WOW people are missing the details of what's going on in the show... the USB drive is not that... it's a power source. Look at how it activates a computer at the end of the pilot... also the guns are rare, however the militia are allowed to have them. They are not illegal. On top of that the show is centered around the idea of evolution, thus the title's r not lighting up until WAY AFTER THE FACT. The concept of this is going to further be explored, considering the fact that many of the characters have physical weakness such as asthma or bee allergies, things that would likely play out in natural selection. The death of the google nerd is also forshadowed in the very beggining when the British woman hints that it'll be the death of him. So yeah, look to see physical weakness come into play, as only the strong survive in an evolutionary speed up which is what's likely taking place on the show. Why? Who knows? To speed of evolution? Or perhaps to connect people better as a human race by taking away the technology that is dehumanizing us. These are all things explored in the pilot which sets the tone for the entire piece. Either way, there is more to the USB drive than being a USB drive. It's a power source. You can see it at the end of each episode that it's giving power to some sort of device and it's obviously a very powerful thing to have if the father, Ben, was going through the trouble of giving it to the google genius. Anyways, that's my late night rant on the show. Can't wait to see why the power went out and how. Oh, and I noticed it blacked out in a wave that started in the northeastern coast of North America. It spreads out in a circle from there. So perhaps there is something going on up in the north east that has yet to be played out. I do predict that the girl's postcard collection is foreshadowing of places to see. First we saw she had a wrigley field post card and it comes true. Next I predict New York, as the show will likely head east where the source of the power black out occurred. Yeah I have a writer's mind so I broke this show down way too much, but you have to look at it from that way since JJ Abrams enjoys putting mysteries into his show. The only thing is I suspect he's going to drop major hints early on as to what's truly going on. I do predict that there are a certain group of people with these power keys who are keepers with a purpose. What that purpose is I'm unsure of, but the power symbol is prevelent amongst them and they knew ahead of time what would happen. I can't wait to find out what their purpose is and what happened. Being from the lost writer though, don't expect to find out immediately. And again... it's not a USB Drive!
Last night's was a bit better, interesting stuff near the end of the episode Spoiler Was impressed they had the main girl actually kill the warden, was expecting them to just wimp out on that even though they softened it with her speech afterward. The last bit with her Mom being alive and whoever it was that showed up with the cattle prod was interesting enough to get me to check out next weeks. Ginacarlo is just miles above everybody else in terms of acting though.
That may be ...and I'll say one evolutionary point you missed was when the father couldn't bring himself to kill the scavenger but the mom did (and she is still alive)...but the show has way too many stupid and predictable moments, combined with bad acting, for me to really care. And the sets look and feel rather cheap and too fake. Right now I'd be happy if everyone was killed off leaving only Billy Burke. He's the only saving grace at the moment. And I don't really get the gun comment, as last night's episode made it pretty clear that the militias hoarded the guns and made them illegal to own for anyone not loyal.
The pilot wasn't impressive at all. I just want to find out what caused the blackout (which they'll probably drag out forever just to keep ppl interested).
I'm guessing the whole show is one of those cautionary tales. Mankind oversteps its bounds, tries to play God, ends up sending humanity back to the dark ages instead. I'm calling my shot now: The blackout was the result of a research project to create an energy source of unlimited power. The experiment backfired, and the energy source unleashed a power-dampening field around the whole planet (which is more or less permanant because it is perpetually fueled by the unlimited energy provided by the research project, which is still active somewhere). The USB keys (the MacGuffins of the series) were designed as safeguards against catastrophic failure and can open a small hole in the dampening field. In order to shut off the energy project and dissipate the dampening field, all of the USB keys need to be gathered and used against the still-active device. The show will basically turn into Charlie and the gang's search for all the USB keys, so they can end the blackout and topple the very stupid-sounding Monroe Republic. The last scene of the series shows the Smoke Monster, Milo Rambaldi, and the Cloverfield monster sitting around a table and talking about how TV shows from JJ Abrams never fulfill their promise.
love the smoke monster comment... yeah that was crap... and yes the keys will be sought after and I think the Monroe people can't be the only bad guy... they are just too lame.
I'm going to predict each will lose their USB key after a night of heavy drinking at friends' houses or in the crack of the car seat
Because I sat out on both Lost (checked out at smoke monster) and Fringe, I figured I'd give this story no less than 1 season. However, on watching this on the heels of Breaking Bad and Thrones, it has been painful to say the least. Trying to enjoy the story past the limitations of network tv dramas is the goal.
They pretty blatantly said it was illegal for citizens (non-militia) to own or use guns and that doing so is punishable by death. That's why they confronted that guy who shot the deer in the last episode. They also brought it up in the pilot when one of the townfolk pulled out a rifle during that first scene with the militia.
"Revolution," which premiered last week, is the latest big-budget prime-time attempt to capture the sci-fi /conspiracy/ apocalypse ground once held successfully by "Lost" and "Heroes." Like previous attempts to take this ground using expensive action scenes and cut-rate writing -- "Terra Nova," "The Event," "FlashForward," "V," "Jericho" -- "Revolution" has "canceled by Christmas" written all over it. Thus TMQ must mock the series while there's time. Assume some mysterious force could stop electricity from flowing and prevent all mechanical devices from operating. To watch a "Superman" movie, you must suspend disbelief about superpowers. To watch "Revolution," you must accept its head-scratcher premise. But within the premise, action should be comprehensible. In the pilot, we see a man hurry home to his wife and adorable children, clutching a bag of groceries. He announces that it's about to happen, and races to download a file to a flash drive. The wife knows what "it" is, and begins to fill the bathtubs and sinks with water. The man calls his brother to warn him that all technology is about to stop, forever. Then all technology stops. Fifteen years later most of the world population is dead, cities are overgrown with vines and warlords rule what remains of the United States. We see the man running a village commune. He says his wife died because she left the protection of the commune walls. A sinister militia comes to demand the man's surrender. When he resists, the militia mortally wounds him and kidnaps a teen, who turns out to be the little boy from the beginning. The little girl turns out to have grown into a fearless Katniss knockoff with a crossbow. The file the man frantically downloaded turns out to run an amulet that restores electricity. His brother turns out to have belonged to an elite Army commando unit. Now, the brother runs a moonshine establishment in the ruins of Chicago. The brother joins Katniss/B to search for the kidnapped boy. There's the series setup. Suppose you were a father and mother who knew all technology was about to stop working -- you'd buy more than one bag of groceries! You wouldn't wait until the last conceivable instant to draw water or copy the magic software. You'd stockpile inhalers for your asthmatic child, rather than do nothing, as is depicted. If the first two characters shown knew the blackout apocalypse was coming, why didn't they prepare? Fifteen years later, just before expiring, the man hands the power-restoration amulet to a stranger, not explaining its purpose. Lying mortally wounded, he tells his daughter to be strong but does not reveal his knowledge of how the blackout began. Since the amulet and the knowledge were the items of value he possessed at death, why didn't he give either to his daughter? The daughter walks to Chicago to find her uncle; what seemed like a rural village was the ruins of a suburb. The uncle declares he has not spoken to his brother since receiving the warning a moment before the blackout. At this point we must accept that the uncle, a highly trained commando, knew that his brother had vital information about whatever stopped all power on Earth from functioning -- yet over 15 years, never simply walked to his brother's house to ask him what the heck was going on. Canceled by Christmas; lucky to make it to Thanksgiving. Gregg Easterbrook Watched the pilot, tried to watch ep.2, won't be watching again.
I will disagree that The Event had cut-rate writing. Thought it actually had pretty darn good writing with some really good characters. The only bad characters were the young couple.
Last night's was marginally better than the other two I thought. But it still could be so much better. I really want to like it, but man is it trying its hardest to stop me from doing so.
I have been watching... A lot of you need to tone down your expectations of TV shows please. Watch and enjoy.
I gave it 3 episodes, I'm done. I think it flat out sucks There are too many quality TV shows to waste time on this crap
The main issue is . . . they need to get away from 'the family' everyone else is more interesting Rocket River
The plot twists are okay, which is driving the show for me. The character development is awful, and the girl is really annoying. I wouldn't care if any of the characters died right now, except for maybe Miles.
