One thing that would make this show more realistic to me is if the teenage son was riding his bike down the street, then stopped at a red light for a few minutes. He'd look around at the people on the street and stuff, maybe clear his throat, then the light would turn green and he'd go to the next light. They could show the entire journey that he took from home, to the mothership.
And while he's on this journey, if he's anything like me, he'd be making up nonsense songs to keep himself entertained. "Fucking shit fuck, gonna fuck the V girl, maybe her mom... mAYBE her moommmmm, yeah", then of course there's that next red light coming up.
That's maybe 35 minutes of screentime, give or take? But at least it's realistic. Actually to make it even more realistic, just get rid of the spaceships. And, the Visitors. I'm not buying that this could happen in real life.
And did you notice how they never use Mac software, when they are using macs? What am I supposed to think, that right now in NYC there's this whole other OS that I've never even heard of, that's way more polished than Mac OSX? That is fucking insulting.
On top of that, the V technology... don't even get me started. It just floats there? And it's all in RED? Why, because red is the "evil" color? Yeah I really believe that.
Oh and one more thing. You mean to tell me, that on some distant planet, a species of life evolved that is the EXACT size, and shape, of the human body, works the same way, is a freaking lizard species nonetheless... yet, all they have to do to blend in is create some synthetic skin that makes them look human? HELLO? This shows how LAZY the writers are.
So, obviously this show is a huge failure. I hope it bombs.
But, don't get me wrong, I'm a HUGE fan of science fiction, and I definitely want to support the genre, but THIS garbage? Hell to the no.
@cylon_conspiracy: Obviously Steve Jobs and Jonathan Ive are Vs. OS X is actually a derivative of V technology. However, their technology was deemed too advanced for the human brain so it was dumbed down and the final result was Snow Leopard.
Everyone's hating this episode, but I really liked it, especially compared to the lameness that was the last episode. Also, Morena Baccarin is wonderfully lizardy. Did anyone else notice when she said "Skin him" there was a little hiss at the beginning? It was a little creepy.
@FrankenPC: Mm. Bad idea. Scenes like that are much more satisfyingly scary precisely because our voyeurism isn't satisfied. It's the Psycho effect. You want more of what you can't have and when it's implied rather than explicitly shown, the mind wonders how frakked up it must've been, making it even MORE scary.
Plus if they'd shown it, we'd probably get a dose of sub-par ABC special effects which would totally ruin the mystique...
This was really really really really boring and shallow in terms of story-telling. What is going on all over the world? It is like the Vs have only invaded the lives of 25 people in New York City. I can get by the points of tlukowski below by just tossing it off as oh, you know, television. That stuff can be annoying, but to me personally it's just nitpicky. But to completely eschew and leave unexplored what's happening elsewhere is so lazy and so disjointed and so boring as writing. And it affected this "finale" which was also pretty boring.
The writing shows absolutely no nuance whatsoever. I'LL BLOW UP THE WAREHOUSE. MY MOTHER'S NEVER HERE. ARE YOU A PRIEST OR A SOLDIER? I'M PREGNANT. (what, the alien doctors couldn't tell it was a half-alien fetus?) HE TOOK A SUICIDE PILL. I'M THE RESISTANCE'S LOOSE CANNON.
So as not to be a total hater, things I did like:
1.) The scene of Anna trying to find and then ultimately making the real guy punish the traitor. Great pascing and outcome. But even THAT's ham-handed. One sentence on why the taking off of the human skin is so awful, or one small reveal of what's underneath. We already KNOW they are lizards, would it have killed them to give us a foot?
2.) The pull-back to the alien home planet and oncoming invasion force. But I'm a sucker for that anyhow.
3.) I'm being optimistic that they are setting up something very interesting about how this "bliss" thing actually works, and why, but I'm not going to hold my breath.
I'll tell you what I WOULD love. It turns out that Anna really IS the good one and the Fifth Column are the evil ones. I'll keep watching, and I'll keep hoping it will get good. I'm skeptical, based on the evidence of these four episodes.
@Lassus: In the real world, people do speak in obvious terms from time to time. "HE TOOK A SUICIDE PILL." - what else would you want him to say? What would be properly nuanced? "H made the ultimate sacrifice" ... "Many V's carry a suicide pill" ... He took a suicide pill is pretty much what someone would say in that situation.
@danataf2: While the whole premise of the plot is ridiculous, the acting is so good than I'm buying it. Elizabeth Mitchell is really bringing it and so are the rest. ABC wasnt kind to this show by putting it on, then waiting to see how it rated before ordering up the rest of the episodes. Flashforward, in contrast was promoted like it was the next Lost, it isnt andf it sucks.
@Lassus: I have been chewing on your post for a bit. I haven't watched a second of the show yet, purely out of circumstance(busy at work.) I loved the old one but I am also terrified that this will be annoyingly bad. So, as a fellow cheese-connoisseur, should I watch it?
P.S. - Your statement about the fifth column has me reeling from the memories of reading Arthur C. Clarke's Sixth Column the first time. So random.
Dr.Quatermass: I have to say Dr. You are once again spot on with that oberservation and anything I am about to say that contradicts this statement is strictly for humor sake. was starred
Dr.Quatermass: I have to say Dr. You are once again spot on with that oberservation and anything I am about to say that contradicts this statement is strictly for humor sake. was unstarred
@Lassus: Agree 100%, people have been complaining about the condensing of 6 episodes into 4 but all its done imo is help cut out some of the "relationship" ham. Aliens are invading Earth and the majority of the episodes focus on a whinny teen with mother issues and contain overwritten dialogue about things like "Trust No One" and "What are we going to do?!". How about we get on with showing what these people are doing to either expose the V's or round up support. Its times like this when I cry for Threshold, probably one of the greatest canceled shows in Sci-Fi history (yup, right up their near Firefly) where the focus was on what they were doing to counter-act teh problem, not how it was affecting a few peoples personal lives.
@Dr.Quatermass: Geez, I dunno, all of Dr. Who? Sanctuary, which is very cheesy but in a less insulting manner. There isn't just that much spaceship sci-fi on these days.
I hate that I'm dumping on the show so hard. There are good things. Maybe I'm expecting too much, I just really want it to be interesting, and it's not.
Baccarin, however, is utterly hypnotizing, I think she's playing the leader just right.
"Obviously, ABC thinks this show is iconic enough that they can afford to poke fun of it after only a few episodes, as seen in this Scrubs ad which ran during last night's episode"
As MST 3000's theme song said"Repeat to yourself it's just a show and just watch it and relax"
Personally, I like the pacing of the show but won't mind if it slows down a bit in March (March!? WTF! The Olympics don't start for a while). There is a lot of potential in the show and it could be as good as BSG (yes, I said it).
@Ghost_in_the_Machine: The Olympics don't start til February, but athletes and people have started moving to Vancouver already, and security has been increased in the Vancouver area. I'd imagine trying to film anything right now would be extremely difficult with all the tourists, assuming the city/whoever they need permission from, would even let them.
11/26/09
Anyone know a date for that episode. I need to set a reminder to download it.
11/26/09
11/26/09
And also, Barrowman's accent is just bizzare isn't it? Its a weird scottish/american mix, then he goes right back into american, and sounds normal.
11/26/09
Which I guess doesn't matter for Capt. Jack since he's from the future.
11/26/09
Adam Baldwin and Joshua Gomez would make frequent guest appearances.
11/25/09
11/25/09
11/25/09
And while he's on this journey, if he's anything like me, he'd be making up nonsense songs to keep himself entertained. "Fucking shit fuck, gonna fuck the V girl, maybe her mom... mAYBE her moommmmm, yeah", then of course there's that next red light coming up.
That's maybe 35 minutes of screentime, give or take? But at least it's realistic. Actually to make it even more realistic, just get rid of the spaceships. And, the Visitors. I'm not buying that this could happen in real life.
And did you notice how they never use Mac software, when they are using macs? What am I supposed to think, that right now in NYC there's this whole other OS that I've never even heard of, that's way more polished than Mac OSX? That is fucking insulting.
On top of that, the V technology... don't even get me started. It just floats there? And it's all in RED? Why, because red is the "evil" color? Yeah I really believe that.
Oh and one more thing. You mean to tell me, that on some distant planet, a species of life evolved that is the EXACT size, and shape, of the human body, works the same way, is a freaking lizard species nonetheless... yet, all they have to do to blend in is create some synthetic skin that makes them look human? HELLO? This shows how LAZY the writers are.
So, obviously this show is a huge failure. I hope it bombs.
But, don't get me wrong, I'm a HUGE fan of science fiction, and I definitely want to support the genre, but THIS garbage? Hell to the no.
11/25/09
11/25/09
11/25/09
11/25/09
11/25/09
11/25/09
11/25/09
11/25/09
I also like that the scale has been ramped up from the original mini-series. The whole invasion fleet seems so much more menacing.
11/25/09
11/25/09
Plus if they'd shown it, we'd probably get a dose of sub-par ABC special effects which would totally ruin the mystique...
11/25/09
The writing shows absolutely no nuance whatsoever. I'LL BLOW UP THE WAREHOUSE. MY MOTHER'S NEVER HERE. ARE YOU A PRIEST OR A SOLDIER? I'M PREGNANT. (what, the alien doctors couldn't tell it was a half-alien fetus?) HE TOOK A SUICIDE PILL. I'M THE RESISTANCE'S LOOSE CANNON.
So as not to be a total hater, things I did like:
1.) The scene of Anna trying to find and then ultimately making the real guy punish the traitor. Great pascing and outcome. But even THAT's ham-handed. One sentence on why the taking off of the human skin is so awful, or one small reveal of what's underneath. We already KNOW they are lizards, would it have killed them to give us a foot?
2.) The pull-back to the alien home planet and oncoming invasion force. But I'm a sucker for that anyhow.
3.) I'm being optimistic that they are setting up something very interesting about how this "bliss" thing actually works, and why, but I'm not going to hold my breath.
I'll tell you what I WOULD love. It turns out that Anna really IS the good one and the Fifth Column are the evil ones. I'll keep watching, and I'll keep hoping it will get good. I'm skeptical, based on the evidence of these four episodes.
11/25/09
11/25/09
11/25/09
P.S. - Your statement about the fifth column has me reeling from the memories of reading Arthur C. Clarke's Sixth Column the first time. So random.
11/25/09
11/25/09
11/25/09
11/25/09
I hate that I'm dumping on the show so hard. There are good things. Maybe I'm expecting too much, I just really want it to be interesting, and it's not.
Baccarin, however, is utterly hypnotizing, I think she's playing the leader just right.
11/25/09
As MST 3000's theme song said"Repeat to yourself it's just a show and just watch it and relax"
11/25/09
..and I bet that what Tyler saw in the ship will help the resistence later.
11/25/09
11/25/09