ABC's Sci-Fi Drama V an Intriguing and Frustrating Show

I can't quite get a handle on ABC's new sci-fi drama V. The pilot was wonderful: powerful and stylistic. The second episode was slower and a bit derivative, almost mechanical. Episode three was back to the crisp pace of the pilot and merged the plot and characters beautifully. But last week's "It's Only the Beginning" was another letdown, less stylistic and more mechanical like episode two.

Now ABC has V on a long winter break until March and has left me not sure if I can't wait for more or am worried about what's to come.

What is good about V? Let's start with Morena Baccarin's stunning and eerie portrayal of V leader and liaison Anna. She rules every scene she's in and is crucial to the show's success. Baccarin has created a fascinating villain, and her ultra-cool and calm façade puts as fine a face on fascism as it's ever had. She clearly relishes the role.

Baccarin gives us as viewers someone to really root against, in a performance so good that we inevitably end up rooting FOR her, in the grand tradition of such TV baddies as J.R. Ewing and Lex Luthor. The way her normally calm, emotionless night-black eyes light up as she orders "skin him!" in regards to a traitor is alone worth the price of an hour.

In fact "It's Only the Beginning" has its most effective moments in this traitor plot, and gets good performances from two actors who aren't among the top billed: Mark Hildreth and Ryan Kennedy. Hildreth plays Joshua, a V science we have previously learned is a traitor to the lizard kind and a member of the Fifth Column. Apparently the science department infiltration program is going well for the Column since his understudy David (Kennedy) is also a traitor.

After the regrettable death of Alan Tudyk's V sleeper agent last episode Anna makes her demand someone in the science department be "skinned" and David throws himself under the proverbial and literal knife to keep Joshua from being revealed. It is Joshua's duty to do the dirty deed himself and there is real pathos in Hildreth's voice as he undertakes to brutally torture a comrade sacrificing himself for his torturer. Both actors play the scenes perfectly, desperation and fear ever present in their eyes.

Unfortunately the rest of "It's Only the Beginning" is more along the lines of the mechanical effort in episode two. Resistance leaders Erica (Elizabeth Mitchell) and Ryan (Morris Chestnut) are fine characters (especially Ryan) but they aren't given a plot worthy of them.

There is some decent tension built up in the beginning over the fact that neither Elizabeth or Father Jack (Joel Gretsch) knows Ryan is a V, but that's abruptly dropped after it's revealed to Erica. In fact, she doesn't even really react to the information. Instead we get a misdirect involving flu shots and Georgie (David Richmond-Peck) going rouge and just wanting to kill a single V to expose them (which doesn't make a whole lot of sense-even though the Vs killed his family, Georgie has previously seemed to understand the necessary concept of a slow, methodical resistance).

In the last half-hour of the show the writers are dropping plot threads all over the place. Clearly they know where they are going, but it seems a little like an extended teaser for March instead of a tight, cohesive episode. The actors are all pretty good (although only Baccarin and Chesnut seem to really command the screen) but the atmosphere lags.

Overall I like the first four episodes of V, and at times I loved them. At least two very memorable television characters have been created and the paranoia aspect of the show has been timely and appropriately updated to today's world. The series has a good feel about it. But the writing is really all over the place and has frustrated me in two episodes, so I'm torn.

Now we have to wait until March to find out if we are being treated to something deliciously eclectic or teased with a great concept that won't be carried through. I've seen enough good, though, that when V finally returns I'll be watching.

V "It's Only the Beginning" Episode Rating (1-10): 6

For more of my writing on V as well as Fringe and Smallville see my blog A Dash Of Salty.