V /// Season One
A decent enough pilot. An admirable economy of dialogue and action in setting the ensemble. Far too many lingering, evil stares that basically trade on the viewer already knowing the core premise. One thing that will really push it forward is insight into the Vs own internal strategizing and complications: if we’re seeing a coup in its final stages, it’d be nice to see the consequent tensions and reversals at the very top of the alien hierarchy. Now then, the question at hand: is it anti-Obama? Not really, just pro-skepticism. Other reviewers have pointed out more salient parallels to Ponzi schemes and old-school fascism (there’s already a Hitler Youth plot in motion), but in fact the viral web-marketing aspect of the Vs’ propaganda effort is the most on the nose. If it can be read as an attack on the president, that’s only because A) Obama has successfully branded himself and B) has been labeled as every kind of villain possible. It’d be like calling a History Channel show on Stalin anti-Obama because the Drudge Report is running “Is Obama The Next Stalin?” stories 24/7. Or, to give this version of V way too much credit, it actually cuts the other way, snarkily positing the zaniest conspiracies Fox devotees could dream up (socialist, totalitarian, elitist, fascist lizard people are brainwashing your kids via their own naïve idealism!) and confirming them as laughably deadpan realities. What’s thematically awesome and funny here is that the new recruits to the human resistance are in fact the naturally bigoted among us, who are stuck somewhere beyond a self-fulfilling prophecy.
