V

So after deciding I'd had enough of the "reality TV" garbage on offer I was going through a friends DVD collection to see what he had worth watching and found this Yes OK it wasn't as good as the original but it beat what was on offer otherwise by season 2 I was getting into it and had gotten to ep10 yay cliffhanger just as well I had the DVD's and din't need to wait But NO to surprise that was it WTF where the hell is season 3 completely peeved off now was looking forward to a big battle and humans finally overcoming the V I SO FRICKEN HATE when they can a show and leave us hanging thanks for nothing and F U

I re-watched this 11 years later and compared to 99% of whats made today it is very watchable. It is from the time when story was important, not like today when it is all about not offending someone on twitter.

Before Alien Nation, before Independence Day, there was V. A race of human looking extraterrestrials arrive on earth. These 'vistors' led by alien Anna come in peace, however, behind her smile is a sinister plan to take over the world.

The latest 'reimagining' of V is a competent rework of the original 80's TV show. Despite some ropey CGI effects, the story, characters and script carry some weight, there are shades of grey, not everything is black and white... Unorthodox alliances, double crossings, morale choices and sacrifice are just some of the themes amongst a cloak and dagger alien invasion. There is action, drama and of course it's played possibly as realistic as you can get considering it a show about lizard aliens. There are hard hitting surprises but the majority of the series falls in to predicable melodrama.

Jane Badler the original female protagonist appears in season 2 as 'Diana' which is a nice nod for fans of the predecessor albeit as a different character with the same name. And also Marc Singer gives a cameo. Notable are actors Scott Wolf and Laura Vandervoort. Worth mentioning is Anna's right hand man played by Morena Baccarin and tough guy Kyle Hobbes played by Charles Mesure.

Evil executives at ABC have cancelled the series after season/series 2 which is a crying shame as there were plenty of places V could have been taken with the right story writers and good characters already established such as FBI agent Erica Evans, played by Elizabeth Mitchell and Joel Gretsch as Father Jack Landry.

It's said that it ends on a cliff hanger but that depends on who's side your on, there is one winner, if no more are made... Worth seeing, I'll now finish this sentence as abruptly as ABC's cancellation.

Overall good story, but toward the end it got out of control. There were so many hidden agendas, backstabbing, etc. That got really tiresome. Also they made numerous plot holes that they would patch up by creating another one. Still fun to watch if you can ignore those two things. The actress who played Anna was do good, best part of the show.

I'm old enough to remember the original series and had hopes a remake would bring new ideas and fresh approaches to the concept. So far I've found the plot not particularly believable within it's context and I didn't really connect too much with most of the characters.

It seems they have gone for special effects and pretty people rather than characters, concepts like loyalty and statements about totalitarian government which the original series did rather well despite it's flaws.

I still have hopes the series will improve...generally it's getting more watchable compared to the Independence Day style pilot which didn't answer any important questions or build up the pace very well.

Let's see how it progresses - some great TV shows started out poor - this is just average and improving very very slightly.