jess-a-reviewer

I left this on my watch list for a long time, when I got round to watching this it was just before season 2, and wish I watched it sooner as it was surprising way better than I expected. I've just watched all 3 seasons again and realise more this is probably one of my favourite series, that I would always rewatch.

The story is beautiful and intricately woven together well across the seasons. I especially appreciated the mix between the children's adventures and the dark adult elements that are often shielded from them, but could face at a young age, and how everyone deals with challenges and answers to the right path in life. I think there are some very tough topics covered that were handled well too.

I found the casting for these characters were great, and the acting talent superb along with the character development and script, cinematography, sound and overall production.

Ironically the character Helen Zhang probably has the least backstory as to how she came to be, but given her excellent portrayal by Rosalind Chao through the main story and backstory to her daughter, there is enough to understand what her character represents in society.

It has one of the best opening episodes I've seen in a series, and what comes after in twists and turns are pretty satisfying to not always be predictive.

There were a few 'too far fetched' parts but probably the fewest out of most films and TV series I've seen, and given this has a little sc-fi, apocalyptic, adventurous and philosophical, almost spiritual sentiments, I can easily accept it.

The story portrays really well the facets of humanity and society, judgement vs redemption, what people do for love in both good and bad ways, and what we may see as 'the sickness' as nature's way of something else through the hybrids.

How the ending was told was also beautifully done for the audience.

There are very few series that are made as well as this, especially with challenging subjects. It really is great series.

I am a fan of the original which I'd advise anyone who hasn't watched it yet to do so... this is a modern (for 2009) reboot and reimagined story rather than a remake or sequel. They explored some interesting alternative plots and themes to fit the V concept which I thought worked well like insight to those infiltrated in society before they came, some other plots didn't, like Vs don't have 'emotions' when clearly motivated by them even at the beginning. The major plotline of V's agenda being weak possibly was its main downfall. Part of me thinks their reimagining using other famous plots from the original was cool, another part felt they were not as well executed because they are iconic parts to the original with a strong purpose that didn't necessarily fit this series, I'm not sure if many of them were even necessary given the new series shown they can introduce good ideas in their own right. The original was also baked with a lot of well-developed characters this series had less of, hence it would have been better in some cases to do new storylines more purposeful for this series. They did this in a few places that kept me interested with what was unveiling. I liked the alternative character on Anna to the original Diana in that she can come off as warm (which Diana never had but John did) but off and calculated. Up to the last episode got incredibly interesting and better, so it was very frustrating to find out it was cancelled, it had the potential to get much better.