V (Part II)

[LShilk...@parc-maxc.arpa]

I could be wrong, but I have little doubt that this TV movie is merely a pilot for
an upcoming TV series.

Larry

[RAcos...@parc-maxc.arpa]

[This review constitutes my dues for being able to vote "YES" on Joe Bob.]

"V" was pure schlock, which is not to say I didn't like some of it. A movie that
has creatures that are reptiles in human being skins can't be all bad. Can it?
Though I can certainly appreciate well done schlock ("Rocky Horror"), the
problem with "V" is it couldn't even live up to being good schlock because the
people that made it took it too seriously. It was only decent by TV standards, but
I guess that says more about TV than "V". Anyway it was better than watching
"Blood Feud".

[rayssd!hxe]

Yes, it was actually printed in TV Guide and in the many
TV magazines that accompany Sunday papers BEFORE "V" was
aired that if the ratings were good "V" would be turned
into a series. Thus I knew even before I watched it that:
1) The author intended a parallel to the Nazi situation and
his original intent was to just have a movie about how
Americans would react to the occupation of their country
by an alien force. The reason he chose little green
lizards from outer space was that he could not think of
a current society that would have, as he said, "the staying"
power needed to make the movie work (he seems to think
it 'worked').

2) It was a catch-22 situation. If the movie was good enough
to attract a lot of viewers, then it would become a series,
which would necessitate an unresolved ending, making the
movie lousy. But, of course, we would have to get all the
way to end before we realized how we'd been taken.

Thus warned, I watched it anyway and was, of course, disappointed.