As if humanity hasn’t been kicked around enough by every other television show and movie out there, ABC’s ‘V’ aired on November 3, 2009 with a new take on the invasion of planet Earth.

The program, a sleek and fast-paced reimagining of the 1983 miniseries, does however display a fairly unique take on the concept, and its potential to entertain is nothing short of immense.

‘V’ tells the story of humanity’s contact with, and underground struggle against, the Visitors, a race of super-advanced lizard people posing as humans. They promise peace, prosperity and technology, and are, for the most part, accepted by the gullible homo sapiens of Earth. It is revealed that the Visitors have been on Earth for years, infiltrating societies and governments, making their final conquest of the planet near-impossible to resist. A small resistance movement of humans and rogue Visitors fight against them, but is scattered and broken by the time the Visitors arrive in twenty-nine motherships, each positioned above a major city of Earth.

This is where the show comes in. The plot revolves around an interesting and likeable cast of characters, including Erica Evans (Elizabeth Mitchell), an FBI agent who stumbles upon the Visitors’ true nature and motives, Father Jack Landry (Joel Gretsch), a Catholic priest unwillingly drawn into the action after a dying man sends him down a path that reveals to him the truth, and Ryan Nichols (Morris Chestnut), who is an ex-resistance Visitor who has been brought back into the fight out of a desire to protect his human fianc’eacute;e.

The action fashionably switches between the characters, keeping you interested in each story, but not depriving you of the other ones for too long. The show is fast-paced, but shot so that important details aren’t hard to miss or remember. The cinematography doesn’t suffer during the action, and is in fact very exciting and enjoyable.

Every television show has its flaws, and V is no exception. There is of course the talk of political agenda surrounding the program, which is not completely unfounded. The Visitors promise ‘universal health care,’ a phrase pronounced with painstaking meticulousness, and impress the people of the world with fine oratory skills and promises of peace. The message isn’t overbearing, and is easily ignorable.

If it bothers you, don’t pay it heed and enjoy ‘V’ for its primary role as a sci-fi thriller, one it fills just fine.

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