Revolution Season 1

[Buffy]

Never a good sign when a show hits pg. 2 of BG bentertainment. Just watched last night's episode.....deception and betrayal all over the place.

[Insanecyclone]

At least the story is moving now.

[Shiro]

Thoughts from last week:

Spoiler: show

Blackout was man-made, ok. Trying to think of situations where causing a worldwide blackout would be advantageous to anyone, uhh...
All I could come up with was maybe a potential "oh shit" switch. i.e.: U.S. is on the brink of nuclear war with another country, turning off power world wide to stop it would make some sense. Society would collapse and countless people would die, but its better than the Earth becoming an irradiated wasteland. With no communications there's no way to tell what the country would do once the power came back, so leave it off I guess?

This week:

Spoiler: show

I guess the big plan was to turn off the power so they could build a particle accelerator in secret? wut

Wtf is with particle accelerators on TV anyways? Terra Nova's time travel was based on using one too.



Things of note: "Nest Dynamics" and "Nest Matrix" are mentioned, as well as "Virus" in a few places including "Virus Protection". The equation on the left is for a circuit with an inductor, resistor, and what might be a capacitor (it should be Q/C in the last term, not 1/C!).

This could be implying some sort of virus is causing the blackout, and the pendants are protecting against it some how. The "Nest" seems to be an electromagnet, made of copper and zinc? Interestingly, at the far right there is an arrow leading from the word Virus pointing towards a table with F1, F2, and F3. Possibly different frequencies it's being transmitted at? The next image shows F1 and the top left, along with S1, S2, and S3, might be a connection.





Randell is tracking 7 pendants in the US. Ben's is the 755 ID. On the bottom right we see 7 numbers. Oddly only Ben's number matches the ones on the map, and appears to be the only one active. Also check that there are 3 different models, A B and C.

Not really sure what to make of that. I'd imagine he wouldn't bother tracking his own pendant or graces (there aren't two overlapping either to back that up), so that would account for 9/12. On the next image, you can see a satellite map, and if I squint hard enough I can make out some red dots in Africa and Russia, so maybe those are the rest?

The models are interesting. At first I was thinking that A's and B's could have been older stationary prototypes, and C would have been the mobile pendant, but why would you track something stationary with a satellite map? Then what would make the distinction between models, we know all 12 should be pendants.



4 of the monitors are showing the same image with different brightness's (lol), and the top middle one the map of Earth that I mentioned.

Kind of petty, but if you have a satellite in orbit around Earth, a moderately observant person should be able to spot it easily in the night sky and know some shit is up, especially without any light pollution...

Are people still watching this show? I can't find anyone else actively trying to figure things out; just bitching about plot holes and how boring Charlie is

[arus2001]

I had a chuckle this afternoon walking in on my old man watching this and they mentioned a local town and its lighthouse. We both looked to each other and went, "They have a lighthouse?" That's about the extent of my show knowledge.

[Cichy]

I gave up on it, I stuck it out till last weeks episode and it's just not going anywhere

[6souls]

I still watch it, but I think it's as terribad as Terra Nova. I wonder if the season finale will be the power coming back on?

[Cichy]

I dont mind the concept and I can look past some bad acting and Charlies bambi like tears but the story needs to move along faster. I guess I've been spoiled by how fast TWD is moving this season but even Once Upon a Time manages to keep steady pace. This show spent an episode on them hiding from fuckin dogs, they had crossbow and swords and they were hiding from few dogs...

[Gryffes]

The pacing is terrible, random distraction of the week. blah.

[kuronosan]

Haven't yet watched this week's episode but I feel the same as I did before: this show doesn't seem to have more than one season cooking. I just can't comprehend how it's possible without much shark jumping.

[Insanecyclone]

http://revolutionison.blogspot.com/2...evolution.html

How J.J. Abrams Pitched 'Revolution'

It started with two men sword fighting in front of a Starbucks.

Writer-producer Eric Kripke dreamed up that surreal image last summer. His previous series Supernatural was inspired by a similarly random mental snapshot — “a girl on the ceiling on fire.” Now he had this new idea, the coffee shop sword fight. Kripke didn’t know who the fighting men were or why they were using medieval weapons. He only knew he wanted to somehow take modern-day America and roll it back pre-industrial times, to write a quest story like Star Wars or Lord of the Rings, only in a land peppered by freeways and fast food restaurants.

“I wanted to take everything I love about Lord of the Rings — swords and swashbuckling and quests and damsels in distress — put all that deep nerd fantasy stuff on the American highway,” Kripke says.

So he took the idea to primetime’s reigning master of big concepts, producer J.J. Abrams (Lost, Person of Interest), who saw the potential, particularly the inherent appeal of a back-to-basics rustic setting. “It’s wish fulfillment,” Abrams says. “We’re constantly being bombarded. It’s a silencing of the din that we live in right now.”

Moreover, Abrams says stripping away technology can help a show creatively, just like with the stranded island castaways on ABC’s Lost. “One of the things that’s difficult and frustrating about all the technology we have is it eliminates a lot of potential for drama,” Abrams says. “[Characters] can communicate instantly, they can research things, they can jump on a plane and be anywhere. Writers contort themselves to eliminate cell phones from scenes. And one of the beautiful byproducts of Kripke’s idea is that there’s no longer that immediate access.”

But Abrams didn’t like Kripke’s apocalyptic device for wiping out modern conveniences. Kripke originally wanted to have the country depopulated by a super virus. But that was deemed too familiar, too much like Stephen King’s The Stand. Instead, Abrams suggested an idea his company had been kicking around: Surviving the fallout of a nationwide blackout.

A few weeks later, the duo had a meeting at NBC’s Burbank offices.

Abrams and Kripke settled into their seats across from NBC’s executive team, which included entertainment president Jennifer Salke and entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt. After the refreshments were offered and the niceties concluded, Abrams gestured at the 15th floor window and jam-packed 101 freeway beyond.

“Look out the window here, at this crazy rat race of life in L.A.,” Abrams said. “‘Now imagine right now that everything stopped.”

All the executives, Salke recalled, “immediately leaned in.”

Not just cars and lights outside, Abrams continued, but everything in this office — these computers, Blackberrys, everything is dead. How would you get home? Where are your kids, your parents? How would reach them?

“What was important,” Abrams said later, “was to really get them to stop for a minute and consider what they would do.” Only after some playful discussion about how each person in the room would react to the crisis did producers launch into the show’s story, about a young girl teaming with her warrior uncle on a quest to rescue her kidnapped brother.

It was exactly the sort of higher-than-high concept NBC wanted. The network hadn’t a hit drama since 2006′s Heroes. And even after big-idea disappointments like The Cape and The Event, executives believed that only a really bold project could break though the heavy fall competition and spark a creative revival. “We couldn’t just put out a cop show,” Salke says.

A few months later, Kripke turned in his script. But Salke proposed a rather huge change. His story was exclusively focused on teenage Charlie’s quest. The NBC executive suggested making the series more of an ensemble epic series: More characters, higher stakes. Kripke dove back in, and revamped the story, expanding the scope. “Eric made a Herculean effort to address all those things in a very short period of time,” Abrams says.

Producers quickly scooped up Giancarlo Esposito off his Emmy-nominated performance in AMC’s Breaking Bad to play Monroe’s congenially psychotic Capt. Tom Neville. But casting the Han Solo-inspired Miles proved far tougher. Production started on the pilot with the role unfilled and Billy Burke on board as Gen. Monroe.

Burke, best known as Bella’s glum dad in the Twilight films, had lobbied for the Miles, but producers just didn’t see it. Then Kripke and pilot director Jon Favreau watched the actor dominate a scene as the show’s villain. “We turned to each other and asked, ‘Why isn’t it Billy?’ Kripke recalls. “[We realized] anyone we cast as Miles he’s going to blow off the screen.”

With the cast was in place, producers had another issue. The title. Kripke’s first choice was Revolution, but there was a new daytime ABC talk show with the same name. Producers considered Downfall, Uprising, Blackout and more. “J.J. and I were kicking around crazy ones — Transistor, Resistor, Transponder,” Kripke says. Then ABC cancelled their Revolution and suddenly the title was available.

NBC gave Revolution its best fall drama slot, airing after The Voice at 10 p.m. on Monday nights. Premiere ratings surprised, delivering the biggest drama premiere in the valuable adult demo on any network in three years, and pulling the biggest DVR gain of any drama on the air. Since then, the show’s numbers have slipped, yet Revolution still easily rules its time slot. Revolution will face a new challenge after its midseason finale airs at the end of November, taking an extended break before returning March 25. The gap allows NBC to keep Revolution paired with The Voice for the back half of the season.

[Insanecyclone]

[kuronosan]

Honestly this show would be shit without good ol' Charlie.

No, I'm talking about the wench.

[Insanecyclone]

[Buffy]

March 25th? Jeez, they must have only made the first 13 episodes and waited to be picked up to make more....oh well, new episodes until like June probably then.

[Insanecyclone]

[Byrd]

Watched it. Still meh but keeping my interest at least, and we're potentially getting some answers soon. But the whole "You owe us an explanation." "You're right. I do, and I will, but right now we're too busy walking to be able to talk about it" is annoying. At least they weren't kidding about a legitimate character death.

Spoiler: show

When Danny died, I immediately thought of Sophia from the Walking Dead. Half the season was spent looking for the character, and once they find them, pow. And although he was important to the plot as a maguffin/driving force, the character himself seemed kind of pointless once they actually rescued him, so it made sense to kill him off. Neville's son (Jason, I think?) has some potential to be really annoying, but I like Marcus (the black rebel guy), we'll see where he goes. I also really like the actor that plays John, he's one of those character actors that you see in a million things, and he's always good. I hope he sticks around for awhile. He was, amongst other things, the guy in Se7en who actually had to wear the Lust device.

[kuronosan]

Wait lol that is what happens? That's not legitimate that's retarded.

[Byrd]

Wait lol that is what happens? That's not legitimate that's retarded.

By legitimate, I meant "an actual character that we know" rather than "a character we've seen once before," which I thought might be the bait-and-switch often used by TV shows to draw viewers.

[kuronosan]

No I know what you meant. I just mean in terms of continuity that is beyond anticlimactic.

[Buffy]

Thoughts:

Spoiler: show

I'm glad they actually turned the lights on. However, they should have let the nukes land to make it more interesting.
Did we see the president turning one of the flashbacks in an earlier episode? I don't think so, or we would have seen his face.
They probably fix the nukes by turning everything off again and letting them fall out of the sky.
The odds that the light come on after 15 years of not running is so hilariously bad that it is comical. Power plants aren't going to work after 15 years of no maintenance. Power lines will have fallen over/been cannibalized since the copper in the lines could have been melted down for other stuff. Who would still have electrical devices in their house after 15 years? And the light bulbs and fans would still work? Ok, maybe the lightbulbs if undisturbed.
Turning the power on could have been a really interesting plot device. Who builds power plants the fastest, who gets machinery up and running, who builds a tank factory, who builds gun and bullet assembly lines, who builds hospitals, who builds destroyers and air craft carriers, who builds a spy network to steal secrets.....
The plot ideas are endless, but they just short cut all of that by HAVING EVERYTHING FUCKING WORK LIKE ITS BEEN OFF FOR 2 HOURS.
Poorly done.