NBC's Revolution not revolutionary, but has potential

It’s become somewhat of futile effort for the networks over the last few years to try and replicate the success of ABC’s Lost. Not one of Big Four has triumphed, though they’ve made a concerted effort so you got give them an E for effort. But for every Lost, we gotten V, The Event, Alcatraz and Terra Nova. 

Revolution is NBC’s latest attempt at the global conspiracy thriller, a serialized drama that takes place in a post-apocalyptic future. Fifteen years earlier, an unknown phenomenon permanently disabled all advanced technology on the planet, ranging from computers and electronics to car engines, jet engines, and batteries. People were forced to adapt to a world without technology, and due to the collapse of public order, many areas are ruled by warlords and militias. The series focuses on the Matheson family, who possess an item that is the key to not only finding out what happened fifteen years ago, but also a possible way to reverse its effects. However, they must elude various enemy groups who want to possess that power for themselves.

The show was created by Eric Kripke, who is responsible for the long running CW series, Supernatural. The pilot, which is available for watching at NBC.com, starts off promising, and despite some compression to tell the tale in 44 minutes, this might work. 

One of the first things I noticed was how the show resembles the CBS series Jericho from 2006 and Showtime series Jeremiah from 2002. Insomuch, I guess that they too were post-apocalyptic series, one about groups of survivors living in the aftermath of a nuclear attack and the other about a group of survivors living in the aftermath of a virus that killed adults.

Now, while there are no new concepts out there, the creators have to up the story potential to get around the prospective problem of viewers saying “seen this, done that.” Revolution does have a thread of believability in it, as we’ve come to rely on electricity, computers and our cars for everyday life. And if something like this were to happen, I do foresee a world coming apart, because the center will not hold and mere anarchy will be unleashed upon the world.

And much like Lost (and probably because the show is executive produced by J.J. Abrams) the show starts out with the power going off and then flashes fifteen years later. In the process, as the conspiracy story unwinds, I assume, we’ll see flashbacks that lead up to it. I mean why hire Elizabeth Mitchell if you’re not?

The cast is good, led by doe-eyed Tracy Spiridakos as Charlie Matheson. With the success of The Hunger Games and Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss, this was a wise move to center the show on her. The only drawback is that she is too impulsive, especially when she, Aaron (Zak Orth) and Maggie (Anna Lise Phillips) are hiking to Chicago to find her Uncle, she stumbles upon Nate (J.D. Pardo) by a stream. Yes, she seems ambivalent at first, but because he well-built and extraordinarily handsome, she ignores this potential breach by not mentioning she saw an Ambercrombie & Fitch underwear model  to her companions when she comes back to camp. In a world ruled by violent militias, I think not telling your friends you saw him was stupid and unbelievable.  The viewer knew from the start that he was working for the militia, so no huge surprise when Uncle Miles (Twilight’s Billy Burke) rats him out.

Meanwhile, Burke plays retired USMC man Miles Matheson. It’s hinted in the pilot that his brother, Ben (Tim Guinee) is working for someone –he knew the power was going to go off- and that Miles may know something as well. When Ben is killed by militia men, led by Captain Tom Neville (Giancarlo Esposito), who is portrayed as rather violent, even sadistic man (too much power corrupts), he instructs his daughter to find Miles – who may know what happened 15 years before and may also know how to bring the power back. 

While the pilot offers little new in its plot, there is a kernel of good conspiracy show.  And the lines of good and evil maybe a bit blurred, as Nate may not be as bad he starts out to be –though I will be deeply disappointed he saved Charlie because he loves her. Though I suspect he has something to do with the Maria Howell’s character of Grace, who rescues Charlie’s brother Danny (new comer Graham Rogers, who could be the younger brother of Queer as Folk star Randy Harrison) –at least temporarily- from the militia and who has a secret section of her house which where her mysterious looking broach (the same one Ben had at the beginning) can turn on power, plus work a computer from 1992.

Still, it will need to keep the story interesting if viewers are going to come back every week. As a serialized show, it will need to balance the mythology with some great stories and not get mired down in ennui that these shows have problem with while working on a tight weekly schedule.