TV Review: REVOLUTION - Chained Heat 1.2

Rolling on with Revolution, the new high concept drama from NBC and J.J. Abrams, following the “Pilot” episode I wouldn’t say that I way awe inspired or anything, I thought, yeah, that was ok, let’s see what happens next week. Now I’ve had that chance as this week saw Revolutions second episode “Chained Heat” air on NBC. I Think it’s hard sometimes to become instantly attached to characters after one episode of a show, following this second episode I still wouldn’t say that I feel emotionally attached to any of the characters on display, Charlie Matheson for instance, I couldn’t care less right now whether or not she finds her brother Danny, this is probably a good thing though, because lets face if she does find him then it won’t be until the end of the first season by which point I think people may have switched off.

I love what Revolution is trying to achieve and I love how it is very similar to J.J. Abrams Lost, at least in it’s story, problem is up to now I don’t think Revolution is going to achieve what Lost did, that show set the bar extremely high for this type of concept and everything done now (FlashForward/The Event/Awake) is compared to it, I remember watching Alcatraz at the beginning of the year and feeling the same about that show, I just wasn’t attached to the main characters. Even so I still think Revolution has room to grow, there is after all plenty still to get through.

So, what do we want to know? First off, the biggest question of the show, and its premise, who is responsible for the power going off? It would already seem apparent that the Matheson family in some way shape or form either have something to do with it or they are aware of what caused the problem. The Militia’s General Monroe who worked with the Matheson’s before the lights went out seems well aware of this fact. What caused General Monroe to become the leader of The Militia and such a nasty git for want of a better word? He has now formed the Monroe Republic, who claim to be the good guys out to burn American flags, why does he hate America all of a sudden? Then we have Grace, who we met briefly in the Pilot (although I don’t remember) what relevance does she have to the story? Who are the resistance? How many people have futuristic USB sticks? Are they the resistance? You get my point here, there is still plenty to explore with the off shoots seemingly looping back to the central plot, but we have said this before.

I have a couple of issues, some of the acting this far has seemed rather hammy, particularly from Tracey Spiridakos, not all the time it just seems to be the points where she is giving a speech to her uncle Miles about how she needs to protect her brother, this episode she did handle shooting that guy whilst also killing the other one very well, I liked the way they showed the flashbacks letting us know where she mustered up the courage from. A couple of Billy Burke’s lines also came over a little hammy during this episode, I don’t remember the exact words but it was when Charlie asked him where he was going, his reply, along the lines of “it’s a great place called mind your own business”. Charlie hasn’t minded it so far, nor do I think she is going to start now.

Another little issue I have is the swashbuckling sword fights, they are pretty kick ass don’t get me wrong but I just don’t find them all that enjoyable, leave swashbuckling to pirates, the cross bows too, at times I feel like I’m watching The Hunger Games. Revolution is doing a great job this far of being (for TV) visually stunning, it really shows that a lot of money has been spent on production, for me “Chained Heat” was better than the Pilot and the added twist at the end of Rachael (Charlie’s mother) still being alive and held captive by Monroe was quite revealing. I just hope that Revolution lives up to the hype that we have all been hearing about running up to the Fall TV season.