ABC Upfronts: First Look at 'V'

This is the day that every executive at ABC lost sleep over for the past week: Upfronts.  Today, ABC will go over its slate of returning and new programming giving the press its first tentative look at what the stable of creative taskmasters have cooked up for us.  TVOvermind is plugged into the festivities and will be bringing you the latest as the day goes on.

First up is 'V', the re imagining of the classic mini-series and series of the 80s.  In the original, Marc Singer battled reptilian aliens in human skin suits bent on stealing Earth's water and eating our young, and old, and middle-aged.  Elizabeth Mitchell (LOST) leads the reboot.  We've read the script, and will be discussing it on our first podcast later today, and have branded 'V' as good fun with accessible characters and a classic skein of sci-fi alien shenanigans.

What it is NOT, at least so far, is another attempt at the event-driven-drama-with-moody-characters archetype that has been attempted so many times.  V's series device is refreshingly true to the aliens-invade-earth genre, and the characters seem surprisingly stark with clear motivations and without murky pasts that detract from the overarching plot.

Here is what ABC has to say about 'V'.

"V" is a re-imagining of the 1980's miniseries about the world's first encounter with an alien race in which the aliens call themselves The Visitors, and have a seemingly friendly agenda that may or may not be a cover for something more malevolent.

"V" stars Elizabeth Mitchell as Erica Evans, Morris Chestnut as Ryan Nichols, Joel Gretsch as Father Jack Landry, Lourdes Benedicto as Valerie Stevens, Logan Huffman as Tyler Evans, Laura Vandervoort as Lisa, with Morena Baccarin as Anna and Scott Wolf as Chad Decker.

The series is produced by HDFilms in association with Warner Bros. Television. Scott Peters is executive producer/writer and Steve Pearlman and Jace Hall are executive producers. The pilot was directed and executive produced by Yves Simoneau.

And here is your first look at V:

[Show as slideshow]

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