NBC’s Revolution 1st Episode

Revolution is the story of a world where electricity no longer works.  In the opening scene we see a man who knows what is going to happen, his wife who knows what is going to happen, and his brother who gets a call warning him about what is going to happen.  Then it happens-click-everything stops working.  Cars rolls to a stop, planes fall from the sky, computers and TVs switch off-and will never switch back on again.  Welcome to the revolution.

We flash forward 15 years or so and find ourselves in a cul-de-sac turned into a farm where the man who knows what’s going on seems perfectly happy in his new agrarian surroundings.  Untold millions have died, but hey, this guy has a nice little urban farm going so all is well with the world.  Then the evil militia wanders in, armed with brass knuckle swords, crossbows, and black powder rifles.

One of the problems with being a fan of Sci Fi is that everything reminds you of something else.  Our hero is a young woman, the daughter of the man who turned off the power, and she is good with a bow and arrow.  The first time we see her, she is out hunting with her brother, who also has a bow.  They are dressed in standard issue post apocalyptic attire, and look as if they just walked off the set of The Hunger Games.

There is a lot of walking and a lot of whining. There’s a Hurley type character who used to work for Google instead of winning the lottery, and he seems a bit soft for having lived off the land for 15 years.  The Santiago type character seems a little young to have inspired an army to follow him-he also reminds me of the bad guy from Book of Eli who wanted a bible.  Our heroes whine about missing things like talcum powder, ice cream, and paper.

In one scene, the girl’s uncle gets into a fight with a dozen or so people on a large staircase, which reminded me of a scene from Matrix Reloaded.  So much so that I was a bit shocked when the fight didn’t fall into slow motion ballet-they just sort hit each other and fell over.

The little gotcha at the end was good, as it was actually a bit of a surprise.

I hope Revolution gets better as it goes along.

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