 Great 80s Sci Fi Action! |
| Review Date: August 20, 2004 |
| Reviewer: C. E. L. Clair, Allentown, PA |
In 1985, I didn't have a VCR. I loved "V" in 1983 and enjoyed "V The Final Battle" in 1984. I was really happy to hear that the struggles of Mike Donovan and the rest of the resistance were coming back as a series. At the time I worked at a local grocery store and, as fate would have it, I was usually scheduled when V the series was on. As a result I only caught a few episodes here and there when I had a day off. It was not as good as the two mini series but I thought it was entertaining. After a mere 19 episodes the show was cancelled and V was gone forever.
Since that time, I ran across friends who didn't like the series. Whenever I found articles about "V", the series follow up was always dismissed as crass exploitation of the franchise. Last week, WB released the series (possibly to test the wind for a new mini series) on DVD for the first time. Finally, after nearly two decades (can it be that long?) I have been able to finally discover what the series was all about. Here are my impressions:
There will be many SPOILERS so please do not read further if you want to be surprised.
1. This series isn't bad. It is not as good as the two mini-series but it is entertaing in its own right. I also think that this show was innovative in the field of TV Science Fiction. Prior to "V", Science Fiction was very episodic. Star Trek, Space: 1999, Logan's Run, Planet of the Apes, Buck Rogers and to a certain extent, Battlestar Galactica all told self contained stories. The plot was resolved by the end of the hour. "V" The series was different in this respect. It had story arcs and continuing plot threads. Every episode ended in a cliff-hanger and it left you wanting more. In this aspect, it has a modern flavor. Like Babylon 5, StarGate SG 1 and Season 3 Enterprise, it tells a big story over a run of several episodes.
2. People could die on "V". For most TV shows, you know that the heroes will make it in the end. Not on "V". Over the 19 episodes, long-standing characters like Dr. Maxwell and Elias Taylor buy the farm surprisingly abruptly. This raised the stakes dramatically and kept the viewer involved in the narrative.
3. The cast was great. Marc Singer was perfectly cast as heroic Mike Donovan. Micheal Ironside ruled as perfect tough guy Ham. Jane Badler was very memorable as Uber-B**ch, Diana. June Chadwick was suitably catty as Diana'a rival Lydia. Duncan Rehgar was fantastic as Charles, the leader's envoy. His fight with Donovan in "The Hero" is classic. He was a great villain and it is a great shock when he is killed after a mere 4 episodes.
4. There is a sense that this is merely a peek at a global war with the Visitors. For the first 12 episodes or so, The Freedom Network newscaster, Howard K. Smith ( A real journalist by the way) reads the headlines on the state of the war. We learn that the Visitors are sweeping through Spain and so forth. This makes us understand that The resistance in LA is only one story in this global conflict. It really gives the story a certain gravitas.
5. The stories are often action adventure tales that are on par with anything that was on the air in the mid 1980s. Unfortunately, the sociological aspects that made the first mini series so memorable are ignored completely. The show, evan though it is watered down, is entertaining in its own right.
There are some things that are unfortunatle about this show:
1. All the SFX are recycled from the two mini series. (I think one new shot was filmed for "The Dreadknot.") Even entire sequences are lifted from the minis. Remember when Donovan is on horseback and is being chased by a skyfighter? Well, the entire sequesce appears again in "The Champion." After a while, it becomes really grating to see the same shots over and over. I know that SFX on TV was really expensive back then but WB should have spent some money on new shots.
2. As the series goes on, it is clear that there was less and less money bugeted for each episode. The first episode, "Liberation Day" has an outdoor crowd scene with hundreds of extras. By the last episode, we only have the main characters walking around on the standing sets. By the end, the production valules of the show looked rather thread bare.
3. The producers decided to exploit the alien lizards by showing them without their Human masks. This was a mistake. The people who created the lizard makeups were not as artful as John Chambers. As a result the lizard appliances were very stiff and immoble. By showing the Lizards in their natural state too often, it undermined their credibility as a frightening threat. The full face lizards were about as scary and convincing as a halloween slip on mask. It became a bit silly.
4. I hate cliffhangers that are unresolved. I can't understand why they would create a cliffhanger for a show that was doing poorly in the ratings. It is really unfair to viewers who watched every episode.
5. The Star Child. One of the big weaknesses of "The Final Battle" was the ending where Elizabeth gets all glowy like Decker in Star Trek the Motion Picture. Elizabeth uses some kind of super powers that come out of nowhere and saves the day. In the series, the Star Child goes through some type of metamorphosis and comes out of a cacoon as a 17 year old love interest. Elizabeth's powers become a crutch that the writers could use to solve any problems that face the main characters. This undermines the drama of the series and cheapens the series. The powers were kind of kooky. The Star Child could levitate objects and people, mimic voices, had a photographic memory, raise the dead etc. She could do whatever the plot required. It was strange that they spent so much time on her character. I guess, as a writer with a deadline, she was really handy to have around.
Well, thats my take on the series. I reccomend that if you like V, chances are you will like the series. It is a more cartoony version of Kenneth Johnson's creation but is worthy as entertainment and a nostalgic trip back to the 80s.
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V: The Series - Correction on DPCOLE7's information
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| Review Date: June 15, 2004 |
| Reviewer: , |
| Dpcole7 from Oak Park Heights, MN wrote that there were two episodes that should have been included in the 19-episode set (effectively making it a 21 episode set.) I wanted to take this opprotunity to state that s/he was misinformed. "Breakout" is indeed an alternate episode although no alternate cuts of "Breakout" apart from the one included in this set exist. "Breakout" features a different take on how two characters meet that is contradicted by the following episode. This is because "Breakout" was not part of the original 18 episode run on NBC (and is in fact counted as episode 19 on this DVD set and is placed on the last disc); the network considered the episode too violent but eventually aired it while "V: The Series" was in repeats, hence the existence of Dpcole7's friend's VHS. Viewers may want to watch this where it was originally produced (I believe that was episode 3), but keep in mind it contains some alternate takes on how certain characters meet for the first time and interact. "The Attack" was never filmed. The script was written and has circulated for years at sci-fi conventions and online but the television series was cancelled before the episode could be filmed. |
Horrible production, Still Love it.
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| Review Date: January 22, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Sushi Girl -Laura, Gainesville, Florida |
Being a child of the 80's, and that doesn't mean I was born in that time it means I GREW UP in it (born 1973), meaning I was conscience of what was going on around me, and old enough to retain all the cultural stimulus it had to offer in TV, Music, Movies and Trends. One of the most memorable events was watching V, from its first miniseries, to the final battle to the short lived series I was a serious fan. From then until now I list it in my top 10 favorite TV shows of all time. My sister and I would play V, I would always be the Star child, and she would be Diana, and I once even had a cat with a skin problem who I named Diana because it was a bit scaly.
The Miniseries and The Final battle were excellent pieces of TV, although they are admittedly cheesy at times, and to our eyes now they seem so B-movie under budget effects, those shows still work for us just as much as they did back then. The Series that followed unfortunately contained little of the excitement and originality that the others do.
There are many problems in this series, too many to ignore.
1) They show the same footage over and over again, as if we cannot recognize that they have used it before. The flying of the skyfighters over the city or country shooting at each other was from the other series, and so was Mike on horseback, they also showed the same footage of the visitors checking out the same van twice on two different episodes. The inside shots of the Mothership, as well as the shuttles going in or out is all recycled and quite frankly it ruins the momentum of the show.
2) The visitors eating habits, okay they eat meat, they are here to eat us right? But every Visitor party on the mother ship was a buffet of parakeets, mice, and spiders where was the human steaks? We get that they like mice, yet they had to show the same Gag over and over again "mouse being lifted up, shoot away, mouse in mouth, omg they are eating mice" whatever. In one shot, they show a bowl of worms and the one on top is a freaking gummi worm for the actor to eat. Yes it's that obvious.
3) In Nathan Bates Office he has a "plasma ball" the kind you buy at Spencer's in the mall, its plainly displayed as if to say "look I am high tech" Later, the ball shows up on the Mother Ship and it is used as a communication device to speak to the leader, they even use Star Trek sound effects for it. No lie. Along those same lines, Nathan Bates office doubles as a "computer lab" in one episode.
4) A microphone is clear as day when Elizabeth, Phillip, Willie, Mike and Julie are trying to get through a door on the last episode, right before the black light effect it's in the upper left hand corner. Also when there is an explosion on the mother ship behind a door, you can see someone spraying smoke up and down to create the effect.
5) Mike Donovan has countless "unnecessary" stunts like: running then rolling on the ground, jumping on top of cars and sliding, rolling than shooting. At one point in the end him and Julie and Kyle and Willie are running from Lt. James, the rest of them are behind a parked car, Mike runs towards them.....and jumps on the hood sliding into place, the shot pans out and there is no apparent reasoning for him to have just done that, you really want Kyle to say "okay Donovan that was completely unnecessary"
6) The resistance has serious problems killing the visitors in close combat, yet they killed thousands with the Red Dust
7) The Reverb effect for the visitors voice is gone entirely, that was an important part of the original series, it set them apart from us, was it just too expensive?
8) The "regulars" drop like flies. Elias, Robin, even Julie and Ham went on hiatus for many episodes. We get Lydia, and Kyle, and Nathan, and Elizabeth in their place and its just not the same. Ham isn't even in the final, which sucked. It seemed to me that they took these amazing characters and just discarded them like trash.
9) Donovan has a kid, Shawn; he was an awesome character in the original series and in the final battle. He gets converted by Diana and suddenly is this arrogant little visitor lover who apparently we as an audience aren't supposed to care about. Donovan didn't, he didn't even attempt to rescue him after the initial episode with Shawn betraying him. Diana didn't use Shawn to her advantage either. Mike doesn't even ask Phillip to Get Shawn out of there! And in the End when they all go to the mother ship, Mike never even looks for his own son!! Maybe it was his tight jeans; they cut off all the circulation to his brain.
10) Elizabeth was a great idea, poorly executed and misused. The Star Child, who had all these powers and was so important, becomes this Fairy pink sexpot in the end and we don't even get to see the freaking leader? Huge Letdown.
Even with the countless mistakes, and there are a TON more, I still love this series. Why? Because it's V. Because it's comforting, and familiar and its part of my childhood (back then I didn't notice its faux pas) I heard they are making a new one, supposed to come out this year and Mike, Julie, and Diana's characters are signed on to come back so far. I hope so, it would be nice to get some closure.
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Will prove how far television sci-fi has come
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| Review Date: August 19, 2005 |
| Reviewer: Bobb Robinson, Jacksonville, FL, USA |
For the uninitiated, "V" followed on the heels of "V: The Mini-Series" and "V: The Final Battle", two NBC movies-of-the-week that dramatized a pre-"Independence Day" battle between humans and aliens for ownership of the Earth. The aliens, initially presenting themselves as friends, soon revealed that they were lizard people wearing human masks, and that they were fond of eating things like mice, hamsters, and.... well, people.
The rag-tag band of human freedom fighters eventually banish the "Visitors" through the deployment of "Red Dust", a bacterial agent that makes the aliens die horrible deaths but luckily not the humans.
"V" the tv show begins a year after the "red dust" business, when the humans discover that not only have the aliens been biding their time, hanging our behind the moon, but also that the red dust is ineffective in any locale that doesn't have regular freezes. Like Brazil, Florida and Southern California. Los Angeles is somehow set up as an "open city" where the humans and aliens can peacefully co-exist, while the aliens presumably go about their business of eating everyone else on the planet.
The special effects, which were state-of-the-art in the movies, have devolved to television standards. Which means they rely on lots of car chases, motorcycle chases, horse chases and anything else they can do to avoid having to use footage of space-ships, which they only have two shots of which they use over and over. Once in a while they'll show an alien eating a mouse, which involves having the alien pick up a mouse, walk toward the camera so his hands can't be seen, whereupon the live mouse is replaced with white chocolate or marzipan or something that the actor can pop into their mouth.
The show stars Faye Grant as Dr. Julie McCoy. Her name's not really "McCoy", but I can't remember what it really is so I said "McCoy". She's secretly working on creating new red dust with Nathan Bates, CEO of Science Frontiers, who is buddying up with Diana, the leader of the aliens. In real life, Grant is married to the dreamy Stephen Collins. She would have been better off staying home to tend to her husband, rather than be involved in this mess.
Jane Badler as Diana, and June Chadwick as Lydia, do their best impressions of Alexis and Krystal Carrington, only with more hair and not as much talent. (And saying someone has less talent than Linda Evans is REALLY saying something.) Why Diana doesn't kill and eat Lydia I'll never understand, since Lydia is apparently an underling and is always catty and quarrelsome.
A pre-"Beastmaster" Marc Singer is Mike Donavan, who proudly announces in the first episode that he's a "newsman". His face always looks like he's suffering extreme lower back pain, and if you've seen a recent picture of him you'll know that all that grimacing didn't do his face any favors. Sometimes Donavan is looking for his teenage son who's been brainwashed by the aliens, but the mention of the son dries up after a while, much like older brother Chuck on "Happy Days".
Michael Ironside is Ham Tyler, some sort of professional freedom fighter. Let me repeat that his name is Ham. For some reason he calls Donavan "Gooder"...I'm really not sure why, but I imagine it must have gone something like this:
Ham: "I'm good."
Donavan: "Yeah, well I'm gooder."
Ham: "Hmm, I think I'll call you Gooder."
In fact, I'm really not sure of ANY of Ham's thoughts or motivations, because he mumbles all of his dialogue so low in his voice that I have to turn up the volume whenever he appears just to be sure he's speaking. Apparently, he and Gooder are involved in some sort of competition to see who can wear the tightest jeans. Gooder's are tighter, but Ham has more to show for his efforts (if you don't know what I'm talking about, you're not gay or female), which may be why he was scuttled off the show mid-way through the season.
Jennifer Cooke is Elizabeth the "Star Child", the product of a human-alien tryst. In the first episode she was the little girl from "Poltergeist", then she went into a cocoon that was protected by rattlesnakes, then she emerged as a lovely young woman with a closet full of Laura Ashley. And she can move things with her mind. And play piano. And Diana's always looking for her. And she likes to flirt with Kyle, the "rebellious but loveable" male ingénue whose only other purpose in the show is to wear tight jeans, take his shirt off and ride motorcycles. Oh, and flirt with Robin, who is ELIZABETH'S MOTHER.
A pre-"Freddy Krueger" Robert Englund is Willie, and alien who's decided to help the humans out not by providing detailed intelligence, but by TENDING BAR. His most endearing quality is that he mixes up English words, for example, he may say "Glad to feet you", when he means "Glad to meet you". Isn't that cute? Except that he does it, like, every third word, even though EVERY OTHER ALIEN ON THE PLANET CAN SPEAK PERFECT ENGLISH.
In a word, this series is so deliciously bad that EVERYONE MUST OWN IT. |
IT'S GREAT THAT THIS IS ON DVD!
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| Review Date: August 24, 2004 |
| Reviewer: Roberto, NM |
| V the series was always one of my favorites. Now it's on DVD and I'm having fun with it all over again. It was more cheaply made than the V mini-series and V The Final Battle, but I agree with the other reviewers that what made this show something different from other action shows of the 80's was it's superb cast, continuing story arcs, and the deaths of major characters. Plus it's a just a hell of a lot of fun and also very funny. If you can get past the cheapness (or appreciate that sort of thing as adding to the cheese factor like I do) this is very fun stuff featuring some of the best characters of 80's TV played by one of the most enjoyable casts ever. I even found myself liking the Starchild's wacky powers: You just never knew when a favorite character was going to depart on this show and when Elizabeth brought back one of my favorites I was so relieved! Thanks Elizabeth! I also thought that Jen Cooke always made Elizabeth extremely interesting and likable. The powers were often goofy (and yet highly enjoyable for that very reason), but Cooke made the character really work on a human level. Cooke was a great member of an extremely entertaining cast which always made this show work even with severe financial limitations and restrictions by the censors. The series does have a cliffhanger ending, but there were plans for another V miniseries which would conclude the story. There are also some great fan stories about what happened next and even a very rough draft (it's a first draft that was put together quickly and never revised) of a possible script for episode 20 floating around. The fan based ideas and stories about what happened next have made the cliffhanger work for me. I love all that creativity! Make sure you get the first and second V miniseries before getting this set if you are new to V. Having all of V on DVD is fantastic! Try to embrace V as an old, or new, friend and have fun. V is great entertaining 80's TV so just dig in and enjoy! |
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