TV Squad: Hudson Valley Blogs about Television

When Tuesday night rolled around I sat eagerly waiting to be wooed by ABC’s “V” but instead found myself disappointed. Was it a bad idea to watch the 1983 original right before the new “V” premiere? Probably. Was it a misguided sense of loyalty that prevented me from liking the new version? Nope, they lost me all by themselves.

“V” opens with the alien ships arriving with their immediate “We come in peace” broadcast. We’re introduced to key characters in the midst of this life altering world event rather quickly. After the first 15 minutes we’re thrust three weeks into the future. The first month or so is covered in a one hour pilot. Geez, what’s the rush?

Visitor spokesperson Anna, played by “Firefly” veteran Morena Baccarin, speaks of assisting humanity by sharing Visitor technology. Anna’s secret weapon seems to be her calm and tranquil personality. She pledges that Visitors don’t waste time with unpleasant emotions that prevent a happy lifestyle. Basically, she’s a Stepford alien.

Elizabeth Mitchell, of “Lost” fame, plays single mom and FBI agent Erica Evans. Erica is monitoring terror cell activity and finds increased activity in one cell during the Visitors arrival. Working with partner Dale Maddox, played by Baccarin’s “Firefly” cast mate Alan Tudyk, she tracks this terror cell hoping to prevent an attack while everyone’s attention is elsewhere.

Erica doesn’t seem to be able to keep such great tabs on her teenage son, Tyler. Even though she’s warned him to keep away from the Visitors he seems to find his way aboard one of their ships, gets all flirty with a female Visitor and forges his mother’s signature to enroll in the Visitor’s youth program. Oy.

Father Jack Landry, played by Joel Gretsch formerly of “The 4400″, doesn’t embrace the Visitors with the same ease as the Church. He voices his doubts to the congregation and soon receives some validation via a bleeding-soon-to-be-dead-guy whispering about secret meetings.

The new “V” is recycling some story lines from the 1983 original. The teenage infatuation with an attractive Visitor, journalist singled out by Visitors to carry their message and a rogue Visitor who works with the Resistance are all a bit familiar. If you’re going to borrow ideas I think you should at least improve upon them. These story lines, at least to this original “V” fan, feel like cheap imitations.

New twists include Visitors, disguised as humans, infiltrating Earth about 10 years prior to the big arrival and the FBI following terror cells. Oh, come on! Even this isn’t so original.

A lot of the Visitors-Amongst-Us story line reminds me heavily of John Carpenter’s 1988 cult classic “They Live”. These aliens are unrecognizable to the naked eye and they live amongst us. Only a small group of humans know the truth and work to resist their nefarious deeds. Sound familiar?

Only this time those aliens embedded are now considered a terror cell. The terror cell subplot had me rolling my eyes like I was training for the Eye Rolling Olympics. Geez, what can we make that’s scarier than regular terrorists? Hmm….terrorists from another planet? YES…alien terrorist! By Jove, I think we’ve got it! How L-A-M-E.

I’m not giving up on “V” just yet. I’m just really annoyed. Even though it’s chock full of recognizable sci-fi players, I’m not attached to any of their characters. I hope they slow it down a bit and work on developing these characters and their storytelling. We shall see….