Synopsis: They arriVe. Earth's first alien encounter begins when huge motherships appear over 29 major cities. The visitors - the Vs - are human-like beings who know our languages and bring awesome gifts of healing and technology. People everywhere welcome them as saviors. But a fledgling resistance is on the rise, determined to reveal the shocking truth. Among the underground cadre: an FBI Counter Terrorism Agent who uncovers a terror cell no one ever expected - and finds that her teenage son is drawn to the beauty and promise of the Vs. Get in the know with the amazing first season of the series that combines sci-fi thrills with the uncertainties of the post-9/11 world. Here. Now. AdVenture begins.

The V are a curious race of avenging aliens.  Part Body Snatchers, part Vulcan, and all freakin’ scaly alien lizard.  Due to their humanoid costumes, it’s no wonder that paranoia follows like a riot through a mall of shoppers when one is discovered to be “hiding” among us. There’s even room for a little fun, but – as it stands - V: The Complete First Season is some seriously cheesy sci-fi schlock with little interest in finding its funny bone.

Little wonder then, in this day and age of terrorists and suspect minds that Kenneth Johnson’s idea – which first ran as a TV series from 1983 – 1985 – would find its way back on television.  Unfortunately, ABC didn’t fork over the dough to pay for some reasonable special effects to tell their story with. Sometimes the story surprises in its first twelve episodes, but the special effects are a total mess – making Syfy’s low-budget effects prize-winning material.

V – which stands for “visitors” – is essentially about an alien invasion of epic proportions. One day, quite out of the blue, a fleet of 29 alien ships appear over the skies of the Earth. The ships soon settle over the major cities of the planet and send out a greeting. The aliens on board – led by Anna (Morena Baccarin) come in peace and are only looking to refuel their supplies.  Of course, that’s not entirely true.  Journalist Chad Decker (Scot Wolf) might be the mouthpiece of the V, but he suspects there is something sneaky to their methods.  Some humans, FBI Agent Erica Evans (Elizabeth Mitchell), mercenary Kyle Hobbes (Charles Mesure) and Father Jack Landry (Joel Gretsch) learn rather quickly that these space lizards disguised as humans are up to some serious evil – all in the interest of their own self-preservation. Basically, they hate us and they are going to wipe us out.  Yet, there is an uprising called the Fifth Column that wants to stop the invasion; it’s a group of humans and V all working together to make sure the invasion doesn’t happen.

V has moments of potential. When it plays to its strength of paranoia and questions all the interests of its characters. In moments of suspicion and fear, V morphs into some pretty interesting television.  Unfortunately, these moments are few and far between, trading its paranoia for some pretty heavy-handed plotting and weak bits of action and intrigue.

Deep down inside, I get the feeling that V desperately wants to be the next Lost. It tries way too hard to create a sense of connectivity in its back story; especially with the mysterious character of Ryan Nichols (Morris Chestnut) who acts like a guiding force behind bringing the main characters of V together.  While some moments of good acting – especially from Mitchell and Mesure – brings out the drama of V, there are some overall weak storylines (a bike accident, a pregnancy) that don’t leave any surprises for the story to stumble into. This is a major problem for the series – something one can only hope it strives to work out in its second season – because it can’t be fueled into the void of dead television shows by predictability and some bad special effects alone.

Does V have a chance of surviving in its second season? Sure. Let’s face it, alien invasions are hot commodities and V – in its first season – does a pretty solid job at bricking out its storyline; it just isn’t special or that memorable. It also has way too many arrows pointed against it to make it justify going past another season. These things can all be improved, but I get the feeling – with its late hour “save” last year – that ABC doesn’t plan to put any more money into fixing those problems.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some interesting things going on with the story of this re-imagined V; political and deadly. Yet, V needs a paint job and directions on where it can find a sense of humor - which it really needs if it is going to survive itself

Component Grades Movie Blu-ray Disc Blu-ray Experience

Blu-ray Details:

Available on Blu-ray - November 2, 2010
Screen Formats: 1.78:1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1; French: Dolby Digital 2.0; Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0; Portuguese: Dolby Digital 2.0
Discs: 50GB Blu-ray Disc; Two-disc set (2 BDs); BD-Live

V is a sharp-looking two disc blu-ray set from Warner Bros. The 1080p picture is rich in detail and warm with its colors, looking like any other television show broadcast in HD.  The problem with the blu-ray comes in its attention to the special effects which are simply abysmal. The green-screened artificiality is a horrific nightmare to behold; the space scenes are fine, but the rendered atmospheres inside the invading ships are complete shit.  The definition is so fine and so great that you can practically see the lines between the physical person and its effect.  It’s horrendous and the white-walled lighting of the effects shots – those inside the V ship – do not help to “blind” us to its production flaws.

Supplements:

Commentary:

• There is a commentary for the first episode from executive producers Steve Pearlman and Scott Rosenbaum, but it’s too short to be of much value in determining the quality of the first season.

Special Features: There aren’t a lot and, to be honest, they aren’t all that interesting for a show in its first season.  They add little interest to the production and look of the show and seem pretty vapid in their existence.

• The Actor's Journey from Human to V (17 min)
• Breaking Story: The World of V (17 min)
• An Alien in Human Skin: The Makeup FX of V (12 min)
• The Visual Effects of V (16 min)

{pgomakase}