ABC Brings Back 'V' With Complete Conviction That We Would Befriend Aliens

Look at that pretty lady (Morena Baccarin) behind the podium! She looks harmless enough, right? (David Gray / ABC)

by Linda Holmes

V, ABC's remake of the NBC '80s lizard-alien show of the same name, is an interestingly out-of-time spectacle. I don't think it spoils too much to say that the entire premise involves aliens arriving on Earth and integrating with those of us who were born on this planet. They become just another group of people who are different but welcome, like contortionists or vegans.

Aaaaand that's the problem, because of course, it is destined to become a battle, because everything is Not As It Seems. [Cue dangerous music.]

Why it matters that the people of Earth embrace the lizard aliens, after the jump.

And what makes this seem less than timely? Well, to begin with, when the giant spaceships start hovering with the giant lady's face on them delivering what could easily be the beginning of a pharmaceutical commercial (this is all in the first eight or so minutes, so as I said, this is the premise, not a spoiled plot), all she has to say is that the Visitors are here to help, and everybody goes directly to, "Yaaaaay! [clap clap clap]." We literally -- literally -- welcome our hovering, blank-faced alien overlords.

I'm sorry, but you couldn't get that kind of reception as an unfamiliar Canadian who said you were here to help, especially if you arrived as a projected face under a spaceship. (As critic Alan Sepinwall pointed out to me, the Visitors also promise universal health care.)

Obviously, I'm having a bit of fun here (I love Canadians!), but it's a real point: where something like X-Men takes a shot at fear and suspicion of people who are "different," V flips that on its head and says, "What if we enthusiastically welcomed space aliens with open arms and integrated them warmly into the population of Earth?" That's probably not what would happen, I think it's safe to say.

What I'm saying is that some alien stories have very interesting ideas about visitors, about us and them, about the way the unfamiliar is confronted, and about the way the promise of something good conflicts with fear of the unknown. This isn't really that kind of a show. This is really just a show about alien-human fighting.

Now, on that basis, it's not entirely unsatisfying. They're very lucky to have Elizabeth Mitchell (Lost's erstwhile Juliet) on board as an FBI agent looking to protect her son and, of course, do her job. Scott Wolf (the onetime Bailey Salinger of Party Of Five) is on hand as smarmy reporter Chad Decker (really: "Chad Decker"), which is an interesting piece of casting against type, but which isn't really working yet in the pilot, except as something close to camp. They're trying lots of different things with Morena Baccarin (as the Visitors' leader), testing her for menace, sex appeal, and so forth -- but right now, there's not much of a character there.

It's not a bad show, but it's not quite firing yet. The silly premise of "aliens embraced without hesitation" kind of takes you out of the realm of meaningful comment on society, meaning that you're stuck with the week-to-week excitement of the alien-human battle itself.