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I’ve been watching V, ABC’s remake of an older show about an alien presence on Earth, out of sheer love for Firefly’s Morena Baccarin, who plays the alien queen Anna with creepy aplomb. Inexplicably, V got renewed, and inexplicably, I’m still watching each episode the whole way through, instead of just skipping to the scenes that she’s in. A story about evil aliens and scrappy resistance members sounds great, but the focus seems awfully narrow considering that the whole world is involved, and our main characters seem just a little Too Dumb To Live at times. Plus, the dialogue is leaden. Erica, the main character, had a line when she was trying to reassure a regular guy who had gotten in over his head, saying that she, too, up until recently, had just been a normal mom… oh, and also an FBI agent. It sounds like it could be funny, but it just felt like it hadn’t really been thought out all the way. My husband commented, “There should be certain lines where, if you write them in your script, the orbital Hollywood satellite fires its laser and the laser hits the ground and forms a little crater.”

The only reason I’m still watching is because I keep hoping that Anna’s going to snack on Tyler, Erica’s massively unsympathetic son. Hopefully there’d be just enough time between the big reveal and dinner that he could truly comprehend the depths of his own gullibility before making himself useful for once and providing Anna with some nutrients. (And believe you me, I wouldn’t say no to seeing fawning newscaster Chad served up as dessert, either.) Actually, the more annoying humans Anna ate on-screen, the more I think I’d like the show. Unfortunately, it’s a little shy about revealing anything that matters, such as what exactly the Vs are actually here for, the mysterious “mineral” they supposedly want that no one seems to want an explanation about, or the hybrid baby’s face. (A wiggly tail doesn’t do it for me, I want to see goo-goo eyes and a full set of chompers.)

Anna’s wardrobe is about as far removed from Inara’s sumptuous silks as you can get, with the exception of that peach robe that I longed to run over my palms. For me, it does a good job of conveying the thought the Vs put into human clothing — a point that is underscored by Anna’s contemplation of a purple kimono in one of the early episodes, as she contemplates a pose of modest femininity to impress and reassure the very people she plans to eventually run generically creepy tests on. She could be an executive in her somber outfits, but the high collars are just sci-fi enough to be out of place. No pants, ever (that I remember): she sticks to skirts, conveying just a shade less power. No jewelry, minimal decoration. It’s all unearthly in a style specifically designed to appeal to modern humans. (Oh, and she has a fantastic wardrobe selection mechanism. For the sake of the doomed Earth fashionistas, I hope she at least bestowed it on humanity along with the healing centers and blue energy.)

This outfit is based on the various outfits she’s worn. I thought it could be something she could wear to create a softer image, because of the rounded corners of the jacket, the less severe hemline and the gentle grey tones. I’m sure there are times she’d want to project a softer image, don’t you think? Like, as she lulls Tyler and/or Chad into a false sense of security in order to get them relaxed so that their meat tastes better. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for such a scene next season.

No one’s got the right answer yet… One hint, it’s under 1,000. You guys realize that these pencils are about $1.25 if you buy them individually, right? Thanks to online shopping and that store closing I haven’t paid full price for them in a while, but… still!

Question: How many Prismacolor pencils do I own as of May 18th?
This includes the ones that I use, all the stubby little pencils that are too short for my current sharpener but I just can’t toss, all the ones I have in reserve and my set of Verithin pencils I hardly ever use.

Just to restate the rules:
1) It’s a new year, so even if you’ve already won one, feel free to guess again.
2) One guess per person per post.
3) If no one gets the exact number by noon EST, May 25th, I’ll pick the closest guess.