The alien invasion story gets a nice shot in the arm with the second season of V on ABC, the revamped version of the 1980s cult mini-series, just recently putting the cap on a stellar second season. When the show premiered a little over a year and a half ago, there were questions as to how such a thin premise could sustain a network television show, but they do it by simply making compelling television.
What makes V continue to work are the pay-offs. So many shows on television frustrate the viewer trying to be cryptic and never answering questions till they have to pack all of the answers into a finale, and it just doesn't work. With V, the answers are hinted at a few episodes before their reveal, then the answers come and start fitting together to form a bigger piece to the puzzle as to why these so-called "Visitors" have come to Earth. While the "Visitors" are still seen by most humans as beings of peace, the resistance group, the Fifth Column has grown in strength and numbers, challenging Anna's every move (the evil alien Queen).
What transpires over the second season is a lot of the wily nily characters who refused to take sides in season one now finally stating their allegiances, with characters like Chad Decker and Anna's daughter, Lisa, coming over to the Fifth Column, while Tyler joins the live aboards on the New York mothership and Ryan betrays the Fifth Column. Lots happens in this season, Father Jack loses his collar for preaching out against the Vs and not accepting them as the Vatican has decreed, and Erica goes through many heartaches, not just losing her ex-husband and having her own son turn on her, but she finds herself at the heart of an FBI investigation into the Fifth Column where FBI agents suspect her. Then to cap Erica's storyline off, Erica becomes the worldwide leader of the Fifth Column! I thought the parallels between Anna gaining emotion and Erica losing emotion were nicely done, and I just love to hate Anna. She is by far one of the greatest villains created since Darth Vader himself, and possibly even more sadistic, with Anna on a constant quest in season two to prove she is not gaining human emotion, so rather than embrace it, she tries to figure out how to kill the human soul!
The action is superb, the CGI effects are even more seamlessly integrated this past season than in the first, and the story constantly moves forward, though this does not mean that season two was an all around success. Tyler is still one of the dumbest television characters ever created, and if you ask me he got a good send off, of course no one in V ever stays dead long. I still have no clue what to think of the Fifth Column's rogue agent, Hobbes, especially in regards to his and Erica's new relationship. Hobbes I feel is the most underdeveloped character on the show, and if I could change one thing about how this show has unfolded, is that Hobbes' true motives would be made more clear. Why does he work for Marcus, what sort of hold do the "Visitors" have over Hobbes that made him be responsible for Erica's ex-husband's death?
To be honest, there isn't much to complain about. Anna is still evil, maniacal, and manages to be the smartest person on the show. Why are the bad guys always smarter than the good guys? As well, this season really fueled the fires between humanity and the "Visitors" with more coming to light about why the Vs really have come to Earth. Now with the reveal of Anna's grand plan in the latter half of this season, I'm really eager to see where everything goes from here, will the Fifth Column stop hiding and take this war from the shadows and to the streets? Time will tell as I hope season three is not very far on the horizon.
I give V - Season 2 an A!
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