As reboots go, sci-fi reboots are somewhat unique. They generally tend to be a bit more successful than you’d expect a reboot or revival would be, with shows like the Battlestar Galactica reboot even exceeding the original in just about every possible way. There are some sci-fi remakes, however, that don’t quite achieve that success. They either simply don’t work out, like 2007’s Bionic Woman, or they are cancelled too soon and never get the chance to truly soar. Now, 15 years after it was unfairly cancelled, all 22 episodes of one such reboot that had great potential are now available to stream for free—but we still wish the series had gotten a proper ending.
Available to stream for free now on Tubi is the V. The 2009 series is a remake of the 1983 miniseries of the same name and very closely follows the premise and story of the original: an alien species arrives on Earth and claims to come in peace, offering up their technological and medical advancements to help humanity. However, the seemingly peaceful visitors actually have deeply sinister motives. While the reboot followed a similar premise as the original, it took on a darker, more serious tone and explored slightly different themes, namely society’s willingness to blindly trust when faced with a charismatic leader (in this case, the Visitor leader, Anna). The series got in two seasons on ABC with the final episode leaving humanity in a dire place before it was abruptly cancelled by the network leaving fans wondering what was next.
V Left Viewers In Dark Territory (And We Still Want a Proper Finale)
Part of the overall story of V is that the Visitors and their leader Anna (Morena Baccarin) definitely do not come in peace despite selling that prospect to humanity: they’ll give us great technological and medical advancements in exchange for a small amount of resources. However, not all humans are exactly sold on the situation and it doesn’t take long before FBI Agent Erica Evans (Elizabeth Mitchell) learns the truth. The Visitors are actually reptilian aliens who have been playing a very long game and plan to take over Earth. A resistance forms, but the Visitors seem to be largely one step ahead. The series’ second season ends with the Visitors winning, as it were, with Anna managing to use her telepathic abilities called Bliss to essentially brainwash all of humanity just as more ships arrive. Bad guys win, game over.
However, that’s not necessarily where the show was meant to end the series’ cancellation prompted fans to start a campaign to save the series. The so-called “Project Alice” was a letter writing campaign that sought to petition Warner Bros. (the studio behind the series) to take the series to a different network. There were attempts to get the show saved by TNT or even The CW, but the campaign failed. This left the series to stand with Earth and humanity doomed.
What is interesting about V, beyond its abrupt cancellation and passionate fan efforts to save it, is that in a sense the “bad guys win” ending isn’t entirely a bad one. Make no mistake, we still want a proper ending for the story as even the original series—the V miniseries gave way to a one-season series on NBC that was cancelled after just one season with one unfinished episode in production—never got. But there was something about the V remake that made it more interesting to root for the aliens. Baccarin’s Anna is chilling and charismatic and while you know from the outset she’s evil, you also kind of want to see her come out on top. It’s something that sort of plays nicely into the themes of falling for evil to your own detriment just because its charismatic, but it’s also a testament to just how solid Baccarin’s performance as Anna was. it is arguably her best performance in any role to date and while it would have been great to see the series continue to see where the character would go, leaving V with the Visitors winning is still weirdly satisfying. It’s something you can discover for yourself by streaming the series for free on Tubi.
What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
