ABC’s ‘V’: Obama Parable?
by John Nolte
–
“The world’s in bad shape, Father. Who wouldn’t welcome a savior right now?”
Aliens arrive offering “hope” and telling us not to be afraid of “change.”
To grab power they set out to manipulate the media and create a culture of devotion around themselves.
But they are not who they appear to be.
In fact, they’re out to destroy our way of life.
Hmmm???
Either someone’s activated our right-wing sleeper agents at ABC or the network has no idea what they’ve created and will soon realize they are now stuck with a second multi-million dollar miniseries that can’t be released on DVD.
UPDATE: I just realized that it looks as though ABC is portraying a Priest as a hero.
Odd.
I looked outside and there’s only one sun, so my initial theory of waking up in a more just universe isn’t the answer… I’ll have to count moons tonight.
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
| 
Follow Us on Twitter
Subscribe via RSS
Got a Tip?
342 Comments
we certainly hope this is not censored; the original series while flawed, was entertaining and offered some insights… if Mr Nolte is correct and this will not see the light of day then we know Hollywood is completely co-opted.
And that would be both sad -and frightening.
OK gotta see this man!
Mr. dcase, surely you do not believe Hollywood is not already co-opted?
The original was brilliant in its camp, and the new one stars Elizabeth Mitchell (Juliet from Lost). It's gonna be fantastic.
Simply as a story, this looks awful. I was (and am) a big fan of the original but I don't think that taints my ability to recognize cheap effects, poor framing, cheesy re-imagining, and a general lack of 'wow' factor in this remake.
That said, the obvious parallels are awesome. ABC seems to be the only mainstream network willing to question the Messiah (Jake Tapper, anyone?).
But if this fails I see it as a reflection of its poor quality, more than its 'subvsersive' content.
Interesting that the original was a parable for Nazism, and the new one is a parable for the brownshirts of our day.
Considering that the original was a WWII parable, it would make since that this one would be such on this admin. I actually would be interested in seeing it. But no doubt in my mind it will be twisted into an anti conservative rant. I can see this being twisted to show the aliens as a good people but earthlings are just evil and corrupt.
The original V was a Nazi parable — and fascism is still fascism, however it's delivered.
Just updated the post … frankly I'm scared. There's something off… I will have to count the moons tonight…
Nice broadcast license you got dere. It would be a shame if anything happened to it.
Oh man somebody is going to scream for a rewrite…
New countdown clock for when this series is rescheduled for …uhh… rewrites, corrections or banishments.
That's Joel Gretsch!! I haven't seen him in forever!! I'll watch ANYTHING he's in! He's awesome.
I think anyone who knocks the original should be forever banished from BH.
Anyone care to second the motion?
When I first watched the trailer my reaction went something like this… "THEY'RE RAPING MY CHILDH– oh, wait."
Don't forget to check that your closest friends haven't been co-opted by thier devotion.
AND what's-her-name from LOST? I guess that means Juliet really is dead?
I honestly think that the comparisons here to the Obama movement and the American left are so HUGELY obvious that the "deep-thinkers" on the Hollywood left are blind to them. They can't see the forest for the trees on this one. But they will, soon. Be prepared for this to be either re-scheduled or dropped and forgotten entirely.
I guarantee that there is massive pressure behind closed doors to expunge any trace of Obama parable and replace it with good reliable anti Bush parable before this goes live.
For me, it would have to be "they're raping my middle age." This should be interesting. I have the whole V set, and I'm willing to watch an update. The special effects in the original were really quite good, considering the time it was made. Joel Gretsch did a yeoman's job on "The 4400" and a couple of other mini-series, so there will be some good acting. It will be interesting to see how they handle the "fascists from outer space" angle.
I hope it survives…
This could be fun
The aliens are probably better for our country than Obama
I can hardly wait. Loved the original series as a teen.
At the beginning of the preview I thought, "John's really stretching for this comparison." Then it just got scary. I don't know if the show will draw such obvious parallels, but whoever cut this preview together definitely had the O in mind.
The original series opened with the dedication (something like) "To resistance fighters everywhere" and then it was followed by an action sequence with reporter Mark Singer covering a battle between a generic latin american "rebel" group and the government. I don't remember who was 'left' or 'right' in that fictional conflict. but its pretty reasonable (based on the "dedication") that the tribute to "resistance fighters" was intended to transcend the left/right aspect anyway.
Based on that, "freedom fighters" could relate to a lot of real life analogs, either complementary or repugnant. (e.g. Are we the lizard people that have invade Iraq for its resources?!)
Now, as for the spin on the preview commercial for the new "V"… I have to admit, this use of the key word "hope" does support the idea that this new V is a bit of an Obama parable. I guess if thats true then Donovan and his resistance movement must be like the teabaggers, gun-clingers, etc.
There are a few conservatives in Hollywood, even at Disney. Don't tell anyone.
Hey, did you know the administration has a new theme song? "One Toke Over The Line, Sweet Jesus." Maybe they'll use it in the mini.
also, the Obama-lovers see absolutely nothing wrong or "off" about their mindless love/adoration/psychotic devotion to their Messiah. How can they think this is wrong if it's a mirror-image of their own behavior? Do lemmings think other lemmings are crazy as they all sail over the cliff?
I haven't watched the trailer yet, but Elizabeth Mitchell rates a view of the pilot in any case. She's a hometown girl made good (that, and she's hot!).
I'll miss her on Lost, though.
I don't have the resources to do it myself, but I would love to see some splicing and editing of this video to make the comparison complete. Just replace the V's with O's.
Yeah, that made me wonder if she is now dead in the series Lost.
Wow, when is this going to be on?
The most logical explanation is that Joe Biden was put in charge of signing off on which shows the networks are allowed to air.
yeah, sure- just hopefully not totally- however, the cynic in us says you are most likely correct…
I joined the Army and had to go to Basic Training in the middle of the original series. It wasn't until years later I was able to rent the DVD series and watch all of it. Need less to say It was worth the wait. This new series looks cool…
the analogy is almost creepy….. "Resistance is futile…you will become a liberal"!!!!!!!……….:)
Oh, I'm sure that's coming pretty soon. Hopefully those that can splice and dice will wait until the series is finished, so that the libs that be won't go back and 'change' it out of spite!
yeah- there was no trace of Freddie Krueger in it. How can you have V without him? Marc Singer won't be missed, however…
yeah- there was no trace of Freddie Krueger in it. How can you have V without him? Marc Singer won't be missed, however…
BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!
Amen to that…..
After having watched the trailer, the thing it reminds me of the most is the 2010 episode of Stargate SG-1 and its followup, where supposedly benevolent aliens were secretly sterilizing the human race in order to take over the planet bloodlessly. Those episodes were probably a rip of the original V, but I only saw parts of that and it's been a long time.
Actually,the original series is a damn good parable all by itself, even without the words hoe adn change, about how someone will promise you the world to get what they want and take over….
I'll bet the editing room floor is covered by now….
I don't know how they can top the "twist" in the original one … since its a remake we'll all see the "they're reptiles here to eat us" a mile away.
$10 says this will be written in such a way that the Vs end up being the REAL heroes (and likely vegetarians) and us ungrateful, paranoid humans don't deserve salvation, so they leave us just before they cure AIDS and give us cold fusion.
The message then will be "See, you who doubt Obama are vile, petty little creatures."
Seconded…I watched the first one because of the cute woman, Jane Badler I think, who played the head alien, but I got hooked. Like "They Live" it's a guilty pleasure that actually was great. Just waiting for the pet eating to begin.
Interesting indeed. This coupled with their releasing of Mike Judge's openly Conservative "Goode Family" which is nothing but 30 minutes of Liberal bashing makes me wonder what's going on over there. Let's also not forget JJ Abrams is said to be a closeted Conservative.
And please BigHollywood give some love to this "Goode Family" cartoon. God knows there aren't many Conservative shows and the one's that are on we need to trumpet from the top of the proverbial mountain.
BTW – Cool it with the Obama talk…this is obviously a parallel to Bush. (Keep saying that so Hollywood doesn't try to quash this.)
I was in high school when this aired and it was one of my favorite shows. I don't care how cheesy it would seem upon reflection, it was great for the time.
The more I looked at the trailer, the more it seemed that there might be good reason for the current administration not particularly wanting it aired. Whether there will be any active involvement in the decision-making process by administration figures remains to be seen, but even without it, self-censorship or revisionism at ABC might turn out to be disastrous.
I guess Priest/Pastor Gretsch replaces Photographer Singer? From what I've seen so far, a cleric is a good guy, "change" does not necessarily mean "change for the better," and false hope plus complete reliance on "governing authorities" is a bad idea. If that's the theme originally intended, I hope it makes it, unaltered, to the TV screens. The special effects so far didn't look as bad to me as they apparently did to other posters, but it does seem that after all this time, they could at least have been an improvement on the primitive cut and paste of the original series. We may have to just wait and see.
Another interesting approach. They really did some creative brainstorming with the mother ships over the cities of the world. That's out-of-the-box thinking that is hard to come by. Oh, right. Emmerich's ships were round. These are rectangular.
Also, why do aliens always have to look like lizards under their disguises? Just once, it would be nice if Hollywood could do an Alien movie where the vistors are actually humanoids. There would be some really fresh territory to explore.
Notice that there's another "Firefly" alum here too. Looks like Morena Baccarin is playing the Diana role– though she's now called Anna. Cooool.
Mr. Nolte, you did _not_ just pull an Andrew Klavan, did you?
(be it, in this case, it's initial presentation rather than awards consideration)
they are using the greatest weapon availible. Dedication.
if this actually makes it on the air i will be surprised, unless the Obamites don't see themselves in it.
The original V was okay as a mini-series, but it did lose its way and became very silly as a weekly series. It would be nice, however, if they could bring back Michael Ironside.
I'll miss her on Lost, too. Poor Sawyer.
Instead of pickin' on reptiles all the time, how about some aliens that look, you know, ALIEN? Non-bipedal, more or fewer arms, faces which aren't two-eyes-on-top-of-mouth.
It also stars Morena Baccarin and Alan Tudyk, both from the greatest show ever, Firefly.
Giant benevolent iguanas. Great!
Actually V predates Independence Day by about 14 years.
Kenneth Johnson (the creator) has mentioned the fact that he'll most likely be accused of ripping off ID4 and supposedly one of the leads makes an ID4 ref.
I was totally stunned to see V getting a re envisioning and updating by it's original creator as I loved the first two miniseries ( the weekly series was OK but then NBC hates sci fi so they went out of their way to kill it) in my early 20s and even went to a halloween party at one of the local night spots dressed as a Visitor and got rave reviews.
Actually, the original V had round ships appearing over cities. You could say Emmerich ripped it off of the original.
Also, the fact that they are lizards matches with the original so I don't have a problem with that.
BTW, this is scheduled for a 4 season run with 13 – 22 episodes per season.
Holy cr*p either someone somehow slipped this by the Hollywood elite or this is a massive conspiracy to get us rebel conservatives to watch this and then slip some Obama mind control messages in it so we will finally fall in line with the rest of the automatons. I'm only half kidding….
As much as I hope it is exactly as it appears, my fear is that it was unintentional and that once they realize the implications, the writers will reverse course and pull a switcheroo just like was done on Battlestar Galactica. You can expect either one of two scenarios: A) the aliens remain the bad guys, but start spouting Bush-isms with humanity serving the role as "insurgent freedom fighters" or B) Humanity will turn out to be the bad guys who are afraid of change, ultimately deserving whatever fate befalls them.
I hope I'm wrong.
Most of the production of this series occurred before Obama ascended to the throne so odds are any allegories will be coincidental. I'm sure to counter this the network will suppress ratings by scaling back publicity and advertising and pro-Obama critics will not give it a good review. After its single broadcast the series will be locked in a vault never to be released on DVD/Blu-Ray because of "lousy ratings" and they'll start production on an even better alien invasion series entitled "W".
Wow, how about this from the ABC website:
Convincing anyone of the truth will be impossible because the Visitors have two powerful weapons. First, they've given the people faith with their reassuring presence and gifts. Second, they've rallied our youth. Thousands of teens, including Erica's son, have been recruited as 'Peace Ambassadors' but they're actually serving as unwitting spies. When Erica gets thrust into the resistance movement, she'll have to balance her covert activities with her job and her role as a mother, fighting to protect her son Tyler – even as he joins forces with the enemy.
http://abc.go.com/fallpreview/index?pn=v&part...
"Rallied our youth," "Peace Ambassadors" sounds like the Obama cult and his plan for compulsory volunteer work for the state.
But can you turn them into nice boots?
In the Original (loved Jane Baldar) there was a complict media willing to bend the truth for the good of the visitors. Now we have at least 5 networks (three broadcast and two cable) who will subvert the truth for the good of the ONE TRUE GOD, OBAMA!
(sorry, watching too much Stargate SG1)
Obama is a Gao'uld.
Expect the pilot to be 'retooled' very quickly.
More and more, I'm thinking about Gene Rodenberry's Earth:Final Conflict. Where the alien race (can't remember the name right now) first were friendly then mean then another race then friendly again at the end.
I smell a rat. And it's covered in hope and change!
abc doesn't have the license per se. It's the individual stations that could be threatened and they rebel agaisnt ABC.
abc doesn't have the license per se. It's the individual stations that could be threatened and they rebel agaisnt ABC.
Heck, Michael Ironside is still BADA$$ today!
wow … I really enjoyed the orginal V. when will this be on? A priest is a good guy? maybe the world is at last days after all. I sure hope the powers that are at the top don't mess up a good message. It is .amazing how much this trailer seems like a political story for today. I plan on being with the resistance.
Sorry, I just can't get on board with them calling them "the V's" either. The V was the sign of the Resistance – V for Victory. Used as a slang shortcut for 'visitor' it just sounds idiotic.
And that guy's "V" sign looks like it was made in 2 minutes by the executive producer's not-too-bright child. Seriously, this thing screams low-budget.
They're actually re-making _V_! I've wondered if someone would ever take that on. I LOVED the original, and I hope this does it justice and even improves upon it. I'm game. Plus, I think I'm officially hooked by that trailer.
THIS is on ABC? Stossel must be behind it.
And I saw a preview of the Goode Family. It made some hippie-ish liberal look like a complete effeminate male, you know, a typical liberal male. I'll definitely be tuning in.
Just watched the preview…it's like anti-liberal p0rn. The people bringing hope and change are slimy lizards underneath? AMAZING! Can't wait for this one to start.
I pretend the tv series didn't happen. V is only the two miniseries. I was fanatic about it. I'm looking forward to this remake. Pretenama!
Icing on the cake would be bringing back Michael Ironside…with armour-piercing ammo…
John, your discussion is absolutely hilarious! I was half expecting the ship to be shaped like the Obama "O".
If this is an alternate universe, I think I'm gonna like living here!
I would like someone replace the ship flying over NYC with a giant Obama "O".
"Probably"?
I really liked her on Firefly. I know that serieses always go downhill when the romantic tension is realized, but man was I rooting for Morena and Nathan to come together. . .
Whoa, did I just say that? Disregard what I said, I meant, "I like Firefly, good action scenes."
Aliens had the same Creator as we, so why mustn't they look humanoid?
Edit: why do I get a plus 1 automatically for posting? I feel like I'm back in government school where everyone's a winner.
The Birth of Lizard Baby was one of the great moments of television history.
I'm curious: who is "us"?
At the time the original was produced, I doubt there was anyone involved who could imagine today's political environment, wherein the U.S. is beset with what just two decades ago would have been deemed an enemy-occupier in the White House and Congressional majority.
When the original ("V") was made, the worst that could be imagined, politically, was what beset Germany decades earlier. I doubt anyone at that time in the U.S. ever imagined that the same madness would reappear here decades later.
For heaven's sake, stop making insightful comments, everyone! If they catch on, they'll cancel or "delay" it into oblivion!
It could have a sucker punch.
Like the aliens turning out to be really good, but using somewhat nefarious means while the human resistance members are evil.
It's going to turn out to be another anti-religion screed from the left. Watch.
Um, yes This-is-a-bush-par-a-llel
Yeah, right, you know the final scene is going to be the devoted against the non-believers and one of the non-believers is going to say something stupid like "You don't even have a valid birth certificate" right before the evil neo-con comes in and nukes everyone and then another mothership arrives with love and kindness in time to survey the damage done by the unbelievers. Then they'll watch as the world melts from global warming.
Yeah, right, you know the final scene is going to be the devoted against the non-believers and one of the non-believers is going to say something stupid like "You don't even have a valid birth certificate" right before the evil neo-con comes in and nukes everyone and then another mothership arrives with love and kindness in time to survey the damage done by the unbelievers. Then they'll watch as the world melts from global warming.
As long as there's a hot alien chick biting the head off a bird like Diana in the original series, I'll be happy.
You do realize that since Firefly was a Joss Whedon show, Inara and Mal would have been doomed if they got together, right? Look what happened to poor Wash and Zoe in Serenity.
Don't say that, I'm a hopeless romantic. You're making me sad.
Did you watch the trailer? They already made the big reveal. Would have been smarter to have a different twist than the original.
Don't blame me. It's that dastardly Joss Whedon who likes to torture his best characters. Don't get me started on poor Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
OH MY GOSH!!!! This show is sooooooo going to get cancelled!!!!! I hope we can at least get a 2 hour premiere.
I'll give him this, you learn to enjoy his characters while you have them because he has no qualms killing them off.
I read it might be slated for Wednesdays @ 8pm…
We are definitely living in an parallel universe if this truly makes it to air… gawd I hope so.
I am not sure but does Immelt at GE getting in bed with Obama have smethiong to do with this. If Obama is somehow favoring Immelt who runs NBC which is also running third in the networks…….
Perhaps someone is finally caring about their bottom line.
Too Late for them.
John
Have you not read your Lovecraft…..
Forget the moons……
See if the Stars are Right!
then we'll just show them that resistance is NOT futile.
Makes you realize how easy it would be to take over the world if everyone was a Dem. Just get a pretty person to smile and say nice things. Then they all clap and welcome you in. Then you can pretty much do whatever you want.
You must be logged in to post a comment.