Much like anyone on here I've seen the mini-series/Final battle when i was young...loved them both and still to this day couldn't get them out of my head so I purchased both movies. But even still as a kid i couldn't get into the TV series of, "V" if you asked me i don't really know it was something about the show that really turned me off but yet i was still compelled to watch it weekly like a kid looking for a Christmas gift and in a way to this day still feels that way.



V The complete series (Technically isn't really complete)is 19 episodes of the main weekly TV series that was on from late 1984 to early 1985 that chronicles the continuing battle of the resistance from the "Visitors" who are alien beings from another planet that looks identically like humans with two simple differences, one, they are lizards underneath and two, they love our earth for supplies...US!

Given to the circumstances that this takes place a year after the highly popular, "V" The final battle you would think that the story, characters, as well as action will be just as much epic as the mini-series counter parts..in some ways it was and in others it fell apart on many levels on what could of been a very engaging hour of good vs. evil in somewhat dictator-like world the visitors created.



Starting with the first episode, "Liberation Day" the show introduce you back to the favorite heroes and villains but you will already know a couple of strange changes that unfortunately was never explained in the show and still is never explain on the dvd...the voice resonance is gone from the visitors which i found that strange but I let it slide and either way the first episode was pretty good and it explains what happens to them in the aftermath of the red dust but then it slips and does something totally different they introduce you to a cardboard like villain to the name of Nathan bates (Lane Smith) he starts off very stiff in nature and I wasn't really impressed that there was never a back story to his character I'm sure they could of made on or two episodes explaining who he is and how far he knew about the events from the first two mini-series...never really hinted...then you are introduced to a very Sexy older version of the "star child" Elizabeth (Jennifer Cooke= sexy)i guess they didn't want to keep her as a child anymore and make her into a sex pistol but either way I'm sure at the time it gather a bit of ratings for that move, but after the first episode things suddenly went downhill and just down right funny.



Don't get me wrong I have no problems with most of the episodes one of which called, "The hero" which the fight scenes between Mike Donovan and the Visitor Charles (who we will get to later) were one of the most coolest fights I've seen on that series but that's as far as I can go with this series; I'm sorry but i have to hit the bad notes to it. The first thing you will realize is that...there are lack of gun fights....I'm sorry what I mean is that there are lack of gun fights with the lazer rifles meaning I'm guessing because they were on budget or maybe they just didn't want to shoot and let them run (which in some scenes i thought that was funny) but you very rarely got that much intense gun/lazer fights like you have with the predecessors...it was mostly resistance shoots guns, visitors get blown up (either that or they duck for cover and shoot ONCE or maybe twice), resistance escape...end of story and sometimes not even in those categories but either way...with that lack of tense action it fails to leave a mark on certain episodes but yet you still feel compelled to watch more.

Another issue is one of few complaints that most have the same issues about...Character deaths. Now I for one like to think realistically, of course in war people die, but when you have your characters die in some of the Worst and un-realistic ways possible it just leaves a lot of questions in the air. I think there were two characters that would of have potential to be more strong in the series as it progressed died in unexpected ways i just had to say, "WTF!!?" (trust me watch the series all the way thru and you'll see what I mean) but i felt that if they could of died it would be a lot more bolder and braver than just the way they made it to be and it was just plain sad...not sad as in, "i'm going to cry" sad but pitiful sad.



Another downside to this and again its one of the many complaints most people noticed in this series....constant re-hashing of certain scenes and expect A LOT of them...i could help but to laugh when it happens cause i felt like wow, they must of really lost money somewhere to find different sets...different rooms, different everything which lead me to think, how DID they lose all that money from the first two mini-series!? I honestly felt that both V the mini series and the final battle even though at the time special effects were sublime they were still good and due to the fact it was generating fans it should have been making a lot of money (Via revenue from the station at the time that or warner bros.) so when they made this series they should have IMPROVED on each episode but instead it digressed into something that was left to be desired, and the results become very repetitive scenes, very bad action scenes, same sets from time to time, and of course not so good acting. But actually the visitor Charles (Duncan Regehr) was one of the most interesting and somewhat cool characters in the series. His flamboyance and charm makes the show pretty good it seem to put a lot of spark into the episodes when he's on them besides Elizabeth.



But with each episode it started to become downright ridiculous or almost desperate to keep ratings up I almost felt really bad for how the show went downhill but when the cliffhanger came on..i had to burst out laughing when it ended, "to be continued...." with that dramatic music the only thing i had in my mind was, "hahahahahaha....its never going to continue...hahahahah". There three DVDs and they are all double sided...so you have side A and side B; Now, i don't know if that was a cheap move or a smart one but either way they could of added four episode to each disc it was that simple to do but they didn't want to maybe much like some of the episodes it wasn't in their budget. Also, warner bros, could of taken the time to ask some of the actors to come in and put a commentary to most of these episodes...i'm sure they have time on their hands to at least discuss the best and worst of the show...again if you are expecting commentary and deleted scenes you're not going to get it in this one...and you will NOT get the digital 5.1 experience nor its not digitally remastered so at least if you feel nostalgic and would like to see most of the episodes EXACTLY how they looked when it was on tv back in 1984 then you would like this...which in someways it was a cool touch but they could of remastered.



The best thing about this dvd is the fact that even with all of the shortcomings and the rather funny cliffhanger type ending; it still hold the feel of watching the show for the first time, and its easy to lose yourself into the V universe but due to lack of commentary and any other features its pretty much, "you get what you buy" scenarios i have to keep this at a 3 star for the fact that it could of been a really good show if they played it smart and rely on what made the mini series a success and that would have been to bring Kenneth Johnson into the mainstream at least have him write one or two (maybe all) episode and put more depth into the characters and the situations they are in...which they didn't really do but if you are a fan this would be something to pick up and hold on too...cause even though I'm a tough critic...i still brought this to add it to my "V" collection...so now I'm reading V: The second Generation.



3 out of 5 stars