Revolution

Just watched the Season 1 finale, actually pretty satisfying. People have been really hard on this show, and early on for some good reasons. Eric Kripke, JJ Abrams and Jon Faveraeu combined to create a show that attempts to combine the mythology of 'Lost', the desolation of 'The Walking Dead' and the hubris of 'Game of Thrones' with mixed results. Riding the structure of a good premise, they made a horrible error by attempting to cast Charlie (Tracy Spiridakos) as the star. While easy on the eyes, she just doesn't have the chops to carry a show, and with this ensemble cast she shouldn't have to. Following the Damon Lindelof model from 'Lost', the show runners listened to their audience and changed course for the 2nd half of the season. They finally let Giancarlo Esposito (Gus from 'Breaking Bad') be his awesome self rather than diluting his talent and refocused on Elizabeth Mitchell (Juliet from 'Lost') as the real antagonist. This is much longer form story-telling (1st season was 20 episodes) and the writers need to be careful, however they seem to have righted the ship (characters need to die, TV audiences are too demanding these days and want more realism) and I will be watching Season 2.

"Revolution" has it all. Bad writing. Bad acting. Bad premise. The trifecta. Which probably means that, in the grand tradition of groundbreaking TV shows like "According To Jim', NBC is prepared to keep this turkey going for 7 or 8 years until it finds it footing.

Giancarlo Esposition is better than this.To paraphrase Lloyd Bentsen, " I knew Gus Fring. Gus Fring was a friend of mine. And you, my friend, are no Gus Fring". Never saw Mr. Esposito in a bad project before, but I guess there's always a first time.

This hodgepodge of "The Postman" and "Life After People" looks dead on arrival. And speaking of "dead on arrival", AMC's little zombie show seems to have a way to make this post-apocalyptic stuff a whole lot more palatable. Just add writers and some committed actors and you got yourself a winner. It CAN be done. But "Revolution" ain't doin' it.

"What's in the whiskey, bitch??" Man. If I had nickel for every time I've heard that.

It's 15 years after all electricity has gone out. The modern world has collapsed and replaced by brutal dictatorships. A Monroe militia led by Tom Neville (Giancarlo Esposito) has come to an idyllic farming community. A fight breaks out and Danny is taken prisoner. His sister Charlie Matheson (Tracy Spiridakos) and others including Aaron Pittman (Zak Orth) try to rescue him. She tracks down their uncle Miles Matheson (Billy Burke) to help. The Monroe Republic is run by Sebastian Monroe (David Lyons) and Miles used to be his second in command. Monroe is holding their mother Rachel Matheson (Elizabeth Mitchell) prisoner. She was a scientist involved in the project that went wrong. The project manufactured nanobots that are now spread worldwide sucking up all the electricity.

This promised to be so much better. It started with a lot of promise but also a lot of problems. First it skips 15 years ahead robbing the series of many opportunities. It does flashback every once in awhile but the jump in time creates a vision of the world that is very questionable. Then the first notion was that ammunition was scarce which seems again questionable. Then they seem to drop that notion. That is how the series went. There were pendents. Then nobody cared. It's just not well thought out before they started. The show keeps trying to change course to fix things. Every time there are revelations, something needs to be fixed. It never gets realistic enough but it did try. It got canceled after two full seasons.

I really enjoy Revolution. There is a start for you. I caught a commercial for it while watching the Olympics, and I was genuinely curious about this post-apocalyptic action/adventure series.

To give some background, I don't watch serious TV. I don't like Dr. shows, I didn't like 24, Lost, or countless other serious series because they all suffer from filler and pointless drawn out dialog that is light years from even a decent movie.

Despite these reservations I decided to give Revolution a chance, and was more than pleasantly surprised but rather floored in amazement. Since then I am continued to be impressed that the writers have not sunken to the level of the pointless drivel/time-wasting conversations, but are instead filling each episode with amazing cinematography, great characters, and great action.

The crowd here on IMDb is very strange in that the hipster thing to do seems to be to criticize this show to no end, and hate it. I guess the TV audience that posts on IMDb are not in touch with the average public because everyone I talk to about Revolution loves the show and enjoys it every week.

Revolution satisfies what I look for from cinema in a weekly serial format, and for that I could not be happier, and will continue to enjoy this show.

I was shocked to see all the negative reviews. Perhaps I feel different because I'm not really looking for reality when I watch TV. I'm looking for entertainment. I'm looking to take a break and relax. (Most generally I have enough reality in a normal day, but if I'm looking for more on TV, I'll turn on the news) As for Revolution, I really enjoy the Drama. I find myself drawn into what the writers, and actors give with this show each week. There are some characters, I love to hate, and others I'm cheering on! I now make it a point to watch it when it comes on, or if I can't - I make sure the DVR is set, and watch it later. :)