ABC
A hectic January in TV—I am currently working through 13 count-’em 13 episodes of Lights Out—which means a lot of midseason triage. I decided, for instance, thatI wouldn’t bother with a longer review of V unless the show had markedly improved from last season. It hasn’t.
That’s not to say that the show hasn’t changed. Now fully under the leadership of Scott Rosenbaum, the new episodes seem flashier, more willing to show a little lizardy leg and reveal more about what’s under the skin (or, above, the bones) of the alien Visitors. But the new looks at Visitor society are at turns silly and clichéd—they fear our human emotions!—and the premiere elicited too many unintentional laughs. (At least I hope they were unintentional; the one thing that could make the show worse if it tries to become campy on purpose, a strategy that rarely works.)
Morena Baccarin still does a yeowoman’s job as the head V-for-Villainess, but the root problem remains the flat characters. V may be giving us more aliens, but I’m still looking for the people.