V, "It's Only the Beginning": In treatment

Spoilers for the fall finale of "V" coming up just as soon as I show you my turbine room...

"The more predictable we are, the more vulnerable we are." -Erica

Well, if you're gonna make it that easy, "V"... As many of you know, Scott Peters was replaced as "V" showrunner shortly before the show premiered, but after the first batch of episodes was produced. His replacement is "The Shield" and "Chuck" alum Scott Rosenbaum, who had some encouraging things to say in this interview, specifically these two portions:

I’m going to probably do the show a little more visceral, it will be a little more fast-paced, it will be learning more of the mythology and the history of the Vs. In my mind, viewers are very advanced at this point, and I want them to come to “V” and see, A, stuff they can’t see anywhere else, and, B, also feel like they’re getting storytelling that doesn’t feel retread or old, that’s, frankly, exciting.

And

my goal is that in every single episode there will be an “Oh my God, I can’t believe that happened” moment, or a “Wow” moment – at least one – in every single episode. And I think that would not only be a mythology plot reveal, but also a character reveal.

Those two passages underline so much of what's been dull about these first four episodes. "V" thus far has been the exact show - no more, no less - you would have expected it to be as soon as you heard ABC was doing a remake.

Peters was obviously wrestling with how to deal with viewer expectations, leading to some unfortunate pacing issues. Too often, it feels like the show has raced past important plot points, like the off-hand reveal of what the Vs really look like, because Peters and company felt the audience knew they would be coming, and/or that it was something they had to do, rather than a part of the story they were really excited to tell.

And yet on the flip side, sometimes the show tends to drag its feet in a futile attempt to create suspense. I rolled my eyes at the start of this episode as soon as we got the in media res teaser, both because the device is so overdone and because any viewer with half a brain would know that Ryan was shooting past Erica, and not at her. So all the time spent later in the episode suggesting Ryan and Erica didn't trust each other seemed wasted.

So we have plotting that feels rushed and/or obligatory, characterizations that can be charitably referred to as thin, and fairly lame post-pilot production values. Why exactly am I supposed to care? Other than the fact that Morena Baccarin is rocking the pixie cut and occasionally looks like The Joker when she grins?

I'll check back in at some point during the spring run after we're into Rosenbaum-produced episodes, but nothing in "It's Only the Beginning" had me feeling particularly sad that I'd need to wait months to see the next episode.

What did everybody else think?