Said militiamen, representing the evil Monroe Republic, arrive at the village on horseback, led by Capt. Tom Neville (played by the welcome sight of “Breaking Bad’s” Giancarlo Esposito), looking for Ben, and, ostensibly, his magic thumb drive. A bow-and-arrow shootout ensues, and Ben dies. (This is not so much of a spoiler as an indication that we will now probably only see him in flashbacks — Abrams’s preferred narrative twist.) The soldiers take young Danny prisoner.
Accompanied by Aaron and her stepmother, the Katniss-like Charlie (Tracy Spiridakos), armed with her bow and arrows, sets off for the ruins of Chicago to find her long lost uncle (Billy Burke as Miles), a former Marine sergeant, who is also being sought by the militia for the secrets he might know about restoring power.
Hank Stuever
Hank Stuever is The Washington Post’s TV critic and author of two books, “Tinsel” and “Off Ramp.”
Here, “Revolution” starts pushing its 20-page lease agreement toward you. Will you sign on for its convoluted saga, whether it lasts just a few episodes or drags on for years? Networks are understandably feeling singed by the complex, past-present-past action adventure series, but we can all agree that the prospect of a good one remains a tantalizing proposition.
I’m on the fence. In just one episode, “Revolution” feels already too rushed (trying to beat the cancellation clock, no doubt), concerned more with its melodrama and sword fights than easing us into the idea of what it’s like to cope without power. My favorite scene is a brief memory Charlie has of her family eating all the ice cream the night the lights went out — her only taste of the stuff. “Revolution” has a way of relegating its most intriguing material to that of backdrop. We barely see the subdivision village before we leave it behind. Explaining was never a priority for Abrams and company.
As Charlie and Aaron consider bunking down for the night in an old jetliner at O’Hare, he lets it casually slip that he used to own one. “I used to work at this place called Google,” he tells the young woman, who doesn’t know what that is. “Eighty million dollars in the bank, and I would trade it all right now for a roll of Charmin.”
That’s the post-apocalypse human-interest drama I want to watch. “Revolution” instead plunges itself into something that’s more of a combination of “The Hunger Games” and an old-fashioned weekend of reenactments at Antietam. Besides Esposito, the ensemble cast makes no lasting first impression, afflicted with trite dialogue and the same uniform blandness that dragged down Fox’s ambitious “Terra Nova.”
And yet, just when I sensed my interest flagging, a character — ahem, spoiler alert — unlocks a closet, activates a charm necklace, boots up an old C drive and dials up a rudimentary Internet. The mind reels with possibility, and even hope, which is why we keep coming back to stories like these.
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