Revolution

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.

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.

This is a good script well directed. Actors are talented and have chemistry, not the kind of one you usually see. but nevertheless they have a good thing going on.

People usually attack these kind of shows with plot-holes and technicalities. But countless shows with huge plot-holes managed to stay on air because of the level of entertainment they produced. Off the top of my head Stargate SG-1 which ran for 10 season made 2 spin-off shows and straight to DVD movies frequently showed English speaking aliens with American accents. In my opinion that hasn't got anything to do with science or fiction it's merely something they had to do to make the show work in long-term. Revolution is doing the same thing with "diesel engines not working without electricity" and "batteries working after just sitting there for years".

More about the show, Revolution has a very unique way of story-telling. Flash-backs often surprises with hard-to-guess past events that led each character to different points in present. Actor Billy Burke is a natural at portraying Miles Matheson, a highly trained ex-military man with unpredictable emotions towards his peers. Action scenes often include well choreographed sword fights, gun fights and a lot of explosions. The show in no-way seems low budget or badly directed and has the perfect balance of violence and family-friendliness.

If you skipped this show because of any technicalities or potential clichés of post-apocalyptic earth, you might have read. Take it from some who almost skipped it, you should give this show a chance because it will surprise you.

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. :)

A slow burner for sure to start with but recently it's been very good and I've been impressed with the possibilities of where it can go, the current plot and characters have been average so far but I feel there is so much more to come here from Revolution and I'm always eager to see where the plot will go.

As for the complaints about the realism of it, ridiculous. It should not take away from the audience how white the clothes of the characters are, if you're not picky on factual details and enjoy entertainment then I suggest this program to you, as for a rating, I think it's currently about a 7 but has potential hence the rating of an 8.