It still baffles me that a show about the end of the world doesn’t focus on the obvious suspects this would affect the most. The poor. I mean the impoverished and hungry were always impoverished and hungry. Wouldn’t they perhaps become better survivors, or masters of whole villages? Wouldn’t they rule legions of nomads? No, instead our main characters are a bunch of Caucasians, with the occasional minority. And they were all filthy stinking rich. Well, middle class anyway. The characters who first knew about the black out basically had a luxurious apartment with their toddler playing on Apple technology for fun. Then suddenly everything went black.
What about the Hispanics, the Asians, the African Americans, the Indians? Did they become cavemen, or did they go on to rule whole city blocks with their know how of conserving and respecting resources? “Revolution” isn’t bad, it just isn’t anything amazing. It has an excellent premise, but it doesn’t accomplish much with it. While it isn’t a dud like 2013’s “Defiance” was, it surely hasn’t kept me wanting to watch it week after week like “The Walking Dead” has. Even folks in the market for “The Walking Dead” apocalyptic fiction sans zombies will feel like they could be watching something better. After a mysterious world wide black out renders every electronic and machine useless, including automobiles and airborne machines, we fast forward fifteen years later. Mankind has rebuilt itself somewhat, and it’s all the ticks you expect from the formula. There are nomads, cannibals, dangerous parts of the world, farmers, and the like. Our character Rachel spends most of her time living in what past she can remember, all of which play convenient parts in her present.
In one moment, her uncle Miles bets she won’t kill a slave owner for his rare sniper rifle. Rachel thinks back to when her mother murdered a hungry man who stole their food threatening to kill her, and she kills the slave owner easily. Much in the realm of “Lost,” flashbacks are the key to the story, and everything that happens back then, plays a huge role in the present. “Revolution” never quite wants to be as grim and bleak as “The Road,” nor does it want to be as gory, so the apocalypse is kind of fun. It’s not one you want to be apart of, but the writing is angled so you’d want to visit for a little while. People now use muskets and mostly swords, and now that the South has risen again, guns are illegal to everyone by the military from the South. There are no wildlife, not many predators, and everyone is considerably clean shaven and old considering in an apocalypse like this life expectancy would shrink dramatically. What could be an epic global tale about survival and mankind depending on one another is side stepped in favor of the plight of a Caucasian family, all of whom may hold the key to restoring he power.
When her father is murdered by the Monroe Militia, Rachel’s brother Danny is kidnapped and taken back to the camp for questioning. Rachel seeks out her uncle Miles to help her find her brother. Meanwhile, Danny garners a new look at the military, learning about their wicked ways and their own forms of respect and law enforcement, all the while it’s up to uncle Miles to help find his nephew, and also hope to find someone who can bring the power back to the world, once again. Even the chaos is small scale, as we only view a small percentage of how horrible the survival was when the lights went out, and it quickly reverts back to the hunt for Danny. Billy Burke is entertaining enough as the swashbuckling rogue Miles, but never quite feels like an iconic character in the making. Meanwhile, Tracy Spiridakos as Rachel is often too much of a sad sack to consider her an entertaining heroine, and never quite reaches her potential.
She always seems to aim for courageous Amazon warrior, but then the writers always somehow feel inclined to knock has back in to damsel in distress category. Giancarlo Esposito does what he does best as the primary villain for many episodes who is kind of the Vader to David Lyons’ emperor Sebastian Monroe. The only exception is character Nora, played by Daniella Alonso, but she is mainly a second banana who is there for romantic tension and really nothing more. I hope “Revolution” gets so much better in season two, because it presents ideas and concepts in season one that could be so much more fleshed out and more vividly realized to garner an immense fan base. More fun, less sad sack, more epic, less small scale, more color, less white bread, and perhaps I may continue watching.
The Blu-Ray and DVD combo comes with an Ultraviolet code for online viewing, along with the dual formats on separate discs. The Season One Set comes with Revolution Cast & Creative Team at 2013 PaleyFest, a twenty eight minute Blu-Ray exclusive that features a panel with key members from he cast and crew. There’s the fourteen minute look at the Pilot with JJ Abrams and Eric Kripke, there’s “Creating a Revolution,” the twenty minute look at the production designs including locations, props, and sets. There are five webisodes, as well as eleven deleted scenes, and finally a two minute gag reel featuring outtakes.