This started as an email to Casey’s question of what I thought of the new V last night. He remarked that the show had clear conservative overtones. My response:
I agree on the conservative overtones- but art is meant to probe and question reality, and our current reality seems fairly liberal, so that’s not too surprising? Eh, that’s bullshit. I was surprised to see a show so overtly critique Obama’s political agenda. Especially since, while I don’t have demographics, most sci-fi fans are likely liberal. Although there’s always Ayn Rand–maybe they are playing to that audience?
Overall, I didn’t think it was a great first episode in the way that Battlestar grabbed me immediately. I think the show is trying very hard to bridge Battlestar and Lost, to produce the kind of tension and mystery that marks those shows.
Ultimately, it will likely fail on those fronts–here’s why: Battlestar and Lost work extremely well in that they, like any great piece of art (but especially the pomo stuff), problematize clear notions of good and evil, us and them. V doesn’t have that option. They are evil (most of them), we are good, let the struggle resume. This, of course, is also the foundation of conservative politics. But in the long run, this kind of clear opposition doesn’t speak to our contemporary milieu. Perhaps, as I intimated above, there are a group of conservatives today who fear that Obama brings an evil covered in smiles, and that we need to unmask the “Red-Lizard” threat. But I don’t really think so.
We’ll see.
