Aaron, Rachel, Charlie Matheson, Miles Matheson, Nate Walker, Tom Neville (NBC) |
We're introduced to Ben and Rachel Matheson and their two children (daughter Charlie and son Danny) just before a mysterious event takes out all power worldwide. Cars stop in their tracks, planes fall from the sky, and computers shut down forever. Somehow, Ben knows the event is coming and manages to download a bunch of files on a special USB drive before everything goes dark.
(Caution: spoilers ahead. You've been warned.)
Flash-forward
15 years to a modern day cul-de-sac converted into a fenced-in farming village
where Ben lives with his children (Rachel has presumably died). While Charlie
is away, Captain Tom Neville of the Monroe Militia (complete with members scarred
with the militia’s insignia on their forearms) comes looking for Ben on orders
from their malevolent commander. When Danny tries to prevent them from taking
his father, Ben is shot and Danny hauled off. Charlie gets back just in time to
receive her father’s deathbed mission to find her Uncle Miles so he can help
rescue Danny. Charlie, along with the town doctor (and Ben's lover) and town teacher (and
resident geek to whom Ben charged protecting the USB drive), set out for Chicago
in search of Miles.
The
series has drawn comparisons to dystopian stories like The
Hunger Games (both share a bow-bearing heroine) and Jericho (both
explore a post-apocalypse from a small-town perspective) as well as the inevitable
link to series producer J.J. Abrams’ most famous drama, Lost.
Indeed, as I watched I couldn’t help flashing back to these series as well as
films like The Postman and The
Book of Eli.
But Revolution’s uniqueness comes in its
mystery (why did all the power go out) and its exploration of a world without
any kind of electrical power and how people would handle the collapse of world civilization.
It delivered on these elements with a dramatic opening, sprawling landscapes of
vine-covered cities and images of life in cul-de-sac villages. We get glimpses
and hints of republics and militias cropping up in the vacuum of collapsed
governments and the difficulty and improvisation of weaponry in an electricity
forlorn and factory-less world.
Character-wise,
however, I thought the pilot was inconsistent. For example, Charlie’s character
was uneven. On the one hand, her character is laced with naivety: she keeps
memories and dreams in a rusty Star Wars lunch box, she’s inexperienced enough
to believe her uncle will help her simply because “we’re family,” and she hasn’t
seemed to encounter the violence of which her father warns her early on. Yet killing
a person seems to come easy to her; she can fight well and kill without
remorse. I found myself longing for the way The Hunger Games trilogy wrestles with the consequences of
violence, especially on children and teenagers.
Then
there’s Captain Tom Neville. The pilot left me feeling as if he’s a fairly cardboard
bad guy. I would have liked to have seen
at least one real revelation that left us thinking there was some hope of humanity
in him or redemption for him. Giancarlo Esposito is more than capable of a
complex character; let’s hope the writers give him one.
Miles and Aaron, on the other hand, were more engaging. Under his jaded and tough exterior, Miles has the capacity to join a larger cause—and he is one wicked samurai with a sword. The fight scene in The Grand is impressive by television standards. And Aaron has the promise of the geek appeal of characters like Lost’s Hurley and SGU’s Eli, who give us access to the story through someone we can relate to. While the characters are still new and yet to be developed, I didn’t have much of a problem believing they were who they were supposed to be.
Miles and Aaron, on the other hand, were more engaging. Under his jaded and tough exterior, Miles has the capacity to join a larger cause—and he is one wicked samurai with a sword. The fight scene in The Grand is impressive by television standards. And Aaron has the promise of the geek appeal of characters like Lost’s Hurley and SGU’s Eli, who give us access to the story through someone we can relate to. While the characters are still new and yet to be developed, I didn’t have much of a problem believing they were who they were supposed to be.
Grace / NBC |
Apart
from the characters, I am intrigued by the village-like community portrayed; it’ll
be interesting to see if and how they develop that in contrast to our modern
experience of life. And while there is the big and intriguing question of what
made the power go out, there do not seem to be any of the big questions of life
fermenting in the story so far—which was one of the things I appreciated about Lost, Jericho and Hunger
Games.
Bottom
line? I’ve got mixed feelings about the pilot. I still find the premise
intriguing and the story promising. A few of the characters are truly engaging.
However, the writing is uneven, particularly when it comes to some of the other
characters. And I long for deeper questions and explorations beyond the obvious
mystery event.