My problem with ABC's "V"

I was really excited for the premiere/pilot of "V" last week on ABC. I'm into sci-fi, and with the recent success of "Flash Forward" I was looking for ABC to come at me with a one-two punch of great television. Thus far, I've been disappointed.

The premise of the show is that alien "visitors" or "V's" have landed/ are hovering mother ships above Earth's largest cities. The majority of humans embrace the V's while others are against their existence on earth. Prior to this formal "landing" V's already inhabited earth secretly, some good, some bad. Looming is the questions of WHY? the V's have come to Earth. Noting V traitors who seek to help the human race, the answer is probably something bad.


Earth - V relations are unrealistic
Nations cannot get along with other humans that have been on earth for the same time span as they have, I find it hard to believe that countries would so easily accept the V's onto the planet. At the arrival of the ships there was note of ONE military plane attempting to shoot at the V's ship. One plane? Whenever an aircraft that our military cannot communicate with is in our air space, its gets shot at, or at least surrounded by our air force. You are telling me that in none of the countries on Earth was military sent to check out the ships? Unrealistic. Of course I don't expect the series to explore the relations in real time, as it would probably take longer than this TV season to delve into the resistance , but by the second episode countries are already starting to grant alien's VISA's. Unrealistic. In the U.S. we've faught for years over citizenship of immigrants who cross our borders illegally, but in the span of about a week ALIEN's get VISAs? No.

Also, they look like us, which makes sense. It was even noted by character Chadd Decker (played by Scott Wolf, who looks earily like Michael J. Fox) that the V's look like what the main stream would consider attractive. I understand this being intentional, humans will trust people who are attractive, studies have shown that, but there is no mention on how they will be distinguished from human beings. They are letting them onto the earth with no way to immediately distinguish them? No tattoo or signiture arm bands? Humans are just not that trusting.

Character development = way too fast
There are many storylines happening at once, and multiple characters being looked at, which is fine, but things are going so fast that relationships aren't clear. The relationship between FBI Agent Erica Evans and Father Jack Landry, which I believe will be a central relationship, is very ambiguous. It isn't clear as to whether or not they knew each other prior to their first onscreen encounter at a V-Resistance meeting. There are many characters and many storylines, but they don't seem to be getting fleshed out at all. Actress Lourdes Benedicto, who plays Valerie Stevens (fiance of a V-traitor) is shown in all the major cast shots, which leads me to believe that she is an important character. Why then, at this point, has she been almost nonexistant in the story? I'm all for inference, but there seems to be non-strategically placed holes in the story.

Not all bad
In the end I wouldn't call the show all bad at all. The cinematagrophy is great, and I'm intrigued by the notion that anyone could be a V. It will be fun trying to decipher who is human and who is V as the season goes along.

I believe this is the third attempt at the series since 1983.

Rating: B-
(for reference, I give "Flash Forward" an A)