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Revolution

So, I watched the second episode...

I was holding out a tiny bit of hope that things would be a bit different in the second episode, because sometimes pilots are made months before the rest and SOMETIMES things that were kind of off get fixed. My tiny bit of hope was crushed under the heel of Charlie's stylish boots.

The show should be kind of edgy and dark. The power is out, a militia has taken over and is terrorizing people, there's a mystery to be solved, etc and stuff, but it's like they took all this and then Disneyfied it. The show has the look of a made for TV Hallmark movie. This episode had lots of killing, with swords and knives and guns, but it was just so fucking bland. The bad guys are so bad you don't give a shit when they're killed. There's no tension between the characters, there's no wondering if someone has something to hide. Even if a character has something to hide you just know it's going be revealed in the blandest inconsequential way.

I think they wanted to capitalize on The Hunger Games popularity. So they've made Charlie the TV version of Katniss. NOT EVEN KATNISS HAD PERFECT APOCALYPSE HAIR THOUGH, OKAY?
 
Another show where C Thomas Howell gets killed. He used to have a very promising movie career and now he's fodder on borderline good TV shows.

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curiousa2z said:
that does it for me, then! I'm out.
Click to expand...

I'm sticking with it. Its not great television, but I want to see if it lasts long enough to tell us why the lights went out and explain the necklaces and any other mystery. 2 more seasons please!
 
It's pretty awful. I turned it off in the middle of episode 2 pretty much for the reasons Cassie stated. Bland storytelling, easy responses, and about the most user-friendly post apocalypse environment ever. It's like they said "Oh no the power went out, guess we'll all become pirates. YAY!"
 
Watching the first episode now.

Nice effects.

In the future, even non-electric lawn mowers don't work.

In the future, everything has an orange filter making it look orange so you remember that it's the future.

The bit with Juliet getting her daughter to savour the last buckets of icecream was a nice idea.

"My boyfriend's having an asthma attack in the middle of the woods, maybe making him RUN all the way back home will help?!"

Bad guy looks like Obama. There must be so many conspiracy theories about this.

Fat guy tells off colour jokes about chafing and toilet paper. This is groundbreaking television.

In the future, everyone is impeccably dressed.

Haha. Every scifi pilot episode has to have a plane in it at some point.

Ooh, sassy black lady. (To be fair, she was only sassy at first, and she's the most believable character so far.)

In the future... swords. :bill:

LOLed when fat guy hit a man with a stick and got surprised when he stood back up again.

Cliché "potential love interest tending to shirtless man's wounds" scene.

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLTTTTTTTTTTT!
 
I can't believe you decided to TORTURE yourself with this! I plan to keep watching it for awhile, I'm going to hate every minute of it! It might be fun to pick holes in it, though. FOR INSTANCE - internal combustion engines no longer work, but they still have fire and shit. What happened to all the nuclear power plants? Did they just melt down, are huge swathes of the world radio active wastelands? STEAM POWER? It would have been cool if this show had gone all steampunk.
 
I was curious already because like you I enjoy apocalyptic stuff, and then a friend downloaded it, so I watched it due to peer pressure.

The lack of steam power and all the other options bursts the balloon of the whole concept. They really should've anticipated that before getting to this stage. Of course on IMDb there are people (morons, frankly!) saying it's not important and you should "suspend your belief (sic)", but really it's an absolutely crucial part of the story that should've at least been referenced to. If nothing else, tell us that the world is too chaotic for anyone to have the security and spare time to organise the construction of steam engines. Tell us that electricity was too ingrained into the workings of power stations for them to function. Anything's better than just pretending we won't notice.

I really don't understand how productions get to the point of casting Juliet without ironing out glaring issues like this.

And I don't expect the characterisation to be perfect straight away, as it's always going to take a while to get the feel of their personalities, but it doesn't take a genius to realise you should cast good actors and have them fit into their environment, not be posing catalogue models.

Anyway, I expect I'll watch a few more eps just to see where it's going...
 
WE CAN HATE IT TOGETHER!

Over on TV.com the reviewer has given both episodes bad reviews. There are people in the comments who are outraged. I just wonder how people can become so attached to a show right off the bat like that. It's like they are personally offended by the reviews! It would be different if this were an already established good show that had a couple bad episodes. TV people are weird.

I have no problem suspending my sense of disbelief when a show is good. Everything doesn't have to make sense, but enough things need to make sense! One of the most important things for me is that the characters behavior is consistent with the reality the show is set in. I can forgive lots of things if the story is good, even bad acting, sometimes (depends how bad).
 
It's too formulamatic, too manipulative. The reluctant heroine. The teen throb. fun for the whole family. The WB without any soap.
 
In the pilot, the lack of automotive power led one enterprising soul to put his garden in the engine of a useless car. Never mind that that would require lifting out the heavy useless engine without electric power, which would be hard and time consuming, then reinforcing the bottom of the empty engine compartment so the soil wouldn't fall out, then filling the engine area with said soil, ostensibly dug from the entire surrounding countryside which is much roomier and also made of soil, and then grow enough food for maybe a couple weeks or so.

Good trade, future farmers!
 
EPISODE NUMBER 3! (yes, I'm still watching it :rwmad: )

The BAD:

I don't think it's necessary to continue mentioning the apocalypse hair, BUT I'M DOING IT ANYWAY. Katniss continues to have the best hair, despite never washing or brushing it. Also, her clothes never get dirty. I have no idea how much time has passed since the militia showed up in her village and set her off on her quest, but I assume it has been at least a month. You'd think she'd have a rip in her stylish shirt, or SOMETHING by now. It's weird because the new hot chick looks totally grubby all the time, even her hair is in a stylishly messy pony tail, and she had a smudge of dirt on her face! Not Katniss though, she can roll around on the ground fighting the bad guys and not a single grain of sand sticks to her designer leather coat. Maybe the magic that shut the power off also gave her the power to repel filth.

Miles and Katniss quest to rescue the hot twink is the most boring and unrealistic part of the show. I don't find Miles believable at all. Not only does he have the moves like ninja Hitler, but he's also the Founding Father of the militia. His intentions were good though, y'all. He just wanted to stop all the murder and mayhem, he never meant for the militia to get out of hand! So he taught all the militia to be vicious ninja Hitlers, because no one was coming to help. Miles is supposed to be the tortured soul of the show. The complicated hero. Instead I can't help but feel the character lacks CHARACTER. He's just not convincing.

The action scenes are somewhat lacking in believability (was that an understatement?). I think fighting with swords should be a lot messier. I get this is network TV, so a lot of gore isn't going to fly, but they shouldn't make it all look so easy. Miles never seems to break a sweat when he's taking on 20 militiamen - which for some reason only come at him one or two at a time.

THE GOOD:

I was pleasantly surprised when Danny's scenes turned out to be more interesting this week. The militia guy, who was kicking his hot asthmatic twink ass for killing his best bro, gave the most intense and believable performance of them all. Finally a character who is behaving in a realistic and understandable manner! I'm sure the writers want us to hate this angry militiaman for picking on Danny, but I was just happy they'd found an actor who could, you know, ACT.

I also enjoyed nerdy Google guy this week. The whole electricity mystery will turn out to be stupid, I'm sure, but Google guy's frustration, and his little speech about bullies was well done.
 
I haven't watched it...but I was going to for ONE reason...Esposito..

Now it sounds like a pile of shit and I am gong to choose to be upset.
 
Katniss is completely unbearable. I suspect the actress is showing the director oral gratitude because they'll switch the camera to her face for a non-reaction shot during what's supposed to be a dramatic argument scene between the killing machine uncle and the violent minister while the militia is battering the door down. Always the slightly disapproving and disappointed expression on her face. Yeah, we already know that's how she's going to look during someone else's scene, that's how she ALWAYS looks, no need to cut away several times to show us.

She makes me want to punch her in the snout.
 
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