Hope, change, universal healthcare, and...intergalactic spacecraft?

The setup for ABC’s new science-fiction drama, V, is thus: The show, whose pilot premiered November 3rd, is a reimagining of the 1983 miniseries of the same name, which featured a race of extraterrestrials known as “the Visitors.” Although the show’s creators deny it, the pilot appears to take multiple jabs at the Obama administration, as the alien Visitors seem to parrot not only Obama’s slogans, but policies as well. Ultimately, V’s thinly-veiled attempt to be edgy seems mostly to steer attention away from its poorly constructed plot and two-dimensional characters.

In the original miniseries, a fleet of alien ships simply appear over major cities across the globe, and claim to have come in peace. As the 1983 Visitors become more involved in global politics, it is eventually discovered that despite their human appearance, the Visitors are actually reptilian monsters whose true purpose is nothing less than the conquest of Earth.

The original series was created as an allegory to the rise of the Nazi Party in early 20th century Germany. The Visitors recruited devoted “Youth Friends of the Visitors,” and persecuted anyone who questioned their motives. Producers of the modern series claim that V was conceived with modern issues in mind (expect the phrase “post-9/11 world” to pop up somewhere) and to serve partially as an allegory about terrorism.

If it is terrorism that V is trying to comment upon, however, the show makes a weak connection. When the new Visitors arrive in a few dozen ships over the cities of Earth, they assure the Earthlings that they bring “hope” and “change.” In one scene, the leader of the Visitors is giving an interview with a television anchor, but only after ordering the anchor not to ask her anything that would make the Visitors look bad. She then tells him that the Visitors’ great plan for this world is – I am not making this up – universal healthcare.

Where’s Glenn Beck when you need him?

Despite the Visitors’ insistence on their good intentions, FBI agent Erica Evans (Elizabeth Mitchell) ultimately discovers their dark side through a series of increasingly unlikely events. Despite having been essentially handed overwhelming evidence that the Visitors are not what they say, she does not present her evidence to the FBI. Instead, she makes vague references to forming some kind of resistance movement.

So the pilot of V sets up a nebulous criticism of the Obama administration and the hype that surrounded it, without ever hitting on the reason that the Visitors’ message is sinister. The show never says that hope and change or universal healthcare is bad, just that it’s bad if it’s being promised by apparently malevolent aliens. Unless the Birther movement is able to prove that Obama is not only not from Hawaii, but not from this planet, the show’s attempt at relevance falls flat.