Revolution

I sat through three episodes of that crap. The basic premise of the show is that at one point, all of a sudden, electricity just quit working, ending modern civilization. (As opposed to ending everything ever). It mostly takes place 15 years after "The Blackout" and flashes back to when it happened.

Someone should round up the writers, make them watch the show, only pausing it every five minutes to play this for them.

You see... the problem isn't just that the premise is stupid. It isn't that nobody knows what diesel or steam engines are, or how to make ammo, and hair and beauty products remain in abundance. It's not that the bad guys somehow manage to brutally enforce gun control in America WITH MUSKETS. These are background annoyances. Most of the time. The show insists on shoving these in your face from time to time.

The real main problems with this show are that:

There isn't a single likeable or even sympathetic protagonist. The only people who are remotely interesting are in the Bad Guy Militia. You've got a fat whiny neckbeard, a thin whiny Limey, a whiny teenage girl with a crossbow and a whiny teenage boy with asthma. He's managed to have two life-threatening attacks in as many episodes. He gets captured and the others have to try and save him, but they get distracted by plot twists pulled fresh from the writers' asses every fifteen FUCKING minutes.

They TRY to add some interesting characters but fail. There's the supposedly alcoholic antihero uncle with a super dark past... but all he basically does is whine about how stupid the stupid girl's ideas are before going along with what she wants, and then says "I told you so" when it all goes to hell.



Also, apparently they teach you how to use swords perfectly and start dictatorships in the Marine Corps. Then they added some chick with the rebels who's supposed to have her own tragic past and whatnot, but I honestly can't remember anything about her beyond the fact that she looks uncannily like a hispanic Sarah Silverman.

They keep trying to twist the plot... but you have to establish a plot before you start twisting it. Most shows manage to go at least ONE season before the writers let everything fall apart, in a stupidly convoluted mess, that shows they never really knew what they were doing. These guys decided that they couldn't wait that long. I don't know how to describe it besides saying "This show has ADD." By jumping around and trying to twist things every five minutes, it completely kills my interest in everything happening on-screen. I mean, there's fighting and stuff, but I just don't care. Especially because what fighting there is is incredibly stupid. Like how they managed to acquire a bolt-action sniper rifle before being trapped in a restaurant. "GET UP TO THE ROOF. ANYONE COMES WITHIN TEN YARDS: FIRE."

I am not making up that line. And so some jackass rebel manages to defend a Bennigan's by sniping from the rooftop... right out in the open... at anyone who dares to get within spitting distance. For about twelve hours. At no point was the ENTIRE MILITIA PLATOON able to just say "screw this," retreat to a safe distance and throw a musket volley or two at him or even just take cover and shoot back sporadically. They didn't even try to bum rush the door, because it's a bolt-action rifle, not a goddamn machine gun. Their brilliant plan was to throw men at him, one at a time, until he ran out of bullets.

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"Thirty feet. A true test of marksmanship!"

All that makes the rest a background annoyance... most of the time. But since they decided one of the subplots must be "fixing the stupidpocalypse," they insist on dragging out that wad of sandpaper and rubbing it all over your face once an episode. No, having your fatass neckbeard who constantly whines about how he used to be rich working for Google come right out and say "it cornholed the laws of physics!" (another actual line) DOES NOT MAKE IT BETTER.

It's just... so... so... EVEN THE TRAILER SHOWS HOW FUCKING STUPID IT IS. WATCH THIS SHIT.



Fuck this show.

So...lack of electricity knocked out modern civilization--even though modern civilization developed in a world where people didn't use electricity (it's only been in use since the 1870's, and there are places in the U.S. that didn't have it until well into the 1960's). For that matter, in some parts of the world, electricity is still scarce to nonexistent--and yet people manage to survive and even thrive.

And somehow no one knew how to turn it back on, or make use of steam engines.

And the lack of it made governments fall, even though governments, including those running huge empires, existed long before mankind made use of electricity.

Right...

Is it even worth pointing out that human bodies use electricity? (Kind of)

How shit a writer do you have to be to create something even less realistic than The Oblivion Virus?

Lady Anne wrote:

So...lack of electricity knocked out modern civilization--even though modern civilization developed in a world where people didn't use electricity (it's only been in use since the 1870's, and there are places in the U.S. that didn't have it until well into the 1960's). For that matter, in some parts of the world, electricity is still scarce to nonexistent--and yet people manage to survive and even thrive.

Actually, if something knocked out the power grid temporarily like an EMP, or worse, a massive solar flare, the consequences would be disastrous. Even if it was out all over for just a couple weeks, let alone months, people would quickly begin dying of thirst, disease bred by a lack of sanitation, and in the winter or summer, depending on the area, climate-induced die-offs. Then you'd have people fighting over resources as the old and sick die off first, and then it starts getting pretty nasty from there.

Living without electricity, in third-world conditions, isn't something most first-worlders can even comprehend, let alone survive in. We can barely approximate it on a weekend camping trip; very few of us have the skills to hack it. It'd be the death of millions. It only gets worse as the medicine supplies dry up; think of anyone you know who relies on meds for physical and/or mental health, and then having to try to survive without their meds when everything's gone to shit.

(The annoying brother that got captured should be dead. It's really, really unlikely that someone that prone to severe asthma attacks could survive very long, let alone for 15 years. A side character literally had to teach him what an inhaler is and how to use it).

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And somehow no one knew how to turn it back on,

Yeah, it's dumb. "It's all a big mystery! Cornholed the laws of physics! But little lockets can restore power to a house, but hardly anybody knows about them!"

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or make use of steam engines.

Or diesel, which doesn't require spark plugs. The main problem with the idea of electricity suddenly not working at all, for no apparent reason, is that it means everything stops working. Like, at the atomic level. Everything would just fall apart.

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And the lack of it made governments fall, even though governments, including those running huge empires, existed long before mankind made use of electricity.

Right...

Government control would be an extremely iffy proposition. These are people every bit as used to modern conveniences as the rest of us, not communicating via Pony Express. Without a means of effectively communicating to the military, restoring order in its own ranks would be a difficult proposition to begin with, let alone mobilizing troops to secure cities and supplies. I really doubt it'd collapse completely, but it'd be functionally useless for a long time.

From the sounds of it, if going by steam-power, the series could have turned decent steampunk. Think I could pass on watching this show, then.

TheIan wrote:

From the sounds of it, if going by steam-power, the series could have turned decent steampunk.

As much as I enjoy the absurd aesthetics of steampunk, attending the shenigans aboard a dirigible would detract from the post-apocalyptic feel they're going for. Trying to make this show steampunk would only serve to make it even more bullshit than it already is.

Watched the pilot. Was definitely underwhelmed. These characters don't look like they've roughed it for a weekend, let alone fifteen years.

I had considered watching "Revolution" but decided against it....and judging by the comments posted so far in this thread it looks like I made the right call.

You've already made some of the same points but I thought I'd post this article nonetheless: Ten Dumbest Things on Television

Yeah, except for her wharrgarbl over shooting the knife-wielding, hostage-taking food thief, it's spot on.