Having never watched the original version in the 80s, I came to V without expectations.  Yet V turned out to be one of the shows I was rooting for throughout its short and choppy first season.  Short because we only got twelve episodes and choppy because ABC showed the first four in November 2009 and didn’t air the last eight until the end of March 2010.  Fans of V had to be both patient and resilient. 
 
We started off the season with Visitor ships hovering the sky over 29 Earth cities. “We are of peace.  Always.”  A phrase that automatically makes me question their motives.  Anna, the leader of the Vs played by the stunning Morena Baccarin hits just the right balance between political leader, army commander, and creepy reptilian.  You never have to see the scales to feel how cold blooded Anna really is.  Baccarin manages to bring it across with just a look or a movement.  But who didn’t love it when she ordered her own daughter’s legs to be broken to further her pro-V agenda.  (Don’t worry.  Vs have special healing powers.)  Anna has a serious mission to accomplish and nothing will get in her way.
 
Anna’s nemesis is FBI special agent Erica Evans who has now become part of the underground anti-V movement known as the Fifth Column.  To be honest I wasn’t so sure about Erica in the beginning.  I questioned whether this role was strong enough to believably go up against Anna.  But as the episodes went on Erica showed more backbone and took more chances.  It doesn’t hurt that she has a personal stake in this.  Her 17 years old son, Tyler is drawn to the Vs.  More specifically he is drawn to one V, Lisa who happens to be Anna’s daughter.  I’ve heard some fans say that Tyler is just too gullible but come on.  He’s 17 and in walks Lisa, scantily clad, batting her blue eyes at him, flipping her blonde hair, and telling him how special he is and that he should be part of the Visitors new ambassador program?  Poor boy never stood a chance.
 
As the season progressed we meet other members of the Fifth Column including Father Jack who is both stunned and dismayed that his congregation is almost entirely pro-V.  Then there is Ryan who is a V turncoat.  Ryan has been living among us for years.  He even has a fiancé, Valerie who is pregnant.  Oops.  Apparently that shouldn’t be possible but nevertheless there is a human/V hybrid on the way.  Anna can’t have that running around out there and makes it her mission to find Valerie before she gives birth. 
 
One of Anna’s new minions is Chad Decker, a TV journalist played by Scott Wolf.  Chad is just arrogant enough to believe that he can handle the Vs.  Instead it is Anna who handles Chad using him to promote their pro-V propaganda.  She even convinces Chad to do a series of specials on the V health centers by convincing Chad that he has an undiagnosed brain aneurysm that only the Visitors can fix.  But apparently the joke is on Chad.  A Fifth Column member informs him that Anna didn’t cure his aneurysm but rather gave him one.  Nice twist.
 
At the end of the season many storylines come to a head.  Anna finds Valerie as she is in labor.  After Val gives birth Anna tells her “I'm pleased the baby survived. The mother, however, did not.”  Then Anna gives Valerie a lethal injection, killing her.  Anna presents Ryan with his hybrid child, telling him Val died in childbirth.  Ryan is heartbroken and succumbs to Anna’s bliss.  Is he now back in the fold?  We aren’t sure but as he holds his blanketed child, all we are shown is a tiny scaled tail poking through.
 
Erica and Tyler are invited to the V ship for a friendly get to know you dinner with Anna and Lisa.  But this meet the parents meal quickly turns into a terrorist event as Erica (with the aid of Joshua, a V Fifth Column member and Lisa, Anna’s own daughter) manages to kill thousands of Anna’s offspring.  Of course her offspring were eggs about to hatch into super soldiers that would help the V take over the world.  Good for us that Erica was able to fit that in between the appetizer and entrée. 
 
The most powerful scene of the finale was when Anna sees her eggs destroyed.  The normally stoic Anna screams in agony asking what is happening to her.  Marcus, her right hand man tells her, “I believe you are experiencing your first human emotion.”  Apparently, if you are around humans long enough, our emotions are contagious.  Sort of like a bad cold.  If Anna’s sudden emotional suffering isn’t shocking enough then perhaps Lisa’s smug hidden smile as she watches her mother’s distress was the turning point of the night.
 
Of course Anna isn’t done yet.  Once she recovers she unleashes her wrath on the world as we see rolling red clouds unfold across the sky.  What exactly does it mean?  We’ll have to come back in November to find out.
 
V has been a fun scifi trip so far.  Its gotten better with each episode and unlike ABC’s Flash Forward, it has thankfully proven itself with growing ratings.  V was given a second season of 13 episodes.  Here’s to hoping this scifi thriller continues to improve and shows us what secrets season two will hold.  Maybe we’ll even see a few more scales under the V’s attractive skin.

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Comments:

KalliopePL (06/24/2010 - 02:01am)

-I enjoyed the first season of "V" and I did watch the original mini-series, although I saw it 2 or 3 years ago, not in the 80ties. IMO, it's really good and let's hope it continues this way in the second season.

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