Revolution
Revolution comes to UK airwaves tonight and tries to show us an apocalypse that we’ve never seen before. What if all the electricity in the world suddenly stopped working?
While it’s a great idea, the show unfortunately doesn’t really make the most of it. Instead of taking the opportunity to go crazy with some sort of alternative energy, steam powered world, it goes for the tired clichés of the post apocalypse. Abandoned fairgrounds, rusted up cars and overgrown plants.
Also, curiously enough, after fifteen years without power, the world has descended into chaos and the world is now ruled by warlords and militias. Well, it wouldn’t be dramatic without a good evil warlord knocking about.
The trouble with Revolution though is that it wastes nearly all of its potential. Instead of showing us the world crumble thanks to the world’s biggest blackout, we spend our time in the future, where a lack of power is the norm. The show could have been a great look as to our dependence on power, but instead, it throws that out of the window to focus on the search for a missing person.
The show also has a problem that its dialogue really needs a good punch-up writer. We’d expect much better coming from the mind of Supernatural creator Eric Kripke, but unfortunately it doesn’t have the sparkle that made that show such an enjoyable endeavour and really falls flat throughout.
It doesn’t help that the pilot doggedly sticks to the Charlie character, a rather empty vessel of a lead that only serves to take the focus away from the much more interesting Miles (played by Billy Burke) and Giancarlo Esposito’s nefarious Tom Neville. She’s little more than a cypher, and that doesn’t make for compelling viewing.
While the show definitely improves after its pilot episode, Revolution is a classic example of a great idea not executed well, something that comes as a shock considering the incredible talent on board the Revolution bus.
Tagged in J.J. Abrams