'V Wars' Season 1: How the Netflix thriller failed to become the climate change television discourse that was promised and needed
Before the first season of 'V Wars' released on Netflix released last week, its stars, including Ian Somerhalder -- who is also one of the executive producers on the show -- promised that the Netflix sci-fi horror thriller would be quite different from other vampire shows, including, in that, the show would discuss topical issues like xenophobia and climate change.
The xenophobia can be seen in terms of how humans and vampires are immediately divided into separate factions, with the politics sometimes becoming more important than survival itself.
However, 'V Wars' failed to be the climate change discourse television needed -- something that was promised. In fact, in the early moments of the first episode, it looked like 'V Wars' would be that -- one of the first lines of the show is when Dr. Luther Swann (Somerhalder) says, "No matter what your politics are we know that climate change is causing glacial deterioration."
However, it ends there, with climate change just serving enough material to explain where the virus comes from. Of course, the panic that unravels when people are turned into vampires and start feeding on humans can be viewed as a climate change issue metaphorically, but in this day and age, we needed more.
Movies like 'The Day After Tomorrow' and 'Wall-E' have dealt with the climate change issue, though it is rare in movies and it is hardly ever seen on television. Most times, the issue is viewed through a dystopian, fantasy lens, as if we do not know how to talk about climate change in the fictional world.
In an episode of 'Big Little Lies' this year, one of the kindergarteners goes into a panic attack when the teacher starts talking about the unsustainability of sausages -- just as activist Greta Thunberg has written about having panic attacks on thinking about the shortcomings of humans to effectively deal with climate change.
'V Wars' had the capability to change the conversation, to go where no other television show has when it comes to talking about climate change. Unfortunately, but putting the premise on the backburner, viewers were denied this.
All episodes of the first season of 'V Wars' are now streaming on Netflix.