Revolution 1.2: Fast Changes

Revolution - the new J. J. Abrams' show on NBC about a post-digital apocalypse age - continues to surprise.  After shocking us with the deaths of the protagonist Charlie's parents in the first episode - a daring move, given that they were both played by major actors - it turns out in the second episode that her mother Rachel is still very much alive!    Fans of Lost's and V's Elizabeth Mitchell, including me, will be happy.  We'll be seeing  at least Rachel in more than flashbacks.

Meanwhile, the story as a whole is less predictable than post-apocalyptic tales usually are. Not only is there still digital technology afoot somewhere, but there are battles being waged over who has guns. If you think about it, guns are a good technology to focus on in a post-digital world, because they are mechanical not digital. In Revolution the militia bad-guy government has them, and the American patriot guerrillas do not - in fact, the militia brigades confiscate any guns they find, and kill anyone who refuses to turn them over. Fans of the Second Amendment will be pleased. (I support the Second Amendment, but think it's consistent with much stricter gun laws than we now have in place.) In any case, it makes for a good thread in Revolution.

The swordplay and knife action are also good on the show, giving it a sort of Game of Thrones flavor. But the best thing about Revolution so far is the fast pace of changes, which have now transformed the basis of the show twice in the past two weeks, and make me eager to see next week's episode.

See also Revolution: Preview Review



"As a genre-bending blend of police procedural and science fiction, The Silk Code delivers on its promises." -- Gerald Jonas, The New York Times Book Review

"Daddy, this the best book I've ever read!" -- Molly Vozick-Levinson, age 12 at the time

"cerebral but gripping" -- Booklist

V Returns to TV

Kenneth Johnson's original 1983 mini-series V - along with its 1984 sequel V: The Final Battle - was oddly one of my favorite television shows. Actually, it still is. But I say "oddly," because although the story was trite - aliens landing on Earth, claiming they want to help us, only to eat us - the media savvy and political implications were compelling.

Damon Knight's 1950 short story "To Serve Man," adapted into one of the most enduring Twilight Zone episodes in 1962, told the story best. Aliens land, cure our illnesses, bring peace, want happiness for us - because they view us as livestock. V in 1983 expanded this story to show the aliens - The Visitors - manipulating the media, and provoking underground freedom fighters all over the world who discovered the truth about The Visitors. Indeed, V posted a dedication "to the heroism of the resistance and the freedom fighters, past, present and future." In 1983, freedom fighters encompassed everyone from the Hungarians who bravely stood up to Soviet tanks in the 1950s (viewed as heroes by most Americans) to Contras fighting the Sandinistas in power in Nicaragua in the 1980s (viewed as heroes mostly by Ronald Reagan and his supporters).

Tonight's V had political analogies, but a little more obvious and less complex than the 1980s version. Tonight's Visitors promise "universal health care," a clear and unnecessary shot at the good work Obama and the Democrats are trying to do right now in Washington. A more apt connection was made tonight between the Visitors and terrorists.

Actually, the Visitors are referred to as the "V's" in this incarnation, and I prefer the "Visitors". But V 2009 does have Father Jack Landry (Joel Gretsch, who played Frank Vasser on Journeyman), which opens up some good theological threads (I'm suspecting his superior might be a Visitor undercover), and Lost's Elizabeth Mitchell has a top role as Erica Evans.

The new version also has the winning mix of good and bad Visitors, and Visitor-collaborator and rebel humans as the original, as well as some echoes of Battlestar Galactica (the Visitors as Cylons), and an appealing media criticism component, so I'm going to give it a chance. And kudos to ABC for stepping up with science fiction a lot more than once this decade - Lost, Invasion, FlashForward, and now the return of V.


5-min podcast review of V