V - "A Bright New Day"

Last night's episode of V, "A Bright New Day," was significantly better than its previous outing.  Yes, the show is still experiencing some growing pains, but it was encouraging to have it move in a positive direction this week.  Hopefully, with one more outing in this "pod" of episodes, the show will remain on this positive trajectory and will be renewed for the spring.  Here's what piqued my curiosity this week:

*Why are the V's waiting to anihilate humanity?  Why plant sleeper agents here for 20 years (and did they arrive as kids, who "grow up" and age like humans?) to "weaken" humanity?  They have space ships that travel bewtween galaxies!  Couldn't they just wipe us out in a heartbeat?  Assuming that they can't, why not?  What does humanity possess here on Earth, or in itself, that can repel the V's?  Separately, I really enjoy Anna's media manipulation.  Although I didn't predict the assassination attempt would be staged by the V's (like some did), that event, combined with the meeting with the Widow Faulkner was expertly done.  Along with the whole Chad Decker storyline, the series is actually creating a great commentary on American political media today.  Let me also shout out to Morena Baccarin for her spectacular portrayal of Anna.  Her rehearsing her conversation with the widow was so perfectly creepy, because you know there are any number of politicians of all stripes doing the same thing as I type this.  One last point, was the widow actually brainwashed or hypnotized by Anna, or are Anna's powers of persuasion just that good?

*I love everything surrounding the Fifth Column resistance of traitor V's.  The questions that surround the movement are probably the most intriguing on the show.  How long has the Fifth Column exisisted?  Why was it formed in the first place?  Why didn't the V's wipe them out totally?  Fear of sleeper cell exposure?  Who is John May (and which actor will end up playing him?)?  What are the other four columns?  I was jazzed by the twists that Cyrus was now working for the V's and that Joshua (Dale's doctor on the mothership) was a member of the Fifth Column.  Totally unexpected, at least the Joshua part (had to figure someone from the original resistance would try to go back to the V's, like Cypher in The Matrix).  Moreover, I'm very interested in what "reconnecting" and "The Bliss" are.  Is this, too, like The Matrix, in that V's are hooked into some kind of euphoric existence, whether that be a physical connection, or mental/emotional connection with their race?  This kind of stuff gets my blood pumping. 

*It's fortunate that the V stories do get my blood pumping, because I'd otherwise flatline with the humans.  The writers just aren't giving Jack and Erica good material.  The lines two good actors were given last night when discussing their resistance planning were just awful.  It's not a case of actors making absurd things sound bad (look at how Alan Tudyk can make saying "She saw my real face," sound completely believeable), it's that they are given just completely unnatural things to say.  And really?  Erica would just let some random priest sift through classified FBI files?  Really?!?  The writers need to stop wasting Elizabeth Mitchell's talents. 

*Then we get to the Tyler/Lisa story.  Listen, I get it.  I get the need for the plot-line, and the reveal at the end that Lisa is Anna's daughter was completely awesome.  So was Lisa's look of regret that she is manipulating Tyler as the last image of the episode (again, V-V interaction, not human-human).  And yes, Laura Vandervoort, who plays Lisa, is ridiculously beautiful.  But she's also looks like she's in her 20's, and Tyler is only supposed to be 16/17.  Plus, as I have mentioned before, Logan Huffman is not up to this role.  Where the hell did his "New Yawk" accent come from?  And why did it disappear after three lines?  I mena, I'm certainly interested in more opportunities for Lisa to be in her underwear, and I do liek the basic plot of having a V try to recruit a human kid for whatever purpose, I just wish that kid was a better actor.

Quick Hits:

*Think Elizabeth Mitchell finds it weird calling someone else Jack besides Matthew Fox?

*Of course there's another V at the FBI!

*I like that the V's disintegrate when they die.  Very, ironically, Earth-friendly.

*Georgie (and Dale?) had kids with, presumably, a human.  What are V-Human babies like?!?

OK, that's it for this week's V.  Again, a better episode than last week, and hopefully onyl moving up from here.  Doc Jensen will have a recap up at EW.com this afternoon, and Jay and Jack have a new V podcast up already.  Take a listen, they are pretty entertaining guys.  Please leave any comments, questions or theories below.  I'll be back next week with some more thoughts on the fourth, and perhaps final, episode of V.  Until then...

Enjoy.