V - "Hearts and Minds"

Spoiler Level: High

Eh. Mixed feelings on this episode.

On the plus side, it was cool to see some action in this episode with the attack on the Visitor shuttle.

On the negative side, that's an awful lot of hand-wringing over something that was a typical shot from the classic V.

I get where they were coming from. Since shuttles aren't normally shooting people down in this version, and are frequently filled with humans, it's a bigger deal.

And in the bigger picture, they're trying to say that by resisting the Visitors, the Fifth Column truly are terrorists. Isn't there an old saying about one person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter? And since this show is completely unwilling to have the Visitors be fascists, then no one is going to realize that the Fifth Column even are freedom fighters.

On the other hand, by them becoming terrorists in the eyes of the world, the Visitors now have the world law enforcement agencies completely on their side, which is the perfect start of them becoming tyrants.

On the other hand, this is episode 10 out of 12. Taking an entire season to set up the Visitors as tyrants is really dragging it out. And they still haven't revealed the Visitors' true purpose. If after 12 episodes it's exactly the same as what was revealed in the original mini-series by the third hour, I'm going to be a bit disappointed.

I also can't stand scenes like the one where it's the four of them in the basement saying "we're the only ones who will stand up to them." A resistance movement of four. Well, that was certainly like the classic V... sadly though it was like the scene in V: The Series after the cast was cut, and Mike said to Kyle and Willie "Remember, if Juliet and I don't come back.... you two are the Resistance now."

Wow, I'm being bitchy. It's probably my mood.

So okay, things I do like. I like that Jack is wrestling with his morality. I like how Chad seems to think he's still in control of himself without realizing that Anna has totally Converted him. I like how Erica is finding herself in charge of hunting herself down. And I do like that the Visitors are playing on our fears to get themselves in deep.

And I like that we finally got some good space ship action.

Oh, and on a completely different note, I'm done with ABC's boring cast photos and found a program that will let me do my own screen captures for the next 30 days. Anyone recommend any free or inexpensive screen capture programs?