Revolution S02E01: "Born in the U.S.A."
One of this season's most exciting new fall shows is
Revolution,
NBC's new drama about a world that's 15-and-a-half years removed from a worldwide blackout and six months removed from a domestic nuclear attack. Wait, what?
Revolution is in its second season? Are you sure?
Season 1 of the NBC sci-fi series was dissed by creator Eric Kripke himself, and by May, the show had lost a large portion of its initial audience.
That's the mental approach show creator Eric Kripke hopes viewers will take going into Season 2, and really, it's the only way
Revolution stands a chance at ever fulfilling the potential it had when it was but a wee logline gestating in Kripke's brain. At Comic-Con this past July, Kripke said that Season 1 was full of mistakes and crashed several times, rendering it barely able to crawl across the finish line. Electricity was too common in a world that wasn't supposed to have any, there were guns everywhere, and the light switch that powered everything was the only thing people talked about, which meant people talked about it way too much.
So what did Kripke do to kick off Season 2? He blew up the whole damn show. He nuked it—literally—by letting the bombs that were launched in the Season 1 finale fall on Atlanta and Philadelphia in the opening moments of Season 2. Season 1, you are dust. Let's pretend you never happened. Not only was it the right choice to make for this one-time hit, it helped the series experience its own...
Revolution. Bam!
All that's left in the ruins of Season 1 is probably what the show should have been in the first place: bleak, filthy, and chaotic. Gone are the Disney overtones, the terrible dialogue, and the useless characters ; in their place are a new team of writers (
Supernatural's Ben Edlund,
Defiance's Rockne S. O'Bannon) and a new attitude.
Revolution felt like a completely different show in "Born in the U.S.A." Maybe the episode should've been called "Reborn in the U.S.A.," because aside from the familiar faces, it was almost unrecognizable. And dammit, it was good. Well, compared to what we were used to.
We can see the effect of the destruction on all of the show's core characters, too. They all played a role in the obliteration of millions, and it's weighing them heavily, particularly with Rachel. And the nuclear hangover has carried over into the most important aspect of the show: its tone.
Let's briefly talk about what actually happened in the premiere. Miles, Rachel and Aaron were all hanging out in the fake town of Willoughby, Texas, feeling mostly miserable about vaporizing the East Coast. Rachel's dad was there, and he's a good addition to the group as a man who can lend more insight into the pre-blackout romantic entanglement of Miles and Rachel. The threat of well-organized militia armies has been replaced by the threat of savage, independently run war clans, bringing a Mad Max feel to the show, these guys aren't dopes like the hapless fools of the Monroe Militia. They hang people! They're actually scary! And they scooped up Miles (who goes by Stu now, btw) and friendly Sheriff Mason.
Aaron now has an interest in entomology because he witnessed a massive firefly fireworks show. He also talked about other critters acting odd, as though nature was ready to reclaim the planet from the human vermin that destroyed it. I seriously thought Aaron was a goner when he took a sabre to the chest and actually died at the end of the episode, but the final frame showed Aaron gasping and springing back to life. You got me,
Revolution. But what does it mean? I guess that's what next week is for.
And how about the new Charlie? I'm kind of liking this version of her. She's sluttier, more driven, and badass than she was in Season 1. Based on the limited time we spent with her, she's already looking like a much more improved Charlie. Charlie stalked Monroe to New Vegas (helllllo, Fallout), where the latter was engaging in some bare-chested boxing for sport. The citizens of
Under the Dome took an unbelievable eight days to start punching each other over resources, but here on
Revolution it's been six months since the bombs dropped (plus an extra 15 years of no electricity before that), and all hope was lost five months and 30 days ago. What else is there to do? Charlie tried to kill Monroe to take him off her list, but before she could put an arrow through his skull, Monroe was whisked away by some unknowns.
Over in the Great Plains Nation, the Nevilles roamed around what looked like a campground for Bonnaroo in search of Tom's wife, but things were looking bleak. Tom was a broken man without a purpose until Secretary Justine Allerford, a representative of the U.S. government who was displaced by savages like President Kelly of the Georgia Federation and Monroe of the Monroe Militia showed up. They're back to reclaim the country and supposedly make it great again, but all I got from them was a nutjob Tea Party vibe. Tom did too, because he stopped trying to kill himself and figured that Randall was working with them, therefore they're responsible for his wife's death. "I am going to rip them apart from the inside until they are begging me to die."
The world is different, the characters are different, the writing is different. And that's the best news I have about
Revolution. I'm not foolish enough to say that the show is back on track. One better episode doesn't erase the 22 hours of disappointment we trudged through last season. But given the circumstances,
Revolution returned in the best way possible. We'll see if it can keep moving in the right direction.
Culled from TV.Com
