V

Watching "V" has become an Event at our house. We have the entire miniseries and TV series on video (thanks to having the Sci-Fi Channel and Primestar/DirecTV). Over Independence Day, 2000, beginning at 430 am Monday, July 3rd and concluding at 530 pm, Tuesday, July 4th, we watched the entire miniseries and all 19 episodes of the subsequent TV series! It was GREAT! I agree with those who says it's better than the movie Independence Day. Some big-budget producer or director (like George Lucas or Stephen Spielburg) ought to take this great sci-fi adventure and do it up right with a proper conclusion! It would be great to get Marc Singer, Robert Englund, Faye Grant, Michael Ironside, Jane Badler and all the other great actors and actresses (or others who would properly fill,the roles) (as well as all those in the production credits) who worked so hard on this and give this production what it (and we) truly deserves!! So, if any of you are reading this -- "let's do it!"

It's Liberation Day, a year after driving the aliens from Earth. The mother ship has been captured and being examined by scientists. Elizabeth has superpowers. Diana is on trial. While the situation seems to be going well, dangers persist. The aliens are bound to return.

It is 19 episodes and the last gasp of the original V. It follows two years of mini-series. The first season has a great premise but the second season falters a bit. Recently, I watch this again after three and a half decades. It's better than I remember. This 19 episode season is an improvement over the second mini-series Final Battle. It still has some issues with the scale of the TV production. The story logic is better although they still do the thing where the human rebels are always able to sneak in and win despite overwhelming odds. It's the 80's and realism is rarely on TV. It's canceled after one year. It's 25 years before they try rebooting the franchise. At the end of the day, it's fun 80's sci-fi and is still watchable today.

This series had a lot going against it - plot holes the size of meteor craters (why don't the visitors just condition Rev. Turney into giving up the location of the rebel camp?, for instance), some of the cheesiest dialogue heard outside of a Kung Fu movie, special effects that where horrible even in 1984. So how come it captivated me so? It was charming. I felt, when I saw it, that cast & crew alike really had a good time doing this show, and those things rub off. But more important, the series had SCOPE and ORIGINALITY. The creators weren't afraid to take on really heavy topics, and they did it in a way that hasn't been seen before, nor after.

This wasn't too bad as a sequel to the landmark original TV miniseries "V" and "V:The Final Battle." The special effects could have been better, but overall the series was good and the story lines could have gotten better (they were good in the first place) had the show not been cancelled after just one season. They made a good effort to further develop the characters, especially Elizabeth (the star child) and Willie. Willie had some of the best lines in the show with his bungling of the English language. Each episode was good and unique. It introduced new characters and kept the familiar ones. If you liked the original two miniseries, you might like this weekly show.

** 1/2 out of ****

This series of V was very different to the Mini-Series and The Final Battle episodes. The original series was action packed but it was an allegory of the problems in Germany in the 40's when the Nazi's were stepping on people. The original series explored a lot of issues such as the fight between good and evil and the destructive nature of man.

This series did away with most of the above and instead concentrated on producing action, chases, explosions etc.

Old favourites such as Willie, Ham Tyler and Mike Donovan were back. And of course, the wicked Diana was back (looking beautiful than ever). Joining the show were the likes of Lydia who was a rival to Diana and the mysterious Charles.

The shows were very good producing loads of action. It was a good show if a little short-lived. Let's hope a follow up is done one day because the final episode did leave a lot of loose ends to be tied.