Runester

Well, I’ve finally watched the first episode of “V” the new series airing on ABC. It’s a re-imagining of the classic sci-fi series from the early eighties. Here’s some links to anyone who needs the details.

“V” – 1983 (IMDB Entry) … “V” – 2009 (IMDB Entry)

(2009)

(1983)

And, just for fun, please let me present some made-for-TV-in-the-80’s schlock.

(1983, Jane Badler & June Chadwick)

So, what did I think about it? It was OK. The first episode was only one hour long, but it already established that the Visitors are only pretending to be our friends, that they have a nefarious ulterior motive, that they’ve been on Earth for years infiltrating key positions, that there is a human resistance movement, and that some of the Visitors have formed a fifth-column to aid the human resistance against their own race. That is a lot! It took significantly longer to establish all of those details in the original mini-series / full series. Even the revelation that they are lizards under a genetically grown skin mask was a big reveal in the first series and kind of a gimme in this one.

On one hand, perhaps they went too fast and should have revealed at least some of this slowly, over the next few months. On the other hand, many, many people remember the first series and already knew these details. It wasn’t going to be a surprise to us! So, they got these details out of the way, so they could get on with the story they actually want to tell. (Maybe.)

The thing I remember the most about the first series was that it was a thinly veiled metaphor for fascism. They wore read uniforms with a very Swastika looking emblem in black. They had giant flags and a strict military hierarchy. And, once the mask was revealed and the kit gloves came off, they took over and ran the world like a puppet nation under the heal of an oppressive fascist state. They even had “brown shirts” in the way of a youth core, in brown V-like uniforms, no less. The metaphor was strong!

What are they going to do in this series? So far, I don’t see the parallel. They are not wearing uniforms, but a sort of grey/beige business suit. If they have a hierarchy it is not readily apparent (other than that “Anna” is their “leader”). In fact, the strongest parallel I can see in this episode is the involvement of the FBI in tracking a terrorist cell. So, is terrorism going to be the new socio-political metaphor for the series? And, how is that going to work when the “terrorists” are a technologically advanced invading force presenting themselves as peaceful? Weird, huh?

Unless the writers are going to play the “your terrorist is my freedom fighter” card and show that the aliens are waging a secret terrorist plot while the human resistance movement is labeled and treated as terrorists, though they are right. If this is true, I don’t think it will have the same impact of the first series.

Over all, the affects are light years ahead of the 1983 version – but this is only to be expected. None of the actors have really jumped out at me, nor their characters. I’m certainly willing to give it a chance and see if things progress better in the upcoming episodes. I have to say, though, that my hopes are not too high. I don’t think ABC is prepared to take this story where it needs to go, or go as edgy as necessary to really turn this into meaningful metaphor and therefore good fiction. I think, like in previous prime-time sci-fi major network shows, they will pull their punches and then fall back on “freak of the week” with “look what the aliens are doing now” and “hey, we have a human / alien hybrid doing something weird” and little else. That, of course, will sound the death knell of the series. Or, they’ll try to pull a “LOST” and create a multi-leveled story line with many characters and a slowly unravelled mystery. But I just don’t see it. The first episode didn’t really leave any meaningful questions to be answered. We know the humans are going to resist and we know the Visitors are going to use their influence to squash the resistance. Everything else, as they say, is just the details.

First day back to work, and as soon as I got in I had to prep and then give a little mini-demonstration. The demo went OK … everything worked as it should. But, it was underwhelming to the extreme. The point of the demo was that certain pop-ups and password prompts didn’t come up – because we had found a way to script through them. In other words, “Look! Nothing happened right there. And, now … there you go! Nothing happened again!” See? The ‘demo of what doesn’t happen isn’t exactly a compelling demo.

We had a new worker join our group – he’s a contractor who will (hopefully!) be hired in a few months. We’ve been pretty understaffed so we can certainly use all the help we can get. Ironically, his name is Stephen, too. So, even though I was assured that there are no other “Steve’s” nearby … there is within a few months of me joining. I guess like celebrity deaths and midnight lines at a fast-food place, “Steve’s” happen in clusters.

Finally, we watched a DVR’ed episode of Numb3rs and then tonight’s episode of NCIS. Those are pretty good shows, though I like NCIS better. The truth, is that it is not the show itself but the characters that make it. It’s basically just another procedural cop drama. The crimes are slightly different because they always involve a Navy Seaman or a US Marine. Except for the occasional “he was a spy” or “terrorists were involved” … the stories are pretty typical of cop drama’s. The thing that really stands out, the “unique selling proposition” for the show is the characters that are on it and their complex relationships.

It’s the gruff old marine, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, who heads up the team, and his slightly eccentric pathologist nicknamed Ducky, Dr. Donald Mallard, who wears a goofy hat and drives a vintage car. There’s the goth chick, Abby Sciotu, with the caffeine addiction who does all their forensic testing, down in the lab. There are the three main field agents – Anthony DiNozzo (movie trivia nut, wanna-be ladies man, Gibbs suck-up), Timothy McGee (computer hacker / whiz, painfully earnest, “probey”), Ziva David (ass kicking outsider, on loan from Mossad, who has finally been made a full member). Each character is unique – not just from each other but from other, similar, cop shows.

If anything, they are almost caricatures because of there extreme traits and how much out-of-the-ordinary they stand out. But, what keeps this from being poorly written schlock is the vulnerabilities and inter-connections. These characters have formed a kind of family and they are fiercely loyal to one another. Probably in complete contrast to a professional NCIS team in real life, here they hug one another and send each other cute postcards, and Gibbs brings down a Super Big Gulp to Abby when he wants some information and she’s been in the lab all day.

• Gibbs is like the gruff but fair father
• Abby is like his daughter
• Ziva is like his older daughter, who is a big sister to Abby
• Anthony and McGee are like brothers – including the sibling rivalry
• Ducky is the kindly, eccentric uncle

So, is that the winning strategy? A family drama wrapped in a cop drama painted with the colors of a federal agency? Seeing as how they are trying to strike gold twice with NCIS: Los Angeles, we’ll see.