Customer Reviews

V: The Original Miniseries

5 star:		(84)
4 star:		(36)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I want to thank you for the product and service. Everything arrived in perfect condition and in good time. Thank you very much.

After seeing this again, after 20 or so years, I still love it. Truly it is one of my favorite pieces of film of all time. It was way ahead of it's time in 1983. The storyline, special effects, and acting were all excellent, and the ending is climatic. Although it is 10 hours long, I didn't want to stop watching it, then or now. It really parrallels life, and hopefully will continue to open people's minds. I've now showed it to my children and pointed out how it is reminiscent of the holocaust in many ways. I definitely recommend that if you have never seen this, you do, and if it's been awhile, check it out again. It's fun the second time around.

I was not disappointed - yes, technology has come a fair way from when this was made, but it was still a lot of fun. I had a fun V weekend.

V is a rarity - a seminal achievment of classic sci-fi in a made-for-TV movie. This mini-series provides the groundwork, primarily the expository "these are the aliens, these people are the good guys, who's right and who's wrong" setup of the larger story. I remembered V very fondly from my youth, and was a bit dismayed to discover how seemingly incomplete this first mini-series was. When viewed with the now-available "V - The Final Battle" it's quite a satisfying ride. I would highly recommend buying "V" with "V - The Final Battle" and watching them as one. If you just buy this one, you'll be left wanting more.

Soon to be available? V - The Complete Series. A worthy continuation of the TV epic. At the time of its production, it was the most expensive per-episode TV series ever made. Now, a single cast member from "Friends" makes more per episode than an episode of "V" cost to make.

This was the ORIGINAL TV Miniseries for V (which stood for Visitors).
With Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger) and Marc Singer. This was then spun off into it's own (short-lived) weeekly series. In a massive media campaign before the series aired, posters promoting "The Visitors Are Our Friends" appeared in subways around America just as they did in the first part of the mini-series. Days before the first episode aired, each poster was spray-painted with a bright red "V"(for Victory) just as is done in the show.

Unfortunately, when aired as a miniseries, I was in my early 20s and didn't spend a lot of time at home, so I missed about 25% of it. I bought it so I could fill in those blanks. I enjoyed it just as much on DVD as I did 20 years ago. Of course, the suspense of "not knowing" isn't there now, but it's still a very good movie. I, like others that reviewed this, wish there would have been some trailers, however.

A loose "modern-day" fictionalization of the events leading up to and including the Holocaust of World War II, "V" demonstrated just how easy it is for people to ignore the events transpiring around them ... and how desperate simply living can be when oppressed by a superior enemy.

While this series contains a lot of 1980s "cheese" ... from bad hair, so-so acting and special effects ... the ideas and the manner in which they were presented to the audience were unique and powerful.

Everyone wonders if we are alone in the Universe ... and it is a frightening thought about what would happen if a more powerful race of beings "arrived" at our planet ... would we fight? Would we survive? Or would we follow the path of so many terrestrial cultures ... that vanished after the arrival of a more powerful, or advanced one?

Excellent - just showed it to my kids and they fell in love with it as I did when I was a kid. You get the point right away and it doesn't feel preachy at all

I've seen this series again now after 15 years. The first time I saw it on TV, and today I was surprised on how much tension it still creates and how much impact it still has. It is not outdated at all and very fascinating.

The quality of the DVD is a distinct improvement over the tapes I made as the miniseries aired long ago. There wasn't much in the way of extras. I found the "Making Of" segment interesting, but far more interesting was rewatching the miniseries while listening to the running commentary by director Kenneth Johnson. Turning on the subtitles allows you to follow the action while listening to the commentary.

I do have a few complaints, however. I would've paid a bit more for a plastic case instead of the cheap cardboard one. And I'm not fond of double-sided DVDs, but I suppose that was a cost saving measure, too.

I also don't understand why someone felt it necessary to chop off the top and bottom of the picture to cater to the minority of people who are able to take advantage of widescreen. Out of curiosity, I compared the DVD to my old tapes. The DVD image is no wider than before, but an inch or so (depending on your TV size) is blotted out on the top and bottom to provide the widescreen ratio. It turns out the information lost isn't crucial, so I didn't find the loss annoying. I just found it annoying in principle that someone felt a need to lop off part of my picture to provide a format I didn't need in the first place. The original format was more than fine.