Did anyone catch Revolution?
 

While I like the idea the show has been unable to grab a hold of me. Too cliche, bad acting, and plot holes. It does have some nice visuals and I like the twists at the end but I will only give it 1-2 more tries before abandoning it.

Its like the series Last Resort. I can't see them going past one season with it.

How about Last Resort? I've missed that one too but considered catching up online.

I'm right there with you.

I forgot to record the premier of Last Resort. I hope they replay it soon- I've tried watching shows online but my internet connection doesn't handle that sort of thing very well.

schizophrenic hollywood writing

Wants to be Hunger Games, Dawsons creek, Escape from New York, Erol Flynn movie, and Jericho.

but in a clean family friendly format.....

This one is gonna crash and burn like the dinosaur time travel one.

I'm in about the same boat -- everything about the premise of revolution should equal it being one of my favorite shows ever. In execution -- it's just not blowing my socks off.

Last Resort seems much better based on one episode, though its long term prospects do seem questionable.

Last Resort.

I haven't watched it but, I think it is up on Hulu.

I'm watching Last Resort now online. It's too Hollywood but I like it better than Revolution. I'm already liking some characters.

As for Revolution after two episodes I can't feel anyone. It is trying to be too many shows at once. We can be pretty sure the outage was manmade and things can be restored. I would have been content with "it happened" and the world has changed. Use the world as the background and focus on story and characters.

Just like in battlestar galatica is wasn't about space, just took place there.

I caught the first episode of Revolution. I was rather non-plussed by it. It didn't wow me like it really should have, considering the setting. The actors aren't at all compelling. Too many cliches already. It does feel like a hodge-podge of various shows all lumped together. It tries to do too much and doesn't do any of them very well. Such a shame, as it had such promise.

I guess that same could be said of that Terra Nova.

I only caught the last part of Last Resort. It has potential. Potential to be a good story. Potential to turn into a massive soap opera. The premise is good, but it's almost sort of feeling like some other shows I've seen. I'll catch the entire episode soon, rather than just the last half, and then I'll catch the second episode before I make up my mind about it. It didn't truly grab me, but neither did it dissuade me from watching more, like Revolution did.

Sadly, I agree that both of these shows will like be one season wonders. A lot of hype, little substance, questionable acting on the parts of some (some of the people are good actors, others obviously aren't), and lack of real focus to bring out real character of the show, will probably be their downfall.

Agreement of the specific deficiencies with Revolution. Another overall problem I'm having is that the show is seriously repressing the very, very dark nature of its premise, which would have involved the same level of mass starvation, famine, and occasional resort to cannibalism the characterizes SM Stirling's similar Dies the Fire series. We do see some of the resultant political nastiness, but I just don't see characters or a culture depicted that have been through an apocalypse. Mostly the sole nod to the setting is the visuals of abandoned stuff over grown with vegetation.

I'm guessing that's deliberate -- dark and apocalyptic didn't test well with focus groups or the network didn't like it or something. And I'm guessing that will be the death of the show, too -- The dark and gritty "reality" of shows like the Walking Dead and Battlestar Galactica are what made them appealing.

I totally agree with this. For me, it starts with the costuming and make-up and stuff. The characters in Revolution are just too well scrubbed and neatly dressed for a post electricity/running water world (15 years in).

100% spot on!

That's my chief complain about the visual aspects of the show. Everyone has pressed form fitting clothes like they are Hollister models or something.

Didn't we already have Revolution but it was called Dark Angel?

(Jessica Alba is seriously better looking than Giancarlo Esposito).

Like you say, Dark Angel had Jessica Alba -- even when it got stupid with the lizard/dog/shark/bunny DNA enfused super soldiers and ten thousand year old secret cult in season 2, Jessica Alba in tight outfits roundhouse kicking folks was reason enough to tune in . . .

I saw it...for about a half an hour. It just didn't hold my interest.

The studio was screwed up.

The crowd that demands the family friendly format is the Evangelicals.

Having the bad guy be the bible citing christian and the boy from the Hero's family be derisive of that.

couple of million viewers just tuned out.

Six episodes max.

The one thing I do like about it is that the bad guys are emphatically identified with gun control and disarming the populace -- very subversive stuff for Hollywod.

+1.

Just the mere mention of Jessica Alba in Dark Angel gives me half a mongrel.

ONLY half!? :p

What are you? Only half a man!?
:D

Wha...? Where I'm from, a mongrel is a mangy, flea-bitten dog that has I-don't-know-many breeds' DNA in it...

Well, we are talking about Targan here :D

LOL! Yes Paul, a mongrel is a mixed-breed dog but in Australia having "half a mongrel" is slang for having a partial erection. And Leg, I did say "mere mention". Actually seeing a photo or video of Jesica Alba is, for me, my own little blue pill. :cool:

Shit!
Now you've gone and done it Sgt! I won't be able to stand up all day now!!!
:saeek:

Oh my. Bless you, ArmySGT :D

Damnit! I just poked a hole in my laptop.

I'll echo some of the common gripes: Far too clean for the timeline, too much hair gel & swordplay, clichéd and overacted. But I gave it the requisite three episodes and will likely continue watching. I'm just peeved because I figure with JJ Abrams and Favreau behind this I should be more blown away, and instead I'm just kind of meh. But they better hurry it up with the exposition, because I'm not signing up for another 7-season Lindelof wankfest.

Well I am glad the Patriots are good guys. However Hollywood still can't resist portraying anyone that owns or uses a gun as a sociopath.

May the writers should watch "Jeremiah" more than "Jericho". You know what else is missing? Knives, hand axes, clubs, machetes, even without a handgun just something hefty in your hand when situations get tense is in order here.

Have you noticed any old people? Pack animals? Dairy cows?

Since Revolution started, I've been rewatching Jeremiah on Hulu just out of nostalgia. Plenty pissed me off about that show, too, but I still enjoyed it. I think I've identified that the thing that irritates me most about Revoultion is that I wanted the background & set dressing to look more Postman or Book of Eli than it does. I bet I'd be amazed what they could do with a more washed-out looking filter/exposure on the camera and a more ominous and despondent soundtrack. Also, it is sure to lose something due to the constraints of American broadcast television. It really should have been a cable production. Regular TV hamstrings the producers by putting their creativity in a pickle jar in the back of a dark closet along with their testicles. Still, I remain optimistic.

Jeremiah
 

Anyone read any of the original Jeremiah comic books by "Herman" ?
I wish that series had been more like the comics. That would have made it a classic and a master piece. Still had to watch all of it though.

Will try Revolution and Last resort all though well groomed PA characters are as annoying to me as the reluctance of the crew of the Enterprise to open fire and set phasers to "kill / maim and disfigure", and then go loud.

Watching it right now on Hulu. Terrible! It's like watching Dawson Creek. It's a show for tweens. My 1st thought was that they should have not wasted 15 years. It would have been more interesting if it was the day after the black out. It feels like that back in time dinosaur movie. What a waste.

Hey! They got one of those actors from the Twilight movies. Or one who looks like him.

You talking about the Bow Guy? He does look like a teeny-boppy eye candy sorta guy.

NBC picked it up for a full season this afternoon, so I guess it's hitting their expectations.

and NBC managed to fuck up Heroes.

In general, I prefer serialized series to episodic ones. The trouble is, it's an investment. I've been sucked into time-wasting crap TV series before (Heroes and Falling Skies come immediately to mind), and I don't want it to happen again. I thought the first episode of Revolution was decent but I thought the second one was pretty awful. I'm going to watch the third episode tonight and decide whether it's worth continuing or not. If it's bad, I'm done. I told myself the same thing two episodes into Falling Skies season 1, though, and ended up watching it up through the end of season 2. After a while, the wife and I were watching just to make fun of it.

I heard a piece on NPR last week about new shows this American TV season. The reviewer enjoyed both Revolution and Last Resort but wouldn't recommend them, claiming that serialized shows had a very low survival rate. He said that serialized shows are unlikely to pick up new viewers after a handful of episodes because people just tuning in don't really know what's going on plot and character-wise and they give up pretty quickly. He said that networks keep gambling on serialized dramas due to the success of LOST.

I really liked LOST until the final season when it all kind of fell apart for me. My sister-in-law bought me a season a year for Christmas while it was on air and I was thinking about taking them to a used media store because I can't imagine watching them all again knowing what I know now. But then a friend suggested that I save them until my son is old enough to appreciate them, watch them all up until the last season, and then make up a better ending together. I thought that was brilliant.

Watched episode three and it was ridiculously bad. I won't be tuning in again. Now to watch the second episode of Last Resort (I missed the premier :mad:) and see if it's worth the time.

I watched the 1st episode of Last Resort and was pleasantly surprised! It only had one really corny part.