Right, the whole concept of V was based purely on the tiny section where the ships show up IIRC. Clarke has a preface in one of the editions that mentions it as well.

Yup.

The Overlords didn't really have humanity's best interests at heart either, though. Their benevolent acts were means to an end - they were just stabilizing the planet for the big event at the end (trying not to give too much away to those who haven't read it). I believe Karellen explains all this in his final speech.

The Vs are kind of doing the same thing, but more quickly, with nastier tactics and to reach a somewhat different goal. It's all a lot less sophisticated than it is in the book but there are some parallels. The most obvious is the ships hovering over the major cities and the resistance movement (which involves a priest, as in the book), but there's also the fact that the Vs are travelling around the universe taking something from each species they encounter, and that children who are a different species than their human parents have something to do with it.