Is ABC’s ‘V’ remake about Obama?
Commentators see similarities between lizard-like alien invaders and President Obama in the remake of sci-fi classic 'V'
V's Anna. (ABC Entertainment)
ABC has started airing its remake of the 1980s sci-fi classic V—and Chicago Tribune critic Glenn Garvin thinks the updated miniseries includes a veiled attack on Obamamania that will make it the most controversial show of the season. Garvin says the parallels are obvious: a “charismatic, telegenic” leader arrives, offering hope and universal health care. Is the beautiful, flesh-eating “totalitarian space lizard” Anna a stand-in for Obama? (Watch a promotional trailer for ABC's "V".)
Democrats won’t like V: The “hopenchange” similarities are pretty striking, says William Teach in Stop the ACLU, and “I’d suspect that liberals are sending plenty of unhinged e-mails, and placing many unhinged, frothing, foaming phone calls, to ABC.” Even if the producers don't make the show more "liberal friendly"—the way the "big shots destroyed Battlestar Galactica"—I wish ABC had just “left the politics out of it.”
“I’m thinking Democrats are not going to like ‘V’”
Sci-fi culture veers left, not right: It’s pretty doubtful that V is “thinly veiled conservative propaganda,” says Brian Moylan in Gawker. "The sci-fi culture usually veers to the left in its political allegory," so it would be “sort of odd for a sci-fi show on a major network to give credence to tactics and delusions of the far right.” That said, the rebellious “fringe group” that takes on the lizard-like aliens “really does sound like the teabaggers!”
“V as an alien allegory attack against Barack Obama”
The Obama allegory makes no sense: The “only possible way to read V as a coherent text” with “symbolic import,” says Troy Patterson in Slate, is as “an allegory hostile to President Obama and sympathetic with the birthers and other nutcases who believe him to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing.” Too bad the script isn’t, “in fact, coherent.” What we’re left with, as V producer Jeffrey Bell notes, is “a show about spaceships.”
“Guess who’s coming to eat us for dinner”
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21 Comments
Posted by Mike, Wednesday, November 4, 2009, 3:47 pm We dont plan to watch V. We didnt care for the 1st ..Watermellon Head.. version in the 80s and there are other shows already consuming our TV viewing time. This is the 1st I have heard about a political reason not to watch.
Posted by chatty, Wednesday, November 4, 2009, 4:16 pm I watch the series I think it is great! Kept us on our toes, can't wait for next week to see what happen next. Can not believe that you are comparing this to the President and his agenda. Geez! It is just a show get over it.
Posted by BruceWMorlan, Wednesday, November 4, 2009, 5:08 pm I've been reading scifi forever, working both directions in time starting in the 1950s. Politically, most scifi worthy of the name was much more Libertarian than statist. I consider D and R wingnuts to be typical statists. In stories, when the state was powerful, the stories were dystopic, when the people were powerful, the stories were hopeful. IMNSHO, the current climate in Washington is much more dystopic than hopeful, in a style reminiscent of Orwells 1984, with its Minipax. Orwell and Goebbels, my nightmare pair.
Posted by Left Wing, Wednesday, November 4, 2009, 10:07 pm I didn't like the tv series the 'West Wing.' It was nothing but a liberal screeding screen play. I didn't bombard the network or send threatening letters. I just didn't watch it. I felt and feel that the viewers had a right to watch what they wanted. Now the tables are turned and this series 'V' seems to attract righties. Does anyone believe that the libs will be as open to my rights as I was to theirs? Very doubtful. Libs only support rights they agree with. Everyone else they want to stop or send out of our country.
Posted by Farmerga, Thursday, November 5, 2009, 9:45 am Do you think that V was written to sound like Obama, or, would you automaticaly find striking similarities between a story about a totalitarian space lizards and Obama?
Posted by Constitutionalist, Thursday, November 5, 2009, 9:50 am I remember commenting to my brother, while watching the debut of the V remake, that Obama supporters were going to cry about this. When they mentioned universal healthcare, I knew there was going to be problems. I urge everyone to read the original book or view the original V miniseries. This was all in that one, too. This plot was constructed 25 years ago. In the story, the invaders make a lot of promises and silence criticism to gain support of the earthlings.
Posted by James, Thursday, November 5, 2009, 9:54 am I laughed at the part when the leader flatout REFUSED to speak with the reporter, when the reporter said he was going to ask tough questions. Fox News boycot? Just remember everyone, this is a 30 year old fictitious story about reptilian E.T's taking over the planet. Calm down.
Posted by Suz, Thursday, November 5, 2009, 11:04 am Those who would like to shut down the series V are precisely what the series V addresses....don't they get the irony and hypocrisy here?
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