V: Pilot

Minor Spoilers










So, V is a show about an alien race coming to Earth and the diplomatic, theological and moral implications that ensue.
But the real draw for me when watching spots for the show on TV was Morena Baccarin's (Firefly's Inara) giant, flawless face displayed across the underside of a massive spacecraft that's hovering over NYC.













It's good to see the graceful companion back in a main role on TV, as I haven't noticed her in much since her Serenity days, aside from a single-episode role as a crazy-eyed girl on How I Met Your Mother and a recurring role as an evil/misguided (albeit smokin') Orici on Stargate SG-1 before the series ended.
And so far she's great for her role as the face and spokesperson of an alien species.

Before deciding to watch, I was further persuaded by glimpses of familiar faces, Elizabeth Mitchell (Lost's Juliet) and Scott Wolf (Everwood's Jake).












Love Juliet of course.
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So what made me decide to watch THIS alien show despite having seen countless other shows about visitors from space previously (Taken, Roswell, X-Files, etc.)? It was a combination of seeing the actors I respect and seeing the vibe they were trying to put across in the advertisements - that this wouldn't be a show about UFOs landing in a cornfield in Iowa and strange looking humanoids sneaking around to gather intel on the human race, but would instead be a show about the impact of a sudden visit from an extraterrestrial, super-advanced, willing-to-communicate race. Which I figured might be worth a try.

So I watched. And I will definitely continue to watch.
However, to be honest, 25 minutes into the pilot, I considered stopping. The show wasn't what I had expected:

The pilot episode begins, as it should, with the earth-shaking arrival of 29 massive, clearly alien ships hovering over 29 of Earth's largest cities. Chaos and panic break out and reporters scramble to the scenes to capture such eye-witness reports as "This IS Independence Day!" So already, we see what we'd expect











from such a television situation, humans scrambling, the army pushing mobs away from the shadows cast over the cities, and a side of humor from some less intelligent characters.

But personally, I wasn't worried, concerned or especially drawn in yet.
The same was true for the next half hour, which consisted of:
- Morena's character, Anna, popping up on the enormous screen and letting humanity know that their race, "The Visitors", come in peace and wish to share technology and knowledge in exchange for some of Earth's abundant resources.
-A jump forward in time to a few weeks later once things had calmed down slightly. (So we don't even get to see what it took for things to calm down!)
-A series of interactions between Scott Wolf's character and Anna as well as between another character, Tyler Evans, and a super-hot Visitor chick named Lisa.












-And the day-to-day life of Tyler's mother (Elizabeth Mitchell's character), who works as an FBI field agent, doing your usual FBI field agent things. The only redeeming feature of scenes featuring her work is her partner, played by Alan Tudyk (another Firefly veteran).









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The series puts some focus on the two opposing factions on issues of Visitor trust, which provides a semi-realistic representation of how the human race would actually react in such a scenario. But even taking those efforts into account, the show and the characters within take a mass alien arrival far too lightly.
Especially considering how the entire time I'm watching, every Visitor is giving these creepy smiles and seeming way too perfect.



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So okay. That's the part I wasn't super impressed with. But the last 15-20 minutes were pretty enthralling. Enthralling enough to make me glad I'd watched the first 30, and actually got me excited for the show. Something happens! But I won't spoil that, since if I did, it might make the first part of it even worse for you! or something.

All the above taken into account, despite not being quite what I'd expected, I'd so far give V a: WATCH