We're being invaded!!!1

For those who do not know, I love playing video games. Ever since I had my Atari 2600 to my Colecovision to my Nintendo to now Playstation 3, I just love playing them. Why? Simply because I get to role play as a hero, football player at my old college, soccer player in Europe or even an up and coming crime lord. Are games violent nowadays? Yes but there are plenty of games out there that are not. But I recently purchased a game and, let’s just say, it bothered me quite a bit.

I purchased “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2”. For those who are not familiar with the game, it is fictionalized account of…well modern warfare in the world. Played through first person point of view, you take on roles of different soldiers from different divisions in the English and American military. That action is fun and realistic. Plus the story makes sense in this game. There are plenty of “Call of Duty” series and they are very entertaining to play.

In the latest edition, there is a segment where you are an undercover CIA agent infiltrating a Russian terrorist group. While doing this task, you and your fellow terrorists attack an airport and start gunning down innocent bystanders. You literally have to shoot and kill innocent people at the airport. If you don’t your cover is blown and you cannot advance through the next stage. There is an option where you can skip the stage but if you do, you’ll be missing a part of the plotline. Because of this act of brutality, the story unfolds where Russia now invades the good ‘ol stalwart USA. The rest unfolds like the events you probably remember in movies like “Red Dawn”.

So why did this bother me? For one was the act of shooting innocent people. In games like this, you pretty much have the good guys and the bad guys. You try and eliminate the bad guys and try not to harm the innocent. Now I have played the whole “Grand Theft Auto“series and loved every minute and detail of it. Those games were violent and, yes, you do a lot of questionable things but the plotline was great and most of it was pretty much stupid humor (For those who say that it promotes violence and drug use, I say to them, play the game first and then compare the protagonist of the game to the protagonist of “Les miserables” or “24” or “House” or “The Godfather” series and any gangster movies made on film and then tell me what the real difference is). I have played the whole “Call of Duty” series and they never had anything remotely disturbing like this. That act of shooting innocent people pretty much blurred that fine line of good and evil. Do I think it helped the game’s plot? Yes. Was it necessary to be put into the game? Maybe. I know that playing games are form of escapism where you are in a fantasy world. Still that game, that scene, that act made feel terrible for a while and it just bothered me. Maybe the fine that has been blurred is reality and fantasy.

Speaking of invasions, has anyone caught the series “V” on TV lately? I remember the original back in the early 1980’s and thought this was going to good or equally interesting like the original. So far, not so much. For those who do not know the original series, it was about these aliens coming in big spaceships (I wish for once an alien would come in a economy sized spaceships instead of a massive one), promoting peace and sharing their highly advanced alien technology with the human race. But their real motive was to drain the earth’s water supply for their use and use humans as… as food! Plus, behind their human exteriors, they were nothing more than …..reptiles! The show was about the aliens against a rebel group of paramilitary human resistance groups. The original show had very strong under/over tones of Nazis. It was pretty much an allegory of Nazi activities and a “what if” the Nazis were strongly opposed by resistance groups. Now the 1980’s version was pure fantasy and it was fun. Ok, I was like 6 and scared that a nuclear was imminent and just like the whole idea of “us versus them” mentality. Oh, the original “V” was a mini-series and had sequel miniseries and a regular, short run series.

Now the “V” of the current has pretty much the same premise except with some changes. For one, all of “V’s” are really good looking. I really mean that. Now comparing the old leader of the 1980’s series to the 2009 version, there really isn’t a comparison. The 2009 version is about a million times much hotter. That’s not all. Even the other “V’s” of the 2009 version is really, really good looking. The 1980’s had a mixture of old people with the young to make them look like a real population but the 2009’s “V’s” look like either models or good looking actors….

In the 2009 version, the story is well… pretty much a political commentary on our current lives. It takes a very obvious jabs at the current Obama administration especially with the hope of universal health care coverage. It’s not even a subtle jab. Oh no, it’s very blatant. They also mention about the current flu crisis and how people tend to over-react to it. Listen, I enjoy any political or social satire as anyone (I am a proud fan of “MAD” magazine and watching “South Park”) but somehow, this version of the show seems, for the lack of a better word, lame. Lame as in that I do not feel that there is a threat. Even when they revealed that the aliens were reptiles, I wasn’t that shocked. In the old version, when you saw the aliens as reptiles, your reaction was “Oh my God! What the $#%#! They’re lizards?!” This time around, I just reacted “Oh look…it’s a reptile…”

Maybe the current version of the show is still in its early stages and it’s supposed to be a series and they are just building it up. The old version was a mini-series and they had to show pretty much everything in three nights (whatever happened to mini-series? I remember all the major networks had them every Sunday night….Some good TV came from mini- series like “V”, “Roots”, “North and South”, “The Thornbirds” and “Lonesome Dove”….whose bright idea was it to take them away?) but still the old version clearly set the line of humans good, aliens bad. The new one…well…not so much…Maybe it’s because it has to do with the alien leader. In the old version, a female alien leader named Diana, just looked menacing and evil. So evil, you wouldn’t want to sleight her in any way. The new one is named Anna and she looks like a super-model. Call it the “stupid guy” mentality. No matter how mean or cruel a woman can be, as long as she is looking super-duper, super-model hot, you can’t but try to be in her good graces. She could’ve murdered a whole town and you would actually feel bad for her because she looks that fine. Well Anna in this case is that fine. Maybe I am that stupid guy….Still the current show lacks that big shock factor and seems to be content on taking jabs about our current politics. I will still watch the show until the end of the season but they better show something. Right now, I kind of like being invaded by good looking aliens.