V (2009)

ABC can add to that list of achievements the season's most entertaining new hour, straightforward division: V.

As an adventure series bristling with ideas, it's V+. Or as we grade 'em on Earth: B+

It could be complicated, but Peters' tightly written teleplay makes it easy to follow. In addition, the pilot raises provocative issues without getting didactic. That, combined with mythology less dense than, say, ABC's Lost, should make this an attractive viewing option.

The surprisingly timely V plays off concerns about universal health care, terrorism, sleeper cells and journalists' access to leaders. But the series is, above all, a first-rate thriller filled with twists, shocks and heroic figures.

The pilot for this drama is good. I have a few quibbles with it--some of the character drama is a bit clunky--but overall, I found the first hour of the show to be solidly entertaining and suitably suspenseful.

No gold mine of symbolism is worth a damn when the show itself doesn’t have good old storytelling mojo behind it. And, based on the premiere, V has enough narrative drive and character definition to pull viewers into the creepy suspense of its dystopian world.

Welcome to ABC's V, the final, the most fascinating and bound to be the most controversial new show of the fall television season.

the new V begins with an entertaining, well-made pilot that tweaks aspects of the original story but generally retains many of the show's familiar elements.

As the plot of V progresses, no doubt we will see the subtle strangulation of democracy by fascism--already the press has been corrupted--and that is a story that cannot be told often enough. Especially when it comes, like the V's, in such a fine, fun and attractive package.

The best science fiction always has something to say about the present, and the show does that without skimping on the soapy or dramatic elements.