Thank God for public service

When first aired, "V" became an instant pop culture phenomenon in Sweden. I don't remember the exact year. 1985?

At the time, Swedish TV was very old fashioned. There were only two channels, both of them public service! Imagine growing up with only two TV channels. (The kids played chess, caught newts in the local stream, read Franco-Belgian cartoons. So no, we weren't suffering.)

Besides, the fact that there were only two channels made *everyone* in Sweden watch "V", both the original miniseries and the three-part sequel, known as "V: The Final Battle". In fact, people were shocked by Diana eating that rabbit and turning out to be a lizard. The day after, tabloids prominently featured Diana's eating habits (complete with a large photo). Since we were really smart kids, one of us knew that the whole thing was a Nazi allegory. Scientists equal Jews, right?

"V: The Original Miniseries" and "V: The Final Battle" were showed in a row, so we had five weeks of reptilian entertainment. Well, almost. Many viewers were confused by the third episode (actually the first episode of "Final Battle"), and assumed that the TV channel was broadcasting the wrong one. Thousands of viewers called Swedish television, which promptly stopped showing it! Confusion followed. The poor employee responsible for "V" had called it a day, and the other episodes were locked up in his office. Nobody could find a spare key! After much embarrassment, the channel finally realized that they were showing the right episode after all, and resumed airing it. New problems followed, as thousands of people who had programmed their VCR's missed a large portion. Finally, Swedish television had to show an extraordinary re-run of the third episode, only a couple of days later!

Thank God for public service.

We enjoyed both "V: The Original" and "V: The Final Battle". Everyone assumed that this was the entire series. Then, the newspapers revealed that there were an additional 19 episodes! WHAT???? People felt cheated, and ratings dropped (but since the network was government-controlled, they didn't have to care about it.) After the episode featuring The Big Murderous Alien Dressed In Black, a small Communist group filed a complaint against Swedish television, charging them with "fascist propaganda" (which, of course, is verboten). Presumably, they didn't catch the Nazi analogy. And yes, we all liked Robert Englund, the nice and cozy alien!

Today, "V" feels very dated. Still, "V: The Original Miniseries" and "V: The Final Battle" are classics. You might as well skip "V: The Series", however. I don't consider it canonical.

Finally, I just have to mention David Icke. OK, now it's done.