Erica Evans is an FBI anti-terrorism agent in a strained relationship with her teenage son Tyler. One day, dozens of UFOs appear over numerous cities across the world, from Cairo, Paris, Rio de Janeiro up to her city. The alien visitors, nicknamed Vs, look like humans, speak English and announce they come in peace and only want some of Earth's resources. They are represented by Anna, the alien queen who appears on a giant screen of their spaceships as they hover over cities. Tyler joins an exchange team which visits their spaceships to strengthen ties, and falls in love with Lisa, Anna's teenage daughter. However, Catholic priest Jack is given a document by a wounded man which warns that Vs want to take over the Earth. Jack teams up with Erica and Ryan, a V disguised as a human who is a member of the "Fifth Column", alien dissidents who oppose their homeland attacking Earth. Erica remains in FBI and warns the column whenever they are threatened by the Vs who try to slander them.
26 years after the original TV series "V" caused a lot of hype, this remake series was made that gives a rather well made recap of the concept. The original "V" was engrained in pop-culture memory due to its imaginative plot (reptile aliens disguised as humans deceive humanity by claiming they come in peace, but in reality secretly plot to take over the world) because it was quoted by several conspiracy theorists, including even David Icke, yet it is basically just a typical historical allegory of imperialism, colonialism, assimilation and irredentism just done in a science-fiction edition. This new series has the same problem as many other TV shows: its first two episodes and the last episode are intruiging and suspensful, but all the other episodes in between are so overstretched, routine and diluted that they lose the viewers' interest and seem to run on 'autopilot'. The main virtue is the excellent Elizabeth Mitchell in the leading role of FBI agent Erica, but even she is narrowed down by the often conventional narrative which leaves her little room to parade her charm and potentials.
There are some nice bits and pieces where Mitchell comes to full expression—for instance, in the scene where her teenage son Tyler asks to talk with her, and Erica sits down on the couch next to him, Indian-style, and says: "I'm all yours", or when Erica encounters Tyler stalling in front of his room, so she opens the door, goes inside and spots Lisa in underwear, exits, and then has a serious mother-son talk with Tyler—but most of the story are just simple action or chase or exposition sequences which could be done by anyone. The scary implications of the Vs are initially effective—the human protagonists discover the Vs have been on Earth for years before they initially appeared in public, and have been taking over and corrupting institutions in society, which is relatable even today—and some of their methods to perform one good deed to use as a cover for a hundred evil misdeeds in order to sway the public and gain followers are disturbingly logical and sneaky (a reporter finds out he has aneurysm on his brain, undergoes a therapy by the Vs and thus becomes their proponent, all until he finds out the Vs actually gave him aneurysm in the first place). Some more thought-provoking elements that contemplate about counter-terrorism and the notion that you should not become a monster to stop a monster are welcomed, though they were underused (for instance, in episode 9, Erica and her team capture a sniper who admits he supports Vs because they cured his crippled daughter, so they debate if they should torture him to find out valuable information from him). The aliens are sadly only shown as humans, without revealing their true reptilian shape, making this first season a good, albeit conventional remake of the original.
Grade:++
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