TV GUIDE: The Daily Review: Revolution, The Mob Doctor, Perception Finale, Bones, Alphas, More
Sep 17, 2012
by Matt Roush
Where were you when the lights went out?
That scenario, which has been played for comedy in the past, is the stuff of escapist fantasy-adventure in the more appealing and promising of two new network dramas premiering tonight. NBC's heavily hyped Revolution (10/9c) follows a long line of high-concept quick fades including The Event (same network, same night), Terra Nova (same night, different network), FlashForward, V, Alcatraz and so on. Will this make the grade where so many others failed? Or will Revolution, like the world it imagines, go dark before you know it? (I'm already hearing from many-times-burned skeptics unwilling to trust the network to keep the lights on long enough to let the story play out.)
To its credit, this collaboration of the erstwhile and prolific J.J. Abrams and cult fave Eric Kripke (Supernatural) isn't nearly as convoluted as many of the duds that came before. There's a Stephen King-like uncanniness to the premise, which is simple, stark and effective, as the entire world goes off the electrical grid in one startling moment. Cars, planes, (gasp) TVs and (horrors) cell phones all useless, all at once. Flash forward (sorry) 15 years later into a world that looks familiar yet is undeniably other, evolved into an agrarian, feudal society. Cities are dead and obsolete, the husks of automobiles have become terrariums, and people toil in their gardens, more or less peacefully — until the Big Bad Militia (personified by Breaking Bad Emmy nominee Giancarlo Esposito) comes along to stir up trouble and break up a loving family.
This is not a show you want to overthink — as in, why aren't they harnessing solar or wind power? Or, given the handsomeness of the young cast and their wardrobes, how did L.L. Bean stay in business during the blackout?
Best to just go along for the ride, which becomes a quest through a wrecked civilization by spunky, restless, newly orphaned Young Adult heroine Charlie (Tracy Spiridakos, channeling Katniss with her cross-bow prowess), who aims to reunite what remains of her family, which includes Danny (Graham Rogers), an asthmatic brother kidnapped by the Militia, and a distant ex-military Uncle Miles (Billy Burke, last seen as Brenda's smarmy nemesis on The Closer) who sullenly tends bar in a hotel (after 15 years?) like he's Rick from Casablanca until Charlie lights a fire under him. Instant Ninja! You may cry "uncle" — or possibly, shenanigans — as Uncle Miles lays waste to a horde of better-armed soldiers in the sort of over-the-top action scene they used to parody in the Raiders of the Lost Ark movies. (For the record, firearms are outlawed for civilians in this dystopia.) Vive la revolution?
There are worse ideas. And far worse shows this fall...
CLICK HERE TO VIEW A VIDEO PROMO FOR REVOLUTION
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