V Review

ABC has a new show out called V, which is apparently a remake of some crappy 80s Sci-Fi series. It's not a great show, or even good; though I'm sure that it was better than the old series, and that fanboys will complain anyway.

What does seem to pop up again and again are allusions to Obama. A race of attractive aliens show up and promise us "universal healthcare", world peace, and lots of cool gadgets as long as we give them total devotion. The masses get suckered into it, while a brave few spread skepticism and doubts. The aliens turn out to have a hidden agenda, having engineered all sorts of catastrophes to pave the way for their triumphant welcome (there are some conspiracy theories out there, btw, that the market crash was orchestrated by Obama's Wall Street boosters). They manipulate the media to exchange preferred access for favorable coverage.

I can't imagine this was the show's intention (which looks like a fairly bland and conventional anti-totalitarian message), but it looks like Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, and O'Reilly are boosting the show as anti-Obama.

What no one is picking up, though, is that there are a lot of parallels to Arthur C. Clark's Childhood's End--though this series is much less favorable to the aliens. Which is great--some of the big early Sci Fi guys were techno-optimist and pro-alien/pro-robot; and things have gotten much more cynical and depressing since them.

But seriously, don't bother watching it. Instead, think about the fact that the one Sci Fi show with decent character development and plot--Virtuality--was cancelled.