A Review of the "V" Comic Con Panel
The website hitfix.com took an intriguing look at the "V" panel, and what follows are excerpts from their observations.
"When the producers of this new 'V' were faced with a confrontational questioner who wanted to know why their show featured only one black character (though his assertion that the show featured only one 'person of color' was slightly inaccurate, since the show does feature a Latina in its regular cast) and how they were going to deal with the fact that the pilot ends with a scene which features "a blonde-haired, blue-eyed couple who seem to be planning a racial war,' they didn't even skip to the BS answer. They didn't even toss to Elizabeth Mitchell or Morris Chestnut (the aforementioned one black person in the cast), who both looked like they had something to say. They just ducked it, moving on to the next question. At first, it seemed like they were joking, but, no, they were serious. They moved on to another question without even acknowledging the previous one.
"(It's here that I could insert boilerplate about how problematic I find the general shift of entertainment news to events like Comic-Con from events like the TCA press tour. Both are incredibly stage-managed events, but at the latter, at least all involved are expecting that if some journalist gets up her gumption, they'll get some tough questions. Here, the pre-panel magic voice asks you to remember to ask 'respectful questions' of all involved.)
"No one involved seemed to grasp the irony of this occurring in a panel involving 'V,' which, as mentioned, has lots of allegorical racial implications but also has a scene where the head of the aliens (Morena Baccarin) tells an Anderson Cooper-esque reporter sent to interview her (Scott Wolf) that he's not allowed to do anything that might portray her people in a negative light. Hell, Baccarin made a joke about it herself in the course of the panel. And then they went ahead and gave an analogue for that scene right in the panel itself.
"The Q&A [following the screening of the pilot] was very short, as the room had to be turned over to the Fringe panel immediately following. Despite the fact that four producers attended the discussion, as well as most of the cast, most of the people up front didn't even get a chance to talk. No one even asked Mitchell if Juliet was dead on Lost (though I'm sure this was something questioners were discouraged from asking) or got in some question for Baccarin about Firefly.
"So why remake 'V' and why now? Executive producer Scott Peters, who also worked on The 4400, said that with all of the bad news in the world since the original was made 25 years ago, especially with recent news of the economic downturn and the battle over health care legislation, there's a temptation to wish for a savior. 'It just seemed like an interesting time to bring about something or some entitiy that would maybe help save us,' he said.
"The cast members, for their part, had a few memories of the original show. Mitchell said that she vividly remembered the famous alien baby from the original series, and when the gerbil swallowed by an alien in the original was brought up, Baccarin said, 'I'm gonna rely on my wonderful producers to not make me put furry things in my mouth.' It could have been a fun, goofy panel, all around, if the producers had just learned that first rule of dealing with casting questions on an ensemble drama. Instead, there was an uncomfortable overtone."
DISCLAIMER: This posting was submitted by a user of the site not from Earth's Mightiest editorial staff. All users have acknowledged and agreed that the submission of their content is in compliance with our Terms of Use. For removal of copyrighted material, please contact us HERE.