The Revolution pilot is online now...

[Gotham Central]

For me, they really are going to need to explain how fire can burn and water can boil but there are no steam powered technologies ANYWHERE! The fact that there is a bloody still in the bar proves that that technology should work just fine.

Hell, I'm from Chicago, so I know for a fact that the Museum of Science and Industry alone has some of that stuff on display and more in storeage.

This series could have kept everything in tact but made it into a steampunk mystery/adventure series....but no, instead it just does not make sense.

One thing I am curious about...if there is no electricty, does this mean no lightning? That might explain why the cities (and everything else) did not burn in the immediate aftermath.

[Guy Gardener]

No lighting or warmth means that billions of idiots would have been lighting unsafe fires.

[sojourner]

I imagine the first couple years after "The Event" (lol) would have been the worst. Imagine all the millions of people spilling out of cities in search of food. Nation wide riots anyone? I imagine the most populous, reliant on modern technology countries were reduced to 1/10th of current numbers.

[Locutus of Bored]

That's what I always found so laughable when they updated Keanu Klaatu's ultimatum for humanity in The Day the Earth Stood Still from preventing mankind from spreading its aggression to preventing mankind from destroying its environment, but then they shut down all electrical systems on Earth either long term or permanently. The Industrial Revolution was pretty damn environmentally damaging long before the advent of widespread electrical power, and you've just left billions of people without a heat source heading into winter, so you can bet they're going to be chopping down and burning massive amounts of trees. Then everyone will hunt down animals by the millions for food since they can't count on mass production farms and livestock any more, and war will ravage the world as they fight over the ever-dwindling resources. That, plus the nano-dust getting in the atmosphere probably leave Earth worse off than it was before.

[C.E. Evans]

Saw the pilot On Demand yesterday and I lost interest half-way through. I guess post-apocalyptic stuff just isn't for me or perhaps I got my fill of it ages ago.

[Samuel Walters]

I found the wacky science of the episode to be distracting - ditto for the Hunger Games similarities (right down to the score). Worse still was the characterization ... and plotting. Visually, I really enjoyed the way the episode looked, and the production values were very high. But with a checkered past for high-concept "mythology"-based series like this one (for every Lost and BSG there is an Event and Flash Forward), I'm going to wait and see if this series actually manages to string together a few successful seasons - and doesn't just string along its audience.

Overall, I gave the pilot a C-.

Oh, and for a more plausible post-EMP-apocalyptic road journey series, I'd recommend the web-based Afterworld - if you can get past its stylized presentation.

[Mister Fandango]

Gotham Central wrote:

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One thing I am curious about...if there is no electricty, does this mean no lightning?

If there isn't the world is even more screwed than it knows considering the role it plays in creating nitrates, ozone, and God knows what else.

[JD]

I don't know if it's true or not, but some of the people involved in the show claim they've approached a physicist(?) about the reason for the blackout, and they said it was plausible.

[Samuel Walters]

JD wrote:

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I don't know if it's true or not, but some of the people involved in the show claim they've approached a physicist(?) about the reason for the blackout, and they said it was plausible.

So they say ...

Still, when I hear "the laws of physics changed," I cannot help but be reminded of "Perhaps the laws of physics cease to exist on your stove. Were these magic grits? Did you buy them from the same guy who sold Jack his beanstalk beans?" Probably not the connotation the series is aiming for ...

[Locutus of Bored]

JD wrote:

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I don't know if it's true or not, but some of the people involved in the show claim they've approached a physicist(?) about the reason for the blackout, and they said it was plausible.

It's sort of like when they say "Based on a true story" in a horror movie. Yes, some people really may have died in a house once, but it didn't have anything to do with ghosts or demons, it was just a straight up murder. They're trying to lend it an air of credibility, though.

Likewise, blackouts and EMP are quite real, but they behave nothing like the phenomenon in this series does. So, they get some expert who's willing to do a soundbite to say "Oh yes, EMP is quite plausible," and they lend the series an air of credibility even though the physics behind the final product has nothing to do with the general idea they mentioned to him or her initially.

[Mister Fandango]

Oh, I have no doubt that they came up with a valid way to explain why electrical systems were disabled.

That's not the problem. It could be a satellite EMP field, or nanites, or whatever else you want to use to explain it. The problem is that nothing they're doing makes any damn sense. So yeah, they have an explanation for the lack of electrical systems. So why isn't everyone using steam power? Why are they able to build stills but not anything that's actually useful to humanity? Why did every single aircraft fall straight down from the sky (while their lights were still on)? Why do the magical talismans have super awesome batteries able to activate a magical field 15 years later? <insert any other question asked throughout the thread here>?

It's the "what if?" aspect that they've screwed up royally, not the initial "how?" that started everything rolling.

[sojourner]

^A wizard did it.

[Dream]

sojourner wrote:

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^A wizard did it.

Jacob from LOST did it.

[Mister Fandango]

Nope.

Clearly a physicist said it was possible, so it's real Science!. No magic at all. We've been reassured.

[Locutus of Bored]

Mister Fandango wrote:

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It's the "what if?" aspect that they've screwed up royally, not the initial "how?" that started everything rolling.

Actually, it's both. The blackout manifests itself like no normal power outage, computer virus, EMP attack, satellite EM field, or nanite infestation possibly could. It's physics defying magic right from the get go.