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I was 6 years old when this show aired, but it definitely left an impression. For the longest time I thought the images in my head of humanoid aliens peeling off their faces to reveal green, slimy lizards were just remnants of some really freaky dream. Then I was somehow talking about it with friends who excitedly shouted Yeah! That's V! Apparently it left a lasting impression on almost everyone in my age bracket, even those who never saw it in the first place. In England, the whole series aired as a marathon session while 9-year-old Greg was on vacation in Greece with his parents. He returned to find all his mates obsessed with it, and he was "absolutely gutted" that he had missed it. (Yeah, the poor baby... He was frollicking on the beaches in Greece instead of home watching television. Cry me a river.)
So I netflixed it, and we watched it this week-end. Even crammed full of painful cliches and cheesy dialogue of all '80s television, I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it. There's something very nostalgic about seeing 25-year-old special effects - the stretched out jaw of the alien bombshell devouring a live guinea pig whole. Classic! And how is it that thousands of little laser beam bullets never seem to hit our hero Marc Singer's spaceship? Another highlight, the stereotypically horny and blindly ignorant teenagers. I kept wanting to slap the idiot child Rachel, who ruins everything for everyone because she just wants to party with her friends and make out with hot alien heart throbs. And then there was the reluctant heroine, a blond PhD biochemist, whose path to med school is interrupted by the Visitors' relentless persecution of scientists, saying lines like "I'd like to get my hands on their DNA". Beautiful.
So despite the sometimes cringe-worthy scenes and 3.5 hours of Greg constantly interupting the show to point out the blatantly obvious parallels to Hitler's pre-war Germany, I'm now obligated to netflix V: The Final Battle and V: The Series. Should be fun, though possibly a bit painful.
The Young Riders, Beauty and the Beast, 21 Jump Street, The A-Team, and MacGyver - those are next on my tour of '80s TV flashbacks. But I already have 379 movies in my queue so it may take a while...
2 comments:
Why do I not remember "V"??? I mean... at all??? Ahhh, but "Beauty and the Beast". That's one I'd love to see again. I always had an unhealthy crush on Vincent. Little creepy now that I think about it. I hated the way that show ended... very disturbing... what I remember of it anyway. I'd still love to see it again!
Um, that would be because you were FOUR!
And, yes, Mom you must have let me watch this at some point. And I was obviously scarred...
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