I was pretty excited about Revolution during Pilot Season. It's from J.J. Abrams, Eric Kripke and Jon Favreau, so it has a pretty good pedigree. Unfortunately, the pilot was a bit of a dud. The characters weren't terribly compelling. The world is too...clean? Worst of all, the "bad guys" are continually described as being very, very bad, but we haven't actually seen them do anything all that awful. Let's just say I was worried after that first episode.
The show has made slight strides in each episode since, but the strides are very slight. "Pilot" introduces us to Charlie, Google Man and Dr. British. (I'll be referring to characters by nickname until the show actually makes me remember their actual names). This trio has to go find Charlie's uncle because her brother, Asthma Boy has been kidnapped by the Bad Guy from Monroe's Militia. They meet up with Uncle Solo in Chicago and convince him to join the quest. The tease at the end of the episode shows us that there are Magical USB Pendants, and they somehow allow electricity to exist.
"Chained Heat" is about Uncle Solo going off alone (*snicker*) to find his friend Ms. Bomb, but Charlie is far too plucky to let that happen. They find Ms. Bomb in the custody of the militia, so they kill a bunch of militia dudes to free her. Asthma Boy sees the militia kill a dude for having a gun and an American flag, and the lady with the Magical USB Pendant is attacked by Cattleprod Man, who has his own Pendant. Also, Charlie's mom isn't dead, she's Monroe (of the Militia)'s prisoner. Oh, right, Monroe and Uncle Solo used to be best buds. I forgot to mention that.
"No Quarter" is pretty much all about Ms. Bomb taking Uncle Solo and Charlie back to her friends in the anti-Militia Rebellion. They're under siege in a diner for most of the episode. They eventually escape. Back in the B Plot, we find out that Charlie's Dead Dad gave Google Man his Magical USB Pendant, and told him to go find some lady who could tell him about it. Unfortunately for him, she's the one who ran afoul of Cattleprod Man last week. They find her computer, and suddenly their Pendant makes her CD player and Dr. British's iPhone work, but only for about 3 minutes. In the C Plot, Asthma Boy proves that he's not the Annoying Whining Teenager I thought he was going to be from the first two episodes.
Finally, we get to "The Plague Dogs". The Quintet meets back up. They run into Bad Boy again (he's a young Militia dude who keeps following Charlie around), and they take him prisoner. Dogs attack, and Google gets chewed on. The dogs' owner shows up, stabs Dr. British in the leg, and is eventually killed (I think?). Dr. British bleeds out, and I'm guessing Bad Boy is inducted into the Quintet because they like the name too much to drop it. Asthma Boy escapes the Militia during a MegaTwister, but he's tricked by Bad Guy into saving him from a collapsing roof, and ultimately recaptured. Boring Mom has a plot, too, but nothing happens.
So, we're a month in. Next week we get a train caper, those are always fun. The show continues to grow on me, incrementally. Uncle Solo is ok at times. Google is pretty good, even though he hasn't been given much to do so far. Dr. British is dead, and I'm fine with that, because she wasn't doing anything for me. Asthma Boy is much, much less worthless than I thought he was going to be, and might even have a chance to be good eventually. I continue to have three main problems. First, Charlie's main purpose in the show so far seems to be her ability to make her eyes really big. She's boring, but she's the main character, so she sucks up a lot of the energy (*snicker*) in the room. Second, the world's only real problem seems to be in the landscape management department. Everyone is super clean, and most people we've met seem to be living a pretty good life. This is coupled with my third problem, the weak villains. I've seen the Militia kill one guy with unlawful firearms who shot at them, and another accidentally when trying to take down Asthma Boy and his crossbow. They also had the chain gang dragging the helicopter. I'm not saying I want to elect Monroe to office, but he's not looking all that bad compared to some of the real tyrants we've seen in our history. If the show wants me to root for this Rebellion, they need to make me hate the Militia. That's not happening right now.
What did you think? Am I way off base? Is Charlie your new favorite character? Am I a terrible person for not hating the Militia? Let me know in the comments.
P.S. Maybe if we're lucky Trey will design a cool banner for my Revolution posts... :)
Although there were some strategies revealed in this episode, the train caper seems more exciting, so I can’t wait to see next week’s episode. I swear that Maggie was wearing lipstick, so I totally know what you mean about being “too clean.” Oh, nice that you said “boring mom has a plot, too, but nothing happens,” when she actually dies. LOL! My DISH coworker and I have been wondering if Rachel knows more about the event, which she seems to. Honestly, I wouldn’t have even thought about watching if I hadn’t seen it on my PrimeTime Anytime recordings yesterday, but now I watch a lot of new and old shows I dropped. Since the major networks automatically record at night, I have a plethora of choices.
ReplyDeleteBoring Mom is Rachel, Juliet from lost. She (presumably) gets tortured in the episode, but she doesn't die, that's Maggie, aka Dr. British.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by the blog, and keep on commenting. I think Revolution may find itself by the end of the season.