Thu May 21, 2009 9:34PM5 comments ›
Thu May 21, 2009 — by Glenn Hauman
Preview: 'V' 2.0
Like we haven't had enough science fiction shows from the 80's remade lately... here's the trailer from ABC's upfronts for V:
Yes, that's Elizabeth Mitchell from Lost and Morena Baccarin from Firefly with the butch haircut.
Interestingly, some people are finding current political metaphor in it, such as David Sirota in Salon:
Am I crazy or does this preview make the show seem like a not-so-subtle fringe-right-wing criticism of Obama and Obama followers?
In questioning Obama's citizenship and heritage, conservatives have always portrayed Obama as an alien visitor. They've also constantly implied that behind Obama's friendly veneer are sinister motives - and they seem to believe that while most of the public are gullible fools believing in Obama as a savior, they and their tea-party protestors see the "real truth" of those motives.
Now, didn't I basically just describe that preview?
And James Poniewozik from Time:
Remake of the classic alien-invasion miniseries plays in the trailer, weirdly, like an allegory of the Obama election: aliens come to Earth, promise "hope" and "change" (words actually used), inspire cult-like devotion, but have creepy intent and are secretly lizards. Maybe I'm reading too much into it. But it has potential to be Glenn Beck's new favorite show.
The original metaphor was the Aliens were based on the Nazis. Now it's Obama? Terrific.
Jump to comments (5) 
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Comments (5)
Jason M. Bryant (11:38 PM on Thu May 21, 2009)
Yeah, if you try really hard you can see those political parallels.
But let's look at Morena Baccarin's character, the leader of the aliens.
1) Attractive woman.
2) Beloved by a group of followers, but heavily distrusted by others.
3) Extremely unhappy about interviews that are anything less than completely positive.
4) Routinely kills something and eats it.
Sound like any vice presidential candidates we've seen lately?
All these things have been done before, both the things Sirota mentions and the stuff I just pointed out. The series is, of course, using things from the modern world, like phrases we're used to hearing powerful people say. But reading too much into that doesn't help. Especially when the arguments, like Sirota's, aren't made on facts but on accusations that he's just assuming to be true.
Christopher Back (7:45 AM on Fri May 22, 2009)
That is what the best sci-fi (the same with westerns, horror, and fantasy) does is deal with the real world in ways that you can't do in a "real world" drama because of our preconceived ideologies.
Now that being said, right now for me it's hard to say whether it's commenting on Obama or Palin, because it's only a 3 minute trailer not a 60-120 minute (I remember somebody Peter David's website saying that based on the trailers and TV spots he thought the new BSG was a right-wing pro-military show) so lets wait until we see a full episode before we judge or until one show's head honchos make a statement (which I hope they don't because it gives the show more hype).
That is just my 2 cents.
Vinnie Bartilucci (10:39 AM on Fri May 22, 2009)
Um...
You dig enough, you can find allegory in anything. There are endless essays on the The One Ring represents in LotR, from the atom bomb to the industrial revolution.
Has no one noriced that the plot is EXACTLY the same as it was when the first series was on? Aliens with a dark secret come to earth offering wonderful gifts? NOTHING changed. They made the boss alien's name one syllable shorter-BFD.
If anything they made it more believable by having them admit they need water. People are suspicious of free things, but if you admit that you want things too, it sounds far more plausible.
Go find a copy of Keith Laumer's _The Monitors_ (and a copy of the film if you possibly can) and of Damon Knight's "To Serve Man" (after which my cooking show will be named) to see this story in two of its original forms. It's a classic plot, so I'm claiming it was directly lifted, but these are two classic examples of it.
For the record, I do not consider the original V to be an good example of the plot. No matter how magnificent Diana's rack was.
Russ Rogers (1:01 PM on Fri May 22, 2009)
That rack belonged to Jane Badler, Miss New Hampshire 1972!
Bones Rodriguez (10:51 PM on Sat May 30, 2009)
OMG!!! YES!!! I am old enough that I remember when the human lady got pregnant with a V baby, and then we found out during the birth that she wass having TWINS!!
One came out like a human.... and then the other was a LIZARD!! AHH!!!! It was a terrible hand puppet, but WOW was it AWESOME!!!!