As the first original series for the launch of a new free streaming platform with the nondescript name of The Network (or possibly just Network, judging by the company logo) that seemed to come from out of nowhere this week, you could say that The Green Veil has flown under the radar. Amusingly, flying under the radar also seems appropriate for a show ostensibly about UFOs.

The weird and somewhat frustrating thing about The Green Veil, however, is that the series presents itself as a science-fiction story in the vein of The X Files or Project Blue Book, but may not really have any science-fiction in it at all. The two premiere episodes suggest that the sci-fi trappings are a ruse to disguise what the characters are really up to. Whether any little green men will really show up in the future remains to be seen.

Title:	The Green Veil
Season:	1
Episodes:	1.01 – Your Children Are My Children 1.02 – Your Country Is My Country
Release Date:	April 30, 2024
Watched On:	The Network

The story is set in 1956, in a picture-perfect Connecticut suburban community where FBI agent Gordon Rogers (John Leguizamo) lives in a perfect home with a perfect, doting housewife and a perfect teenage daughter who adores him. At least, that’s the image he insists on presenting to the world. In truth, Gordo (as his colleagues call him) is a controlling and abusive jerk who treats both wife and daughter terribly, and has no tolerance for disagreement with the ridiculous rules he’s set or the facade he’s built. Despite being an immigrant (possibly illegal) who was kidnapped away from his mother as a child, Gordon will settle for nothing less than having the ideal (needless to say, white) American dream for himself at any cost, and doesn’t care about anyone else. “My mission: God damn American greatness,” he declares.

Wife Mabel (Hani Furstenberg), who’d been a pilot in the war and grown used to having more autonomy, understands the culture she’s living in and the limited options she has, but struggles in the subservient role. Adopted daughter Abigail (Isabelle Poloner) quietly resents her father and the life she’s been forced into.

When a series of Native American girls from the surrounding region go missing, Gordon is assigned to investigate signs of alien abduction, including mysterious lights in the sky and crop circles. He isn’t terribly concerned when news of this gets out and causes local hysteria. Gordo, it turns out, is decidedly not a Fox Mulder type crusading to uncover the truth out there. The truth may not even be out there. Whatever the truth is, he may already know it and be actively trying to hide it.

The opening scenes of the first episode show a native girl being dragged off her farm by completely human men in suits and shoved into a car. Later, Mabel takes an interest in this case behind her husband’s back and goes to visit the farm herself, to find that the girl’s family has been ousted and a large crop circle (not there before) has been set up as if for show. While all the puzzle pieces haven’t been laid out yet, initial signs point to the U.S government stealing native children and shipping them off to orphanages so that they can be assimilated into white society and their genetic pool eventually diluted out of existence.

In other words, The Green Veil appears to be sort of a reverse X Files, in which the alien abduction story is an elaborate cover for a more Earthbound conspiracy. That’s an intriguing premise, if correct. However, so little is clear about the show at this point that it may be too soon to judge. Only two episodes are available at launch, each less than half an hour long. Publicity for the series has also been scattershot. The IMDb description lists it as an, “Anthology series concerning oppression in America,” which is pretty vague and open-ended.

As the star and most notable name in the cast, John Leguizamo is fine, but his character is fairly one-dimensional. He’s meant to be unlikable, but I’d still wish for a little more character depth than has been offered so far. Mabel and Abigail seem to be the actual protagonists of the story (more so Mabel in these episodes).

Although this clearly isn’t a big-budget show, costumes and production values for the 1950s setting are convincing enough. More problematic is that, even with such short running times, the episodes are a little dull. On the other hand, the short length means they can’t drag too long and the series isn’t much of a commitment, either. I’m intrigued enough so far to give it a little longer and see how it develops.

Video Streaming

As mentioned, The Green Veil is the first series to launch on new streaming platform The Network. (British comedy series Chivalry follows on May 2, 2024.) Although viewing content requires creating an account and signing in, doing so is free. Both episodes were preceded by two ads with volume significantly louder than the show itself, but at this point in time, no further ads interrupted the episodes after they started.

The Green Veil streams in high-definition (no 4K, sadly) at an aspect ratio of 2.40:1. The image is pretty sharp, but the show’s photography often has strange affectations where parts of the frame are left deliberately out of focus. Colors and contrast are a little flat with slightly elevated black levels, likely as an artistic decision as well. The streaming bit rate appears to be on the low side, which led to some image break-ups and artifacts in dark scenes during my viewing.

The Dolby 2.0 soundtrack has reasonable clarity and mild surround immersion, but nothing I felt was particularly notable.

Frustratingly, the Network app on Roku prompts a pop-up with 15-second auto-play countdown to the next episode well before the one you’re still watching is actually over, and if you don’t immediately grab your remote and disable it, the episode will cut out in the middle of a scene. The company needs to fix the timing of that as soon as possible.