If you’re looking for a quick sci-fi series to binge this fall, look no further than Tubi for your answer. Following the reveal that we are not alone in the universe after all, V begins with the mysterious Visitors arriving on Earth with the outward intent of helping humanity achieve its full potential — but inwardly they intend to literally devour us whole. Starring Elizabeth Mitchell, Morena Baccarin, Morris Chestnut, and Laura Vandervoort, this two-season ABC series is full of alien conspiracies, thrilling sci-fi action, and family drama that will break your heart.

‘V’ Rebooted the Original ’80s Classic For the 21st Century

If V sounds familiar, but you’re not sure if that’s because you saw it a decade ago or sometime in the ’80s, it’s probably because the 2009 series is a reboot of the original. What started off as two separate miniseries’ in the early 1980s grew into a short-lived full-length series that aired on NBC back in the day. But after 25 years off the air, ABC decided it was time to give V another shot, albeit with a new cast (mostly) and a modernized take that brought the property firmly into the 21st century. Developed by Scott Peters based on Kenneth Johnson‘s original premise, the 2009 V kicked off with a bang, introducing the Visitors to the world via and pitting two mothers against one another for the survival of their respective races.

After the lizard-like Visitors spent decades infiltrating human society (wearing human flesh to conceal their true visage), now is the time for the world to know that there is more out there beyond the stars. Morena Baccarin plays the Visitor leader Anna, whose daughter Lisa (played by the stunning Vandervoort) has fallen in love with a human, Tyler Evans (Logan Huffman), the son of FBI counterterrorism agent Erica Evans (Mitchell), who isn’t quite buying the story the Visitors are selling. In many respects, the heart of the V reboot concerns the warring tensions between two mothers as they navigate their children’s romance that represents the potential coupling of their respective peoples. But this is more than just your typical family drama with a sci-fi tinge, as V also meditates on the resistance fighters who believe that the Visitors aren’t there to help humanity, but rather to consume and enslave it.

In the first episode, Erica meets a local priest by the name of Father Jack Landry (Joel Gretsch) after they both begin to suspect there’s more to these “alien saviors” than meets the eye. After an anti-Visitor meeting is attacked by the alien overlords, the pair quickly fall in with Ryan Nichols (Chestnut), a Visitor posing as a human who works with a resistant group called the Fifth Column. As the series progresses, Erica and the Fifth Column do their best to take down Anna and her operation from the inside, while characters like TV news anchor Chad Decker (Scott Wolf) wax poetic about the good the Visitors are doing, thus doing the reptilians’ work for them. For two seasons, this 22-episode series pushed the boundaries of what network television could achieve as far as weekly science fiction was concerned, but V was perhaps most notable because of the controversy it drew from critics…

Image via ABC

Despite being a straight-forward “humans vs. aliens” sci-fi drama with roots that stemmed back to the original 1983 miniseries, V was thought to be “too political” by many critics. The series premiered on November 3, 2009, and while that date may not seem significant, some have pointed out that V hit TV screens a year to the day after the election of Barack Obama into office as the 44th President of the United States. Coupled with the Visitor’s language of “hope” and “change,” as well as their desire to bring “universal health care” to the human masses, we can see how some may have read into V a bit too deeply. In a post-9/11 world, it became harder not to read politics into something as simple as an alien invasion drama, and so many considered V to be an allegorical take on Obama’s presidency.

To that point, Glenn Garvin of the Chicago Tribune wrote that, “Nominally a rousing sci-fi space opera about alien invaders bent on the conquest (and digestion) of all humanity, [V is] also a barbed commentary on Obamamania that will infuriate the president’s supporters and delight his detractors.” But whether you believe these parallels were a stretch or right on the money, it didn’t affect the end result. After all, the show was in development during George W. Bush’s presidency, and the original V itself was a product of the tail end of the Cold War. One can always read modern politics into modern art (indeed, we all read into stories what we wish to see or believe to be seeing in them), but that does not necessarily mean that was the intent of those crafting the narrative. In the end, no one was truly furious one way or another about V, unless you count those disappointed that one of their most beloved sci-fi shows had been rebooted at all.

The critical upheaval aside, series developer Scott Peters made it clear that there was no political angle at all when creating the 2009 reboot. “Shows are open to interpretation,” he explained at the Summer TV Press Tour 2009, as reported by The Washington Post. “People bring subjective thoughts to it… but there is no particular agenda.” To Peters, it didn’t terribly matter how people interpreted what they saw on V, as folks on both sides of the political aisle would likely relate on some level. It’s no wonder that there are also strong parallels to John Carpenter‘s They Live (which was also controversially interpreted by critics) early on in the series. “People will bring to it what they bring to it,” he added. “If one group wants to claim it as their show and another group wants to claim it as their show, that’s their prerogative.” In the end, V was a show about the collective rebellion of humanity against alien forces that wanted to annihilate them. Science-fiction is hardly more unifying than that.

‘V’ Was Tragically Canceled Before It Could Receive a Proper Conclusion

Politics aside, the real tragedy of the 2009 V series was that it ended so abruptly. Like many shows of this era that ended on cliffhangers after only two seasons — such as Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Alphas, and Jericho, to name only a few — V was axed by ABC two months after its impromptu series finale due to steadily declining ratings. While the second season brought in familiar V faces from the original series to take on new roles — with Marc Singer playing Project Aries head Lars Tremont and Jane Badler reprising her role as the Visitor leader Diana, albeit a reinterpreted take — it wasn’t enough to pull audiences in and garner continued support. It’s a shame too, because V maintained a consistent level of quality throughout, proving once again that network television ought to give sci-fi more of a chance.

Still, the good news is that V can still be found online (and is currently free to stream on Tubi), so if you haven’t had the chance to give this one a go, now is the perfect time For those searching for a quick sci-fi series to binge this holiday season that will have you furious that it was cancelled (and on a cliffhanger, no less), then give ABC’s V reboot a shot. With engaging characters, a real-world feel, and plenty of extraterrestrial conspiracies to go around, you won’t be able to get enough. Who knows, maybe watching the reboot will send you back further in time to the original miniseries and its offshoots. This is one underrated sci-fi franchise that deserves more love.

Release Date

2009 – 2011-00-00

Showrunner

Kenneth Johnson

Directors

Kenneth Johnson

Writers

Scott Peters, Kenneth Johnson