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V's lizard sleeper agent rips off his skin for us
If you watched last night's premiere of ABC's V, you saw it revealed that a couple of the main characters were aliens who have been living among humans as "sleeper" agents, at least a couple of whom may be on our side. (Spoilers ahead!)
One of the good aliens—at least we think he's a good alien—was Ryan Nichols, played by Morris Chestnut. Last week on the show's Vancouver, Canada, set, Chestnut told us exclusively that he put subtle clues in his performance to hint at his character's secret under the skin, so to speak.
"We did have to reshoot some things [for the pilot episode] just for editing purposes, and I did put a little something in there," Chestnut said.
Like what?
"I can't say," he said with a laugh. "Good try, good try."
And where does Ryan go from here, now that humans know his true self?
"He has a lot of challenges," Chestnut says, adding: "The hard part about Ryan at this point, there is a reveal that comes at [the end of episode four, and] almost everything that I'm doing or that I do in these few episodes kind of lead up to that. That's the hard part. ... I think by the fourth episode you'll have a pretty good idea of which side of the fence he's on."
Chestnut also talked a bit about how the lizard-under-human-skin illusion will be achieved in this new version of the 1984 miniseries, which used simple makeup effects. This time around, the illusion will be achieved in part with computer-generated effects, he said.
"There's visual effects involved with that," he said.
At the end of the pilot, Ryan suffers a large wound on his arm; in next week's episode, viewers will see him strip off some of his human skin to deal with it. "Obviously there's a huge wound, and how the wound is repaired is visual effects," he said.
Will we see Ryan eventually revealed as a full-on lizard man?
"I never want to see what my character looks like underneath," he said with a laugh. "I just want to see Morris." If he appears as a lizard, then "anybody can be me," he said.
V airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.
By senji75 at 8:54 AM ON 11/04/09
did anyone else feel the episode was too rushed for only 1 hour?
By evenevan at 9:03 AM ON 11/04/09
@senji75
I agree--it moved way too fast.
Granted, a lot of the initial story is assumed to be the same as the previous miniseries, so I can understand that they didn't want to play it all out again. Still, that one episode covered a lot of territory, and I'm not sure it did it well.
By KriZia at 9:07 AM ON 11/04/09
That's how I felt about GLEE when it premiered the pilot last Spring, but it seems to be doing just fine. I think rushing through the pilot to get all the important stuff out of the way is becoming a trend. As long as it settles down in ep.2, it should be fine. At least IMO.
By TearEmUp at 9:14 AM ON 11/04/09
@ Senji and Evenevan, It did move quickly I admit. Since it is a re-telling of a known story and, since most people today have the attention span of a gnat, I imagine that is the main reason(s) the producers are moving as quickly as they are.
By Garal0401 at 10:02 AM ON 11/04/09
I agree...way too rushed. Didn't get time to know anyone and the Visitors seemed like afterthoughts. Going to keep watching to see where it goes.
By Kyle Nin at 10:03 AM ON 11/04/09
@senji75
No. I thought the pace was perfect. I wish other shows were more like this.
By Kikstad at 10:15 AM ON 11/04/09
Totally agree about the pilot episode feeling rushed. It felt like they took a two hour episode and edited it down to one-hour, which is what they probably did. I think it hurt the pacing. Still had some great moments though. I lot of people are interested in the V concept so I hope they don't screw it up.
By thinkwatchthink at 11:09 AM ON 11/04/09
Probably felt they had to get to the reveal of 1) aliens are lizards and 2) aliens are evil by the end of the show because they figured the audience already knew those things. So they didn't want their characters all standing around going "duh?" for more than an episode. I think it would have worked better as a two-hour premiere because then you would have had that time, but still had the reveal at the end of the night.
By JJD at 11:26 AM ON 11/04/09
I didn't feel it was rushed at all. I thought it had a good pace. People these days are getting bored with the dramatic, slow build (you may know about that one show, Lost, I think it's called. Yeah...). This is the age of immediacy. People want to be satisfied with some sort of conclusion as fast as they can. That's why crime/medical dramas and sitcoms do as well as they do. They offer the conflict, then come to a satisfying conclusion in just one episode. Science fiction shows have started into this large story arc trend, which I love, but most people don't. They want immediate gratification.
And that's what V gave them last night. We already knew the aliens were the badguys. We already knew they were lizards. They did this show once before, remember? Not a whole heck of a secret. And I suspected things about both characters revealed to be aliens, though I actually didn't think they'd be aliens so it was a nice reveal.
By anomaly at 11:28 AM ON 11/04/09
No hating on this show please! Science fiction shows are rare enough as it is and this one seems like a really good one. So stop whining and let us have it!!!
By rtl3 at 11:37 AM ON 11/04/09
Sorry (anomaly) but if we don't crit the shows then the lowest common denominator will rule and all we'll end up with is cookie cutter sci fi. Even if that sounds delicious it probably won't make for good viewing. It was extremely compressed— to think that humanity would be so willing to accept an alien presence over every major city in a two day period is really ridiculous. But will see how it goes. My disbelief was well beyond suspension.
By kev74 at 11:45 AM ON 11/04/09
Agreed it did seemed rushed. Would have worked much better with a 2 hour premiere.
By Daniel at 12:01 PM ON 11/04/09
Maybe the producers felt that since everyone already knew the story (courtesy the original series,) by rushing the pilot they could take the series in the direction they want to go quicker.
By @rtl at 12:19 PM ON 11/04/09
yes them clapping for the aliens was silly but maybe its because Anna was hot?? LOL.
Other than that liked it, and i dont think anyones comments on web sites will change how producers and writers make shows to be honest.
By SethSJ at 12:42 PM ON 11/04/09
I agree the show felt rushed, but as well I found it rather predictable. Chestnut stood out and I figured he had to be a V. The same with the FBI guy. All moves to make the story a little more interesting. I'll continue to see it. maybe I'll be surprised later.
By Road Runner at 1:29 PM ON 11/04/09
I think Nichols should rip off his human skin live on nationwide TV to show the world the true nature of the Visitors and demand them to do the same. Let's see where that storyline would take us, if not directly to the end of the series.
By Solange at 2:36 PM ON 11/04/09
What if you didn't see it last night but were scanning this website anyway? I click into this article and have been SPOILED! Why can't spoilers be kept for the bodies of article? *SIGH*
By too fast at 3:06 PM ON 11/04/09
Rushed indeed. They revealed too much in an hour. Should have kept some secrets to keep us watching.
By Phigment at 3:49 PM ON 11/04/09
I enjoyed the show, and even enjoyed the campy 1980's original version. The only issue I have, and I swear it's the ONLY ISSUE.. is ok, they're Lizard Aliens, right? So.. at what point would we assume that Lizard Aliens would/could fall in love and want to marry a Human..(???) I mean isn't that kinda like a reverse version of Beastiality? or Reptiality? I mean i love my pets (dogs) but that don't mean I could fall IN LOVE with them and want to bread little human-puppys...
I can see the Humans having the hots for the Aliens, as long as they don't know they're aliens...
But the aliens KNOW they're Lizards, and we're not. So sorry, really the romance from the Alien to the Human route is just too goofy to comprehend.
I just can't buy into the fact in the first episode 'Ryan Nichols" is in a jewelry store looking for an engagement ring. Like I said that's the ONLY issue I have with the show, same with the 1980's version.
By Adrienna Turner at 4:49 PM ON 11/04/09
I did feel that it was rushed, however, our community today and viewers want to see suspense and action immediately. However, I am from the old school version and it gave time to realize that they were here, the afterthought, and should we trust them.
I thought the old version took too long for this. I have it recorded and stopped it after 3 min since I know it took like 20 or so min. to see the ship alone. I am glad they did not do this!
However, I do not recall the sleeper agents on site already. So this was odd to see in this newer version. They lived among them later.
I will keep up with it and see where it goes. They also rushed the ambassador program, it took more time to trust them before proceeding!
By EnvoyPV at 12:55 PM ON 11/05/09
I felt it was too rushed.
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