Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
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I'm looking forward to this one. I really liked the original V (the miniseries, anyway), and think they might be able to pull off some good things with this one.
I really liked the actress who played Juliet on Lost, and look forward to what she can accomplish with a lead role in this series.
Put one in the Paizo media room, you guys can catch up during lunch.
Squee...Morena Baccarin.
Squee...Morena Baccarin.
I did not recognize her until my wife pointed it out. O:) saw it while watching Castle no less. O:)
Loved it when I was a teen, do you think they can really pull a BSG?
I hope so.
I truly cannot wait. This could be epic. I wasn't much of a fan of the new incarnation of BSG, although I still considered it to be quite good. Here's hoping...
Will the new "V" have. . .
** spoiler omitted **
those are the things that I remember the most. I actually watched the old mini-series years ago (on VHS) and I remember that even then, it wasn't as good as I thought it was when I first saw it as a kid.
"V" was good, but it lost a lot of steam in the end. And does anyone remember "V2"? Ugh.
I am nervously hoping that this can surpass the old show.
I've watched both V and V: The Final Battle recently and enjoyed them both. They actually stand the test of time as well as any sci-fi of the mid 80's and somewhat better than a lot of it.
TV series, not so much.
Just watched the first episode, pretty enjoyable for the most part. Reminded me of the movie ''They Live''.
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Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
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I got a strong "They Live" vibe, too.
It was ok. Good enough, or perhaps a bit better. I was very lukewarm (but patient) with it, but I think it took a slight turn for the better with the big fight scene and the, um, betrayal at the end. I also liked the juxtaposition of some of the scenes.
Sometimes I felt like the words the script put into the mouths of the characters were not all that well chosen, but the structure of the script was relatively tight.
Lastly, I felt the whole thing didn't have anywhere near as "heavy" a feel as the original mini-series. Part of that was because the original V (though cheezy by today's metrics) was groundbreaking. By comparison, this seemed "light".
I think it's the difference between an hour-long show and an 80s miniseries. I remember feeling some of the same things when I watched the first new season of Doctor Who, but I felt that new series grew into the format with just a few episodes. Or rather, it took me a few episodes to acclimate to the shorter, more rapidly paced format. I suspect this show will be the same.
I haven't added it as a season pass yet, but I plan to watch the next few episodes.
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I watched it as well, and while I found it to be a little jumpy (introducing so many characters and subplots at once), I still enjoyed it. I'll definitely be DVR'ing this and watching at least the next few episodes. Gotta say, though, I was a little pissed it was only an hour - I wanted more.
I can see where "They Live" was an inspiration, but I could also see elements of "The Arrival" with the aliens doing things to affect the planet. But I can also see lots of elements of the original series, especially...
I also heard that the NY Times gave a very bad review, with the writer nitpicking all kinds of stuff (like why no one questions that the Visitor leader has a human name, and how goofy it was for the New Yorkers to applaud the alien's after the intro speech).
Now, if only they'll bring back Willie......
I also heard that the NY Times gave a very bad review, with the writer nitpicking all kinds of stuff (like why no one questions that the Visitor leader has a human name, and how goofy it was for the New Yorkers to applaud the alien's after the intro speech).
By point of comparison, in the original this WAS questioned, as well as the fact that they spoke the languages of Earth. The show last night spanned several months and nothing...
Now, if only they'll bring back Willie......
We should be so lucky.
As for my thoughts, 'Meh'. It was OK, but I'm not gonna be real sad when it gets canceled. Real world politics in my fantasy 'escape' mechanisms kind of defeats the purpose. If you HAVE to do it, be subtle. Don't beat me about the head and shoulders with it 5 or 6 times in an hour long show. Surprisingly, last night I found that this applies whether I agree with the views being slung about or not.
Things I did like. The grays of the Visitors are cool. Alan Tyduk! The leader being named Anna, a close reference to the original Diana. The new design of the ships. It also looks like the alien 'look' is going to be pretty cool when fully revealed. Looking forward to that.
So, it was ok. I enjoyed it mostly, but it's not amazing, IMO. I'd rather watch reruns of the new Battle Star Galactica.
Also, I spent the whole show last night trying to place the actress who played Anna. I just googled it and it's Inara form Firefly! The short hair really threw me. No wonder I kept thinking, 'Damn, she's hot'.
ok, so in the 80's i watched the show religasly (sp) for the first season or so. didnt care for the "after they beat the "V's" with the red dust and now heres some more, stuff.
i ended up watching most of the original series because the SIFI channel ran a marathon and i remember what i liked and didnt like about the show.
the new version does seem to be at least better visually, i like the new look of the motherships but the shuttle looked dumb IMO.
the new charecture types seem ok, but im not to thrilled with the reporter yet. im also kinda put off with the hole "we've been here for awhile and trying to marry humans" feel they did with the one charecture and reveeling he was a V in the first episode was to quick IMO.
i dont know, ill have to watch a few more episodes to see if it may be worthy and place up there with the BSG remake.
I thought the show was mediocre and rushed. I'm willing to give it a couple more episodes to grow on me, but I'm not feelin' it yet.
They tried to set up the importance of the Visitor's arrival with the "Where were you when Kennedy was assassinated?" "Where were you on 9/11?" questions at the beginning, but once they arrived, people seemed to get used to their presence pretty quickly. I felt like the producers decided to skip all the interesting questions about a first contact type encounter so they could "cut to the chase" - or in this case "the sleeper cell".
And where was the military/government presence? We saw a fighter crash in the city at the beginning, and some National Guardsmen controlling crowds - but that was it. I felt it was a bit of a story-hole that 29 ships suddenly appear over the major cities of the Earth and no government or military official steps up to address anything about it.
i agree, there should have been helocopters and jets flying all over the place and all sorts of guns, missiles and the like pointing at every one of them.
and at least 1 country would have fired upon a ship for entering its airspace, or atleast attempted it even if it did fail.
Also, I spent the whole show last night trying to place the actress who played Anna. I just googled it and it's Inara form Firefly! The short hair really threw me. No wonder I kept thinking, 'Damn, she's hot'.
The FBI agent's partner (the one who turns out to be an alien) is also a Firefly alumnus; he was Wash.
I thought the show was mediocre and rushed. I'm willing to give it a couple more episodes to grow on me, but I'm not feelin' it yet.
They tried to set up the importance of the Visitor's arrival with the "Where were you when Kennedy was assassinated?" "Where were you on 9/11?" questions at the beginning, but once they arrived, people seemed to get used to their presence pretty quickly. I felt like the producers decided to skip all the interesting questions about a first contact type encounter so they could "cut to the chase" - or in this case "the sleeper cell".
And where was the military/government presence? We saw a fighter crash in the city at the beginning, and some National Guardsmen controlling crowds - but that was it. I felt it was a bit of a story-hole that 29 ships suddenly appear over the major cities of the Earth and no government or military official steps up to address anything about it.
i agree, there should have been helocopters and jets flying all over the place and all sorts of guns, missiles and the like pointing at every one of them.
and at least 1 country would have fired upon a ship for entering its airspace, or atleast attempted it even if it did fail.
North Korea would fire a missile, but it would miss and fall into the sea.
I'm confused - did it start last night or does it start next Monday?
It started last night.
Ninja'd by CJ.
I thought it was decent. But I also never saw the original. I'm also not one to worry too much about nitpicky details in my tv. Yes, the totally glossed over the initial response. Yes, it would have been nice to see more of it. But then they would have needed an extra hour.
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I'm confused - did it start last night or does it start next Monday?It started last night.
Ninja'd by CJ.
I thought it was decent. But I also never saw the original. I'm also not one to worry too much about nitpicky details in my tv. Yes, the totally glossed over the initial response. Yes, it would have been nice to see more of it. But then they would have needed an extra hour.
Honestly unless they do flashbacks in the first season of said reactions, I personally would have preferd them to have taken the hour and just gotten it stated this is what happened.
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I predict ...** spoiler omitted **I agree with you prediction. Sometimes, they make it too easy.
I also think that
I thought the pacing was a little too fast. They crammed a lot into 42 minutes. They could have easily spread the same material into two episodes.
They could have spent that time a little more on characterization. While the reveal at the end was interesting, it would have had more impact if we had learned more about those characters and their relationship.
It also seemed Elizabeth Mitchell's character accepted the resistance a little too quickly. Sure the massacre scene she just witnessed was bad, but a good FBI agent would want a little more understanding of what is going on before making resolutions. Questions like: are all the V's bad? What is this resistance - who started it, how organized is it, is it the right solution against the aliens? I would think she would be a little more disoriented due to the complete turn around of events.
The pilot seemed like the quick set up, so hopefully things will slow down a little. I liked some of the initial concepts (particularly the relationship of the newscaster and the V's leader, and the boy joining the Ambassador's Club). Hopefully the show will hit its stride, we'll get some more in-depth characterization and characters we care about, and we'll have a interesting and exciting show.
As a bonus, it was nice to see a couple actors from Firefly.
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Do we really need more cold war paranoia rewrapped as "anyone could be a terrorist" paranoia? I watched last night, but it was just flat IMO.
There was no real emotional investment for me in the characters before the big reveal, so I didn't care so much that one of the characters was a V and then got killed.
I would have preferred a little more grit in a remake. Like BSG 70's hair vs BSG nasty ol' eyepatch on Ty grit. Make the humans grubby and smelly and the V more angelic and perfect (except the infiltrators, they got that part right). Or would this have been too much Earth: Final Conflict?
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Creative Director
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Meh.
I was pretty disappointed by "V," alas. I was hoping for something that took its time and developed the world and the situation and the characters... basically, I was hoping for a remake of the original miniseries but with modern effects and perhaps modern elements; the terrorism angle really worked well for me, in fact, in that regard.
But yeah... overall it felt rushed and ham-fisted. It's missing its soul.
Like Erik, though, I'm willing to give it some time. I'll keep watching, and hopefully the show has some NEW stuff to tackle and the Cliff's Notes version we got last night was just a necessary evil to get the new generation started and up to speed.
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 6
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I'd give it a 6/10. Perfunctory - touched all the bases without doing anything unexpected. I think it was a pacing mistake to reveal so many of the plot elements of the original so soon.
Also, tying it into terrorism frankly just seems...trendy.
I expected more. I'll probably keep watching, but this is not groundbreaking, and the original was.
Finally, I think the writers totally blew the reveal on the traitor. That's the sort of thing that has much more payoff if it happens after you have some emotional investment in the character. In fact, the whole notion of the aliens having already been here should have been saved for 3-4 episodes in - that is arguably their biggest twist over the original, and you want to spring that so that it is more of a "bam" moment than just part of the series setup.
It was decent, but no more. As others, I'll give it a few episodes before hammering the vote, but I'd rather have had a full season of Firefly, now we get two of the actors from that series :)
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It was decent, but no more. As others, I'll give it a few episodes before hammering the vote, but I'd rather have had a full season of Firefly, now we get two of the actors from that series :)
Especially after the Halloween episode of Castle where Nathan FIllian's character Castle is dressed as Malcom Renolds for Halloween.
I suppose what with the title and all it was a foregone conclusion that the aliens be clearly up to no good, but I'd have preferred more ambiguity. As it is the resistance types are a bunch of paranoid militia nutcases until the Vs go out of their way to let us know that they're right. They don't have any real right to be right, or even to suspect. They're just xenophobes.
Also I'm afraid the show will be mostly about the resistance with the FBI agent and the priest as focal characters. To me the dynamic she had going with her son was a lot more interesting and since they're on opposite sides of the central issue, more fertile dramatic ground.
The successful TV journalist from NYC who balks at the standard sort of preconditions on an interview, though? Less believable than the aliens. Even if the aliens walked to Earth breathing air and playing Xbox the whole way.
Overall I'd probably give this a rating of 8 out of 10. I have hopes that it'll improve over time. I don't think they've introduced enough different Visitors yet. Good to see the actress who played Kara/Supergirl on Smallville as a visitor.
A few criticisms.
I thought it was hokey that she went looking for her kid in a city full of panicked people when he didn't stay put and they found each other in two seconds.
Why if the Visitors are trying to show that they are here in peace would they make contact in such a blatant aggressive fashion by bringing their base ships in over the world's major cities? Wouldn't it make more sense to leave all of the ships but one in orbit, bring a lead ship in over the ocean and then broadcast on all frequencies - hello we come in peace.
L
I suppose what with the title and all it was a foregone conclusion that the aliens be clearly up to no good, but I'd have preferred more ambiguity. As it is the resistance types are a bunch of paranoid militia nutcases until the Vs go out of their way to let us know that they're right. They don't have any real right to be right, or even to suspect. They're just xenophobes.
Actually, we have no idea what they know or how they learned it. Like so much of the story it should have been told but wasn't. They know enough to be able to pinpoint a spot where their bone structure is different from ours, so we know they aren't just grasping at straws.
It seemed to me as if the creators figured, 'Well people will know things because they watched the original miniseries so we can just gloss them over'.
I suppose what with the title and all it was a foregone conclusion that the aliens be clearly up to no good, but I'd have preferred more ambiguity. As it is the resistance types are a bunch of paranoid militia nutcases until the Vs go out of their way to let us know that they're right. They don't have any real right to be right, or even to suspect. They're just xenophobes.
Actually, we have no idea what they know or how they learned it. Like so much of the story it should have been told but wasn't. They know enough to be able to pinpoint a spot where their bone structure is different from ours, so we know they aren't just grasping at straws.
It seemed to me as if the creators figured, 'Well people will know things because they watched the original miniseries so we can just gloss them over'.
If that's the assumption they're making, then they're making a mistake. Sure, you want to have some appeal to the original fanbase, but there's a much larger market out there that hasn't seen the original series. Why alienate (excuse the pun) them if the network wants the show to be successful?
I'm just afraid its like a lot of people here have deduced: they rushed production and tried to squeeze too much into the pilot episode. I was actually surprised it wasn't a two hour show.
I liked it. Although I would have preferred to se it as a 2 hour pilot, taking its time to establish more of the story.
It's nice to see Joel Gretsch in this show. I was a big fan of his with The 4400.
I noticed they remade certain near exact scenes from the original, like the initial shuttle landing. Very much a homage to the early 80's version.
I watched V as a kid and I'll be back next week to see how they do with this one.
Watching the original show now is like drowning in a factory vat of Cheez Whiz. They've been running them on some channel.
I noticed they remade certain near exact scenes from the original, like the initial shuttle landing. Very much a homage to the early 80's version.
I watched V as a kid and I'll be back next week to see how they do with this one.
Watching the original show now is like drowning in a factory vat of Cheez Whiz. They've been running them on some channel.
Aww come on..There are some memorable moments from that show that freak me out even to this day, like...
and
I do think the first episode of this series was rushed, and I would not be surprised if there is a VERY different version of it on the DVD release. I'm sure it was a necessary evil- I would have loved to see this as a mini-series instead of a weekly one, but those just aren't popular in 2009. I will be back next week and in the weeks following unless the series gets incredibly stupid.
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OK, I actually had to sit down and watch it again last night because I thought my initial reactions might be too knee-jerk. But I pretty much feel the same as a lot of other folks here. The pacing was so fast it made the big reveal feel far too rushed.
Part of what made the original series enjoyable was the creepy feeling at the beginning where you KNEW the Visitors were up to no good, but the show took its time building up to it. A lot more time spent on the Visitors' interaction with the people of Earth and a lot more time on characters being fleshed out.
Unfortunately, the remake having only a 1 hour pilot hurt it (as opposed to a full mini-series). They needed to catch and hold an audience quickly. A modern audience that has several hundreds of channels to choose from (unlike the Big Three channels I remember having in the '80s growing up). As someone else said though, I think a two hour premiere would have been much better.
Also, wasn't thrilled with some of the changed made visually with the aliens. The crisp, red militaristic uniforms and pristine white ships of the original Visitors made them somehow seem more menacing as "saviors." The predominantly gray color of the new Visitors just seems too neutral.
Overall, fairly enjoyable but I can still only give it a 5.5/10
PS: Someone mentioned Nazis earlier, but I always thought the original Visitors were supposed to be symbolic of the Red Communist Threat during the Cold War. Eh. :)
PS: Someone mentioned Nazis earlier, but I always thought the original Visitors were supposed to be symbolic of the Red Communist Threat during the Cold War. Eh. :)
The origional miniseries is very much a Nazi allagory. The swastica-like symbol of the visitors, the youth organization, the persecution of scientists in place of the Jews, the propaganda machine. The actual story is taken from the 1935 novel It Can't Happen Here. Network producers wanted a science fiction show, so the facists in the script were changed to lizard-aliens and V was born.