Investigative reporter Mike Donovan (Marc Singer) and Juliet Parish (Faye Grant) lead a group of resisters in L.A. Guerilla tactics are failing. The authorities have declared them Fake News. The aliens have Mike's son taken captive along with many humans prepared as food. They plan to steal the planet's water. The Fifth Column within the alien ranks remain small and in fear of discovery. In the second part, the rebels are joined by Ham Tyler (Michael Ironside), an American intelligence operative who had many interactions with Mike over the years.
This is a 3 part mini-series which follows the original V (1983 miniseries) and is followed by a 19 episode season. It's been almost four decades since I first saw this on network TV. It all comes flooding to me after watching it again recently. I had forgotten about the lizard babies and the balloon barrage. I love the overall premise but there are many issues with the individual parts. First, the show could never achieve the worldwide grand epic that the premise promises at the outset. While there are some big sets for a TV show, it's not enough to reach full liftoff. This also goes for the story. It's hard to portray a worldwide alien takeover.
As for these 3 movie length shows, the writing is simplistic, problematic, and the difficulty is high. It's unrealistic that these humans keep escaping especially from the alien ship. There are a lot of unrealistic situations. One of the problems I had back in the day is the mass delusion which treated Mike as Fake News. With recent observations, that is less unrealistic. The world teaches how stupid some people can get. As for the lizard babies, it still looks more camp than real. It's funny that the little girl isn't allowed to open her mouth and it's outright stupid that she starts glowing to control the ship. Talking about stupid, I wonder who had the bright idea for the balloons. It's a silly premise written by little kids. All in all, there is something very compelling about the premise which reaches deep inside the psyche. The execution is ambitious and falters due to the ambition.
This is a 3 part mini-series which follows the original V (1983 miniseries) and is followed by a 19 episode season. It's been almost four decades since I first saw this on network TV. It all comes flooding to me after watching it again recently. I had forgotten about the lizard babies and the balloon barrage. I love the overall premise but there are many issues with the individual parts. First, the show could never achieve the worldwide grand epic that the premise promises at the outset. While there are some big sets for a TV show, it's not enough to reach full liftoff. This also goes for the story. It's hard to portray a worldwide alien takeover.
As for these 3 movie length shows, the writing is simplistic, problematic, and the difficulty is high. It's unrealistic that these humans keep escaping especially from the alien ship. There are a lot of unrealistic situations. One of the problems I had back in the day is the mass delusion which treated Mike as Fake News. With recent observations, that is less unrealistic. The world teaches how stupid some people can get. As for the lizard babies, it still looks more camp than real. It's funny that the little girl isn't allowed to open her mouth and it's outright stupid that she starts glowing to control the ship. Talking about stupid, I wonder who had the bright idea for the balloons. It's a silly premise written by little kids. All in all, there is something very compelling about the premise which reaches deep inside the psyche. The execution is ambitious and falters due to the ambition.