Do We Really Need a Remake? ‘V’ v. ‘V’
I always found the original V (the first and second mini-series as well as the one full season) to be depressing. This didn’t fully occur to me for a long time, though I always felt it. Beyond the coolness of the spaceships and the distraction of the action, this was standard 80s MOTW fare. Ultimately though, the overall feeling was that of hopelessness. What could be done against such evil occupiers, especially with some humans crossing over to help them?
The hit-you-over-the-head allegory is to Nazis and the Holocaust. That historical episode is about as depressing as it gets. The subplots all flow from there.
The Resistance: This is where we see the beautiful people fight the lizard people.
The Youth: Power is given to impetuous young people who in turn abuse their power and rat people out to the Visitors.
Inter-species love: Jungle fever gets a new meaning. Sexual attraction can permeate the human/reptile barrier. This is all well and good until labor and delivery. The results are terrifying. I wish I could unsee that lizard tongue shooting out of that baby’s mouth. But I can’t.
Honorable Defectors: Some Visitors know their species is up to no good and try to help. Thanks for nothing, skin jobs!
Vaccines: Yeah, I know, but seriously. The way the humans finally get the upper hand is to pollute the air with a chemical that kills only the Visitors. In order to survive in the Earth’s atmosphere, they must get regular injections, booster shots if you will.
Sympathizers. You gotta go along to get along. Some of the humans sell out to the Visitors when they see who’s winning the battle. Naturally, media and corporate types are well represented.
The new V looks to replace the Third Reich with Al Qaeda. There even looks to be a little They Live thrown in for good effect. This will surely affect some of these strands, but I bet most will survive intact. Without them, what kind of a remake would it be?
