For those of you who don't know, Revolution is a show by J.J. Abrams and Eric Kripke (Kripke being the creator and showrunner of Supernatural for the first five seasons). The pilot is currently available on basically every outlet NBC has streaming content (Hulu, OnDemand, etc). I watched it over the weekend and really enjoyed it. It has shades of Jerimiah and Jericho, both of which were excellent shows in my opinion. For those of you who don't get those references, they are both post-apocalyptic shows.
The central mystery of the show is that all electronic devices went out across the world more or less simultaneously, and none have turned back on since. This central mystery has the advantage of being more like Fringe than Lost, in that even once it's explained, the ramifications are still interesting (I assume, I'm enthralled with the world, not with the mystery). It's not so much about why the power went off, so much as the society that has developed since then. Ultimately, as long as the explanation isn't positively stupid, the show can survive it.
The show also has a bit of a conspiracy element to it, which will seem VERY familiar to anyone who watched Jericho. Not necessarily a bad thing.
My two cents on the mystery:
I'm pretty sure it's nano machines. The only clue so far in the show is a USB necklace device that when activated seems to create a field where electricity can be used again.
That being said, it does have a few problems:
First, the pilot has a few too many convenient plot elements to be convincing.
The father to the plucky heroine is the brother of the bad ass alcoholic military guy who just happens to be sitting in the car with the tin pot dictator when the power goes out.
After escaping Gus Fring, the captured brother of the plucky heroine just happens to stumble on the house of someone else with one of the USB necklace devices.
It's all little too convenient.
The characters haven't really been fleshed out yet. Right now we have the Plucky Heroine, Nerdy Comedic Relief, Doctor/Stepmom, Troubled Bad Ass Alcoholic and the tin pot dictator. Hopefully they will become more than that soon.
And the mother who is too big an actress to have died off screen as stated in the show.
Giancarlo Esposito shines in the series as an officer in the militia. He's much more human than Gus Fring, but still not a force to be messed with. He really comes across as a soldier trying to do his job, rather than a villain.
My biggest issue with the show, however, is that the stated time period seems inconsistent with the reality. The main part of the show takes place 15 years after the blackout, but the amount of plant growth doesn't really match up. In some places it looks like buildings have been abandoned for hundreds of years, and in other sections it looks like maybe only a few months have passed since people lived there.
And the most glaring issue are the outfits. The plucky heroine is wearing a brand new looking leather jacket, the nerdy comic relief is wearing a decent looking AC/DC t-shirt when everyone should have switched to hand-stitched clothing at least five years beforehand.
Don't even get me started on the population. It appears that humanity has reverted to civil-war era populations outside of cities. Where did all the people go? Clearly many starved to death, but I have a hard time believing that in the absence of some sort of super-plague or destructive force that 90% of our population is simply gone. Starvation seems most likely, but even then I would only expect about 50% casualities. My biggest issue with that are the bodies - there is simply no way to adequately dispose of the bodies of 9 out of 10 people when you've only got that one person left to do it, and no powered equipment left.
I need internal consistency.
Especially when:
Planes were shown falling out of the sky, but one is shown relatively intact and having landed in a field.
It's clear they are going for a civil war era vibe with much of the show, crossed with post-apocalyptic stuff. So far I like it, even with my few gripes about the worldbuilding.
You underestimate how fast plant growth can happen. As a biologist, I saw nothing as far as plant growth that seemed at all unrealistic.
It wasn't so much the plant growth itself, but the location. I don't doubt plants could grow that fast fairly quickly, but what I do doubt is that 15 years is long enough for the giant amounts of cement around Wrigley Field and most of the city for their to be three story high plant growth as a common thing.
I want to like this show but I am afraid I will have to hand wave too much stuff when watching it. I really hope they start to properly explain why things are the way they are rather than just relying on suspension of disbelief.
Beside the clothes and hair the other thing that bugs me from the pilot are the muskets. I understand the farmers only having access to illicit muskets but why are the militia members using muskets? Shouldn't there be plenty of hunting rifles and shotguns still around? Is it really that difficult to make ammo for them?
I wouldn't mind getting into another sci-fi show, but this show just seems so hokey to me. It looks like a B-movie, in large part because no one has electricity and yet everyone looks clean and pretty. You know, despite the fact that there isn't running water. Nor are there working washing machines.
But whatever, I'll watch the pilot and post my thoughts.
My thoughts:
1. Aside from the plant growth and the kids growing up, it seems like 5 years have passed as opposed to 15. Notice how the photographs didn't fade.
2. Medicine Woman seems to be on drugs. Either that or people in the village are victims of wanton murder and people subsequently go on epic quests on an hourly basis. My goodness, woman, show any emotion at all.
3. "This doesn't make sense, why would they take Danny?" What, you mean aside from the fact that he pointed a damn crossbow at the guy who's looking for two members of Danny's family?
4. This show's fight choreography makes The Cape look plausible.
I cannot believe I saw something as laughably bad as that big sword-fight sequence.
5. There's one character action at the end that's blatantly set up for a match shot. There's absolutely no reason for him to show that tattoo except to have another shot of him showing the same one.
I need another JJ Abrams show like I need a hole in the head. My word, the series premiere was brutally awful. I mean the premise is cute but the acting is terrible, the whole thing just so cliche it beggars belief. I once went to a Journey concert and cringed less. It's like an episode of Hercules: The Legendary Journey that takes itself seriously.
I need another JJ Abrams show like I need a hole in the head. My word, the series premiere was brutally awful. I mean the premise is cute but the acting is terrible, the whole thing just so cliche it beggars belief. I once went to a Journey concert and cringed less. It's like an episode of Hercules: The Legendary Journey that takes itself seriously.
That's actually really accurate. The whole thing is silly and absurd and implausible, but instead of playing it campy, they're trying to be like LOST, ignoring just how much LOST did to keep itself grounded by filling the show with complex character drama.
I was kind of excited for the series premiere. I don't know why, because JJ Abrams stuff makes no sense, but the premise seemed cool. At the time. I was definitely not surprised when it turned out to be awful and totally nonsensical. The story had a lot of plot holes and other story mishaps in episode 1. It was all just too convenient. Not the best way to kick off a show.
I was seriously confused by a lot of it. Why was the acting and the end result of that sword fight so awful? Why does the kid have asthma, is that something we're supposed to remember? What exactly went into making this outage happen (the opening scene in the show was just awful... didn't set up anything)? Why are there so many stereotypical characters? Just a lot of questions like that.
I'll tune in for Episode 2, but after that I'm already calling it quits if it's bad.
About Frox: for nearly 10 years, Frox has been helping women look good and feel great in easy-fit, mix-and-match, and work-to-weekend with just a few pieces by helping them make the right choices when it comes to clothing and accessories.
The show had an interesting premise, but I felt like it failed to delivery on every level. There are so many plot contrivances. And the characters are clearly too 'pretty', as has been stated(I have noticed that this is a constant problem with network television. Other shows where the characters should have been more 'dirty/grimy' have suffered the same problem. But this problem doesn't exist in cable television series that I watch. I'm not sure why this is the case, but it is).
Also, the last scene feels like it largely contradicts the overall point of the show.
On an unrelated note, it's cool see to see the guy who plays Gus Freene again. Hopefully he makes a good bad guy on this show also.
I'll give it 1-2 more episodes, but I'm not at all optimistic right now.
You know, I will say one thing about this pilot, and that's that I really like the guy who plays the militia leader. I think he's the most interesting character by far of the people we've seen, and I'd definitely like to see him more.
I wanted to call him, "The Darth Vader" of this story. The whole pilot just drips with Star Wars. The lunchbox makes me think it's deliberate, but I don't care how you pronounce the word "homage," it doesn't excuse filling a pilot with cliches.
The show had an interesting premise, but I felt like it failed to delivery on every level. There are so many plot contrivances. And the characters are clearly too 'pretty', as has been stated(I have noticed that this is a constant problem with network television. Other shows where the characters should have been more 'dirty/grimy' have suffered the same problem. But this problem doesn't exist in cable television series that I watch. I'm not sure why this is the case, but it is)
Probably because they didn't bother putting any effort into it. People running around wearing modern clothing? All looking like they've bathed regularly when there's no running water, especially if they live in urban areas? Only one person with a full beard?
But the problem is it doesn't stop at the characters. This wouldn't be so bad if the color saturation weren't completely off. It's very warm, and every shot is filled with bright, vibrant color. Even if you don't consciously notice it, it will set the mood of the scene as being lighthearted. If you look at the Sam Raimi Spiderman movies or a rom com movie, you will notice the same usage of lighting and color. In fact, things look better post-apocalypse. Everything is lush and vibrant and beautiful.
Contrast this to something like The Walking Dead. Immediately notice the difference in light and color. It's desaturated. Things look sparce and worn, and you don't get many bright colors, particularly not blues and reds. It immediately causes you to feel uncomfortable, because there's nothing warm or bright or comforting about the landscape, it all looks inhospitable and foreboding, which is exactly what the collapse of civilization should feel like.
Or you could have gone with something like the Lord of the Rings, which always has crisp, vibrant images but varies from ethereally beautiful (Lothlorien), to mysterious and dark (Fangorn Forest), to terrifying (Mordor), to warm and comforting (The Shire).
Instead this show looks like a bunch of people decided to go camping in the same neck of the woods the buddy comedy was being shot in.
It's really surprising to me. I didn't see Fringe, and only have seen a little bit of Alias, but what I've seen of Alias and LOST looked way more professional than this, to the point where I'm wondering exactly how involved J. J. Abrams was in this.
I wouldn't mind getting into another sci-fi show, but this show just seems so hokey to me. It looks like a B-movie, in large part because no one has electricity and yet everyone looks clean and pretty. You know, despite the fact that there isn't running water. Nor are there working washing machines.
Is it your position that people, and their clothes, were dirty before there was running water and washing machines?
People running around wearing modern clothing? All looking like they've bathed regularly when there's no running water, especially if they live in urban areas? Only one person with a full beard?
Why would you assume clothing would be that radically different? Doesn't it makes sense that the most abundant clothing would be the clothing left in stores?
And again, do you think no one bathed or shaved before we had running water?
But the problem is it doesn't stop at the characters. This wouldn't be so bad if the color saturation weren't completely off. It's very warm, and every shot is filled with bright, vibrant color. Even if you don't consciously notice it, it will set the mood of the scene as being lighthearted. If you look at the Sam Raimi Spiderman movies or a rom com movie, you will notice the same usage of lighting and color. In fact, things look better post-apocalypse. Everything is lush and vibrant and beautiful.
Well, you might be able to complain that it doesn't set the mood you'd prefer, but it seems accurate to me. I would expect things to be brighter and more beautiful following something like this. Some of the dullest colors we have in our environment come from civilization (roads, concrete, buildings, etc.).
Is it your position that people, and their clothes, were dirty before there was running water and washing machines?
Where are people getting the bleach from? If there is none, how are their clothes white? Why is it their clothes have absolutely no stains or signs of wear at all? How do they still look brand new and wrinkle-free? Are there many laundromats in this subsistence farming community of 5-6 houses in the middle of nowhere with no electricity?
Why would you assume clothing would be that radically different? Doesn't it makes sense that the most abundant clothing would be the clothing left in stores?
The stores that don't exist anymore because civilization collapsed 15 years ago and everyone in the cities died and yet somehow almost everyone has modern, fashionable clothing in their size? Even the children who had not even been born before the mass electricity shutdown?
And again, do you think no one bathed or shaved before we had running water?
Not to the frequency that we do now, certainly not. Nor would people who never lived in a society that regularly bathed and who don't live with water in an easily accessible distance bother to do so. Particularly not in farm country.
They sure as hell didn't walk around with hair that looked professionally done when in a grungy, agrarian community. It's good to know that people stocked up on L'Oreal in their emergency supplies when planning for the end of the world.
Well, you might be able to complain that it doesn't set the mood you'd prefer, but it seems accurate to me. I would expect things to be brighter and more beautiful following something like this. Some of the dullest colors we have in our environment come from civilization (roads, concrete, buildings, etc.).
Really? It's accurate to you that the lighting always looks like it's an hour before sunset at all times of the day? I'm not a scientist like you, but that seems to me to be astronomically impossible.
The show is going out of its way to look pretty by filming everything in a warm tone with vibrant color. It's precisely the wrong tone for this kind of setting. Contrast to The Hunger Games movie, in which District 12 actually looked like a post-apocalyptic, impoverished community without electricity. Revolution has the worst case of Hollywood-ugly I've ever seen.
Just look at the hotel. This is supposed to be a dilapidated hotel that people are just squatting in? Why, then, does it look like it's been professionally maintained all this time in the interior? Did everyone see the spotless floors and take extra special care to wipe their feet?
Why is it their clothes have absolutely no stains or signs of wear at all? How do they still look brand new and wrinkle-free? Are there many laundromats in this subsistence farming community of 5-6 houses in the middle of nowhere with no electricity?
I didn't see many close-ups of their clothes to know that they show no signs of wear. It's not a big deal to wash clothes without electricity or running water. As far as wrinkle-free, have you never seen anyone hang clothes out to dry?
The stores that don't exist anymore because civilization collapsed 15 years ago and everyone in the cities died and yet somehow almost everyone has modern, fashionable clothing in their size? Even the children who had not even been born before the mass electricity shutdown?
The stores didn't just disappear. Why is unreasonable to think that after the vast majority of the population died, there would be plenty of clothes available sitting on racks in abandoned stores?
Not to the frequency that we do now, certainly not. Nor would people who never lived in a society that regularly bathed and who don't live with water in an easily accessible distance bother to do so. Particularly not in farm country.
We're only talking about 15 years here, not 50. Most of the people have lived through plenty of technologically modern society, and would be accustomed to bathing and shaving. You don't need running water for either.
They sure as hell didn't walk around with hair that looked professionally done when in a grungy, agrarian community. It's good to know that people stocked up on L'Oreal in their emergency supplies when planning for the end of the world.
It's not unreasonable to think that people wouldn't have clean hair that was cut reasonably well. I'm not an expert on hair styles, but it certainly wasn't noticeable as "out of place".
Really? It's accurate to you that the lighting always looks like it's an hour before sunset at all times of the day? I'm not a scientist like you, but that seems to me to be astronomically impossible.
The show is going out of its way to look pretty by filming everything in a warm tone with vibrant color. It's precisely the wrong tone for this kind of setting. Contrast to The Hunger Games movie, which actually looked like a post-apocalyptic, impoverished community without electricity. Revolution has the worst case of Hollywood-ugly I've ever seen.
Seems the right tone is whatever is natural.
The Hunger Games is a completely different scenario, and other than the forced-poverty on the 12th district that is shown, the forests and everything were bright and beautiful.
Just look at the hotel. This is supposed to be a dilapidated hotel that people are just squatting in? Why, then, does it look like it's been professionally maintained all this time in the interior? Did everyone see the spotless floors and take extra special care to wipe their feet?
Where does it say that it's just a place people are squatting in? It looks like a bar/tavern. Why wouldn't people keep up maintenance on places they use? You seem to think that post apocalyptic also means that people stopped giving a damn about anything. Do you think taverns of hundreds of years ago didn't have floors that were cleaned?
I didn't see many close-ups of their clothes to know that they show no signs of wear. It's not a big deal to wash clothes without electricity or running water. As far as wrinkle-free, have you never seen anyone hang clothes out to dry?
You're not getting it. These people live in a farming community. They are growing crops and herding sheep and bowhunting to survive. They're not going to be clean and spotless, nor would there be any need to be in their society of 5-6 houses.
Hanging clothes on a line is not enough to keep them without wrinkles. What you need is to iron them. And granted, irons did exist before electricity, but not only would no one have any need to iron their clothes in a subsistence farming community of 5-6 houses, but also I don't know of anyone who just happens to have multiple 1800s clothing irons around. You'd also need a blacksmith to forge one, and frankly I don't think an insignificant farming community in the middle of nowhere's going to be that concerned about that.
The stores didn't just disappear. Why is unreasonable to think that after the vast majority of the population died, there would be plenty of clothes available sitting on racks in abandoned stores?
Because this is a community of 5-6 houses in the middle of nowhere and people don't leave the village very often at all and Chicago seems to be some distance away.
In Chicago this becomes more plausible. However, still not explaining why everyone looks clean and well-dressed.
We're only talking about 15 years here, not 50. Most of the people have lived through plenty of technologically modern society, and would be accustomed to bathing and shaving.
Which would immediately change when they stop living in a technologically modern society. When you have to actually travel any sort of distance to get your water, all of a sudden things like bathing take a hit. The bathing practices we have now are based in a society where water is delivered to one's house and one can easily access a bath or shower, and where one lives in city conditions where it's not common for someone to shovel feces/trudge through mud, and where any body odor at all is considered unsightly because such hygienic practices are the norm. You bet your ass in a rural community where there is no running water, no electricity, and people are farming and hunting to get enough food to survive, you will not have people worrying about whether or not they smell pretty. They will be smelling like sheep and dung and earth and chickens.
Hell, just go camping and immediately notice how the mentality changes when you're without immediate access to large amounts of water that is conveniently brought to you. These guys have been living without running water for 15 years. That means there's a generation that grew up without ever really knowing it.
It's not unreasonable to think that people wouldn't have clean hair that was cut reasonably well.
Really? Does this village of 5-6 houses have a hair salon? Is it really reasonable to think that everyone owns a bottle of shampoo in this time? Was someone in the village a trained barber that instructed everyone in how to cut everyone's hair perfectly?
I'm not an expert on hair styles, but it certainly wasn't noticeable as "out of place".
Medicine Lady's hair looks fantastic for someone who lives in a world without modern conveniences.
And Danny looks like he's out of a Calvin Klein catalog. Hell, everyone's hair looks great. Once again, good to know everyone owns shampoo.
Where does it say that it's just a place people are squatting in? It looks like a bar/tavern. Why wouldn't people keep up maintenance on places they use?
Who's cleaning the floors, dusting, and maintaining the parts that have nothing to do with the tavern? It's a hotel. Hotels require staff to regularly clean the place. Why does the stuff that isn't part of the main tavern look fantastic and not at all in disarray?
I think you have an inaccurate view of what societies are capable of in the absence of electricity. In addition, you seem to think that technology is required for some activities where it isn't required at all (shaving, cutting hair, washing clothes, etc.).
I think you have an inaccurate view of what societies are capable of in the absence of electricity. In addition, you seem to think that technology is required for some activities where it isn't required at all (shaving, cutting hair, washing clothes, etc.).
You still don't get it.
These people are living in a community that is 5-6 houses with no electricity, no running water, and without modern conveniences of any kind. Moreover, this community apparently has very minimal contact with other villages; is dependent on subsistence farming of crops, sheep, and chickens along with some hunting to survive; and its food supply is regularly taxed by a hostile military organization.
And you're trying to tell me that everyone looks gorgeous, everyone is well-fed, everyone's clothes look so perfect they wouldn't look out of place in a detergent commercial, everyone's hair has clearly been cut by a professional barber and clearly regularly shampooed and completely grease-free, and that nothing in this entire world is dirty at all?
No, that's ridiculous. It's obvious the people behind this show just didn't bother to do any leg work.
If you want to comment on the good looks of the average person in this post-apocalyptic world, fine. However, people's hair and clothes being clean and cut is not ridiculous. They wouldn't be living where they are if they didn't have easy access to water, or a good well.
I don't see anything that appears to be distractingly unrealistic.
Couldn't even watch the second episode the full way.
Basically, every problem with the previous episode, except even more so. The only interesting character at this point is the mercenary captain. Everything remains way too pretty, and Charlie could be the most annoying character on television.
If the show wants to save itself, kill Charlie off and then have everything adopt a darker tone, then it might actually be watchable.
It just feels like primary network television consistently forgoes 'making things realistic' and assumes that the viewing audience won't notice/care. What is sad is that they might be right.
And it goes deeper than just clothes/hair. I don't see any of these people would have been able to brush their teeth for probably the last decade, but they all have perfect, shining white smiles.
Also, they constantly fight with swords, but said swords NEVER get bloody. If they can't show blood on the swords because it is network TV, then they shouldn't use them. Similarly, anytime someone gets shot with a crossbow, it always manages to happen off-screen.
It doesn't help that all of the characters are completely cliche, and most of them don't seem to possess much actual acting ability.
It's possible that I'm just spoiled by cable television shows, which generally don't have these problems. But that is pretty frustrating, because shows like Revolution have a much, much larger budget than random shows on TNT/AMC/etc.
It just feels like primary network television consistently forgoes 'making things realistic' and assumes that the viewing audience won't notice/care. What is sad is that they might be right.
And it goes deeper than just clothes/hair. I don't see any of these people would have been able to brush their teeth for probably the last decade, but they all have perfect, shining white smiles.
What got me was the open market scene in this new episode. For ****'s sake, the markets of Singapore aren't that clean.
And boy, the Monroe Republic's militia sure are a great group of guys for giving their chain gangs clean clothes every hour. C'mon guys, take dirt, smear dirt, how difficult could this really be?
It's possible that I'm just spoiled by cable television shows, which generally don't have these problems. But that is pretty frustrating, because shows like Revolution have a much, much larger budget than random shows on TNT/AMC/etc.
That's what really confuses me. How much money is NBC sinking into this show? And THIS is the pilot they bought? Which shows didn't make the cut?
Furthermore, where is the money going? Why do I have the sneaking suspicion it's going to wardrobe and hair and makeup?
Honestly, I have no idea what to make of Revolution. If it were simply bad, it would be ignored.
But this show is an absolute trainwreck on every level. With the sole exception of the mercenary captain, there is nothing about this show that's watchable. And the flaws are so mindshatteringly basic, demonstrating that even the most elemental amount of effort is lacking.
As with The Cape, I cannot determine if this represents legitimate effort on someone's part that really is THAT awful, or if someone is intentionally trying to fail.
Couldn't even watch the second episode the full way.
Basically, every problem with the previous episode, except even more so. The only interesting character at this point is the mercenary captain. Everything remains way too pretty, and Charlie could be the most annoying character on television.
If the show wants to save itself, kill Charlie off and then have everything adopt a darker tone, then it might actually be watchable.
I watched the first fifteen minutes. I thought it was awful. The acting was really bad, and all of the plotholes like Cyan mentioned are just too much for me to handle.
About Frox: for nearly 10 years, Frox has been helping women look good and feel great in easy-fit, mix-and-match, and work-to-weekend with just a few pieces by helping them make the right choices when it comes to clothing and accessories.
It just feels like primary network television consistently forgoes 'making things realistic' and assumes that the viewing audience won't notice/care. What is sad is that they might be right.
And it goes deeper than just clothes/hair. I don't see any of these people would have been able to brush their teeth for probably the last decade, but they all have perfect, shining white smiles.
Also, they constantly fight with swords, but said swords NEVER get bloody. If they can't show blood on the swords because it is network TV, then they shouldn't use them. Similarly, anytime someone gets shot with a crossbow, it always manages to happen off-screen.
It doesn't help that all of the characters are completely cliche, and most of them don't seem to possess much actual acting ability.
It's possible that I'm just spoiled by cable television shows, which generally don't have these problems. But that is pretty frustrating, because shows like Revolution have a much, much larger budget than random shows on TNT/AMC/etc.
All this is true, which is confusing to me.
The guy who made Revolution is also the guy who created Supernatural. And Supernatural is actually a good show. So either Eric Kripke caught the stupid virus and forgot everything about making a TV show after he left Supernatural, or (what I truly suspect happened) Executive Meddling ruined the show.
From what I've read, Supernatural wasn't expected to have much success, so they let Kripke do whatever and it ended up fantastic. With Revolution, I'm thinking NBC did the exact opposite. Revolution was supposed to be awesome, so NBC had to go in and mess with it to make it more "appealing" to the "general audience" and they broke it.
Everything scares me... kitties scare me... squirrels scare me... corpses....corpses bring forth a pletora of confusing feeling which i prefer not to dwell on...:p
Supernatural was good for the first 5 season, but since then it has been fairly underwhelming. Not terrible, but nothing like it was.
It's weird, but it honestly seems like shows that have LESS of a budget available for makeup/costumes/whatever do a better job in those areas. Lately I have been watching Battlestar Gallactica, and it's unbelievable how much attention to detail they have as far as people getting dirty, people getting scars, people actually..acting like people. It drives me nuts that every person in Revolution ALWAYS looks like they just stepped out of a shower. "Just got in a sword fight in the middle of the woods where you rolled around on the ground on camera? No sweat(oh look a pun), hair is still perfect!" It's really dumb.
The central mystery of the show is that all electronic devices went out across the world more or less simultaneously, and none have turned back on since. This central mystery has the advantage of being more like Fringe than Lost, in that even once it's explained, the ramifications are still interesting (I assume, I'm enthralled with the world, not with the mystery). It's not so much about why the power went off, so much as the society that has developed since then. Ultimately, as long as the explanation isn't positively stupid, the show can survive it.
The show also has a bit of a conspiracy element to it, which will seem VERY familiar to anyone who watched Jericho. Not necessarily a bad thing.
My two cents on the mystery:
That being said, it does have a few problems:
First, the pilot has a few too many convenient plot elements to be convincing.
After escaping Gus Fring, the captured brother of the plucky heroine just happens to stumble on the house of someone else with one of the USB necklace devices.
It's all little too convenient.
The characters haven't really been fleshed out yet. Right now we have the Plucky Heroine, Nerdy Comedic Relief, Doctor/Stepmom, Troubled Bad Ass Alcoholic and the tin pot dictator. Hopefully they will become more than that soon.
Giancarlo Esposito shines in the series as an officer in the militia. He's much more human than Gus Fring, but still not a force to be messed with. He really comes across as a soldier trying to do his job, rather than a villain.
My biggest issue with the show, however, is that the stated time period seems inconsistent with the reality. The main part of the show takes place 15 years after the blackout, but the amount of plant growth doesn't really match up. In some places it looks like buildings have been abandoned for hundreds of years, and in other sections it looks like maybe only a few months have passed since people lived there.
And the most glaring issue are the outfits. The plucky heroine is wearing a brand new looking leather jacket, the nerdy comic relief is wearing a decent looking AC/DC t-shirt when everyone should have switched to hand-stitched clothing at least five years beforehand.
Don't even get me started on the population. It appears that humanity has reverted to civil-war era populations outside of cities. Where did all the people go? Clearly many starved to death, but I have a hard time believing that in the absence of some sort of super-plague or destructive force that 90% of our population is simply gone. Starvation seems most likely, but even then I would only expect about 50% casualities. My biggest issue with that are the bodies - there is simply no way to adequately dispose of the bodies of 9 out of 10 people when you've only got that one person left to do it, and no powered equipment left.
I need internal consistency.
Especially when:
It's clear they are going for a civil war era vibe with much of the show, crossed with post-apocalyptic stuff. So far I like it, even with my few gripes about the worldbuilding.
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It wasn't so much the plant growth itself, but the location. I don't doubt plants could grow that fast fairly quickly, but what I do doubt is that 15 years is long enough for the giant amounts of cement around Wrigley Field and most of the city for their to be three story high plant growth as a common thing.
But I'll take your word for it.
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[Primer] Krenko | Azor | Kess | Zacama | Kumena | Sram | The Ur-Dragon | Edgar Markov | Daretti | Marath
Beside the clothes and hair the other thing that bugs me from the pilot are the muskets. I understand the farmers only having access to illicit muskets but why are the militia members using muskets? Shouldn't there be plenty of hunting rifles and shotguns still around? Is it really that difficult to make ammo for them?
But whatever, I'll watch the pilot and post my thoughts.
My thoughts:
1. Aside from the plant growth and the kids growing up, it seems like 5 years have passed as opposed to 15. Notice how the photographs didn't fade.
2. Medicine Woman seems to be on drugs. Either that or people in the village are victims of wanton murder and people subsequently go on epic quests on an hourly basis. My goodness, woman, show any emotion at all.
3. "This doesn't make sense, why would they take Danny?" What, you mean aside from the fact that he pointed a damn crossbow at the guy who's looking for two members of Danny's family?
4. This show's fight choreography makes The Cape look plausible.
I cannot believe I saw something as laughably bad as that big sword-fight sequence.
5. There's one character action at the end that's blatantly set up for a match shot. There's absolutely no reason for him to show that tattoo except to have another shot of him showing the same one.
That's actually really accurate. The whole thing is silly and absurd and implausible, but instead of playing it campy, they're trying to be like LOST, ignoring just how much LOST did to keep itself grounded by filling the show with complex character drama.
It doesn't work.
I was seriously confused by a lot of it. Why was the acting and the end result of that sword fight so awful? Why does the kid have asthma, is that something we're supposed to remember? What exactly went into making this outage happen (the opening scene in the show was just awful... didn't set up anything)? Why are there so many stereotypical characters? Just a lot of questions like that.
I'll tune in for Episode 2, but after that I'm already calling it quits if it's bad.
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Also, the last scene feels like it largely contradicts the overall point of the show.
On an unrelated note, it's cool see to see the guy who plays Gus Freene again. Hopefully he makes a good bad guy on this show also.
I'll give it 1-2 more episodes, but I'm not at all optimistic right now.
I wanted to call him, "The Darth Vader" of this story. The whole pilot just drips with Star Wars. The lunchbox makes me think it's deliberate, but I don't care how you pronounce the word "homage," it doesn't excuse filling a pilot with cliches.
Probably because they didn't bother putting any effort into it. People running around wearing modern clothing? All looking like they've bathed regularly when there's no running water, especially if they live in urban areas? Only one person with a full beard?
But the problem is it doesn't stop at the characters. This wouldn't be so bad if the color saturation weren't completely off. It's very warm, and every shot is filled with bright, vibrant color. Even if you don't consciously notice it, it will set the mood of the scene as being lighthearted. If you look at the Sam Raimi Spiderman movies or a rom com movie, you will notice the same usage of lighting and color. In fact, things look better post-apocalypse. Everything is lush and vibrant and beautiful.
Contrast this to something like The Walking Dead. Immediately notice the difference in light and color. It's desaturated. Things look sparce and worn, and you don't get many bright colors, particularly not blues and reds. It immediately causes you to feel uncomfortable, because there's nothing warm or bright or comforting about the landscape, it all looks inhospitable and foreboding, which is exactly what the collapse of civilization should feel like.
Or you could have gone with something like the Lord of the Rings, which always has crisp, vibrant images but varies from ethereally beautiful (Lothlorien), to mysterious and dark (Fangorn Forest), to terrifying (Mordor), to warm and comforting (The Shire).
Instead this show looks like a bunch of people decided to go camping in the same neck of the woods the buddy comedy was being shot in.
It's really surprising to me. I didn't see Fringe, and only have seen a little bit of Alias, but what I've seen of Alias and LOST looked way more professional than this, to the point where I'm wondering exactly how involved J. J. Abrams was in this.
Is it your position that people, and their clothes, were dirty before there was running water and washing machines?
Why would you assume clothing would be that radically different? Doesn't it makes sense that the most abundant clothing would be the clothing left in stores?
And again, do you think no one bathed or shaved before we had running water?
Well, you might be able to complain that it doesn't set the mood you'd prefer, but it seems accurate to me. I would expect things to be brighter and more beautiful following something like this. Some of the dullest colors we have in our environment come from civilization (roads, concrete, buildings, etc.).
Where are people getting the bleach from? If there is none, how are their clothes white? Why is it their clothes have absolutely no stains or signs of wear at all? How do they still look brand new and wrinkle-free? Are there many laundromats in this subsistence farming community of 5-6 houses in the middle of nowhere with no electricity?
The stores that don't exist anymore because civilization collapsed 15 years ago and everyone in the cities died and yet somehow almost everyone has modern, fashionable clothing in their size? Even the children who had not even been born before the mass electricity shutdown?
Not to the frequency that we do now, certainly not. Nor would people who never lived in a society that regularly bathed and who don't live with water in an easily accessible distance bother to do so. Particularly not in farm country.
They sure as hell didn't walk around with hair that looked professionally done when in a grungy, agrarian community. It's good to know that people stocked up on L'Oreal in their emergency supplies when planning for the end of the world.
Really? It's accurate to you that the lighting always looks like it's an hour before sunset at all times of the day? I'm not a scientist like you, but that seems to me to be astronomically impossible.
The show is going out of its way to look pretty by filming everything in a warm tone with vibrant color. It's precisely the wrong tone for this kind of setting. Contrast to The Hunger Games movie, in which District 12 actually looked like a post-apocalyptic, impoverished community without electricity. Revolution has the worst case of Hollywood-ugly I've ever seen.
Just look at the hotel. This is supposed to be a dilapidated hotel that people are just squatting in? Why, then, does it look like it's been professionally maintained all this time in the interior? Did everyone see the spotless floors and take extra special care to wipe their feet?
You don't need bleach to clean clothes...
I didn't see many close-ups of their clothes to know that they show no signs of wear. It's not a big deal to wash clothes without electricity or running water. As far as wrinkle-free, have you never seen anyone hang clothes out to dry?
The stores didn't just disappear. Why is unreasonable to think that after the vast majority of the population died, there would be plenty of clothes available sitting on racks in abandoned stores?
We're only talking about 15 years here, not 50. Most of the people have lived through plenty of technologically modern society, and would be accustomed to bathing and shaving. You don't need running water for either.
It's not unreasonable to think that people wouldn't have clean hair that was cut reasonably well. I'm not an expert on hair styles, but it certainly wasn't noticeable as "out of place".
That's not how it looked to me.
Seems the right tone is whatever is natural.
The Hunger Games is a completely different scenario, and other than the forced-poverty on the 12th district that is shown, the forests and everything were bright and beautiful.
Where does it say that it's just a place people are squatting in? It looks like a bar/tavern. Why wouldn't people keep up maintenance on places they use? You seem to think that post apocalyptic also means that people stopped giving a damn about anything. Do you think taverns of hundreds of years ago didn't have floors that were cleaned?
You need it to keep them white.
You're not getting it. These people live in a farming community. They are growing crops and herding sheep and bowhunting to survive. They're not going to be clean and spotless, nor would there be any need to be in their society of 5-6 houses.
Hanging clothes on a line is not enough to keep them without wrinkles. What you need is to iron them. And granted, irons did exist before electricity, but not only would no one have any need to iron their clothes in a subsistence farming community of 5-6 houses, but also I don't know of anyone who just happens to have multiple 1800s clothing irons around. You'd also need a blacksmith to forge one, and frankly I don't think an insignificant farming community in the middle of nowhere's going to be that concerned about that.
Because this is a community of 5-6 houses in the middle of nowhere and people don't leave the village very often at all and Chicago seems to be some distance away.
In Chicago this becomes more plausible. However, still not explaining why everyone looks clean and well-dressed.
Which would immediately change when they stop living in a technologically modern society. When you have to actually travel any sort of distance to get your water, all of a sudden things like bathing take a hit. The bathing practices we have now are based in a society where water is delivered to one's house and one can easily access a bath or shower, and where one lives in city conditions where it's not common for someone to shovel feces/trudge through mud, and where any body odor at all is considered unsightly because such hygienic practices are the norm. You bet your ass in a rural community where there is no running water, no electricity, and people are farming and hunting to get enough food to survive, you will not have people worrying about whether or not they smell pretty. They will be smelling like sheep and dung and earth and chickens.
Hell, just go camping and immediately notice how the mentality changes when you're without immediate access to large amounts of water that is conveniently brought to you. These guys have been living without running water for 15 years. That means there's a generation that grew up without ever really knowing it.
Really? Does this village of 5-6 houses have a hair salon? Is it really reasonable to think that everyone owns a bottle of shampoo in this time? Was someone in the village a trained barber that instructed everyone in how to cut everyone's hair perfectly?
Medicine Lady's hair looks fantastic for someone who lives in a world without modern conveniences.
And Danny looks like he's out of a Calvin Klein catalog. Hell, everyone's hair looks great. Once again, good to know everyone owns shampoo.
Who's cleaning the floors, dusting, and maintaining the parts that have nothing to do with the tavern? It's a hotel. Hotels require staff to regularly clean the place. Why does the stuff that isn't part of the main tavern look fantastic and not at all in disarray?
You still don't get it.
These people are living in a community that is 5-6 houses with no electricity, no running water, and without modern conveniences of any kind. Moreover, this community apparently has very minimal contact with other villages; is dependent on subsistence farming of crops, sheep, and chickens along with some hunting to survive; and its food supply is regularly taxed by a hostile military organization.
And you're trying to tell me that everyone looks gorgeous, everyone is well-fed, everyone's clothes look so perfect they wouldn't look out of place in a detergent commercial, everyone's hair has clearly been cut by a professional barber and clearly regularly shampooed and completely grease-free, and that nothing in this entire world is dirty at all?
No, that's ridiculous. It's obvious the people behind this show just didn't bother to do any leg work.
I don't see anything that appears to be distractingly unrealistic.
Basically, every problem with the previous episode, except even more so. The only interesting character at this point is the mercenary captain. Everything remains way too pretty, and Charlie could be the most annoying character on television.
If the show wants to save itself, kill Charlie off and then have everything adopt a darker tone, then it might actually be watchable.
And it goes deeper than just clothes/hair. I don't see any of these people would have been able to brush their teeth for probably the last decade, but they all have perfect, shining white smiles.
Also, they constantly fight with swords, but said swords NEVER get bloody. If they can't show blood on the swords because it is network TV, then they shouldn't use them. Similarly, anytime someone gets shot with a crossbow, it always manages to happen off-screen.
It doesn't help that all of the characters are completely cliche, and most of them don't seem to possess much actual acting ability.
It's possible that I'm just spoiled by cable television shows, which generally don't have these problems. But that is pretty frustrating, because shows like Revolution have a much, much larger budget than random shows on TNT/AMC/etc.
What got me was the open market scene in this new episode. For ****'s sake, the markets of Singapore aren't that clean.
And boy, the Monroe Republic's militia sure are a great group of guys for giving their chain gangs clean clothes every hour. C'mon guys, take dirt, smear dirt, how difficult could this really be?
That's what really confuses me. How much money is NBC sinking into this show? And THIS is the pilot they bought? Which shows didn't make the cut?
Furthermore, where is the money going? Why do I have the sneaking suspicion it's going to wardrobe and hair and makeup?
Honestly, I have no idea what to make of Revolution. If it were simply bad, it would be ignored.
But this show is an absolute trainwreck on every level. With the sole exception of the mercenary captain, there is nothing about this show that's watchable. And the flaws are so mindshatteringly basic, demonstrating that even the most elemental amount of effort is lacking.
As with The Cape, I cannot determine if this represents legitimate effort on someone's part that really is THAT awful, or if someone is intentionally trying to fail.
I think it's safe to say I'm done with it.
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About Frox: for nearly 10 years, Frox has been helping women look good and feel great in easy-fit, mix-and-match, and work-to-weekend with just a few pieces by helping them make the right choices when it comes to clothing and accessories.
"In 15 years, no one thought of using steam?"
All this is true, which is confusing to me.
The guy who made Revolution is also the guy who created Supernatural. And Supernatural is actually a good show. So either Eric Kripke caught the stupid virus and forgot everything about making a TV show after he left Supernatural, or (what I truly suspect happened) Executive Meddling ruined the show.
From what I've read, Supernatural wasn't expected to have much success, so they let Kripke do whatever and it ended up fantastic. With Revolution, I'm thinking NBC did the exact opposite. Revolution was supposed to be awesome, so NBC had to go in and mess with it to make it more "appealing" to the "general audience" and they broke it.
{Magic: The RPG}
It's weird, but it honestly seems like shows that have LESS of a budget available for makeup/costumes/whatever do a better job in those areas. Lately I have been watching Battlestar Gallactica, and it's unbelievable how much attention to detail they have as far as people getting dirty, people getting scars, people actually..acting like people. It drives me nuts that every person in Revolution ALWAYS looks like they just stepped out of a shower. "Just got in a sword fight in the middle of the woods where you rolled around on the ground on camera? No sweat(oh look a pun), hair is still perfect!" It's really dumb.
You realize Season 5 is when Eric Kripke left, right? He had planned out the 5 season arc.
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