On the show, it is definitely a space lizard (maybe Balloon Boy's dad's conspiracy theories about lizard people were right all along!), but like a Chicago Tribune review by Glenn Garvin points out, it could also be about our nerd president.

Welcome to ABC's "V," the most fascinating and bound to be the most controversial new show of the fall television season. Nominally a rousing sci-fi space opera about alien invaders bent on the conquest (and digestion) of all humanity, it's also a barbed commentary on Obamamania that will infuriate the president's supporters and delight his detractors.

Anna is the beautiful and charming leader of the aliens—knows as V's because they are visitors—and she tells the world that her people can fix everything that is wrong with society. She has the liberal media brainwashed, and they all go along with stories about how great and wonderful she is. Of course, there is a fringe group who rebel against her and want to expose them as the evil-doing, reptile skinned, foreigners that they really are. Of course, these are the heroes of the show. Wow, that really does sound like the teabaggers! There's even a religious rebel named Father Jack, which is basically an anagram of George W. Bush.

It certainly wouldn't be new for a sci-fi series to be an allegory about modern society (Battlestar Galactica, anyone?) but it would be sort of odd for a sci-fi show on a major network to give credence to tactics and delusions of the far right. The birthers will be lapping up a show about a foreign-born president who comes to snatch society out of their clutches, and Glenn Back and his cronies will love to see a media that is overtaken by liberals and keeps the truth away from the "real Americans." But what will everyone else think?

The sci-fi culture usually veers to the left in its political allegory (again, see Battlestar or this summer's upbeat Star Trek that was an endorsement for the hopeful future that the Obama administration promised to usher in). The original 1983 miniseries that the show is based on was an anti-fascist message that preyed on "the aliens are coming, the aliens are coming" invasion fears of the Cold War. This is what it has been warped into. We find it hard to believe that thinly-veiIed conservative propaganda will find a strong foothold with the core sci-fi audience, and as for those leaning to the right, they tend to like their entertainment much more straightforward. Why try to figure out what all those lizard people mean when they can just watch Jack Bauer bash people's heads in on 24? That's their idea of fun.

Our prognosis, keep picking on the president and the only letters that V will get are D.O.A.

While some attributed the lightness and hope of this summer's successful Star Trek reboot to residual post-Obama good feelings, it was really just a classic genre pic, with zoom around the galaxy, sword fights, explosions and time travel. Not so for the sequel. Re-creator J.J. Abrams, who is writing the script with Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman, says their sophomore effort needs a message.

The ambition for a sequel to 'Star Trek' is to make a movie that's worthy of the audience and not just another movie, you know, just a second movie that feels tacked on...There needs to be relevance, yes, and that doesn't mean it should be pretentious. If there are simple truths—truths connected to what we live—that elevates any story—that's true with any story."

Orci echos his sentiments and says that they're looking for the right issue to base the second movie around.

We got a lot of fan response from the first one and a considerable amount of critical response and one of the things we heard was, ‘Make sure the next one deals with modern-day issues.' We're trying to keep it as up-to-date and as reflective of what's going on today as possible. So that's one thing, to make it reflect the things that we are all dealing with today.

Just as Battlestar used a bunch of humans wandering through space to tell a story about the Iraq war and religion and D9 shed a new light on apartheid, racism, and awesome alien space suits, Star Trek now wants in on the contemporary allegory racket. We must say that is pretty rad. We love to blow shit up, but when you blow shit up with purpose, you get the thrill of blowing shit up, but don't have the residual guilt of watching something totally idiotic. The way aliens heads explode when you run over them with a warthog in Halo can be like, a metaphor for the way people's head explode when they are run over by a tank in the Middle East. Or something like that.

There are a few other properties out there that could use some similar intellectual gussying up if their writers ever want to get the time of day at the Soho House. Here some suggestion of how a little well-placed subtext can rescue these shows, and their crews, from their own stupidity:

The Hills:Discussing whether to help Kristen throw her birthday party, Audrina tells Heidi that there isn't room for enough people at the club. They tell her the only solution is for her to to decide who isn't allowed in the club and murder them when the place is overcrowded.
Metaphor: The health care debate and death panel misinformation.

Gossip Girl: Blair finds that putting on her headband makes her feel great and tingly all over. When she wants to buy more headbands, she discovers they are illegal and that the U.S. government is in a long, protracted, and expensive battle to keep headbands out of the country and off the streets. She becomes an advocate to free all the headbands and starts a march that has lots of bongos, puppets, and hacky sacking.
Metaphor: The war on drugs and efforts to legalize marijuana.

Family Guy: Peter's stupid conservative neighbors tell him that their dog Brian was not really born in America, but in Kenya, and they claim to have the kennel papers to prove it. If what they say is true, then Peter must put his dog down and then burn him in the public square while walking counterclockwise around the flames to prevent the spirits of evil from invading the country. He doesn't know who to believe.
Metaphor: The Birther movement.

Man Vs. Wild: While out in the wild, Bear Grylls meets an aimless Sherpa. The two fall madly in love. Bear brings the Sherpa home, but everyone denies their love and won't let them get married. They even go so far as the pass a law that forbids reality show hosts from marrying Tibetans. Everyone is really sad.
Metaphor: The gay marriage debate.

Wheel of Fortune: Every time a contestant wins the jackpot, he is given a trip to Guantanamo Bay! It's such a great vacation that they can't tell anyone what happens there or when they're going to be back. But while they are there, they get to enjoy lots of activities that include water. Now they wish they had picked Z, X, Q, and U for their extra letter, then they never would have guessed the puzzle.
Metaphor: Torture.

By banishing computers from their lives, Erasmus's reclusive colleagues are able to nourish what he calls "attention surplus disorder," the ability to focus on and think about one thing for a long time. Erasmus's order passes its trains of thought from generation to generation — a Church of the Long Now.

By contrast, the video and telecom-addled civilization that bustles outside their walls is full of shallow and incorrect knowledge. People who've never taken time to study anything feel they know everything. Constantly distracted by their jangling electronic gizmos, they can't comprehend the powerful ideas and complex systems wrought by thousands of years of civilization. Their smart machines make them dumb. Inevitably, they look to the cloistered nerds to save them.

I've pledged not to do a review until September 9th, but I'll tell you Stephenson's worldview is contagious from page one. It's been following me around in the real world — I haven't hated normal people this much since I was an MIT freshman. You say you're a "geek?" Let's see you unplug your iPhone for a month. Surely you have something more interesting to do.

“Humbug”

No "Humbug," no HBO's Carnivàle. OK, maybe that's going too far, but this was the first episode written by Morgan, who brought winking self-parody and a Northern Exposure-like character quirkiness to the series. It’s set in Gibsontown, Florida, a retirement community for circus folk, to which Mulder and Scully are drawn after the mysterious but patternistic death of “Alligator Man” (guess what he looks like). There’s a local sheriff who used to be known as “Dog Boy” until alopecia robbed him of his freakiness; a conjoined twin who can detach from his unloved brother; and a human jigsaw puzzle, The Conundrum, who dines on live animals. Yet the chief suspect is the Fiji Mermaid, a supposedly apocryphal monkey-fish hybrid. Below, a clip of Blockhead, one of the more self-assured performers who hammers nails into his face.

"Small Potatoes"

Darin Morgan didn’t write this one, but he guest starred in it as Eddie Van Blundht, a schlubby nobody (ergo the title) save for the fact that he was born with a tail and has been impregnating a whole townful of women in West Virginia via his enviable ability to shape-shift into sexually charismatic fantasy figures, like Luke Skywalker. Also Mulder, whom Van Blundht embodies in order to seduce Scully in a terrific scene. See clip.

"The Host"

Morgan’s first guest starring role was as a human-sized flukeworm (“Flukeman”) who lives in the sewer and eats people. Not much beyond gross-out factor superficially, but the episode did prey upon this New Yorker’s fear of C.H.U.D.s, Ninja Turtles, and drainpipe gators. Oh, and there's a slightly hamhanded man-reaks-havoc-on-nature footnote about how "we made this." Flukeman arrived on a ship used to dispose of radioactive waste materials from Chernobyl.

“Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose”

Morgan won an Emmy for the script, and Peter Boyle won one for his portrayal of Clyde Bruckman, a psychic insurance salesman who glimpses how people are going to die (how brilliant is that?) The premise of the episode is Mulder and Scully’s investigation of a spate of murders in which the victims are all fortunetellers. It features a Uri Geller-like baffoon called the Stupendous Yappi, whom Mulder doubts has any ESP mojo. Also memorable for Bruckman’s prediction that Mulder dies of “autoerotic asphyxiation" and Scully doesn’t die at all (and they call him "spooky"). There's great dialogue in this episode, especially this exchange the hangdog Bruckman has with a would-be policy-buyer, which we provide in lieu of a missing YouTube:

Bruckman: "You don't get it do ya kid...two years from now, while driving down Route 91 coming home to your wife and baby daughter, you're going to be hit head-on by a drunk driving a blue '87 Mustang. You'll end up looking worse than sixty feet of bad road your body slides across after flying out your windshield."

Customer: "Mister, you really need to work on your closing technique!"

That should be the new Geico commercial.

"The cast has so far seen most of the series' final episodes, which will air in (sigh!) 2009. 'There's one episode where everything is explained and I had to read it three times,' Park said. 'I had to sit down with [executive producer] Ron Moore and he had to break it down.'

"Among other tidbits (the interview with Park will run here on July 20), Park also confirmed the presence of a child actor on set—one of the toddlers who plays her character Sharon 'Athena' Agathon's daughter, the Cylon-human offspring Hera." [LAT]

• Old Eyepatchy just outed himself to Miami Vice! "I'm one of the four." Kill him!
• But Miami Vice thinks Eyepatchy just has a chip in his head. "When I met you you had hair. I never heard of a skin job aging."
• But Eyepatchy has a way out! You can live! You can live! Freeeeeedom!
• Miami Vice: "There is no fracking earth!" Geez, kinda cheer up already, old man. These space people look up to you!
• Yeah, torture Eyepatchy! Torture him to madness!
• Hey wait! You're not President Boringface Actorman. You're gonna kill the fleet? You're the bad guy?! Kill him!
• Don't you people point your guns at Blonde Tomboy Space Girl! Shoot Chief Fatty Q. Workingstiff in his gut if you wanna, but leave Blonde Tomboy Space Girl alone!
• OMG! Cyclons! Cyclons everywhere!
• You Secret Cyclons are fucked!
• Yes! Blonde Tomboy Space Girl is in her space plane! She'll save everyone! She is God with a pretty nose and nice hair!
• Awww! Look how happy she is! She knows something...
• I'm gonna put exclamation points here! here! and here!
• Oh Jesusface. You're the good guy?!
• Kill President Boringface Actorman! Kill him dead!
• Oh shut up Xena. They'd forgive you for what you did on the colonies if you'd stop killing them. So stop killing them!
• Blonde Tomboy Space Girl did it! She saved everyone! Yaaaaaay!
• Amnesty for the Secret Cyclons! Yaaaaay!
• Boringface and Lady MacDeath and Miami Vice are all best buds now. Yaaaaaay!
• Earth! Earth! Earth! Earth! Earth! Yaaaaaaay!
• Um, uh? What the fuck is up with earth? It's all...
• You maniacs! You blew it up! Damn you! Damn you all to hell!

Look at what's working in cable's favor today:

Decline of the networks.

The networks plus cable equals the whole TV pie. And it's a huge pie. Any advertiser wanting to reach the most coveted demographic of all—relatively young men and women—has to spend big on TV. The internet hasn't destroyed television as it has print media. And the networks' roster of shows these days is weak, historically speaking—which was exacerbated by the writer's strike last year. The president of TBS says:

"There is very little consistency in what they are doing, and people don't know what to expect when they turn on the broadcast networks. They are still in the business of appointment television, but there are fewer and fewer appointments. There's a great big opportunity for cable networks."

Cable programming is getting better and better.

The days when the networks were automatically presumed to have the best shows are long gone. It's not just premium cable channels like HBO that changed the equation, either. Bravo, Nat Geo, Discovery, the Sci-Fi Channel—all are dominant players in their programming fields, in terms of quality. Cable channels have fewer content restrictions, and they've virtually eliminated the barriers to snagging good talent. Think of your favorite shows. How many of them are on cable? MOST OF THEM. Why? They're investing:

Annual spending on programming by basic networks has doubled in the last five years from $9.2 billion in 2002 to $18.8 billion in 2007, and the top 20 cable networks spent an average of $566 million per network during 2007 compared with $321 million in 2002.

Cable is confident.

The dominant theme of reporting on the television upfronts this year was the surging confidence of cable channels. They're consciously positioning themselves as direct competitors to the networks. They've grown their audiences to the point that they can't be disregarded by the same advertisers who support the networks. Money is pouring in. Discovery—that home of fine executive pay—isn't just generous with its CEO; its stock price grew more than 50% last year. The Sci-Fi Channel makes profits in the range of 40%. It's driven by good programming, which is only becoming a stronger and stronger pull for audience growth; that's one lesson of the internet, where content trumps big money. In the past decade, the overall cable audience has more than doubled.

Networks must, by design, try for mass appeal. Cable channels can target their audiences much more effectively. The scary thing for networks is that even specialized cable channels no longer represent just a niche audience any more; they are almost as plugged into the mainstream as the networks themselves. Virtually all American households at least have the option of cable, and the majority are cable subscribers. The industry is sitting in a sweet spot: it's already big enough to have reached critical mass, and it still has plenty of room to grow.

If this keeps up, I may even get cable myself.

[NYT, WSJ, NCTA]

• Huh? Where did that goo-bath come from? And why is the High-Bread Queen alive again? No fair!
• Oh snap. Acid freak-out. Maybe President Lady MacDeath or Smokey Assistant Crazypants will tell me what's going on. No? Crap.
• Pretty Asian Cyclon: "The High-Bread makes her own decisions." Can she decide to get Blonde Tomboy Space Girl out here pronto?
• Prez MacDeath to Miami Vice: "You don't love people." Who could love people when your a person, you fracking windbag.
• Now she wants to blow up all the goo-baths everywhere! And she is so sneaky and snakey about it!
• Yay Xena! Yay slippery wet goo-bath Xena!!
• Bleachy Cyclon tells Macho Borefaced Actorman that her space plane training is as good as anyone's and he's all, "The 24 I shot down prove otherwise." Crack his stupid head open with your robot strength, Bleachy! I love it when you do that!
• MacDeath is imagining killing High-Bread baby. Hey, that's Pretty Asian Cyclon's vision, vision thief!
• Um, Dr. Jesusface? You can't pull your psycho-babble crap on a Centurion. He's a straight-up robot, dumbass.
• That Other Guy wants to find a Cyclon body, coz then he can find the goo-baths? I guess?
• ATTACK! Ha! Didn't see that one coming, did you, Lady MacDeath? Have a vision of that next time, jerky!
• Space fight! Space fight! Blow the Hub!
• OMG! That big-ass metal robot is totally listening to Dr. Jesusface!
• OMG! Xena is totally hot as balls!
• Franken-Cyclon! Franken Cyclon!
• You gave the access codes to the Cyclons?! You are soooo dead!

[Complex via OhNoTheyDidn't]

• "Tonight's movie will be The Glory Brigade. Rock 'em, sock 'em... kisses you never got..." Oh wait. That's MASH. What the heck channel am I on?
• Bleachy Cyclon dying? Again? And Pretty Asian Cyclon shot her? Why?!
• Now Saggyface Actorman is president? How many presidents you people gonna get?
• Oh Pretty Asian Cyclon. You can't go around shooting people in the gut coz you have "visions". No one wants your little high-bread baby anyway.
• "Get her out of my sight!" You know, Miami Vice, you're starting to get on my nerves. And you looked silly being secret ninja man on that other show.
• Great. Old Eyepatchy and Miami Vice babbling at each other again. Blonde Tomboy Space Girl, mofos! Bring her out. Bring her out now.
• Saggyface Actorman and Hollywood Neutral Hunkbot arguing. Kee-righst! If you have a penis, get off my TV right now!
• This is getting to be like Buffy if they did a whole episode with just Xander and Giles and Spike. Except none of those guys suck!
• Only high-breads can find the goo-ship, Bleachy? So you are gonna steal Pretty Asian Cyclon's baby!
• Ew Bleachy! Stop touching Old Eyepatchy! Quit it!
• What's with the fucking leprechaun? No one's got you stinkin' pot o' gold.
• Blonde Tomboy Space Girl! Yaaaaaaay! But, huh? Full dress uniform? No sweaty cleavage or biceps? No greasy hair? You people are killing me!
• And now she's gone.
• Leprechaun speech. I am so out of here!
• "It's got what plants crave. It's got electrolytes." Ha!

[Wired]

• Step to Blonde Tomboy Space Girl, get kneecapped. Now you know.
• Don't take Pretty Asian Cyclon with you to meet the rebels! She just tried to mutiny your ass!
• President GetDead is bald, Chief Fatty Q. Workingstiff is bald... What's with all the baldness, baldies?
• When did Smokey Assistant Crazypants get all calm and professional? I smell a trap!
• So does Blonde Tomboy Space Girl...
• The comet is the ship? Dunno what that means but it makes Blonde Tomboy Space Girl all giggly and cute!
• Ack! Cyclons!
• Oooo... Good Pretty Asian Cyclon and Rebel Asian Cyclons slumber party!
• Mutiny against Bleachy Cyclon!
• Oh Bleachy, you can't go around beating humans to death like that. They don't even have goo baths.
• Bleachy and Red Cyclon lesbian make-out! Kiss goodbye. Ouch.
• Oh man, and no goo bath ship! Bye Bleachy Cyclon.
• The Hybrid! Meh.
• "The missing three will give you the five who have come from the home of the thirteenth." Wha?
• "You are the harbinger of death, Kara Three." Kara Three? More Blonde Tomboy Space Girls? Where do I get one?!
• "Mission Accomplished"? Are you gettin' funny on me?

• Don't you get in that viper, Blonde Tomboy Space Girl! It makes you crazy!
• Dr. Jesusface: "How does that make you feel?" Oh great. Now he's a fracking psycholologist...
• "The gods don't exist! We have been pandering to our own ignorance for far too long!" Dayum, Doctor. Who knew you had it in ya?
• You will not undermine Blonde Tomboy Space Girl, Pretty Asian Cyclon! Earth is not a pipe dream! She has magic and you are jealous, stupid jealous Cyclon!
• Get away from that ship, Blonde Tomboy Space Girl! It's full of Cyclons!
• Don't talk to him!
• Don't let him into your quarters! He'll get into your head! Nooooes...
• "Anesthetizing yourself with ambrosia and petty affairs!" That's just how the Blonde Tomboy Space Girl rolls, ass.
• Chief Fatty Q. Workingstiff still doesn't know Secret Cyclon Lady killed his wife? And now she's blaming him?! Oh, Fatty, you really are a dumb fuck.
• Don't be planning mutiny, Pretty Asian Cyclon. Know why? Coz, busted!
• Ew. Ol' Doc Jesusface and Secret Cyclon Lady having smelly-looking nerd sex. Ew.
• Great. Now he's making a speech. Great, now Old Eyepatchy's making a speech. Does anyone in space ever STFU?
• The most boring woman ever is inspecting the hull. And now she's dead. Yay, death!
• Fatty is thinking! Fatty is pissed.
• Yes, Fatty, choke him! Choke Jesusface!! Choke him more!!!
• Ack! Mutiny! Space Girrrrrrrl! Noooooes...

• Ooh... Jesus Doctor in kinky bondage funtimes with Secret Cyclon lady!
• Bondage funtimes with Secret Cyclon not really so fun.
• Wha? Jesus Doctor's harem invaded by gay bikers from The Road Warrior? Where is Lord Humongous?!
• Hey, Chief Fatty Q. Workingstiff! Your wife is space food. Didn't anybody tell you yet?
• Silly pilot lady... You can't land on your nose!
• Bleachy Cyclon's in Doctor Jesus's head—Are we still doing that?
• Raid on the temple! Turn over the money changers' tables! Cliche complete!
• 23 minutes in and STILL NO BLONDE TOMBOY SPACE GIRL!
• Gravel is for rustic driveways, Miami Vice. You don't eat it.
• Old Eyepatchy wants Bleachy Cyclon to be his Oprah friend and tell him what it's like to have so many deaths on her bony hands.
• Chief Fatty Q. Workingstiff: "I settled! I settled for that freak! Those dull fracking eyes!" You are a mechanic with a studio apartment and you want to get the hotties? It's space, fatboy. Not Long Island.
• Eww... Old Eyepatchy's eye! Haha... Bleachy just beat the shit out of you!
• Blonde Tomboy Space Girl... Where are you?? ::sniffle::

One of the main characters is "Father/Billionaire scientist Daniel Graystone. Sure he may not be the world’s most attentive parent, but can you really blame him? He’s awfully busy worrying that his company is on the verge of losing the Government contract for the Robot Super-soldier and Meta-Cognitive Processor after wasting five years and half a billion cubits. Worse still, his lack of attention has led his wife Amanda to seek comfort in her husband’s chief rival Tomas Vergis [a Tauron!] while his daughter Zoey’s cries for attention lead her to an organization known as the 'Soldiers of One' — a monotheistic religious group that advocates the worship of a single, all-knowing, all powerful God whose mission is to quote, 'drive out the many Gods.'" Spoilers galore here.