As a small number of humans begin to doubt the sincerity of the seemingly benevolent Visitors, FBI counter-terrorism agent Erica Evans (Elizabeth Mitchell) discovers that the aliens have spent decades infiltrating human governments and businesses, and are now in the final stages of their plan to take over the world. Erica joins the resistance movement, which includes Ryan (Morris Chestnut), a Visitor sleeper agent who wants to save humanity.
However, the aliens have won favor among the people of Earth by curing a variety of diseases, and have recruited Earth's youth — including Erica's son Tyler (Logan Huffman) — to serve them unknowingly as spies.
Cast and characters
Cast of V
Main cast
Elizabeth Mitchell as Erica Evans
Morris Chestnut as Ryan Nichols
Joel Gretsch as Father Jack Landry
Logan Huffman as Tyler Evans
Lourdes Benedicto as Valerie Stevens
Laura Vandervoort as Lisa
Morena Baccarin as Anna
Scott Wolf as Chad Decker
Guest starring
Alan Tudyk as Dale Maddox
Christopher Shyer as Marcus
David Richmond-Peck as Georgie Sutton
Jesse Wheeler as Brandon
Ray Faughner as Lex
In August 2009, executive producer Peters suggested that stars from the original version may be offered guest roles as new characters in the future.
Production
The series pickup was announced in May 2009, to be executive produced by Scott Peters, Jace Hall, Steve Pearlman, and Jeffrey Bell. filming of the post-pilot episodes began on August 10, 2009. Cast member Mitchell noted that the show would do service to the most iconic moments from the original franchise. Peters later confirmed that in addition to potentially using cast members from the 1983 miniseries, the new series would nod to the original in other ways. He said that when asking people what they thought were the most memorable elements of V, the top responses included "the huge ships, the red uniforms ... eating the hamster and alien baby," adding that "we are well aware of those moments and looking to put our own little spin on them to tip our hat to the old audience." Entertainment Weekly had put the original V on its 2008 list "The Sci-Fi 25: The Genre's Best Since 1982" and called Visitor leader Diana's devouring a guinea pig "one of the best TV reveals ever." Asked about the 1983 reveal of the Visitors' reptilian appearance beneath their human disguise, Peters noted "That was the other one, of course ...
V - Upfront Trailer
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It wasn't so much latex mask as it is real flesh and blood." The Hollywood Reporter called the idea behind the V "a powerhouse concept that combines conflict, suspense and imagination with some heavy-duty philosophical issues," noting that the update "preserves the original framework but shifts the atmosphere to accommodate contemporary concerns ... 11 emphasis on questions of trust and terror."
In September 2009 it was announced that four episodes of V would air in November 2009, and that the series would resume in March 2010 after the 2010 Winter Olympics to complete its 13-episode season. ABC entertainment president Steve McPherson said, "We always intended to break the show up into 'pods' to make it more of an event." As production of the fourth episode of V wrapped, it was announced on November 3, 2009 that Scott Rosenbaum had been named executive producer and showrunner of the series, with Peters and Hall remaining as executive producers. Production on the remaining nine episodes will resume in January 2010.
Reception
The series premiere of V garnered generally favorable reviews, scoring 67 out of 100 on Metacritic. E! Online rated the pilot episode "on a scale of 1 to 10, we give it an 11.
V is the best pilot we've seen in, well, forever." The website Seat42F rated the pilot episode an A+, applauding its cast and effects and naming it one of the best pilots in years. USA Today's Robert Bianco put V on his list of the top ten new shows, stating that the remake is well-made and "quickly establishes its own identity," while The Hollywood Reporter called the new series "clever enough for a cult following and accessible enough to reach a broad demo." King Features' entertainment reporter Cindy Elavsky calls V "the best new show on television, by far. The special effects are feature-film quality; the writing is intelligent and time-relevant; and the acting is first-rate.
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It’s too bad that they’re floating around in a show that at this early stage, is so slapdash and formulaic in its storytelling."
Controversy
As the original miniseries was inspired by the novel It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis and has been called "a modern retelling of how the Nazis rose to power in Germany," the re-imagined series has been accused of being an allegory of the presidency of Barack Obama. In his review of the show, Troy Patterson of Slate points out that bloggers and journalists had noticed parallels between the show's premise and the Barack Obama administration, and writes that "if the show is to have the symbolic import that we expect from a science-fiction story, this is the only possible way to read V as a coherent text." Lisa de Moraes of The Washington Post noted in her review that the fact the series was debuting on the one-year anniversary of Obama's election "was not lost on some ... TV critics" and also remarked that the use of phrases present in the series (such as "hope", "change", and "Universal Health Care" being offered by the Visitors) made it seem as though "Lou Dobbs had taken over the network."
Chicago Tribune reviewer (and noted libertarian) Glenn Garvin called the show, "controversial" but took a more down-the-middle approach, saying the series was "a barbed commentary on Obamania that will infuriate the president's supporters and delight his detractors."
The show's cast and crew denies the charges of bias.
While actress Baccarin acknowledges that she had modeled her character, Visitor leader Anna, after politicians, she and series executive producer Peters were surprised by the alleged "controversy." At a press conference at Summer TV Press Tour 2009, Peters said that the show was open to interpretation and that "people bring subjective thoughts to it ... "V: ABC's alien series invades Comic-Con—but does it come in peace?".