X-Entertainment | V – The Original Mini-Series Review.

V – The Original Mini-Series Review.

In one of those "should have been reviewed a long time ago" kinda reviews, here's a really long, really really long look back at V: The Original Mini-Series. Airing on NBC in 1983 across two nights, it was a record-breaker seen by millions and loved by at least half of them. I'm with them, this was amazing stuff and still holds up fantastically over 20 years later. Followed up by V: The Final Battle, which I'll review at some point in the next five years. Two-page review features a bunch of video clips and at least one crayon drawing of evil aliens.

I missed Six Feet Under for this. Did Arthur come back yet????~!

Posted by Matt on 08/15/2004. E-mail me!

Discussion Thread: 143 comments

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I remember watching this when it first came out. I was 8 or so. For some reason, I’m combining the two mini-series in my head. I could have sworn that the baby huzard was born in the first one. Huh. Makes me want to go our and rent them and refresh my memory. Didn’t the father of the huzard die at some point? I remember that rat scene being much more scarring the first time I was it, though. I liked how they cut away to show Donavan in between shots of the real Diana and the Diana cake face.

Oh, yeah: who’s Julia again?

Chestnuts roasted by trajeal @ 08/16/2004 11:01 AM

I was hoping that if a new alien-movie review was to appear, it would be of "Mac & Me"! But, alas….never saw "V", but now I want to! Way to go Matt!

Chestnuts roasted by Muppet Baby @ 08/16/2004 11:29 AM

I was too young for this one, though I probably would have watched "the thorn birds" instead anyway.

Chestnuts roasted by chicklet @ 08/16/2004 11:34 AM

Although come to think of it Richard Chamberlin did have a bit of a lizard king thing going on in that movie anyway-especially when they aged him to look, like, 1000 years old…

Chestnuts roasted by chicklet @ 08/16/2004 11:36 AM

(annoying chicken voice)Pick, pick-pick!(/ annoying chicken voice)

The actress who played Diana is Jane Badler, not Jane Badder. Although Badder makes her sound, well, badder.

Chestnuts roasted by trajeal @ 08/16/2004 12:08 PM

Man I was 6 when "V" came out and my mother and I watched both mini-series as well as the V series. My mom rocks she watches sci-fi with me. We also watched the Alien Nation franchise. Mat, you should review Alien Nation. Damn Slags!

Chestnuts roasted by OldSchooler @ 08/16/2004 12:20 PM

No idea how I ended up with Badder in the editing process. Perhaps I was triggerhappy on the spellcheck. An excuse that would carry more weight if "badder" was a word.

Will fix later, thanks.

Alien Nation. Sour milk drunk stuff.

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 08/16/2004 12:26 PM

Ah V, I was 8 when this came out and remember that rat scene vividly. Thanks for the memories.

On 2 completely unrelated notes, however:

1. Matt: DRACULA THE MUSICAL HAS PREMIERED!!!! Yesterday, I think. Will there be a review soon?

2. DO NOT SEE OPEN WATER. It sucked the big one. As Flava Flave used to croon: Don’t . . . Don’t Don’t Don’t believe the hype!

Chestnuts roasted by Pedro @ 08/16/2004 12:33 PM

First of all, the "V" stands for "Quality."
I saw it the first time, and freaked when Diana did her swallow. Even then, I knew the cut-away was a cheat, but the idea that they tried to show the alieness of the Visitors in a surprise fashion stunned me, at least until Dad said "Hey lady, save some for later!" The show was an allegory for the way the Nazis ingratiated themselves into the public awareness, promising solutions for society’s ills. Of course, it wasn’t long before they began to tell society what it’s ills were, and started thier real plans, that people started to take those long train rides to the "showers." Even the Visitors symbol, part of the lizard-language, was a variant of the Nazi swastika. Just done up like an old LED calculator from the 80′s. If you have "Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure" on DVD, look at the deleted scenes for the extended studio chase, there is a shot of a prop yard and a V-shuttle is featured prominently. I wanted action figures!

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 08/16/2004 12:35 PM

hooray for matt, I am now your meme whore

Chestnuts roasted by cvhhfghg @ 08/16/2004 12:39 PM

I guess it doesn’t matter if you spoil Open Water, but try not to when I ask: how was it?

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 08/16/2004 12:41 PM

Never saw "V" myself … I’m mostly familiar with the series because I know that’s where http://www.reptilianagenda.com/">David Icke gets all his material …

Chestnuts roasted by Al Boondy @ 08/16/2004 12:45 PM

There’s an interesting bit in one of Larry Niven’s collections (either N-Space or Playgrounds of the Mind, I forget which one), where he says that he (Jerry Pournelle might’ve been involved too) almost got involved in V. He said that when they were working on the series the producer talked to them for help with the aliens. He said the producer said that while they had alien technology and costumes and all, they had never actually described what their aliens were like (aside from eating people…).

Niven said he proposed the idea that the Visitors are descendants of the dinosaurs. After all, if they’re coming for water, they could get all they wanted in ice chunks in Saturn’s rings… So why did they want to set up shop on Earth? Well, the air smells right, the gravity feels right… there were intelligent dinosaurs that flew off into space before the meteor hit, and now their descendants have returned.

Niven said he was never called back after the initial meeting…

Chestnuts roasted by CaptainCaveman @ 08/16/2004 12:49 PM

THIS HAS SPOILERS SO DON’T READ IF YOU DON’T WANT OPEN WATER SPOILED.

Matt:

The filming is gritty and Blair Witch-esqe in the sense that it tries to look as though it is being filmed by an amateur with a Sony Handycam. There is almost no character development — we don’t know if the couple is married, how long they’ve been together, what they do for a living, etc. It’s just clear that the woman is a workaholic and the couple needs a vacation. THERE IS SOME GREAT GRATUITOUS NUDITY IN THE BEGINNING, I’M TALKING FULL FRONTAL AND THE LEAD WOMAN IS HOT!! I don’t know if it’s $10.50 worth of nudity, but it’s there nonetheless. So, the happy couple goes scuba diving and they get left behind b/c some jackasses get in and out of the water and the guide losses count. Also, our knuckleheaded protagonists stay down for 1 hour, instead of the 35 minutes the guides tells them to stay down.

So, now they’re stranded and floating about. First, they get stung by jellyfish. Then some fins appear and they get freaked out. Lots of long montage scenes of the ocean and island people going about their daily business selling fruit and crappy souveniers. Then back to the couple, who thinks they are getting bitten, etc. This goes on for a long time.

Anyhoo, Dan (he’s the male lead) gets a bad shark bite, which the woman fixes up w/ her weight belt. Dan is hurt and pissed, they blame eachother for getting left behind, blah blah blah (like when you and your wife/girlfriend fight over who got you lost in the car).

Night falls, storm comes. Sharks attacking, lighting striking, sharks attacking, lightnings striking . . . . .

Next day, Dan is dead. Chick unhooks his gear (why they kept all that heavy crap on is beyone me) and he floats away and is promptly eaten by the sharks. No gore though.

Cut to the scuba guy who realizes the next day that he left the couple behind and massive search is launced, but alas, it is too late. Cut back to the hot chick alone. She takes off her scuba gear and goes underwater, ostensibly to feed herself to the sharks.

THE END

While credits role, gritty scene of fisherman who caught a shark that day. They open the shark’s stomach and find Dan’s underwater camera.

End, i go smoke a butt.

Its playing at the AMC 25 on 42nd and 8th. On sat. it was showing every 45 minutes. There were about 20 people in the theatre. Not a great showing.

Sorry for the length.

Pedro

Chestnuts roasted by Pedro @ 08/16/2004 12:53 PM

Are they remaking V?

Chestnuts roasted by JLAJRC @ 08/16/2004 12:54 PM

And sorry for the spoilers, but it truly is a crappy movie. Admittedly, it has one of the best trailers I’ve seen in a while; however, it will surely disappoint you in every way.

Chestnuts roasted by Pedro @ 08/16/2004 1:03 PM

http://www.chud.com/news/july04/jul16thud.php3
V GETS THE X

"Here’s a bummer: NBC has turned down the new V miniseries. Jeff Gaspin, the net’s head of miniseries, says this: ‘I just don’t think it was different enough from the original, frankly. It wasn’t as innovative as the original. It felt like a good sequel if we’d done it immediately after [the original], but in the 20 years that other space operas have come and gone, it doesn’t feel as fresh as it did 20 years ago’.

Let’s not give up hope – the network has sent series creator Kenneth Johnson back to the drawing board and hoping he comes up with a new story. I hope so too – the original V miniseries has aged surprisingly well, and I would love to see the story tied up eventually. Hell, I’m even excited about the lame series getting a DVD release."

Chestnuts roasted by ME @ 08/16/2004 1:05 PM

Speaking of slightly strange and cheesy mid 80s and early 90s Sci-Fi, I was always a fan of Alien Nation. That was a kick ass show, even if the movie that spawned it sucked.
Haven’t seen V, though. I’ll be checkin’ Sci-Fi Channel for it.

Chestnuts roasted by AngeFaitore @ 08/16/2004 1:11 PM

"Space operas"!?!?!? Never heard that one before, but I think I love it! Oh yeah, and Freddy Krueger was my hands down favorite character in V.

Chestnuts roasted by Blah...blah @ 08/16/2004 1:22 PM

Blah…blah, think Flash Gordon, or some would say Star Wars.

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=Space+opera&db=*
Main Entry: space opera
Function: noun
Definition: any melodramatic literature, motion picture, or television program set in outer space
Etymology: based on soap opera

Chestnuts roasted by ME @ 08/16/2004 1:28 PM

I watch V every Sunday on Space http://www.spacecast.com/shows/rerun/V.asp

Plus I have all the comics!!!

Chestnuts roasted by SuperStar @ 08/16/2004 1:41 PM

I want the aliens’ outfits…

Chestnuts roasted by phunqsauce @ 08/16/2004 2:11 PM

Howzabout Visitors vs Newcomers? Giant Saucer Demolition Derby! Winner has to fight the ID4 aliens.

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 08/16/2004 2:26 PM

Matt, although I know you abhor illegal use of music and dolls for storytelling (Imagine a smiley face here winking, since Original Flavor ME does not use emoticons), I still think you will get a kick out of http://www.illegal-art.org/video/popups/superstar.html">"Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story" by http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001331/">Todd Haynes.

Nickelodeon should consider letting you make a darker version of http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118551/">"Action http://www.nickelodeon.com.au/toonroom/kablam/action.html">League http://www.kissonline.com/reports/press_releases.php?diary_id=9&mode=view">Now!!" for the more cynical kids of today. Nick and Jessica were made to be parodied in something like this since they are Ken and Barbie’s evil living vessels in our world.

Chestnuts roasted by ME @ 08/16/2004 2:31 PM

Dominique Dunne, the older sister from Poltergeist was originally cast as the daughter who gives birth to a lizard. Some of her scenes were actually shot, before she was murdered by her ex-boyfriend outside of her apartment. David Packer "Daniel" sat inside her apartment while she was strangled. The two had been practicing their lines for the upcoming shoot.
Apparently Packer heard a commotion and struggle, but didn’t intervene. I guess he didn’t know she was being choked out.
Next on the E:True Hollywood Story…

Chestnuts roasted by Loogie @ 08/16/2004 2:33 PM

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