Product Description
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The Visitors are among us. In a single shared moment, they
appear in every major city in the world, promoting a message of
peace. They want to share their knowledge of technology; they
want us to unite. And they are counting on a very important
component of human nature: devotion. At first considered a
threat, the Visitors -- or V's -- quickly become a fascination.
But when FBI Counter Terrorist Agent Erica Evans discovers what
lurks beneath the alarmingly human exterior of the V's, resisting
this new world has never been more important -- and never has
there been more at stake. It truly is the dawning of a new day.
.com
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There's a lot to like about V, an exceptionally well-made series
combining science fiction, action-adventure, and personal drama
(and debuting here on DVD with all 12 first-season episodes on
three discs). From the moment 29 enormous spaceships appear over
an equal number of major cities (the principal action takes place
in New York and aboard the mother ship that hovers over it),
nothing will ever be the same. But the Visitors, commonly known
as Vs, "are of peace"--or so says Anna (Morena Baccarin), their
young, beautiful, preternaturally serene leader (the Vs look
human, but as we soon discover, their appearance is only one part
of them that isn't what it seems). Folks around the globe are
smitten as the Vs perform Christ-like medical miracles and use
their awesome technology and messianic powers of persuasion to
wow the Earthlings--especially a smarmy, headline-hugging TV
"journalist" (Scott Wolf) who becomes their willing mouthpiece,
helping the Vs seduce the entire global population… almost. Of
course, there are some who know better, specifically the "Fifth
Column," a resistance group comprised of humans (with Elizabeth
Mitchell as an FBI agent whose son is in thrall to the aliens)
and a few "traitor" Vs who've lived on Earth for years (including
Morris Chestnut as a V whose human girlfriend is pregnant). They
know what the Visitors' real agenda is--and that dirty deeds like
establishing terror cells and surreptitiously injecting drugs
into humans are only the beginning.
All of this is offered in a very slick, entertaining package;
the plotting is clever and just unpredictable enough, the effects
work is outstanding (especially good is a technique whereby Vs on
their mother ship are rendered like video game characters), and
while V is hardly what you'd call profound, it does touch on some
interesting ideas (such as the role of emotions, of which the Vs
have none, or the danger of putting one's faith in false gods).
That will help viewers overlook some of the show's more dubious
elements. For instance, the utter gullibility of the vast
majority of humans in the face of the aliens' transparent
duplicity is preous, even by sci-fi standards; by the same
token, it's hard to swallow that the Fifth Column, which seems to
consist of about four people, could possibly pose a threat to the
omnipotent Visitors. Still, by the time it reaches its
season-ending cliffhanger, V has given us more than enough
reasons to tune in again next year. --Sam Graham