Best review of "V" out there:

[Deja Q]

http://www.pajiba.com/tv_reviews/v-review.php

No arguments against that review.

And a few comments of my own:

At least the original had proper structure and pacing. This sloppy reboot shoves down all the nuance without any grace. Especially turning the journalist guy -- it feels wrong. Forced. Contrived.

But consider: If the CGI death robot looks so phony, imagine how bad laser beams would look!

Even the original, cornball or cliched or not-A-level acting it had, was still made by people who knew plot structure a heck of a lot better. (save for one scene, but I'd rather something have padding than to shove things down peoples' throats.

It's revealed the visitors have been here for decades. Who put them there, undetected, to begin with? It tries to be big but it's all really small; it stumbles over its own logic because it hasn't got any logic. Then again, we have the CGI spear-spewing robot that has a limited arsenal and in comes visitors with knives (uh, ray guns would ensure you lot wouldn't lose... UGH! AWFUL!)

Indeed, a properly-paced setup might make the gibber about "hope" more believable and less like a cheap allegory. Oh, some token "housing prices" and other topical issues are briefly mentioned at the start. But that tokenism is too brief to even BE tokenism.

Okay, the priest guy doing his spiel about taking the time to read things -- the writer (and it's not Kenneth Johnson, the other name) can't be a republican because most of us saw through McCain fairly quickly...

Not to mention the 5th columnist who shows up - like the not-mysterious-terrorist-cell -- the ONLY cell -- to continue once the motherships appear, the guy who says his past is behind him. How much more obvious can they make these things, never mind it's a reboot so everybody already knows the gimmick... indeed, the visitors - if they are so shrewd - would know all this already. I'm not buying any of this. Even better pacing would render some of these obvious whoopies nowhere near as bad.

The kid who signs up to be the Visitor special friend, aka the new Daniel -- the cameraman was not very bright to do a close-up of his face where there's a herpes cold sore. I wonder if lizards get herpes... apparently one of them has the hots for him, as if it's a natural thing and not an order from a higher up to do a "medical experiment". He may have the hots for her, but she cannot have the hots for him. Anybody with a pet iguana knows the iguana is not going to try to instigate "bedroom activity", sorry. Again, it's all contrived.

And the author is right, the only surprise left is when it's revealed they're storing people as food. Whoop-dee-doo.

[targetpractice]

1. Hahah... I noticed the "cold sore"...

Shooting in Hi-Def can be challenging.... Those little things really stand out. We need to start breeding a new generation of physically perfect super-actors!

The second season of Heroes was awful due to make-up imperfections.

[Broken_Hero]

2. I was pretty let down tonight

I missed the pilot, but tonights episode was so...slow, and the only chemistry I saw was between Supergirl(L. Vandervoort) and the Daniel character, which didn't last long anyways. The FBI agent/Priest I have no connection to whatsoever, their time together seems very forced...

I'm probably going to give it another shot next Tuesday though.

[MilesColtrane]

3. My read on the characters.

The older priest will turn out to be a lizard, as will Nichols' (the rebel lizard) girlfriend/fiance. She was planted to keep an eye on him.

Agent Evans' boss will be suspected of being a lizard, but will, in the end, be an ally.

The African-American/Indian female agent in the FBI's Visitor Response Team is a mole for the scaly bastards.

The kid will find out the lizard agenda, but will still be "in love" with his teen reptillian squeeze. (She'll turn traitor to the V after much lip chewing anguish.)

The reporter character will still be played ambiguously for several episodes, but will ultimately be a good guy who tries to redeem his early ethical lapses by cooperating with the human resistance.

The younger priest will have to give up the collar to fight aliens full-time.

The creepy aide to Anna/Billy Bob Thornton clone will eventually be turned to the human side and will die in spectacular fashion.

[targetpractice]

4. The Indian FBI agent (spoiler for another show)...

The actress played one of the Final Five Cylons (sleeper agents) in Battlestar Galactica... It would be predictable typecasting to make her an enemy again... or not.

[MilesColtrane]

5. Maybe that's why I suspect her.

On an unrelated note, I can't stand the washed out, blue tinged look of the show. It's like the anti-CSI Miami.

[targetpractice]

6. I noticed the washed out look on the V mothership...

... But not elsewhere. I'll rewatch.

As I said in the first post above... I think shows are experimenting with different visual styles to discover what works best with HDTV... The format is very revealing and can look hyper-realistic... Did you watch "Life on Mars?" That show used a "sepia" effect to convey the 1970s. And, I think Battlestar Galactica added a lot of grain and shadow. The second season of "Heroes" was too revealing... every pore and flake of makeup was noticiable... Whereas, "KINGS" (I loved that show) was very vivid and crisp, but pixel-perfect.

[NewJeffCT]

7. Part of the problem with the rushed feel

is that the original first leg of the series was supposed to be 6 episodes. However, they ran into scheduling issues and cut & re-edited the 6 episodes into 4. Hopefully, if they ever release the first season on DVD, they'll have the pre-cut episodes in there as well.

However, I do disagree that everybody is bowing down to the visitors - they made it quite clear in last night's episode that it was about 50-50 among the populace at large.

[Swede]

8. Couldn't an interstellar species make food out of methane and water?

Just scoop up the methane from the atmosphere of a gas giant,grab a couple of comet or asteroids made of water and you have all the hydro carbons you need.

[targetpractice]

9. Perhaps, but that would be a fundamentally different TV show. ;-)

[Swede]

10. Silly you.

Silly me.

[targetpractice]

11. Are you watching Stargate: Universe? (spoiler)

I think the ancient spaceship "Destiny" does what you suggest... I know it refuels itself by skimming the surface of stars... freaking out the humans onboard in the process.

[Swede]

13. It lost me after the second episode.

Do you recommend I give it another try?

[targetpractice]

15. Nope... not really... hahah.

I just mentioned it because the ship does some cool things now and then... but otherwise, it's pretty boring.

I'm not sure if I like this new "V", but I'll watch the next two episodes for sure.

[ikri]

12. Probably the best critique on the show that I've seen was this

Overall the aspect that bothered me the most was that in the original series, the heroes -- and the persecuted people -- were scientists and journalists. But sadly we have since been conditioned to believe that those people cannot be heroes anymore. So now instead of a scientist and an investigative journalist as Our Heroes, we have a priest and a counterterrorism agent. It's very telling, and kind of sad, to me at least. Guess they were afraid any archaeologist characters might bring up evolution and alienate members of the audience?

(posted on io9.com)

The shows producers have managed to turn an anti-fascist allegory into a boring conspiracy theory show, almost as if they watched the original and only saw the special effects and aliens, completely missing the storyline.

[elocs]

14. I watched the pilot and half of the 2nd episode. I'm done.

It's just not interesting to me. I won't put another minute into watching it.

[targetpractice]

16. I love John Hodgman's (PC & Resident Expert, The Daily Show) thoughts...

He posted this on Twitter...

Finally watched the new V. I guess tea partiers need SF too. But why not call it PROTOCOLS OF THE ELDERS OF OBAMACARE? (via @hodgman)