So, now that V: The Reboot has hit ABC, we're already seeing Obama-as-Lizard-Man posters on the net, reviews by conservatives acclaiming the show as pertinent political commentary, and teabaggers talking as if they had a lunch with David Icke (he of the crazy spacemen in the government theories and DVDs).
Here's the thing. I think they fell for the bait at the center of the largest tea-bagger trap ever constructed.
I'm a sci-fi geek, so I think my gut's good on this one.
You have to understand that the show has been rewritten and reshot significantly since it was first unveiled this summer. It's been restructured into a mini-series for November, which will come back in March if it doesn't tank.
And it seems like a trap, particularly the rewritten parts.
I distinctly remember some of those "Joss Whedon show vets" in the "V" cast campaigning for Obama.
Now, that doesn't rule out the show being a right-wing influenced love-fest (see "24") but I think something more nuanced went into the rewrite.
I saw parts of the pilot (although didn't make the full pilot episode viewing) at Comic-Con, the pilot that existed prior to the rewrites.
The line in which the words "universal healthcare" are said by the reporter interviewing the head of the alien mothership wasn't there. The aliens were still healing people and touting that, but it wasn't framed that way.
I ask you, if you are trying to hypnotize the whole planet Earth, what is the selling point of universal healthcare?
So, at first blush, this would seem geared and almost re-written to ding Obama and progressives from a teabagger slant ...
... Healthcare, strange visitors to the country, fake passports, false terrorism cells, something pretending to be benign before it kills you ...
And add in that the new plotline, as opposed to the 1980s show, has the aliens sabotaging us from the inside for years (disguised as humans, they started wars and crashed economies) before they revealed themselves in their spaceships. Actually, the irony is that in this respect, the series resembles Nazi propaganda against Jews more than a warning against Nazism.
But look at what has happened in just a few days since the premiere. The right-wing blogosphere and even the Wurlitzer has begun to talk about Obama as a lizard man from space.
Obama as Hitler or Stalin is offensive, but it's still POSSIBLE, albeit ridiculous. Hitler and Stalin have existed on planet Earth. Any leader of a nation COULD become Hitler or Stalin.
Obama as carnivorous lizard spaceman makes the right-wing look REALLY loony tunes to the American public.
It's one step too far.
Just visualize loads and loads of those posters being held aloft at rallies, while wild-eyed men and women exclaim to the cameras that our President is not from Earth. This will make the Birther movement look halfway sane by comparison.
V, the reboot. The largest teabagger trap constructed since the John Adams docu-drama got them to wear tri-cornered hats and ring bells.