TVSquad

Are you still watching 'V?' Of course, I say "still watching" even though the show hasn't been on in months. I still wonder about that strategy. A new show that debuts with only four episodes and then it goes on hiatus for several months? Did it even have enough episodes/drama to capture the attention of viewers so they're waiting on the edge of their seat for it to return? We'll find out on March 30 when it comes back to ABC.

For the fans who do continue to watch the show, there will be three new characters added for you. Nicholas Lea, who played bad guy Krycek on 'The X-Files,' has been added as Erica's (Elizabeth Mitchell's) ex-husband. Lexa Doig (remember 'Andromeda?' I loved the first season of that show) will play a doctor who is treating Valerie. And Charles Mesure ('Crossing Jordan,' 'Xena') will play a military guy who helps the Resistance.

As a holiday bonus, we have a super-sized podcast this week. The reason? Rich Sommer of Mad Men called in and gave us a solid half-hour of talk about the season just past, what he thinks is in store for his character of Harry Crane, how people used to yell at him for almost breaking up Pam and Jim on The Office, and how he loves doing commercials.

Rich's interview starts around the 37-minute mark. Besides the interview, Jason Hughes, Bob Sassone and I talk about the following:

• The insane TV coverage of the Tiger Woods story,
• A discussion of shows that are returning in January (24, Idol, Lost) as well as those that are taking a break until spring (Glee, V, FlashForward),
• Our Comment of the Week! This is where listeners find out that we do not represent everyone in the TV industry,
• Our picks for the week, and much more.

Run time is 1:31:26.

You can listen to the podcast below, or download from here or by subscribing to our RSS podcast feed. It is also available via iTunes. Feel free to leave us feedback in the comments or drop us a line at tvsquadpodcast [at] gmail [dot] com.

As usual, the music at the beginning and end of the podcast is "Life" by Justin Trawick.

I finally, and with great difficulty got the tree up, I've somehow gotten roped into holding a cookie exchange at my house this weekend, and I have glitter in places where glitter should not be. What's that smell? It smells like Festivus to me. While the main thing I want this year is to just lie very, very still in a dark room for a week or so, this is a TV blog, so let's talk about what TV could do to make me happy!

• Stop with the long hiatuses already! I don't get to see a new episode of V until March, and I'm being forced into leading a Glee-less existence until April. Give it up already! If you have 3 months between new episodes, it's a new season, why not call it that? You know what I have been doing for the past 11 weeks? Watching the first 11 episodes of Dexter. This week, I will be watching episode 12, and then the season will be over. It's efficient and satisfying. The networks need to get on board.

In honor of the great Frank Costanza, and to ring in the holiday season, we're celebrating Festivus here at the Squad by sharing our personal TV wish lists. This year, I'm wishing for ...

• An awesome end for Dollhouse. I know its cancellation was inevitable – the series was forever tanking in the ratings, and even Joss Whedon devotees were sometimes underwhelmed by it – but I really loved the experimental nature of the show. Dollhouse was a weird, funny and sometimes very dark playground where Whedon could try out new ideas and put new spins on old ones. I'm looking forward to watching the final episodes.


• More sci-fi stuff on Stargate Universe. I love the slow burn character arcs, but would it kill the writers to shake things up a bit with a little action and some fantastic science fiction-based stories?

While not entirely unexpected, it still comes as a bit of a surprise -- according to SciFi Wire, ABC has cut the episode order for FlashForward and V by one episode each.

Both shows shut down production for things to be re-tooled earlier this fall, yet any changes made weren't able to help either drama's poor ratings. ABC threw its support behind FlashForward amid early buzz and strong series premiere ratings with a 25 episode order. Ten have aired thus far and now only fourteen hours remain.

V, on the other hand, only aired four episodes of its initial thirteen ep order in November and now only eight eps are left. Both shows return to the schedule in March.

(S01E04) Well, that's it until March 2010. The most important thing that V could do this week was to leave us hanging on the edge of our seats as to what's coming next. If the idea was to give us a sense of sheer hopelessness in the face of the power of the Visitors, then that's what we did.

More importantly, we got to see the genesis of the Resistance movement led by Jack, Ryan and Erica. It makes an even more powerful figure when you consider that at this point there are exactly four people -- at least that we're following -- taking on 29 Visitor ships with technology and power almost beyond our imagining.

Everyone loves a scrappy underdog, and you couldn't ask for much more than that. But it was great seeing them take some of their first strikes against the Visitors as a unit. This is the struggle, against near impossible odds, that will keep us glued to our seats.

(S01E03) When you're mounting a resistance against an alien presence that way outclasses you in technology, and even outclasses you in propaganda and being good-looking, you're going to need help, and preferably of the "inside" variety. With V scheduled to go on a long hiatus after next week's episode, it's important that the resistance come together by then.

While we made good progress this episode, and learned some more good information, I fear they won't get us to a compelling hook before they go into hibernation for the winter. People will forget about this show if we don't get hooked in good next week. Unless ABC wants to promote its relaunch like another new series, they need to grab us by the jowls and sink their teeth in ... or at least unhinge our jaws and cram a guinea pig of awesome down our gullets.

(S01E02) See, now things are starting to make more sense. The important thing, as a fan of the old V, is to remember that this is a whole new kind of war. The Visitors aren't coming down in bright red suits with funny voices. Instead they've been infiltrating our society for years, possibly decades.

The question of why Erica wouldn't just go straight to her bosses at the FBI with what she knows is self-explanatory when you consider that her partner of seven years was a Visitor. They look and act like us, and they could be any one of us. So who do you trust takes on a whole new meaning.

I think it's a smart move to establish more of a guerrilla war against the Visitors. And now that the one resistance cell Erica and Jack found has been scattered to the wind, it's a matter of starting over. But, as seen with the developments this week, it may be a race to uncover the truth before it's too late.

You probably heard that ABC's V premiere got off to a big start in the ratings. In fact, it was the biggest drama series premiere of the season, seen by 14.3 million viewers and netting a 5.2 rating among adults 18-49. What does all that mean? To me, it says that even without the skywriting promotion that was canned, ABC marketing had raised awareness and drew the curious, the sci-fi fans, the nostalgic and a few more watchers for the launch.

Despite the big number, there's a good chance that V will sink in future outings because viewers like me were not hooked. I wanted to fall in like/love, but it didn't happen. Here's five reasons why:

Did you miss the series premiere of V last week? If so, no need to despair, because it's on SlashControl and I've embedded it below. The show scored good ratings, and Jason had great things to say about the premiere, noting some similarities to Battlestar Galactica. He was also glad to see how the writers updated the storyline from the classic 1980s miniseries.

"I wasn't sure how they could modify the storylines from the series I remembered to accurately find parallels to our war on terrorism, and the terrorist movements themselves, but they did," writes Jason. "And they did it all while staying true to the struggles and fears that's kept the original series fresh in our minds for 26 years now."

Have the Visitors arrived on Earth with a message of peace? Time will tell, but not before they fully and irretrievably embed themselves into our society.

The cast of ABC's new sci-fi drama V have nothing to worry about. That is if you don't count the fact that the show just replaced their showrunner, got caught launching a sneaky skywriting campaign and opened with a "split launch."

Last night's episode got off to an "out of this world" start scoring a 5.0 rating and a 13 share of 13.9 million viewers. It gave ABC its highest rating among 18-34 year-olds in three years for its timeslot since 2004's Lost. I guess you could say they had a really successful "launch" and the show really "took off." (Insert rimshot here.)

Of course, this is just the opening episode and could be the result of successful marketing. Do you think V's winning streak will last?

(S01E01) We were promised a modern re-imagining of the classic '80s V mini-series, and that's exactly what we got. Gone were the allusions to World War II Nazism and the treatment of Jews in Europe. Instead, we're offered allusions to the war we've been fighting for eight years now.

I wasn't sure how they could modify the storylines from the series I remembered to accurately find parallels to our war on terrorism, and the terrorist movements themselves, but they did. And they did it all while staying true to the struggles and fears that's kept the original series fresh in our minds for 26 years now.

Even better, I watched this with my 10-year old son who's never seen the original, and he was absolutely riveted. Everything I loved about V back then is here, and there's so much more to get excited about. I always thought V should be an ongoing series, and even though we eventually got one, I think this time they've finally got it right.

To prepare for next week's debut of the remake of V, I picked up the V: The Complete Series DVD of the weekly 1984/85 series that followed the original two mini-series, V and V: The Final Battle. I remember loving the original as a kid, sparking my imagination that anyone I saw could be an alien lizard making plans to haul my carcass to a warehouse for storage.

I tore the plastic off of the package with a bit of trepidation. Not everything you loved as a kid holds up to your scrutiny, or even your tastes, when you watch it all grown up. Which is why I'm sure some people cringed when they heard about the remake.

Would it stink? Would it be just as good as I remembered it? Should I have left well enough alone and saved my fifteen bucks?

ABC's remake of V starts on November 3 (for four episodes, then it's going to take a break). Here are the first ten minutes of the pilot (even though the video says eight minutes, it's over 9 minutes long).

It's an effective opening, introducing all of the characters and showing us how the aliens come to our planet. If something happened like this in real life, would people really stand in the street and point and go to the top of buildings to get a better look or would we see a big ship and completely freak out and run out of town?

ABC is rolling out a special promotion for the V remake which starts on November 3.

The network is going to send up a skywriting plane to create giant Vs across the sky at 26 different landmarks across the United States. They're not saying where the skywriting will be, but I"m assuming it will be places like the Statue of Liberty, Golden Gate Bridge, and The Grand Canyon. I don't know for sure if those places will be included, but I hope that the network gets the word out to local authorities so the public doesn't have some sort of weird panic when the letters show up in the sky.

ABC might be missing a big opportunity here though. What they should do is contact the Heene family and really send little Falcon into a UFO balloon right next to the skywriting. Every cable network would cover it live for hours.