, no grit. Although, we do tend to glorify the past. Has anyone actually seen the original 80s series recently? Might be borderline embarrassing…
My other problem with the new version is that many of the actors have recently been seen in other long-running series, such as Battlestar Gallactica and Lost. This gets in the way of my suspension of disbelief! Didn’t I just see her as a Cylon??? Noew she’s an alien? etc. (JB)
Re: V
The old series wouldn’t hold up well on a number of levels – acting, hair styles, etc. Especially hair styles.
However, the original series had a real impact and structure that this one lacks so far (seen 2 episodes so far).
Re: V
Maybe. It would still be interesting to compare…it would be disappointing if the structure wasn’t there – they’re all about ‘plot arcs’ these days – you’d think they’d be getting better at it, not worse. Although, they also seem to plan their plot developments around advertisements…and they’re also affected by the uncertainty of whether they’ll have funding for the next series.
We’ll see – I won’t write it off yet…(also, V’s interested for obvious reasons!)