V For Paranoia

As Denver Guy noted in a comment yesterday, there are those who claim the new ABC show V--where aliens come to Earth and promise wonderful things but secretly bring doom--is a metaphor for Obama. For the left it's an accusation, for the right it's a celebration. I think they're all stretching things. A charismatic leader pulling the wool over the eyes of the public eyes is a common plot. To name one example--the original 1983 miniseries named V.

But that's not good enough for Jonathan Chait. As he writes in The New Republic:

The lead character is skeptical--what proof do you have she asks, besides some scary thing “you read on the internet.” But the seemingly hysterical message from the internet is true! The charismatic new leader is masking her true identity! The death panels are real! Etc., etc. This is not just a right-wing worldview but the worldview of the paranoid Tea Party movement.

So it's not enough Chait forces his interpretation on a TV show, he's got to call any protest that dares oppose higher taxes and more spending "paranoid."

Of course the rumors are true! There's no series if they aren't! Look at X-Files. Every week another paranoid fantasy turned out to be real. It's called drama. If aliens came to Earth and made everything great, no one would watch--except Chait, who'd approve of such a helpful metaphor for the Obama administration.

Chait goes on:

I’m really not sure how this made it onto network television. [Maybe because ABC saw it was a fun show and so far they've been proved right--the ratings are excellent. If they ultimately fail, it won't be because of the concept.] Maybe the calculation is that Glenn Beck will start urging his viewers to watch and a ratings bonanza will ensue. (I don’t expect scientists will be the scapegoats in the new series, as the original “V” alien campaign to tar scientists as a fifth column sits uncomfortably close to the current right-wing view that the world’s leading scientific organizations are conspiring to suppress evidence that global warming is a hoax.)

Let's look at this claim for a second. The whole show is a metaphor for the (correct) paranoia of the right, opposing the aliens' plans for "universal health care" and world peace by citing specific and accurate arguments made on the internet. So--according to Chait--V tracks closely with what the nutty right is saying. So what's his explanation for why they're refusing to make scientists the enemy this time? Because that would track too closely with what the nutty right is saying.

PS The New York Times also hated the show. You can't please everyone.

Here's part of the review:

The most talked-about performance will be that of Morena Baccarin (the courtesan Inara on “Firefly”) as the highly attractive alien leader, Anna. (No, no one asks why an alien who had never encountered humans before would be named Anna.)

So these reptilians come to Earth and choose to look like attractive humans, but changing their names when they get here is too hard a concept for The New York Times to understand.

Hey, maybe the whole show is a metaphor for Ellis Island.