The Revolution pilot is online now...

[Mister Fandango]

JD wrote:

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Yeah, that's pretty much what they've said in some of the interviews I've read. It sounds like the mystery will be secondary to what's going on with Charlie, her uncle, Aaron (the Google guy), and Maggie (the doctor).

That may be what they intend, but it's not what they set up or what they lead the audience to expect. The story is about the shutdown of all large mechanics and electronics. The insipid teen angsty love and kung fu uncle stories are all just filler.

[Scout101]

Gotham Central wrote:

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I think that they did that, as I said in my earlier post, I don't think that the fall of the earlier civilization will be that important. I think that the question of WHY the power is off going to be the key.

Mark my words...AI...people.

Disagree, I guess. I'd rather watch the immediate aftermath, as things fall apart and new forms rise up, follow a group trying to survive as things change. Like Walking Dead, but with less zombies.

Instead, we're gonna get some moustache-twirling conspiracy show, and it's gonna get cancelled before we find out the ending anyway. Which is fine, because there's a pretty big missing step between knocking civilization back to the stone age and profit, so whatever the evil plot ends up being will be underwhelming anyway. That kind of group already HAD power, so they'd want to make fairly minor changes to grow that power. Not blow it all up and fundamentally change the planet and try to see if they can get powerful again.

Feel free to theorize all you like, but finding the answer (if we even ever get one) will likely piss you off more than anything.

I prefer the characters take front stage, and be put against environment and circumstance, and just other opportunistic people, rather than some plotting cabal that makes zero logical sense. again...

[Guy Gardener]

Or there's fear of the alternative.

If the world had to end, and you have a couple choices?

Imagine North Korea and Pakistan get into a barney, and it's 40 seconds till they let all their shit fly.

40 seconds till the end of the world.

40 seconds till there's radiation everywhere.

40 seconds till 4 decades of nuclear winter.

Radiation and nuclear winter suck.

This, a global black out, which deactivates missiles in their silos and missiles in the air simultaneously saving the planet from the crust being cracked a sunder and the atmosphere igniting.

It's the ultimate countermeasure to MAD.

Well the ultimate countermeasure is civility, but this is all they could swing.

[DigificWriter]

Mister Fandango wrote:

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That may be what they intend, but it's not what they set up or what they lead the audience to expect. The story is about the shutdown of all large mechanics and electronics. The insipid teen angsty love and kung fu uncle stories are all just filler.

Did you even watch the pilot? The conspiracy stuff makes up a very small fraction of the episode's content.

[Scout101]

But they pretty much HAVE to come back to it, don't they?

Not every LOST episode had Smoke Monster, but he was always in the background, not making any sense

Since they're billing it as the group trying to figure out what happened, and how to turn the power back on, seems like they're kinda stuck having to address the evil conspiracy...

[DigificWriter]

^ I'm not denying that the conspiracy stuff isn't or won't be part of the show; I'm denying that it is the entirety of the story.

[Mister Fandango]

DigificWriter wrote:

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Did you even watch the pilot?

Yes, I did. Did you?

The conspiracy stuff makes up a very small fraction of the episode's content.

You mean like it being the whole focus of the initial scenes? Or the driving force of the entire show? Or the driving force behind every single character's motivation on the show, good guy and bad guy alike? The entire world has been turned upside down because of the conspiracy. Charlie is out to rescue her brother who was taken because of the conspiracy and avenge her father who died because of the conspiracy. The ex-Google guy was given a magical amulet to protect because of the conspiracy. The uncle is being hunted because of the conspiracy. Charlie's little boyfriend is/was hunting them because of the conspiracy. The math teacher has a secret lab and magical talisman because of the conspiracy. Espisito and the warlord are hunting the uncle because of the conspiracy. etc.

But, no, you say it's a only a small fraction of the show. So none of that can possibly be accurate.

[SG-17]

I don't really know what to say about this show. I can't really put it into words well.

I mean I am interested in it, yet at the same time it puts me off. I don't want to watch it, but I end up doing so anyway...

[DigificWriter]

Mister Fandango: There's a difference between something being part of a series' basic conceit/concept and said thing being the entire story; the blackout is part of Revolution's basic concept and conceit, but, as presented in both the pilot and tonight's episode, it isn't the entire story.

Speaking of tonight's episode, I really enjoyed it, even moreso than I enjoyed the pilot. Its plot reminded me very much of the Firefly episodes War Stories and Safe, and even conjured up memories of the short-lived FOX series Vanished and Reunion.

A bunch of people on another board were talking about how they found Charlie annoying or unlikeable, but I have to disagree. She reminds me a lot of Buffy Summers and River, albeit without the superpowers, and I got a major kick out of her admonishment of Miles and Nora.

The pilot didn't really give us much of an indication as to the genesis of the series' title, but that was very much remedied in this ep, and I'm really interested in seeing where things go with the eponomous revolution going forward, especially since, judging by the preview for next week, our characters are very much going to be wading into the thick of things.

[sojourner]

I got strong vibes of The Postman from tonight's episode.

[Mister Fandango]

DigificWriter wrote:

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Mister Fandango: There's a difference between something being part of a series' basic conceit/concept and said thing being the entire story; the blackout is part of Revolution's basic concept and conceit, but, as presented in both the pilot and tonight's episode, it isn't the entire story.

Backpeddle all you like, but I was criticizing how you said it was an insignificant and minor aspect of the show. It's anything but, no matter how much the writers want to try and pretend that's the case. The entire show -- and the entire interest in the show -- revolves around the inane and nonsensical conspiracy.

[Anwar]

I loved the fight between Miles and the Bounty Hunter at the start.

[Dream]

This show has a big problem that I don't think it can recover from.

The lead character that plays Charlie is a very poor actress. It has started to become more and more obvious now that we are at the second episode. Shows can get away with a bad or boring lead actor if the supporting cast is amazing, but this isn't the case here. It is obvious the network wants her to be their Hunger Games Katniss wanna character, since that franchise has become so big. At the moment I find her character to be annoying and stupid, terrible traits to have as the leading character. I hope the actress can get better eventually before she sinks the series.

It looks like her dumb brother and obvious future conflicted militia boyfriend will be around for quite a while.

Whenever we get scenes with the teens, it is awful.

Billy Burke, Giancarlo Esposito, and Elizabeth Mitchell are the only ones that have been doing a decent acting job on the show so far. Too bad it looks like they are all supporting characters.

I REALLY can't take the guy that plays the evil General seriously since he had also been on another failed NBC show, The Cape.

There is something about the show so far that makes it look cheap. It would be so much better if they dirted the characters up even a little. I can imagine how much better this show would be if it was on cable.

[Star Wolf]

sojourner wrote:

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I got strong vibes of The Postman from tonight's episode.

So "Revolution" refers to the Restored United States of America, not the coming steampunk revolution. The stars and stripes elicits a burn it all response from Monroe's captains

[Anwar]

That made sense to me: The Monroe Republic is clearly a Dictatorship whereas the old America stood for freedom and liberty (in spirit if not practice) and there's already a Rebel movement against Monroe. So to them the old Flag is the opposite of what Monroe wants.

The "start-up" power button of a computer keeps coming on in the title. I wonder what that has to do with "Revolution"...maybe it's referring to the simple act of change, rather than anything political/social?