So, I got my hot lil hands on a full run of the 1983 show "V" and proceeded to watch the two intro miniseries installments (and the first episode of the series). It's funny, but you get so used to the fancy CGI, the morphing terminators, and the spectabulous space shots in modern films, but many times there's something lacking there. I think it's called 'a compelling story'. Somtimes it's called a 'plot' of any nature. We get so caught up in the HD/CGI/Visual experience, we sometimes (as viewers) let the story slide.

V was a story and a half. As I recall, it was one of the most expensive miniseries ever made at that time, and it shows it. Not from the visual effects point of view (frankly, some of them were laughable by today's standards), but for the boldness of the story itself. A retelling of the stories of resistance fighters of world war II - facing facist Germany and fighting back every way they knew how.

V is the story of one cell of the resistance in Los Angeles, fighting against the (supposedly) friendly "visitors", an advanced alien civilization who showed up in mile wide motherships, lazily hovering over the world's biggest cities. They came 'as friends' - yeah, right - and only wanted our help to make some special chemicals that would keep them from going extinct. Uh huh. All that didn't explain the mysterious disappearances, the mass kidnappings, and - oh yeah - those tubes with frozen human ala carte in their starships. You see, they needed water and food. To be precise, they wanted all our water and humans as food! The resistance, led by Dr. Juliet Parrish and reporter Michael Donovan assemble a widely diverse group of people in their cell, and work to subvert the visitors at every turn. Their band is not without casualties. Lots of them. 

All in all, it's a wonderful story. A story of real heroism against insurmountable odds. It's also a cautionary tale about helping those who wish you harm. Collaborators do not do too well in V - much like in real life. Neither side will trust a collaborator, and eventually both sides will want you dead.

Ignore the effects (some of the matte shots made me cringe) and go grab this baby and watch it again. It's well worth the time.