V - Season 1 - Page 9

Adam, sounds like you are putting more thought into it than the writers!

Got the laptop connected to the living room system so we could watch last week's V from ABC.com on the big TV / Stereo.

(An aside: for the first time in nearly 15 years of fiddling with this stuff, I'm actually impressed with the ability to watch computer content on a "TV". Finally, the resolution, aspect ratio, and ease of use is all good enough (in my home) to make this worthwhile. The video was a bit stuttery -- made worse when the cat decided to nap on the nice toasty laptop, making it overheat and stutter even more -- but eminently watchable. I still don't understand the generation that watches "TV" via computer predominantly. HD OTA is still far superior to Hulu and its ilk. But I love the convenience of being able to catch a missed show when the Tivo's overflow.)

So, I still enjoy V, despite its clunkiness. As Adam notes, I liked the moral grayness of the latest episode. It added some necessary nuance. The super soldier wasn't super enough; I wasn't impressed by their take on it.

Earlier, someone grumbled that there was no response to "Name one bad thing the V's have done." But, the V's haven't really don't anything bad. They've masked their true appearance. They're deploying a tracking device in guise of a vaccination. But they've not really done anything overtly hostile, evil. They've yet to tip their hand.

This show, edited slightly differently, could easily have done an Alias-like twist and revealed the V's to be the good guys and the 5th Column to be on the side of evil.

As for putting a V dissection on the internet: yes, that would have happened by now in "real" life. But then what? The V's would do a PR push, with their anchorman lapdog, and explain how they had to hide their appearance for fear that we couldn't accept them. And they'd play the Racism card, and we'd feel chastised, and no one but the militant loons would hate the Vs. And they already do, because they're loons.

Clunky show. Needs help. But it's entertaining enough for me still -- which is surprising, since I almost gave up much earlier. I think it's been a rejuvenated enough with the season break.

One small deviation of opinion -- I don't care how chastised we are, we aren't soon going to forget they're Lizard People if they're dissected for all to see. Image plays a big part in their acceptance (cute people are more easily accepted). The reason I think it'd be a bad idea (at least at this point) is The 5th is up against a vastly superior force with who knows what intentions towards Earth. Maybe if forced into a corner, they'll rain hell down on Earth. Try not to push someone into a corner if you're not sure you're able to handle the response you'll get.

"We can't ever put a human life at risk.."

OMG.  These may be the lamest survivalists of all time.  Four people, trying to take down an alien armada, and they are freaking terrified about any humans getting killed?  Well, if you can't stand to be the cause of that happening, don't rebel, just let them eat you.  Because the longer you rebel you have to realize the V will kill you just as a response if nothing else.

I about laughed four or five times "we can't stoop to their level"  What level?  You don't even have a level to stoop too because right now you're a failure.  

I kept waiting for Larry, Moe and Curly to come out and have a pie throwing contest.  This show is just embarrassing dialog.

    Quote: There was the opening episode where that whole group of people were killed by the V's weapon.  There was Georgie's family. Plenty of other people have probably disappeared. It is just that there is no real proof of the V's actions.

As far as this past episode - if there were just dead bodies on the shuttle - where did they come from?  When they are identified, will that reveal anything as to how they really died?  They need to get Temperance Brennan in on the case.

Quote: That's right; but it's not enough. It's too small, to anecdotal, to long ago. Especially to a man whose child was cured of paralysis. So far everything is suspicion and innuendo and "they don't look like us".

The bodies could have been from the experiments the V's are doing to the people coming on-board the ship. Like the lady who was afraid of all the sharp needles in her dream, which came true for her.

Wow, the Basement After-Hours Social Club (I refeuse to call these whiny bitches "resistance") really suck at this whole Rebellion thing. In a revolution, people on all sides - good, bad and otherwise - will get hurt and killed.

Oh, and I love Black Dude can go into the facility, delete the incriminating evidence, and leave fingerprints all over the place doing so. Yeah, good work there.

And wait - if they did a dry run earlier, why the hell did they go through the toll booth? They took that specific route because the interstates were blocked off - so why the hell would they drive that direction? Seriously, who is writing this? 'tard monkeys?

It's not very interesting watching episode after episode where the good guys get socked in the gut. The Fifth Column needs to score at least minor victories every now and again. The problem is that the visitors' secret is so fragile that virtually anything the Fifth Column could do would blow the lid off the whole kit 'n kaboodle. If the visitors aren't exposed to the world as lizards by the season finale, I'm not coming back even if the show does.

That was a clumsy episode. A good show has the opening scene place the main characters in an inconceivably strange, difficult, or unlikely position, and then flash back to "12hrs earlier" to give the improbably description of how it came to be. Instead, V starts with a completely sensible setup that was easily understood...and instead of following up with the potentially very exciting and powerful consequences, doubly undercuts by jumping back 12 hrs to tell us what we figured out from the opening itself: the V's knew about the attack and played the 5th Column for fools.

 

I have trouble believing the good Father is so naive as to say what he does to the newsanchor.

 

Despite its poor structuring, it had some useful twists and expansions.

 

I like the ruthlessness of Ana, even with her own daughter (oh she of the ridiculously sunken cheeks). I am intrigued by the double play by Newsanchor Party of Five guy. And the reveal of the FBI V-mole was timely.

The structure as intended could have worked if framed slightly differently. Instead of making it obvious that it was a V shuttle, just have them going through the scattered human remains, with the clear implication of the resistance's guilt in the matter, and then cut back to see how it got to that point. In order for that to work, however, the why has to be more interesting than the how. In this case, it wasn't.

I read this show, and FLASH FORWARD are seriously in danger of being cut.

 

While this is correct for FF, despite V being the weaker show opinion-wise (especially around here), it oddly is listed as being only "on the bubble" by most of the ratings tracking sites (such as tv by the numbers).  That being said, I wouldn't be surprised to see them both go, though I would miss FF.

I think FF is done for.  It's ratings are terrible and cost is high.  V has a better chance of being renewed, though that's sad too because its providing nothing worth renewing (IMHO).  But it's ratings are considerably better then FF

I'd prefer FF to survive over V. But it's a tough time for shows. If great work like Journeyman can fail, a lesser show like FF and V are always at risk. (Though none of that explains 8 seasons of Life with Jim :)

I was gonna mention about Journeyman, that was far better than FF or V, but it still was axed.  I'm actually surprised to read Stargate Universe was picked up for a second season.  Despite being a big SG fan and watching this new show, it's not nearly as good as SG1 or Atlantis.

Not sure you guys have seen these quotes from the producer of V, but he feels very confident that V will have a second season. Perhaps they'll be a spoiler, so warning for those who'd rather not know.

 

 

 

The most intriguing thing at the moment is who Hobbes is working for and just what they want.

 

One thing I wish we were shown in yesterday's episode is the point of view saying that we should not be dependent on the V's gifts as they could remove them at any time.  Way too much was given away way too quickly. 

A totally "Meh" episode. The only thing that struck me from the whole thing was "If Anna is free of this thing you call human emotion, then why the hell does she smirk evilly into the camera EVERY time one of her scenes ends?" Christ, if she had a handlebar mustache, she'd be twirling it and cackling!

 

 Yeah, that's definately one of the issues I have. How can she "act" if she knows not of emotion (unless she really does have human emotions and it will be revealed later that she cannot pass her own emotion test")

I though this week's was the best episode in while because it finally established the stakes for what we're dealing with: Anna is gunning for Tyler, Erica is gunning for Lisa, Chad is weighing whether to betray Father Jack, Hobbes is weighing whether to betray his entire species and Ryan is reassessing his allegiance to humanity in light of his heartbreak. Meanwhile an army capable of wiping out the Fifth Column is on the verge of being borne, and an invasion fleet in on the verge of entering the solar system. But on the plus side, humanity has developed a virus capable of wiping out the Visitors or at least severely debilitating them. If Hobbes doesn't sell out to Anna's right hand man.

You don't need to have emotions to understand emotions and imitate emotions. Psychopaths, for instance, do not possess the normal range of human emotions but are often incredibly adept at approximating emotions to manipulate others. Incarcerated psychopaths are far more likely to be released from jail than the general incarcerated population despite a much higher likelihood of returning to crime for this very reason. On at least one occasion, Anna has been seen selecting from several performances of the same speech, relying on the opinions of others to craft the most effective show of emotion.

 

My biggest issue with last night's episode was the idea that these two men would take no steps to obscure their appearance despite the largest manhunt in recorded history. Someone with Hobbes's level of expertise especially should have known to shave and get a haircut. Parker should have ditched the hornrim glasses.

     Quote:

We all know that guy, I am talking about the mysterious woman he has met with a couple of times.  Her organization was able to hide that guy away for a while.  We have no idea who they are and what their agenda is.

Sorry, I forgot all about her by the time I wrote that. Shouldn't have, either, since I liked her on The 4400. You're right, she is intriguing---or at least as close as this show gets to intriguing.

ABC has renewed V for a second season.  13 episodes have been ordered.

 

Flash Forward will flash to another season.

Your wording, to me at least, is confusing.  It was just announced that FlashForward was cancelled.

http://ausiellofiles.ew.com/2010/05/13/abc-cancels-romantically-challenged-scrubs-ted-flashforward/
 

Ooops - sorry - should have read:

 

Flash Forward will NOT flash to another season.

I really didn't think they'd renew V, and in this case, justifiably.  There is no rhyme or reason to what these darn networks do.

 

Good shows like Journeyman, John Doe, get cancelled, then poor shows like V survive.

I figured they'd renew V and not FlashForward, though I agree that I can't understand why.

 

Regardless of whether you're going to renew FlashForward (which I knew they wouldn't), I didn't think the ratings for this that much better where it'd be worth it.  ... That and it's not any good.