Juicy alien drama in ‘V’ deserves allegiance

Absence, it seems, does not automatically make TV viewers’ hearts grow fonder, as it did in 2002 after “The Sopranos’’ took 16 months off and returned with higher ratings than before.

But I’m really hoping that ABC’s “V,’’ which is back tonight at 10 on Channel 5 after a four-month break, will hit the ground running. This is a smart, juicy sci-fi series that deserves more time on the air. Will it be ABC’s much-hoped-for replacement for network sci-fi fans after “Lost’’ leaves in May? Probably not — “V’’ is a radically different show, without the interactive-game element that has made “Lost’’ unique. But the first four episodes of “V,’’ which ran in November, introduced an alien drama that has both an addictive narrative drive and an ensemble of well-defined characters.

Based on the 1980s “V’’ series and miniseries, “V’’ revolves around a fairly basic setup — basic enough, I think, for new viewers to jump in tonight without much confusion. The aliens, called “Visitors,’’ hover above major cities in metallic high-tech ships, offering friendship and magical healing to humans. They’re attractive, by human standards, and their leader, Anna (Morena Baccarin), carries an air of seductive calm. Her voice is the kind you’d hear on a New Age relaxation recording. But the Visitors aren’t so pretty on the inside — in fact, under their flesh suits they are giant lizards with suspicious intentions toward us.

Humans are pledging allegiance to the Visitors by the millions, but there is an underground resistance building momentum. FBI counterterrorism agent Erica Evans (Elizabeth Mitchell) is involved in the resistance, along with Father Jack Landry (Joel Gretsch). So are a few Visitors who call themselves the Fifth Column, including Ryan (Morris Chestnut). Ryan’s girl-friend, Valerie (Lourdes Benedicto), doesn’t know he is a Visitor — but she’s pregnant, and the truth may arrive on her due date. Meanwhile, Erica’s son, Tyler (Logan Huffman), is falling in love with Visitor culture, and one Visitor in particular — Anna’s daughter. The two poles of motherhood on the show, cool Anna and emotionally expressive Erica, play out through their children.

“V’’ is open to all kinds of allegorical readings about today’s world, as is most good alien and dystopian fiction. There are shades of political fascism in the way the humans fall under Anna’s attractive spell, and there are hints of pop culture’s commercial lure in the way the Visitors reach out to teenagers. Anna manipulates the media ruthlessly to win human approval ratings. News shows are her most important tool — she even stages a sniper attack to gain audience sympathy. Her psychic chess game with news anchor Chad Decker (Scott Wolf) represents the kind of power struggle you find between today’s media gatekeepers and the politicians and celebrities they interview.

But “V’’ is primarily a good story well told. So far, the producers and writers (formerly led by Scott Peters, now led by Scott Rosenbaum) have a sense of the art of the reveal. They’ve showed a strong awareness of how to keep viewers beguiled by the mystery while handing us enough answers to reward our commitment. Unless the show takes a big turn for the worse tonight, I’m rooting for the visitors — the humans, that is, who decide to visit “V.’’

Matthew Gilbert can be reached at gilbert@globe.com. For more on TV, visit www.boston.com/ae/tv/blog.

Correction: Because of a reporting error, a review in Tuesday's "g" section of the sci-fi TV series "V" misidentified a group of alien resistance fighters. They are known as the Fifth Column.