A new sci-fi series set 15 years after a mysterious event somehow renders all motor vehicles and electrical devices on the planet (even the ones that run on batteries) useless, “Revolution” comes to us from J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot production company (“Fringe,” “Person of Interest”) and writer-producer Eric Kripke (creator of The WB’s “Tarzan” and “Supernatural”).
Basically it’s about a post-modern world in which everybody is forced to live like the Amish – well, except for all that abstaining-from-violence nonsense.
NBC put the pilot on the Internet a while ago, so I’m going to lean into the spoilers pretty hard here.
There’s a mysterious fellow named Sebastian Monroe who oversees a post-electricity regional government called the Monroe Republic. Monroe dispatches a badass named Capt. Tom Neville (Giancarlo Esposito, who used to play Gus Fring on “Breaking Bad”) to find Miles Matheson (Billy Burke, dad from the “Twilight” movies), a former U.S. government employee who may know why the lights went out and, more importantly, may even have some ideas regarding how to get them back on.
Monroe believes if he can get tanks and bombers and flashlights working again he can destroy all the other regional governments and rule the planet. Which he’ll no doubt rename The Planet Monroe.
But here’s the bad news for Monroe. This Miles Matheson guy has grown so good with a sword in the post-iPhone era that he can singlehandedly defeat a whole platoon of Monroe militiamen, even though the militiamen have guns and Matheson doesn’t. (If “Raiders of the Lost Ark” hilariously demonstrated that a guy with a gun can easily defeat a really accomplished swordsman, “Revolution” demonstrates that this Matheson guy can somehow dodge bullets as easily as he can impale loads of riflemen.)
The pilot, directed by Jon Favreau (“Iron Man,” “Cowboys & Aliens”), filled me with questions like these:
* Why are the guys with the guns losing to the guy with the sword? Does it have something to do with that giant staircase?
* There more than 200 million privately owned guns in the United States. What kind of song and dance did the Monroe Republic gin up to get all those dues-paying NRA members to surrender their firearms?
* If electricity is truly no more, how can humans continue to function without the electrical impulses that allow them to think and move?
* Given that Matheson is such a super-high-value target, why do the guys sent to capture Matheson carry what look like old-timey muskets instead of machine guns, or even a nifty modern pistol like the one Esposito’s character utilizes early in the pilot? Didn’t the manufacture of bullets predate electricity?
* Why does Matheson wait around for hours for the Monroe militiamen to return with gun-toting reinforcements, only to explain to them that he doesn’t want a fight?
* Is it not a huge coincidence that Matheson’s fugitive nephew just happens to stumble onto a random farm on which an ornate and seemingly magical electricity-generating thumb-drive resides?
On the upside, some of the post-apocalyptic production design is dang cool. And even if all of the good guys feel undercooked I reatlly kind of liked Esposito’s ruthless/irritable militia captain.
Also? Puffy-lipped 16-year-old Canadian Tracy Spiridakos, who plays Matheson’s bow-toting niece Charlie, is already hot enough, apparently, to pose shirtless for GQ!
By far the most interesting parts of the pilot are the 15-years-earlier bits, which feature powerless jetliners crashing to earth and a little-girl version of Charlie being told, more or less, that she’ll probably never taste ice cream again. (Though I like to imagine a curious passing Amish fellow peering at the ice-cream scene through Charlie’s window, then shrugging and remarking, “I believe I’ll go home and enjoy some ice cream, a confection invented more than a thousand years before the electric freezer.”)
Importantly, “Revolution” is not another show about cops or lawyers. (I was going to add “doctors,” but there is at least one doctor character in the show.)
I got all the way through the increasingly disappointing “The Event,” “Alcatraz” and “Terra Nova” series just because I was more intrigued by their respective premises than anything that was going on with “NCIS Los Angeles.” I’ll probably watch next week’s episode of “Revolution” for the same reason. It’s anybody’s guess how much farther I can coast on a show without power.
... a fairly low-wattage result. … though Esposito and Burke are both excellent — and Kripke and Favreau stage a classic swashbuckling swordfight for Miles that's easily the highlight of the first hour — far too much time is spent on the boring (Charlie) or annoying (Danny) teenagers, once again trying to force youth appeal into a show without bothering to generate characters that viewers of any age will actually care about watching. …
... Will "Revolution" be able to inject its tech-dystopia with real stakes if it's hard to care whether the younger characters live or die? Will it be one of those shows where the Big Concept crowds out the construction of a believable world and compelling relationships? I simply don't know … only time will tell whether this show will finally break the curse of every show from "FlashForward" to "V" to "The Event" and "Invasion" and "Terra Nova" and "V" and a dozen other shows I've spent too much time rewriting in my head. …
… the pilot, at least, is engaging and suspenseful... It’s appealing to people who have no patience for historical fiction (too many plagues, pilgrimages and lute players) or time travel (please), but do hanker for sword fights and the phhhttt of an arrow right through the neck.…
… the characters are fairly stock, the situations familiar and, some nifty digital backgrounds notwithstanding, the production continually felt more like an elaborate game of let's pretend than it did a window into some real other world. I didn't buy a second of it. ... The effect of the permanent blackout has included the partial destruction of the Golden Gate Bridge and the St. Louis Gateway Arch, which I am pretty sure would withstand a simple absence of power and would indeed be harder to destroy without it. (Although gunpowder does seem to still work.) But it does say "post-apocalypse." One might point out as well that humankind led a relatively civilized and technologically complicated existence before electric power and that the Industrial Revolution ran not on electricity but steam. …
... the writing can be a bit corny, the action sequences a tad ridiculous and the plot prone to nit-picking. … The hourlong pilot had a strong start and finish. It was the stuff in the middle that gave me pause. …
... I’m on the fence. In just one episode, “Revolution” feels already too rushed (trying to beat the cancellation clock, no doubt), concerned more with its melodrama and sword fights than easing us into the idea of what it’s like to cope without power. …
The San Francisco Chronicle says:
... a good adventure yarn, but the other reason we're likely to watch future episodes is that it grounds the action in thought-provoking themes. …
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:
... a pretty solid hour of television, setting up the show's premise and in several instances defying TV norms with plot twists viewers won't see coming. So let's hope the following episodes will be as good. …
... One of the most intriguing series of fall … NBC hasn’t had much luck launching a serialized sci-fi show. Both “Heroes” and “The Event” started strong and fizzled. But there’s reason to hope here: Kripke honed “Supernatural’s” mythology and made that show a cult hit. “Revolution” may yet spark your imagination.
... you may find yourself remembering Flash Forward, another show with a brilliant opening scene that was all dumb questions with no smart answers. Not to say it may not have answers. It just needs to provide a few of them, and quickly.
... doesn’t make a lot of sense, but it’s a lot of fun. …
... For every arresting image, there's a lot of wandering around in the overgrown woods, and reason for skepticism as to whether audiences will patiently stick with the show. …
10 p.m. Monday. NBC.
