3 Things I Learned About Life From Watching ‘V’
The year 1983 was a pretty good year for me: I was finally out of high school, and even better than that, in May of ’83, the final installment of the original Star Wars trilogy, Return of the Jedi, had been released. I know the movie has its problems, mostly related to Ewoks, as well as the fact that Boba Fett’s demise came too soon, way too easy, but still, I love that movie. Right around the same time, we got V. The original miniseries was a major television event — and if you’re a geek like I was, let’s just say it was freaking awesome. It also didn’t hurt that Jane Badler was drop-dead gorgeous. She’s just a classic beauty.
That said, the original miniseries succeeded not just because of her and the rest of the cast, but also because of the fact that it was just really good science fiction. In fact, I’m going to go out on a limb and say it was some of the best science fiction that television had seen since the far-too-soon demise of Battlestar Galactica after one short season on ABC.
Back in 2023, Kenneth Johnson, the writer-director of the miniseries, told IGN this about V‘s origins: “I had read Sinclair Lewis’ 1935 novel, It Can’t Happen Here, and it was about a rise of fascism happening in America the way that it was happening in Italy and Germany in the thirties and I thought that’s a really interesting concept.”
NBC knew that they had something special and spared no expense to market the heck out of this thing. In addition to a huge two-page advertisement in TV Guide, they also peppered New York and Los Angeles with posters that would, after a couple of days, be spray-painted with a big red V. Suffice it to say, the miniseries was a huge success. So much so that it is still being talked about even today.
Here’s what Vanity Fair journalist,Anthony Breznican said about V just a couple of years ago, “Even 40 years later, V is still getting under people’s skin…which rattled America with its depiction of cold-blooded authoritarians conquering the world. Johnson intended the sci-fi drama to be more than mere escapism. To him, it was a warning.”
So, with all of that out of the way, here are three things that I learned way back in 1983 upon watching the original miniseries.
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Trust No One
This is a relatively simple rule of thumb: If someone strange shows up bearing an olive branch and making promises that seem way too good to be true, they probably are. Years later, Fox Mulder and The X-Files would hammer this point home even harder with those three simple words: Trust no one.
The Power of the Screen
Moving on to learning number two: our screens, whether they are large and fixed to a wall or tiny and held in our hands, will eventually lead us down a rocky and disastrous path. Throughout the original miniseries, and especially during the first part, much of the narrative is told through multiple television screens. Eventually, when the Visitors’ nefarious intentions come to light, they utilize television to manipulate and deceive the masses. A few years later, comic book author and artist Frank Miller would utilize a similar technique in his groundbreaking graphic novel about an aged Batman, titled The Dark Knight Returns.
Resistance Is Not Futile
My third learning is something that I was already starting to figure out. But V, as well as a handful of other films, books, and even music, helped me to really get a grasp on this simple concept: Resistance is anything but futile. In fact, the willingness of a handful of people to rise up and resist moving along with the rest of the flock is a critical concept that I believe we should all do our best to embrace. No matter how difficult it may be at times to swim against the current, it’s something that we all need to do.
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