Has ABC Discovered the Danger of Blind Devotion to Smooth Talkers?

Chris Field | May 22, 2009 12:12 PM

Here's the trailer for a new ABC show called "V" -- looks good.

It offers an interesting sci-fi take on the world's "hope and change" mindset and love of leadership who

"say what their itching ears want to hear". Its ties to today include everything from demands by earth's new "friends" and leaders that the media not ask questions that would "put them in a negative light," to the people's search for a savior, to the cultivating of a youth movement behind the newest smooth-talking idol, to the morphing of gratitude into worship, to the statements by the new leaders that "embracing change is never easy."

In this trailer, the lead character warns: "They're arming themselves with the most powerful weapon out there ... devotion."

From the ABC site:

Today, the world woke up to find spaceships over every major city. The Visitors claim to have come in peace, bringing gifts of medical miracles and technological breakthroughs. They promise to do no harm. They're lying.

Most people believe the aliens have arrived just when we needed them most. We're eager to embrace their generous offers of help, but while tracking a terrorist cell, Homeland Security agent Erica Evans stumbles upon something far more sinister. Erica discovers that the aliens have plans to infiltrate our governments and businesses, planting seeds for their plot to control mankind. Convincing anyone of the truth will be impossible because the Visitors have two powerful weapons. First, they've given the people faith with their reassuring presence and gifts. Second, they've rallied our youth. Thousands of teens, including Erica's son, have been recruited as 'Peace Ambassadors' but they're actually serving as unwitting spies. When Erica gets thrust into the resistance movement, she'll have to balance her covert activities with her job and her role as a mother, fighting to protect her son Tyler -- even as he joins forces with the enemy. (emphasis added)