thesar-2 I thought it would be neat, for my 2,000th review, to go back to part of my beginning. And 7½ hours later...I grew up on V. No, not the awesome Vendetta film from DC decades later. And I'm not talking about the super-vamp drug from True Blood or the hard-to-get-through 2009 remake.I'm talking about the Badass Badler and Super-Hot Singer Star Wars knockoff of the early 80s. In fact, V *was* my Star Wars.Back when I was between 9-12ish, I consumed this show/concept. While it only had two miniseries (sorta movies, sorta seasons) and one official season (or, as labelled, Season 3,) it practically became my world. I watched it live and all the reruns I could plan out. And no, my family couldn't afford a VCR until a few years later, so I did my best by the TV guide and commercial previews.It wouldn't make much sense to me until this viewing that one of the biggest reasons I fell in love with V was the show's creator. He also created another favorite show of mine growing up and pre-V: The Incredible Hulk. I had the same feeling about that show as I did V and they shared the same creator: Kenneth Johnson.I digress, once the show's finale (3rd season spoiler) created peace in the world, and I began my teen years, I grew apart from the show/concept and never to return any of the Vniverse until 35-freaking-years later.When I thought of what I could celebrate my 2,000th review with, this made sense as my 1,000th celebratory review was the very first movie I'd ever remember seeing: 1975's Escape to Witch Mountain. V was a huge part of my childhood and memories, but I had no idea what kind of commitment I had to give to review this. I mean, seven and a half hours?! Fine, I had nothing else going on this weekend, so why not?I'll tell you why not and why I can't give it a huge recommendation. For today's audiences anyways. It's way too padded. It's easy to figure out why, but it's a chore nowadays when we have more options of what to watch online and wasn't relying on a non-VCR, heck, non-internet world in 1983. These two miniseries/seasons could've/should've been easily edited down to about 4 hours, ish.At the time, though, it was epic. Not just for the preteen in me, but for the ambition they had. They had top-notch FX (for TV) and world-building that they did oh so well. I truly felt this world of V (for visitors) could have existed. Yes, there are special effects we would scoff at today, mostly the flying sequences, but for the most part, it was practical effects and sets. I can totally see the 9-12 year old in me loving and believing this world was realistic.From what I'm told, the concept was supposed to be a retelling of the Nazi regime in modern (1983) times, but those in charge thought no one would buy it (fast-forward to the trump presidency of these modern times and, well...) and Star Wars was hot back then, so they switched it to an alien invasion. In any case, that worked and totally made sense and is more believable. The world is invaded by "peaceful" Visitors who come from a dying planet. Their mission is to share their resources and technology in exchange for hospitality. As most dictatorships develop, "They Come in Peace" and slowly/surely take control of society. Ahh, but Vive la résistance!The show/series/seasons began with Star Wars-types of tropes and ends with flat-out theft of the Original Trilogy. Again, as a kid, I was fine with it. At the time, anyways, the only way for a kid to see Star Wars was to go to the theatre for the first-run Return of the Jedi, for one of the many re-releases of IV and V (Episode 5 in this case) and pray one of the five channels we got ran them in prime time.I literally have not seen the V original series or singular season since around/about 1985ish and boy do I remember plenty of it, this time around. This does prove to me how much this show did mean to me.Fun Facts: I was in total love with Marc Singer during the show, though I didn't know what that meant since I didn't know what "gay" was at the time. I totally dug Diana as one of my all-time favorite villains. She was so deliciously evil and charismatic. I also loved Faye Grant as the leader and every-person and Freddy Kruger! Well, not yet, but I did like Robert Englund as Willie. Oh, and lest I forget Michael Ironside, which I was in love with internally and externally, as well. Back then, I couldn't get enough of this show. Every character meant something to me, every battle and scheme had me truly involved and on the edge of my seat and, mercifully, the plot, dialogue and adventures were easy enough for my preteen mind to wrap around. THIS was perfect for my age back then and no matter what I feel now (ah-hem, only 4/5 stars,) V will always have a special place in my heart. Only, I don't think I'll ever rewatch the show again. Once every 35 years is enough nostalgia...and honestly, I don't think I have another 35 years left. Is it V for Visitors or V for Victory?***Final thoughts: Couple of other good things I loved/love about these two miniseries: a VERY good score, only to be improved in the "3rd" season and some actual laugh out loud humor that, surprisingly, still works today. I was honestly pretty impressed with some of the dialogue and delivery.

calvinnme 1983 was perhaps the peak year for the TV mini-series, with The Thorn Birds, The Winds of War and V all premiering to big ratings. V features a worldwide alien invasion, as huge, circular motherships arrive and take up stationary orbit all over the planet, directly over large cities. The media soon dubs them the "Visitors", and they appear human, although sensitive to the light and with strange voices. They seem to be benevolent at first, sharing medical and technological breakthroughs, while not asking for anything in return. But of course they are after something, and they will stop at nothing to get it, and soon they are disposing of enemies and setting up human collaboration units to weed out the "undesirables". A group of people soon set up an underground resistance, but can they hope to stop the seemingly superior alien invaders? Marc Singer stars as a heroic war correspondent who is the first to learn of the aliens true nature, along with Faye Grant as a biologist, Jane Badler as an alien commander, Richard Herd, Andrew Prine, Leonardo Cimino as a Holocaust survivor who sees the writing on the wall, Evan Kim, Michael Wright, Bonnie Bartlett, Neva Patterson, Robert Englund as a friendly alien, and many more.This was probably intended as a starting point for a series, but instead it led to another mini-series the following year, before finally a short-lived series (and a remake in 2009). It's derivative of a lot of things, namely the Arthur C. Clarke novel Childhood's End. It's also a very heavy-handed allegory of the Nazi occupations in Europe and the Holocaust; the alien symbol is even a variation on a swastika. The effects are decent, if dated at this point, and the script, by writer-director Kenneth Johnson, never really rises above average. But it's fun in a dopey, Saturday-morning serial way. At slightly over 3 hours, it's also a bit short as far as mini-series go.

LeonLouisRicci This is probably as good as it could have been for a 1983 TV (Miniseries). All the ingredients are here for some fine Small Screen Entertainment. It is the stuff Sci-Fi is made of, fantastical gadgets and spacecraft, Visitors with mysterious intentions, an advanced Society making contact with a more primitive Culture, pockets of skeptics, Native sympathizers, Freedom Fighters, and so on.This is more than cliché. It is the bedrock of the Genre and everything from Jules Verne to H.G. Wells to Arthur C. Clarke to Rod Serling to Gene Roddenberry to George Lucas to, well you get it, is homaged by Kenneth Johnson's little TV Epic as he just tapped into this Mythos and delivered an allegory that was top-notch TV.The Cult following that this Phenom has is well deserved and is mostly based on this Original Miniseries with some reservations on the follow-up and the Weekly Series that ran for two Years. None of the aftermath Shows diminished the Power of the Original and even today it is thought provoking and great Entertainment. It has Heart and is a timeless Horror/Sci-Fi Tale of caution and is rightfully placed as one of the best Miniseries TV has offered.

Global_Marketing_Pros I think V is a popularized version of the series "The Outer Limits". Although V does address the reasoning for development of the human species. But "The Outer Limits" examines how the human species defies extra-ordinary phenomena due to human-species exceptional analytical abilities to manipulate electrical fields. This analytical ability keeps people from entering into the world of television by being able to hypothesize, yet remain fearfully skeptical.Anti-gravity is supposedly how the V mother ship stays off the planet Earth and how the V species travels on terrestrial Earth. So the concept of electrical field theory, the manipulation of electrical fields, and manipulation of biological systems seems as how V intends to beat the human species.Another aspect of V is the food source technology. They seem to toy with the concepts of reptiles being superior and humans being a food source as well as other animals such as birds. Thus the question of the food chain and hierarchy of food sources by dominate species becomes materialized. Again the question being who is the dominate species being at the top of the food chain and who controls technology effectively being the winner of the human species.These questions of evolution seem to be played with in a series because everyone wonders what will happen next in the next episode. Just like in V where curiosity leads humans into the mother-ship to learn the secrets of V. Curiosity being used as a psychological tool by the V species to lead them into the ship.Or like having the genetic blue print of the human species but not fully making a human useful. Curiosity can be a learning activity of random chance that may produce a time dependent variable according to generations needed to establish a certain point of acceptance with not the gene pool of the human species but how much a life time is actually needed to achieve in terms of work. Supposing the space ship needed to travel for 200 years in space to reach the next Earth like terrestial planet then you would need to live for 200 years or the knowledge used would need to be comprehended and made operable by a knowledgeable human at any point in time that work was needed to be done.This seems to mirror the plot of the movie 2010 a Space Odessy where the mono-lithe speaks to Dave and Hal the ship computer. Dave finally says as his last words, "Its full of stars". What really happens to Dave no one knows. Dave just obeys their commands and disappears. In the movie V at least they the human species know they are trying to investigate the ship because they are afraid of dying or being used a food source.I think V is a fairly good show of use of creativity and concept development using science and scientific methods. The use of curiosity to develop the plot is also very good. However, that mirror plot of 2010 a Space Odessy is also an alternative reality within this plot. Would a superior species with command of technology such as the V species really allow a human to win?