V - The ABC Series

We have our TV back! Came back yesterday morning, and we watched a lot of TV last night. Thankfully, our DVR had only lost (as in, deleted old stuff to make room for new stuff) a couple of HD concerts and the first episode of The Bridge. We decided to watch some HD episodes to clear off more space as well.

That included the first two episodes of the Spring season of V: The Series. I talked about the November 4-part miniseries (or the November "season", I guess) here. I've been itching to watch it, which is one reason I was so pissed when the TV died.

Anyway, now two episodes in and I've got to say that it's still looking great.

The producers are moving the story along pretty slowly, which makes sense since it's a continuing story. The "V's" (I'll just call them Visitors, since that's what the old series called them and it makes more sense in print) are integrating themselves into Earth society, preaching benevolence and healing, offering technological advances in Medicine and stuff like that.

To Hell with medicine. I want to see what they can do with my iPhone!!

As a fan of the old series, at least until it disappeared up its own backside, I love the little parallels between the two. There are lots of things that are the same, but different. For example, the idea of a human-alien hybrid baby, instead of being intentionally done by the Visitors (though it does remain an open question whether this is why Anna (Morena Baccarin) is forcing her daughter Lisa (Laura Vandervoort) onto young Tyler Evans (Logan Huffman)), is happening completely accidentally and without the human's knowledge.

Secondly, the series has introduced a Ham Tyler-like character, a mercenary named Kyle Hobbes (Charles Mesure). They've made the character type a lot harsher this time, as he's wanted by law enforcement all over the world. Tyler, on the other hand, was just a mercenary who hired himself out. They're both ruthless characters, though, and it will be interesting to see what the new series does with him.

The acting has been uniformly excellent, from Morris Chestnut (Ryan) to Elizabeth Mitchell (Erica Evans) to David Richmond-Peck (Georgie), who incidentally started following me on Twitter after I talked about the November series, and who appears to be a really nice guy who engages with his fans on Twitter.

The one fault I have with the show is with the scenes set on the Visitors' spaceship. They all look extremely fake, the actors standing out against the background like they're being shot on a digital set (maybe that's what it is?). The integration of the two is not seamless at all and it does draw me out of the show. Perhaps it's intentional, to demonstrate how alien this setting is, but I find it more jarring than interesting.

That being said, the show itself is great, and I anxiously await newer episodes.