v: fetch me my tinfoil hat

what the WHAT? // abc promotional photo

It was hard for me to get excited about the V pilot, because I wasn’t totally sold on the first act they released last week or the promotional materials or the concept or the usage of Elizabeth Mitchell as a lead.

(Sorry. She bothers me.)

But I DVRed it anyways, and when I got home late last night and saw the multitude of tweets about it, I realized I should probably go ahead and watch it.

And hoooooly crap, I’m glad I did.  That was definitely one of the best pilots I’ve seen in a really long time. It set up complex relationships, really intriguing power dynamics between and among several characters, and featured really amazing technical effects.  Oh, and that fight scene was incredible.

Already, there are so many stories to delve into, about the visitors (or “V”s) and their plans, about their history infiltrating the human race, about the human youth and their involvement with the Vs, and about the human resistance movement.  Every single one of the characters, with the exception, perhaps, of Lourdes Benedicto’s Valerie, arrived with a hugely fascinating array of questions to be answered.

Here’s a story that I swear is relevant.  Bear with me.  I remember in season two of Alias, I read an interview with J.J. Abrams who talked about why he revealed that Jack Bristow was a double agent in the very first episode.  That was such a huge reveal, and it would have been easy to wait six, ten, or, oh, 22 episodes before revealing that secret.  I can’t find the exact quote right now, but basically, Jabrams said that he knew he wanted to get to the Laura Bristow/Irina Derevko story, which came to fruition in the first season finale when Sydney’s mom is revealed as both alive and former Russian intelligence.

I was reminded of that story last night watching V, when I was shocked that the show so quickly revealed that Erica’s partner was an alien, that Ryan is a V–but the good kind, and even that the V have been around for years, worming their way into world governments and societies.

It makes me wonder if they’ve got something huge up their sleeve for later–but it’s also possible that those reveals just set up the dynamics that will keep the show running through its thirteen-episode order.  I’m definitely interested in seeing where this goes–if I can manage not to have a grade-A meltdown of terror.

Seriously, I can’t remember the last time a movie or show made me scream in surprise and fear–but there’s a moment in the clip below that made me jump out of my skin–no pun intended.

Yikes.