Post-Apocalpytic TV

SurvivalBlog and some other places have had a mild buzz about the NBC series Revolution which premiered with its pilot episode this week - Monday night at 10.  I stuck it on the DVR and forgot it was there yesterday, so we just watched it. 

When I first heard about this show earlier in the summer, it was referred to as post-EMP, but it's not.  The pilot opens with the main characters at home.  Kids are watching TV (a clever homage to an old Bugs Bunny cartoon featuring a little gremlin who breaks everything on a plane Bugs is flying), when husband rushes home with a box of what looks like office supplies, he starts ranting about needing to store more water and other things.  Wife stops him and says, "it's happening, isn't it?".  We soon see lights flickering and then going out, followed by scenes of rampant destuction, airplanes flat spinning out of the sky, and then a view of the globe going dark in a spreading wave, over several seconds.  

The next scene we see is a voice over a caption saying "15 Years Later" explaining how electricity stopped working.  The laws of physics went crazy.  No one knows why.  But while they imply fire-powered things stopped working, fire still works because they have dozens of candles in every room,  and if fire works, that means internal combustion engines would still work. 

They never really explain why everything goes dark, but hours of simulation here at Muppet Labs has revealed that it was ... a plot device to set up the series.  Which apparently will whirl around some little jewelry-looking pieces that allow electricity to work near them.  The ability to turn on the power is highly sought after by various ruthless rulers.  So the charming heroine girl, the hard-drinking tough uncle, the doctor lady and the nerd boy must keep the precious away from Sauron's army.  No ... wait... Scratch the end of that sentence. 

As writers on SurvivalBlog said, they may not have electricity, but they clearly discovered a cache of Revlon, L'Oreal, and other cosmetics.  People who can make nice looking cloth instead of burlap are still in business, along with those designer firms that make tight leather pants and jackets.  The crossbows look pretty tacticool, so we must assume that they're left from before it went dark.  The bad guys have guns, muzzle loaders for the most part, but the baddest guy has a 1911 of some sort.  It has a certain feel to it that makes me think of the sales pitch, "let's make a show to cash in on that Hunger Games chicks with crossbows thing!"

That was a little harsher than it deserved.  In truth, it wasn't bad for network TV.  An insane coincidence or two; some guys hacked up in a sword fight who die, but don't bleed out.  But reasonable action, and just enough hook to make you wonder what's up.  I may give it a week or two to see how it goes.