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The last episode until March of 2010, V kept up the pace of last week’s episode and kept left viewers with some genuine cliffhangers that they’ll have to wait a solid four months to see ironed out.
The fledgling V resistance is still hanging out from last week, engaging in their mistrust-apalooza while trying to figure out a way to allow the general public to know what’s going on. Georgie expresses the desire to capture a V and skin one alive to show people what they really are. Ryan objects to this and instead gives Erica, Father Jack, and Georgie the names of some V’s who were planted in prominent positions. Most of them were dead with the exception of a scientist named Combs. Erica quizzes Ryan as to how he got this info and he remains quiet.
This week, V steps things up from the snail’s pace of last week’s episode, revealing more secrets and plot points regarding the Visitors. The resistance and its varying factions converge to help rebuild the Fifth Column, which is not a ‘70s singing group, but rather the name for the band of traitorous, human-sympathizer V’s. Ryan goes off in search of an old friend named Cyrus in hope of getting him to help rebuild the Fifth Column with him. Ryan finds out that Cyrus had done yet another 180 and is now turning V traitors in to Anna in an attempt to get back in her good graces and score some of the sweet substance known as “The Bliss” which all good Vs get. Ryan manages to avoid being turned in and reduces Cyrus to a pile of ash, leaving the V’s called to the scene to find a cryptic message on the wall: “John May lives.”
Another Fifth Column leader by the name of Georgie (don’t you dare call him “George”), has found himself tracked by Father Jack and doesn’t take too kindly to it. Father Jack eventually gets Georgie to come around and join with the human resistance to create a united front against the V’s.
Opening week of the reboot of the ’80s Earth-invaders series, V, was seen by 14.3 million viewers, according to the Nielsen Company. That was the second-best new series premier for the season behind the CBS spin-off NCIS: Los Angeles, and it was the most-watched scripted show of the week among the young demographic networks bend over backwards for.
The audience and the vaunted 18-49 demographic performance for V almost tripled from what the network usually averages with the reality show Shark Tank in that same time slot. The show, “about aliens who seem friendly when they come to Earth seeking water but actually have ulterior motives,” built its audience in the second half-hour, which is usually a great sign that interest in the show held throughout the episode, though it seems the interest in V ended when the credits on the show ran. There was not much of a trickle-down effect from V for the rest of ABC’s all-star lineup. Dancing With the Stars still averaged 14.5 million viewers and finished third in adults 18-49 with a 3.1 rating. The Forgotten drew 7.6 million viewers and tied NBC’s Jay Leno with a 2.0 in adults 18-49.
Last week, the series debut of V, a redux of the ’80s sci-fi franchise pulled the second highest debut of the season with a 5.2 Nielsen rating and 14 million viewers. It scored big in the all-important 18-49 demographic and covered a lot of ground in its one-hour opener. Although the pace slowed considerably for the second episode of the series, V hasn’t entirely shot its wad right out of the gate. While this episode wasn’t nearly as action or info-packed as the expository first ep, this week’s serving of the Visitors started laying the ground for action to come this season. Not a bad second episode, even if there are some characters/plot points that are starting to look a tad predictable.
Erica Evans is in the thick of the action, facing down V’s on the work front with the disappearance/possible death of her partner, Dale Maddox; on the home front with her son Tyler who has developed a fascination for the V’s; and in her spare time tracking the Visitors with a list of contacts she pilfered. Interrogated about the disappearance of Dale, Erica is faced with some rather curious department heads who put her on the track of getting to the bottom of it. Having explained that there was no monkey business between the two of them and that Dale was more like a brother to her, she takes the show on the road and questions Dale’s wife about any activity on his part that seemed suspicious… Particularly since the arrival of the V’s. Mrs. Maddox is rather tight lipped, alluding that Dale had always been insistent upon keeping his work life separate from his private life. However, she manages kick out some grudging praise regarding the arrival of the Visitors, possibly hinting at her disdain for them and exonerating herself from knowing her hubby was packin’ lizard beneath his skin suit.
Tuesday night, ABC debuted V, a revamp of the ’80s mini-series/television series that aired on NBC. While the original mini-series paralleled the alien Visitors plot to destroy humans to the spread of fascism in Nazi Germany, the 1984-85 run of the show was more of a straight-forward sci-fi drama.
The new version of V adds new versions of old characters and employs a lot more of the socio-political allegory that the 1980s franchise’s mini-series (V and V: The Final Battle) had contained. In place of Nazis, the relaunched V taps into current social phobias such as terrorism, religious extremism, and apocalyptic mania (Have the Mayans ever been so popular?!) as well as the zeitgeist of optimismistic change.
The story is still the same: Visitors from another planet zero in on Earth to use its inhabitants for some as-yet-to-be-revealed nefarious plot and commit genocide. They wear the guise of uber-attractive humans and initially come across as peaceful and helpful allies to humanity, but are actually calculating, scaly reptillian creatures beneath their cloned, human skin. An underground collective of humans has been tracking the Visitors and have known they had implanted some of their own to rise through the ranks in all walks of life, making their transition and sudden, near-miraculous appearance on Earth a smooth one.
