Revolution [aka that new JJ Abrams show]

DrIanMalcolm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwfCRAtkYEI&feature=youtu.be

Created by Eric Kripke (who also created Supernatural) and produced by J. J. Abrams and Bryan Burk, Revolution 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

So the pilot is available to watch on Hulu right now and it's... okay? I had higher hopes for it given the people behind it and the fact that Jon Favreau directed the episode, but nothing really grabbed me. The only character I found interesting was one of the villains (and that's only because I love Giancarlo Esposito), the look of the show is just a cheaper version of I Am Legend/28 Days Later, and I don't know if the premise will be able to keep me interested for more than a season. At least it's not trying to be the new LOST as badly as prior shows though (hello Flash-Forward).

Anyone else watch it or looking forward to it?

Cornell002

Interesting concept. Haven't watch the pilot yet but I hope it's better than I've heard

Brolo

finally a show about the ron paul revolution

Romanian My Escutcheon

This show pretty much lost me when they had the protagonist say that she was comfortable with the prospect of a global blackout, because "when the world lost power, I found mine," in a commercial.

I'm not sure if I'm turned off by that because of my naturally skeptical nature, because that line sucks, or because I find it hard to believe anybody would revel in the concept of gaining power at the expense of several thousand dead.

Zonugal

My mind vomited when I watched the trailer for this a while back.

Like, it looks okay production-wise but holy shit can I not historically buy into the concept at all.

DrIanMalcolm

That might've just been a promo thing since it's never said in the pilot

Aneurhythmia

Of all the things in the trailer that make no fucking sense to me, the worst might be at the 50 second mark when all the cars shut off in stationary and well-spaced positions. It might be the least likely configuration of traffic in the entire history of audiovisual media.

And I'm including the scene where they go to Toon Town in Roger Rabbit.

nightmarenny

So in this show they've taken an idea from Harry Potter* that was often derided as being to silly for a kids book about Wizards and made a series tv drama out of it?

*That idea being that things like car engines and watches and such could enter a zone where they simply don't work.

tugga

i really enjoyed super 8

maybe i should get into this

ive wanted to start lost, but then i think about what sort of investment that actually is

Zonugal

tugga wrote: »

ive wanted to start lost, but then i think about what sort of investment that actually is

DO IT!!!!

UnbreakableVow

Lost was a wonderful show and a wonderful experience

But sadly, the window for its greatest enjoyment has passed, never to return again

Also, who exactly derided that idea in HP, nightmarenny? This is the first I've heard someone mention it

Marth

I'll watch the pilot soon, but I have some hopes that this show can be good. It has the potential.

nightmarenny

Fans of Harry Potter would often nitpick that idea...

As a child I spent more time on Harry Potter forums then I care to talk about.

Bogey

I was really excited for this show when I first heard about it and saw the trailer.

Then during NBC's Olympic coverage where they started showing promo tie-ins with the events, it kinda killed me.

Bluedude152

I absolutely love the concept and hope they can pull it off.

Munkus Beaver

I can buy into modern cars not working due to the reliance on electronics.

But not old timey cars.

Dex Dynamo

This is like the fifth "All the machinery on Earth turns" off story I've heard of in the last few years. Doesn't mean I'm not interested, but it's weird.

Harry Dresden

UnbreakableVow wrote: »

Lost was a wonderful show and a wonderful experience

But sadly, the window for its greatest enjoyment has passed, never to return again

Also, who exactly derided that idea in HP, nightmarenny? This is the first I've heard someone mention it

I wouldn't say that about Lost. I've been liking it and I only started watching the show on the G4 marathons.

Dex Dynamo wrote: »

This is like the fifth "All the machinery on Earth turns" off story I've heard of in the last few years. Doesn't mean I'm not interested, but it's weird.

Where else did the story appear?

Dex Dynamo

I read two separate Indy comics about all of technology shutting off at NYCC last year, at least. And at the time I remember thinking "this is exactly like X," though now I don't remember what X is.

Mind you, they were all really good. So, like I said, I'm still down with the concept.

Antimatter

how are human brains still working with electricity shutting down

Langly

this show looked pretty dumb, the concept seems silly. We'll probably watch the pilot just to give it a shot but it would need to be really good to pull us in, I think.

UnbreakableVow

Harry Dresden wrote: »

UnbreakableVow wrote: »

Lost was a wonderful show and a wonderful experience

But sadly, the window for its greatest enjoyment has passed, never to return again

Also, who exactly derided that idea in HP, nightmarenny? This is the first I've heard someone mention it

I wouldn't say that about Lost. I've been liking it and I only started watching the show on the G4 marathons.

I'm not saying it's not still a great show, and I'd definitely still recommend it to people

But the feeling of new discovery every week, the experience of talking shit out at length on forums, especially the Lost thread that Bogey ran here in SE++, that was really something special that can't be replicated

Harry Dresden

Antimatter wrote: »

how are human brains still working with electricity shutting down

Magic.

Langly

i just love that the idea isn't that the infrastructure breaks down, but that electricity just goes away

Centipede Damascus

I hope they either never find out what caused the blackout

or else they find out that it is caused by some supervillain's science fiction device that creates a field that shuts down electronics via some technobabble explanation

Harry Dresden

Centipede Damascus wrote: »

I hope they either never find out what caused the blackout

or else they find out that it is caused by some supervillain's science fiction device that creates a field that shuts down electronics via some technobabble explanation

They implied in the trailers that it's a male protagonist who activates the device that shuts down the electricity IIRC.

DrIanMalcolm

I don't think it's as bad as this guy thinks, but I pretty much agree with all of his points

That the premise — it’s a post-apocalyptic world set 15 years after a permanent blackout — is silly is almost beside the point. In fact, that ridiculous high-concept is the most compelling thing about “Revolution,” and it’s not even thoroughly explored in the pilot, at least not in a way that satisfyingly draws the viewer in. A better show would’ve focused on the immediate aftermath of such a blackout, and while flashbacks in “Revolution” hint at that, the main focus of the show is on the future, where a milita controls territories, where people have no electricity, where no medicines can be developed, and where there is no such thing as toilet paper.

Cornell002

Centipede Damascus wrote: »

I hope they either never find out what caused the blackout

or else they find out that it is caused by some supervillain's science fiction device that creates a field that shuts down electronics via some technobabble explanation

...FlashForward?

FirmSkater

Okay I saw someone on twitter explain this and I legitimately though it was like, a joke. I thought they were making up a parody of a show he would make.

DrIanMalcolm

Interview with the show's creator

When I am kicking around show ideas, or really any idea, usually an image comes to me. I don’t really start with a character or a logline like, “What if the electricity turned off?” I was just noodling on an idea from an image of two guys having a sword fight, Lord of the Rings style, but instead of some kind of English Stonehenge, vine-covered structure as their backdrop, they were doing it in front of a vine-covered Starbucks. It was honestly that. And then, I started thinking, “Can we make America into a feudal kingdom, where we can have adventures and heroes and villains and love and loyalty?” It was just about coming up with a setting where you could tell a really classic, epic, sweeping adventure saga that was a very Joseph Campbell type of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings world.

I wanted to tell an old story that was about a journey, the way that Star Wars is the same story as The Lord of the Rings, which is the same story as The Wizard of Oz, which is the same story as The Odyssey. There’s one great story, and it’s big and it’s sweeping and it’s epic and it’s complicated. I wanted to tell that story, using the advantage of the medium of series television. The disadvantage that Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings had, as much as I’m a slave to those movies, is that they don’t have 22 hours a season, hopefully, to tell that story and to really flesh out every facet of their world. I thought this would be a great opportunity to use the television medium to really be able to dive, neck deep, into that type of story. So, it started with that. Honestly, it was about coming up with some version of, “Okay, how do transform the American landscape into a setting where you can have adventure and excitement?”

Hopefully Revolution actually turns into this show at some point

Buttlord

oh hey this is a show created by eric kripke

coincidentally i just started watching supernatural

show owns

Centipede Damascus

I watched the pilot on Hulu and I can already tell I'm going to get way too invested in Beardy Guy and he is probably going to get screwed over a lot

Desktop Hippie

Okay can we all agree right now that we're all perfectly fine with never knowing what caused the blackout if the show becomes a beautiful expression of the fragility and loneliness of the human condition?

Langly

After watching the pilot, I'm ninety percent sure that it won't.

The writing is not very good, the protagonists aren't very well acted, especially the google guy and the daughter.

YaYa

oh give em a few episodes

so much stuff can change between the pilot and the second episode, even

Grey Ghost

It's weird to watch the pilot for LOST
Everyone has different haircuts and stuff

DrIanMalcolm

God I wish Rubicon had gotten a second season

UnbreakableVow

Grey Ghost wrote: »

It's weird to watch the pilot for LOST
Everyone has different haircuts and stuff

Sawyer just has a very light five o'clock shadow and his hair is all slicked back

He looks almost presentable

It's jarring

Langly

I really liked rubicon, but I was glad it was only a season. It was a perfect conclusion for the show that they made.

FCD

Centipede Damascus wrote: »

I watched the pilot on Hulu and I can already tell I'm going to get way too invested in Beardy Guy and he is probably going to get screwed over a lot

Out of curiosity, do they use gunpowder and cannons in the pilot at all? It just strikes me as silly that in the promos I've seen, everyone is using swords and bows. Basic combustion should still work, even if there's no electricity.

YaYa

FCD wrote: »

Centipede Damascus wrote: »

I watched the pilot on Hulu and I can already tell I'm going to get way too invested in Beardy Guy and he is probably going to get screwed over a lot

Out of curiosity, do they use gunpowder and cannons in the pilot at all? It just strikes me as silly that in the promos I've seen, everyone is using swords and bows. Basic combustion should still work, even if there's no electricity.

Gus Fring straight-up has a handgun

I think by the time the show takes place the idea is that they're just running out of ammo, so it makes more sense for the average non-militia schmoe to use something a bit easier to come by

similarly, flintlocks make sense because it's pretty easy to just make a musket ball