Revolução

"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.

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.

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.

For me it looked like a regurgitated "Lost". And as much as I love PAW fiction, I had a difficult thing with some things… not the how, what and where, but rather the softening up and romanticizing the harshness of a potential reality. Yeah, I know...its Hollywood.

I found the characters mainly looking like they came out of an Old Navy commercial…with perfect teeth and hair, and clothing that was amazingly stylish. Obviously someone had power to keep the straightening irons working...and the skills that survived well were dentistry, cosmetology and fashion design.

The planes falling from a flat spin from the sky instead of a diminished trajectory...still having navigation lights on didn't lend to realism in the beginning.

A detail that I laughed about was when they walked upon an RV on its side…with an open window to crawl into…and found the interior looking pretty much brand new after 15 years. There were others but I let them go at that point. Maybe I need to watch more episodes, but after the first show, I'm not sure if I have the time to watch it.