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Released by: Warner Brothers
Released on: 11/2/10
Director: Various
Cast: Various
Year: 2009
The Movie:
V wasn't really around all that long in the eighties when it first hit network television as the first of mini-series' nor did the regular series that was spun out of it on that air that long. Not when you compare it to long time staples of television, at least. Hell, most sitcoms in the eighties lasted longer than V. What V had, that the sitcoms did not have, however, was the weird factor. The show's bizarre story of an alien invasion and the many problems that invasion would bring would freak out many a younger viewer in its day, and that's something the Who's The Boss? and Family Ties couldn't really manage. This meant that V, which was briefly mighty popular (there were toys, comics, and other spin offs) despite its reasonably short run, developed a cult following, one which exists to this day and which likely played a large part in the decision to remake it for a modern audience.
The premise is this - the people of Earth start understandably flipping out when a series of twenty-nine massive space ships start appearing over the skies of major cities around the globe. Everyone, of course, expects the worst so imagine their surprise when the leader of these visitors, Anna (Morena Baccarin), appears to the humans courtesy the gigantic TV screens that the ships all have installed, to tell us that she and her people mean us no harm. You see, they're here only to use some of our natural resources, something their planet is desperately in need of, and in exchange will share with us some of their amazing technological advancements so that we can better ourselves as a race. This puts pretty much everyone back into their comfort zone and things look to be on the up until an FBI agent named Erica Evans (Elizabeth Mitchell) figures out that Anna is a big, stinky liar and that there's a whole lot more going on here behind the scenes than just some friendly aliens showing up looking for a mutually beneficial and long lasting friendship.
You see, this has been in the works for some time and the aliens are actually quite adept at using fake human skin to cover up their natural appearances and move through the Earth's population without being detected. Once Erica figures this out, she and a small but growing number of underground resistance fighters take it upon themselves to expose the aliens for what they are and figure out just what she and her comrades can do about it, all while the planet's leaders become increasingly under Anna's control.
An interesting mix of science fiction and political conspiracy theories, the show is entertaining enough to make for a fun watch, but ironically enough doesn't really hold up if you start to really question things. The cast are all fine in their respective roles, with Baccarin and Mitchell making for interesting 'foes' and you'll enjoy spending a fair bit of time trying to figure out who Mitchell can trust before she figures it out on her own. The digital effects used throughout the series don't always work as well as they could have, but generally they're okay, and some of the alien make up effects are done really effectively and help add a creepy element to the series which works in its favor.
Politically speaking, V takes a few interesting potshots at the current administration, particularly in how the higher up visitors use some of Obama's campaign catch phrases in their attempts to win over the population. It doesn't really go far enough to make much of a point, and instead much of this simply feels like it's being done to keep the show topical and seem poignant to the current audience, but it adds nothing of much interest to the show. Had the series gone a bit further with this, it would have been more interesting, regardless of your political beliefs, as it might have allowed the series to really deal with how the masses accept government policy and certain leaders as infallible but it doesn't go there, which renders the series politically impotent.
Subplots involving Erica's personal life tend to be more effective than the series' more grandiose conspiracy theories, for as we get to know her as a person we in turn get to know her son, her boyfriend and others around her. It's here that the 'who can you trust' element of the series really works well (it won't shock anyone to learn that some of the political types in the series aren't what they seem, will it?). These companions and compatriots can help or hinder her, and as she unravels more about what the visitors have managed to accomplish undetected so far, it starts to close in on her personally. Here too, however, the series dabbles in more clichés than it probably should have. Do we really need another priest who is questioning his faith or an FBI agent who might know more than he's letting on?
The series has been renewed for a second season so it'll be interesting to see if it's able to improve on what it got right the first time around. The first few episodes are really well done and feature some interesting ideas and great suspense, but the series quickly becomes predictable, entertaining as it may be. There's potential for the second batch of episodes to delve deeper into the political themes and further develop some of the more interesting characters the first season introduced us to, so it's unfair to write the series off just yet, as there are obviously more stories to tell.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The VC-1 encoded 1.78.1 1080p anamorphic widescreen transfers given the episodes in this set do a really good job of showing off the series' intended look. Detail is very strong, better than the broadcast versions ever were. There are some minor problems with mpeg compression artifacts and aliasing but no heavy edge enhancement while black levels stay strong and shadow detail remains consistently impressive. Skin tones look nice and lifelike, never too pink or waxy, and never showing off any problems with the authoring or encoding. The discs have been encoded quite well, generally speaking, and the picture quality is strong enough to frequently impress.
V arrives on Blu-ray with a standard definition English language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound mix, with an optional Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo tracks provided in French, Spanish and Portuguese. Subtitles are offered up in English SDH, French, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish and Portuguese. It would have been nice to see a lossless option provided here, but at least the 5.1 track has some good ambience. Channel separation isn't a constant but there's enough of it here to ensure that you'll notice it. Dialogue is clear enough and the levels are well balanced. There aren't any specific problems with the mix to note, but as you listen to it you'll notice instances where a lossless track probably could have offered up more punch.
Supplements kick off with a commentary track for the eleventh episode which features producers Steve Pearlman and Scott Rosenbaum. The focus here is on the series as a whole, the production values, cast members and storylines. It's not a bad talk, in fact it's actually quite informative, but some input from the directors or performers would have been welcome.
The cast get their due a in seventeen minute featurette entitled The Actor's Journey: From Human To V, in which the interviewees discuss the original series' influence, their character's development over the first season's batch of episodes, and how they feel about the series. A second featurette, Breaking Story: The World Of V, spends seventeen minutes with Scott Rosenbaum and his production team as they dissect the storylines and themes that run throughout the series while two featurettes - the twelve minute An Alien In Human Skin: The Make Up FX Of V and the sixteen minute The Visual Effects Of V - cover the special effects, computer generated and otherwise, used throughout the show.
Rounding out the extras are seventeen minutes worth of deleted scenes not shown in the broadcast version of the episodes in this set, animated menus and episode selection. All of the extras in this set are presented in high definition.
The Final Word:
If you don't take it all too seriously, this revamped V is a fairly entertaining sci-fi program that isn't nearly as deep or thought provoking as it might be trying to be, but which is a fun watch nevertheless. Warner's Blu-ray package is a decent one. It looks very good even if the sound is lossy, and it contains some solid extras.