THE PLOT THUS FAR
They seem almost godlike among us. They are the alien Visitors who, led by mysterious queen Anna, base their operations out of 29 motherships hovering over 29 global sites. But why 29? The answer lies in the Vs’ secret plan – just one of the extraordinary revelations in Season 2 of V. As that astonishing plan draws closer to fulfillment, a resourceful underground unit of resistance fighters called the Fifth Column redoubles its efforts to undermine it. And throughout are the amazing visuals that are hallmarks of the series: looming spaceships, advanced medical technologies and the fear-inducing morphing of Vs into their reptilian forms. Our world…their rules?
WHAT WE THOUGHT
The Visitors do not invade in the 21st century, they just put huge spaceships atop the big cities of the world and make spectacular demonstrations of their might and apparent good will. As expected most of the humans are inclined to collaborate, and only a handful of people see the true nature of the visitors and decide to fight back.
As one can expect the graphics in the new series are spectacular, we are in the post 9/11 world where terrorism is fought with earthly and sometimes alien technology, and and the special effects support well a paced action line which plays all the time on the uncertain balance between the longer story line and the need to provide enough story, substance and conflict resolution in the 45 minutes of each episode.
The build-up of the characters is excellent and it is supported by good acting so we soon start to care about FBI officer Erica Evans (Erica Mitchell) and her son Tyler (Logan Huffman), V-deflector Ryan Nichols (Morris Chestnut), his human lover Valerie (Lourdes Benedicto) and father Jack Landry and learn to mistrust, fear and hate the Visitor’s Queen Anna (Morena Baccarin), and we watch with interest the evolution of a few characters that oscillate between the interests of the two species like TV anchor Chad Decker (Scott Wolf) and Anna’s daughter Lisa (Laura Vandervoort).
Season 2 was a lackluster affair, but it’ll be best remembered for the introduction of lizard Queen Anna’s mother, Diana, played to perfection by the original series’ Jane Badler. Though Jane played a character with the same name over 20 years ago, this Diana was not the same Diana audiences loved to hate in the 1980′s. This Diana was a Queen in exile playing cat and mouse with her own daughter. Outside of that, you got generic Sci-Fi action that makes fans long for the days of “Lost” and the original show.
The Blu-Ray comes with featurettes, deleted scenes and gag reel. The DTS-HD 5.1 master audio track is flawless throughout the various encounters with the Visitors. However, the 1080p transfer is flawless with everything in the front of the frame. There’s no depth in shots which almost gives away the slimming budget of the second season. That being said, I’d still recommend a purchase.
RELEASE DATE: 10/18/2011
