ABC's V Episode 11: Alien Princess in Her Underwear Ought to Do The Trick | Techland

What to do when you find your fledgling alien series in a could-be-canceled fix? Strip down a character or two.

Tuesday’s episode of V featured the staged attack of V leader Anna’s daughter Lisa, the stunning blond playing footsie with Tyler, that whiny human kid with all the mommy and daddy issues. The plot seemed to bring things closer to a head: Anna and Erica finally came face to face (Hey, it only took all season) and we get to see Lisa half naked … again.

(More on Techland: Dear ABC, V Won’t Lure LOST Fans By Keeping Sci-Fi At Arm’s Length)

Erica is leading the FBI task force pledged to take down the Fifth Column, an anti-alien organization that she’s secretly a member of, though can we really call it an organization? We haven’t met any other members, yet. Did money to pay the extras dry up due to budget cuts?

Anywho. Lisa is framing two men for her attack: scientist Lawrence Parker and tough guy Kyle Hobbes. Through some Nancy Drew-style sleuthing, Erica learns that Parker is part of a team of researchers who have uncovered a virus deadly to lizards, including lizard-like aliens. Cool. But it’s made from algae. Not so cool.

I’ll be honest, I am so glad this show is ending next week. I don’t have the stomach for it to go on much longer. Without recapping the rest of another benign episode – seriously, the dialogue reads like the obvious subtitles of silent films – here are a few of my notes. I’ve run out of analysis. Please, somebody just make it stop.

Anna: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Seriously, ABC writers? You’re going with cliches now?

More delusions from the tool known as Chad Dekker: “My audience listens to me.” Ha, this show is hilarious. Also, I just can’t stop thinking about how Scott Wolf’s only chance at a decent role will be playing Michael J. Fox in a biopic about his life. Seriously, I smell an Oscar Golden Globe “Good For You” sticker.

(More on Techland: Chad Dekker, This is All Your Fault)

I still love Father Jack, though he serves no purpose than to be the odd man out in all this violence. (I’m still keeping my fingers crossed that he grabs a ax and goes crazy on an alien during the finale.) While he’s giving Ryan advice in the car, I keep thinking he’s the Yoda of V, without the memorable one-liners.

Police to Lawrence Parker: “You’re under arrest for the attempted murder of the Visitor known as Lisa.” So. If someone tried to attack Prince, would the police have to say, “You’re under arrest for the attempted murder of the Artist formerly known as Prince?” I know, I know, he changed it back, but think about it.

Hobbes is a double crosser because of course he is. No one’s surprised by this, right?

Tyler finally trusts his mommy. Well ain’t that … annoying as hell. This is the worst mother/son relationship on TV. Also, why is Tyler never in school or at a part-time job? Give him a realistic life and maybe we’ll believe your story.

That’s it for me. Next week we get an army of alien babies, Ryan and Val’s human/alien baby and the humanization of Lisa. Let’s get this over with.

(More on Techland: What Would Make ABC’s V Worth Watching Again?)

romartinezster

Sounds like you can do a favor to yourself, the best to do is stay away from the tv box on tuesday night. You definetily don’t like it just dont watch it.
richardsrussell

It’s kind of like a car wreck — just hard to tear your eyes away as you look on in horrified fascination.

So does Hobbes look at his mug plastered all over every media outlet on the planet (the way Osama bin Laden’s used to be) and think, “Hmmm, time for a shave and a date with a bottle of Clairol?”. Nooooo, that would make too much sense.

I keep wondering if Erica Evans majored in Hugging at the FBI academy. She’s gotta be the least professional FBI agent in history, always taking unscheduled time off from her job to tend to her 3-4 other distracting personal agendas. The closing credits sail by too fast to read, but does anyone know if the bureau has a technical advisor assigned to this show? If so, the poor schmuck must be about on the verge of hara-kiri.
charlieromeobravo

I find the show car wreck interesting too. If they pull the plug on this I hope we at least get to see what the Vs look like before they do.
charlieromeobravo

oops, it looks like I spoke too soon:

http://ausiellofiles.ew.com/2010/05/13/breaking-abc-renews-v/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+entertainmentweekly/ausiellofiles+(Entertainment+Weekly's+The+Ausiello+Files)&utm_content=Google+Reader
Rorschach

This show… angers me. Even after all this crap, there were moments where it could have gotten better. Just make a freaking decision. SOMETHING.

And it got picked up for a second season. That angers me so much. I watched this show ironically, but I’m not doing that next year. How the hell does this show continue to exist but something like Firefly gets 10 episodes. Virtuality only gets one. A second freaking season.

I hate this show and anyone who watches it because they like it.
dfpeterson

Is it just me, or are the aliens way too human? Essentially they only look human, but they’re really reptilian. Their skin is fake, yet they react in horror when it’s damaged. And as foreign as this object covering their bodies is, they sure have mastered human emotion faces, both in expression and reading.
Plus this idea of human emotion being what turns them is absurd. They clearly have the capacity to feel these feelings, why are they so foreign, yet so familiar (IE they’re human emotions even though they’re something their species has been capable of feeling all along)?
Some people may be able to justify it by saying “it’s just sci-fi, it shouldn’t matter” but I think if anything it shows the lack of real thought put into the show and is symptomatic of it’s crappyness. To me, what makes good sci-fi like Dune so good is the fact that it seems believable to the point that you can try to imagine yourself in that situation. I really can’t imagine myself in a world occupied by visitors because it seems so absurd.
Allie Townsend

car wreck, indeed.

@Rorschach – RIP Firefly

@dfpeterson – That’s what I couldn’t get. We’ve never seen even a sketch of what these creatures actually look like. No one has asked Ryan? No one’s curious? Also, They’d need to be the shape/structure of humans, with basically the same anatomy. Also who knows if gender exists in other planets? I don’t know about you, but the whole alien/human sex thing has raised so many questions. Is it even possible?

The emotions thing would have worked if it would have been better explained. Instead, they chose to focus on Erica Evans and her clueless sleuthing and stupid mother and son spats. Her storyline is so useless. This show should be about Ryan and Lisa. ALIENS.