DunLurkin'

Wotcha, I'm Kev. WD40 in internet-land.

I'm a mature Film student in my final year and I'm currently in the process of making a right pig's-ear of my dissertation.

I get involved in far too many things than I have time for, and I get worked up over daft things. Don't get me started on 'V - The New series', for example.

So: cheers, all. I hope to chat to you all in the future!

Kev.

Welcome to the forum!

Welcome to the forum!

Heya! Welcome to the forum!

Welcome to the forum!
V? Never heard of that show-is it a sci-fi?

Welcome! Make yourself comfortable and stay a while!

Ellen-Natalie wrote:Welcome to the forum!
V? Never heard of that show-is it a sci-fi?

*Deep Breath*

Released in 1983 V (Now called V - The Original Miniseries) was one of the most ambitious and influential Television Science-Fiction shows ever, and it continues to make its presence felt.

Originally planned to be a straight conversion of a Sinclair Lewis book called It Can't Happen Here which explored the possibility of a new uprising of nationalism in the United States. (A similarly themed film was released recently set in Germany called The Wave (Which I also recommend).

Having been informed that it was assumed that the television viewer would not be capable of understanding the intricacies of the original screenplay, Writer/Director Kenneth Johnson re-worked the script turning it into an alien-invasion narrative.

Famous not only for its intricate narrative, emotionally moving sequences (Every sequence with the character Abraham Bernstein (Leonardo Cimino) a Jewish grandfather and survivor of WW2' Concentration camps is glorious) but also for officially one of the most iconic scenes of all time in Television Science Fiction: The reveal of the visitor's true intentions. Looks a bit camp now, but at the time, this was mind-blowing:[url= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VObQfWMgmIM]Youtube Link[/url]

And then the new series came along, turning it into a mindless, disconnected, politically confused, barely coherent mess, rife with mixed messages, plot holes, character inaccuracy, and total contempt for its source material.

For example: A specific scene directly references Universal Healthcare, as a program introduced by the evil invading aliens, right at the time as Obama was introducing it.
So, imagine the sequence: An attractive newcomer arrives. They are smart, media savvy, photogenic and filled with sound bites including the words “Hope”, “Growth” and “Change”. The media loves them, and the people practically set up fan clubs for them, while those people who distrust them are caricatured as confused, xenophobic, fringe extremists. Does this narrative sound familiar?

And despite this, the producer is quoted as blurting out nonsense like:

"We are not looking to put any sort of agenda onto the table but,"

And

"People will bring to it what they bring to it. . . . If one group wants to claim it as their show and another group wants to claim it as their show, that's their prerogative,"

Link to Interview in Washington Post

So, in short, not only is this producer presenting an Alien Invasion narrative, one of the more politically loaded and relevant Sci-Fi narratives out there. The fact that he directly references “Universal Healthcare” and then goes on to say that he is: “not [putting] any sort of agenda onto the table”, shows he is either utterly incompetent as a writer and ignorant of politics at best, or a blatant liar at worst.

While simultaneously his “If one group wants to claim it…” line, shows his, again either I don’t wish to attribute to malice what can be given to mistake, although both scenarios equally make me angry, blatant misunderstanding of the format and effect of science fiction stories at best or utter contempt and/or total disregard for the [i]specifically politically motivated[i] source material at worst.

It would be easy for some to write off ‘V – The new series’ as pure special-effects moneymaking, cashing in on a previously tremendously successful series, but to do so is to utterly ignore, belittle and insult the extremely powerful political motivation, relevancy and impact of the original series.

In short – Track down V the Original Miniseries. Watch that, and only that.

…

…

Okay, I’m good now.

WD40 wrote:Okay, I’m good now.

I lol'd.

Now I just have to resist the urge to poke that button at random (such as laying blind praise on 'The New Series' etc.). If it helps any, I'm in the same boat as Ms. Natalie. I had never even heard of it before.

I've never seen the original V, but I actually like "The New Series."