RightYouAreKen writes:

“My wife and I have watched the first two episodes of the new semi-post-apocalyptic show Revolution. If you haven’t seen it, it takes place (for the most part) 15 years after all electrical power vanishes from the earth. The US somehow becomes governed by an aggressive militia who has made civilian ownership of firearms a crime punishable by death. Only the militia have the guns. This forces the “good guys” to use crossbows and the like, and to try to steal said guns to even the playing field. Thought it was interesting to see a prime time network show depicting what many in the gun community fear in a “breakdown of society” situation. Not sure what to make of it, but it seems hard to believe it won’t make most folks watching it feel that gun control is a bad thing when shit hits the fan and that civilians need guns to protect themselves from tyrants.”

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67 COMMENTS

  1. I’m a science fiction fan, but I’m avoiding Revolution because the whole “batteries don’t work” thing is asking for way too much suspension of disbelief.

    • Yeah, the presence of some little charm makes electrical stuff work? Dumb.
      Realistically the aftermath of something that takes out everything electrical (EMP?) would be gut-wrenchingly terrible and then really boring. Not good for TV, they had to spice it up.

      • Plus, did electromagnetism drop out of the universe somehow? Just rip an alternator out of a car, hook it up to a bike, water wheel, windmill, whatever, and hey, power.

      • Except the Stirling books are actually interesting, whereas this is a pretty sad-at best TV soaps at the C level rip-off of Hunger Games, Star Trek, and has few logical underpinnings.

        I really wanted it to be good- not great, just good, but I could only take 30 min before shutting off the pilot.

        • I’d recommend completely avoiding all science fiction and fantasy then, because the premises are often based on something that’s not real. Stick to the History Channel and textbooks for your entertainment.

        • No, it’s because I love science fiction that I hate crap like Revolution and Dies the Fire. Nothing pisses me off more than lazy writers who toss off BS premises without a second’s thought for the science and then shrug it off “because it’s science fiction and it’s all impossible anyway.”

          That kind of writing is an insult to the genre, and I have nothing but contempt for it. If you don’t have time to think about what you’re producing, then I don’t have time to spend on it either.

          The masters of the craft in science fiction actually take the time to make their fictional worlds internally consistent. They make sense within their own contexts. Revolution and Dies the Fire fail that test and that shows me the creators either don’t care enough to invest the effort to make things make sense or they’re not smart enough to do so. Either way, the product is shoddy and discredits the genre.

      • “Dies The Fire takes place in post-apocalyptic Oregon, in a time when an unknown phenomenon permanently disables all forms of modern technology, electricity, and combustion, including computers, electronics, guns, car and jet engines, and batteries.”

        Takes place in Oregon. Cool.

    • Bingo! I checked it out too. There wouldn’t be a stitch of woven material or a single shoe left after fifteen years. There also wouldn’t be any diabetics or anyone else that required maintenance drugs to keep them alive. No new eyeglasses or contacts, it would be pretty tough on those with changing vision. The clothing in the show looks like it just came off the racks, everybody has shoes or boots, not realistic. A guard shoots a man who collapses from pulling a chopper, would they really waste a bullet in that situation? I doubt it. A homeowner shoots a man with a machete while ignoring an obviously armed ‘leader’ a couple of feet behind the knifemen. Poor tactical choice. Just a few of the inconsistencies, heck, even I could be a technical advisor on this mess. Interesting concept, poorly executed.

  2. It makes me wonder how all of the HUNDREDS of millions of guns in this country suddenly disappear after the lights go out. Not likely.

    • They don’t disapperar. The show tries to explain it that there are several militia’s stockpiling / hoarding most of the guns, with the few remaining being in the hands of rebels or the black market.

  4. A show with so much potential, more wasted than college kids on Saturday night. After finals. At a bar with $.25 beer til somebody pukes.

    I watched E01 and 02. So much was just wrong that it was painful to watch. I don’t do much TV and I really wish I had that 84 minutes of my life back.

  7. If the power suddenly vanished and could not be brought back this would set off a chain of events that would result in the deaths of hundreds of millions within a fairly short period of time. Maybe even billions.

    Think of this, most people nowadays live in large cities that are absolutely dependent on a functioning infrastructure. How would you get water in a major urban setting without the electric pumps of the water company working? Without regular deliveries of foodstuffs starvation becomes a very real threat quickly. What about sanitation? Disease will kill more than guns would.

    Think about the average man now. Raised in a city enviroment with all the modern conviences. How long would he last if dropped into a pre electricity world.

    175 years ago a 10 yo boy could shoot well enough to feed himself. A knife was second nature to him. He could start a fire without matches and he could handle an axe and a team of horses.

    The modern 30 yo male would be a burden to the 10 yo from 175 years ago. In that type of teotwawki situation as shown in this program the least of our worries would be a militia trying to take power. Our biggest worry would be the lack of basic skills of practical value.

    In a world suddenly without electrical power 90 % of the job skills we spend a life training for and working at would be useless.

    • Within the first week most, if not all, home bound handicapped will die of dehydration/starvation. This will be followed by panic looting and killing for what food stuffs are still available. Stores, trucks, warehouses will all be broken into and looted. This will coincide with people going after other people for what they have, chaos will reign supreme for a while as the population shifts from city to urban to rural. Starvation will kill millions in the first couple of months. estimates say in 6 months 70% of the population will be dead.

        • She underestimates the number of people who will die. With an infrastructure collapse, the cities will collapse–and there is really no place to go. All the people who depend on medicine for survival will die, not just the diabetics and the obese, but people with cardiac issues, life threatening illnesses, old people.

        • …well, yeah. Technology is why life expectancy has been increasing for the last century or so. Take away the technology, and life expectancy is going to fall, i.e., a bunch of people who are alive because of the tech are going to die.

    • I agree. I think 95% of the population North of the 40th parallel would be dead within a year, due to Cold winters (and no heating), and the reliance on food from elsewhere, in the cities at least.
      And cities like Las Vegas, that rely on pumped in water?
      And cities like NYC, that rely on swamp water, purified by electric pumps and perishable filters?

      Lloyd Tackett explains it best in his book; A Distant Eden.

      • It really depends on the exact local climate. Seattle and North Dakota are at about the same latitude, but we have extremely mild winters here in the coastal Pacific Northwest. The record low in Seattle is zero degrees. Average lows in the winter are low to mid thirties. Not pleasant to be in if you’re under dressed, but not weather that’s going to kill you if a minute if you’re caught outside. Even if there’s no power, if there’s shelter of some kind, most people will be okay. Even when we have cold snaps, we’ll get snow that hangs around a week or two, and then it warms up again.

        From what I understand (I don’t garden), the mild weather makes the growing season here really long.

        • as a person that lives within 100 miles of the Pacific coast, South of Seattle, and has experienced -24 winters I have to dispute the above claim

        • Do you have seeds tools and no how to raise a crop. And what do you do for food while you’re waiting?

          For modern Americans life without electricity will be short and ugly.

        • Carlos,

          I’m not sure if most modern people can handle an entire winter without power. Maybe a day or two. Fir the past 70 years or so Americans were trained to depend on the continued existence of the interconnected American system. If energy goes I think many even in Seattle may get too sick in winter to continue. Some may also commit suicide.

    • Nor should we forget many industrial sites depend on electricity to not explode. There was that show a few years ago about the world without people, and it had some thoughts on this. For example, without electricity there’s no water to keep the pools of water the cool waste fuel from nuclear reactors full. This sort of thing ends badly.

    • I’m pretty sure it is a Desert Eagle, which just made the fact that the rest of his unit were using muskets all the more ridiculous.

  10. The show has an interesting, if weird premise. I like JJ Abrams, and I also like sci-fi.

    That being said, the first episodes haven’t been as compelling as I would like. It’s definitely not LOST, and the lead actress isn’t as interesting as her ex-military Uncle Miles or the antagonistic militia Captain Neville.

    I don’t think it’s as far-fetched as people think that in a scenario of some sort of disaster, you have armed groups of people (militia) enforcing their own order over a broken world. The 2nd episode’s tense scene, with Captain Neville confronting a man with the law of the Monroe Republic is possession of a firearm is punishable by DEATH was meant to be shocking – and it showed how utterly cruel tyranny can be when the average citizen no longer has the right to the means of defending himself. That idea may be obvious to gun owners like me and you, but to a network, prime time audience, the majority of whom probably don’t own firearms – it’s nice for a pop TV show to plant that seed of an idea.

    I’ll probably stick with it for a few more episodes, but I dunno… unless the plot actually becomes more interesting (I was a big LOST fan), I might not be able to stick it out.

    • What’s far-fetched is that electrons decide to selectively stop flowing for people without the right charms. Nope, they’ll only do electrochemical reactions in biological systems, they ain’t doing batteries no more. And you can forget about inducing current in metals with magnets. The electrons aren’t falling for that trick anymore.

      • This is what bugged me the most. Every electrical impulse gets killed, but somehow all the humans’ nervous systems kept functioning?

  11. Okay, Revolution is stupid fiction. How stupid? Think NBC Nightly News and you’re halfway there. But Revolution’s take on gun control is epic.

  12. I watched the premier on Hulu the other night.

    NBC: Okay, so the power went out and it can’t be restored, right?

    Me: Why? And why don’t alternators and stuff work?

    NBC: Uhm. We’ll tell you later!

    Me: Well… okay, what else ya got.

    NBC: Post-apocalyptic swashbuckling fight scenes!

    Me: *click*

  13. Everyone is clean, despite having to engage in farm work, there are fat people years after a famine and people have time to sit on their behinds. Not to mention they still seem to have readily available modern textiles for clothing. I give a D overall.

    • My first impression from just the trailer was similar. These characters are way too well dressed and groomed for a post apocalyptic world with zero electricity.

  17. Reminded me of the Fallout series of games in some ways. Haven’t seen the second episode yet, so I really don’t know what to think about it, yet. The magical lack of electricity hasn’t put me off it, yet. I actually don’t like JJ Abrams that much, though. Too much SHOCKING PLOT TWIST OF SHOCKING +3!!!!!1!11!one1!! every other episode. Don’t know why it bothers me, but it does. Also, the Desert Eagle did seen ridiculous. Rambling complete.

    • Comparing this abomination to Fallout is almost criminal. I’d pay good money for a Fallout movie or TV series on AMC or one of the premium TV networks.

  18. Guys, it’s Hollywood. They usually get it way wrong when it comes to guns and fighting. If this show sends a pro-gun message that the masses can relate to and believe in then I am happy with the show. I probably won’t watch it.

  19. A) Frontloading predictive programming?
    B) Reactionary zeitgeist?
    C) A warning?
    D) Simply riding the profit wave of post-Hunger Games success marked by teen-boppers donning quivers (post-18, who’s complaining?) with Katniss Everdeen’s brown leather-top and all, amidst a Dystopian future landscape?
    E) A combination of some, or ALL of the above?

    Considering Hollywood’s history? I’d pick E).

    So what else is new?

    Though they’ve taken up the extra election year banter by intentionally maligning the very concept of “militia,” and the very notion of the “sovereign individual.”

    It’s all as if to say: ‘see what happens when your loving government isn’t there to keep the ‘free sovereign citizenry’ inline, who delude they can do whatever the hell they want… like take over a country, make himself a dictator, and make all of you suffer?’

    Oh and the golden twist: it’s the militia who actually ban guns, to be punishable by death, for violating such asinine arbitrary, dictatorial fiat.

    The entire show is to propagate the meme that ‘nope, humans without dictatorial artificial constructs, aka. govt, it ALWAYS results in tyranny of mini-warlords.’

    Nope, apparently, humans can’t live peacefully without govt, let alone a truly Constitutionally limited REPUBLIC.

    LOL.

    Want a good Sci Fi projection of ‘what if… Occupy Wall Street had their way and got themselves a financial backer and found their way to an armory, called themselves “Liber8” and merged with the outgrowth of graphene NanoTech tyrannical panopticon coporatist police state?’

    Try checking out one of the most underrated Sci-Fi’s, like ever: Continuum.

    Okay so it’s Canadian. But, I’m sure like all shows shot in Vancouver, SyFy channel will pick it up, soon. For now, you can find it online… somewhere.

    But the best post-TEOTWAWKI tv-show so far? Jericho.

    No one did it better.

    One common thread among MSM and Hollyweird statists: these stories always revolve around govt/state-sponsored false flag terrorism committed by a rogue element WITHIN govt, and some fmr. govt employee anti-hero.

    From FX’s Shield to even FOX’s 24, the plotlines are always replete with terroristic State-actors, corrupt cops, corrupt DoD personnel, corrupt corporatist mercenary firms, etc. etc. etc. yet somehow in real life, the same assholes NEVER question govt! LOL.

    It’s almost as if to say: ‘See peons, we’re giving you your geopolitical frustrations a ventilation valve. But we’re going to strictly relegate you living vicariously, releasing your angst via our pre-approved fantasy film narrative. So now that we’ve given you that ‘release,’ go on back to being the dutiful debt slave that you are and STFU!’

    Case in point? In Jericho, the nukes were detonated by DHS Director in a false flag operation blaming foreign terrorists. One of the heroes is a former intel operative who infiltrated what was initially told him to be something akin to a domestic Alqaeda, only to find out that he was to be a patsy.

    The other SHTF mainstream fiction on TV, the Last Resort from ABC, which purely on a narrative and editorial level with larger geopolitical intrigue, is executed MUCH better than NBC’s revolution, also deals with the same meme: rogue faction WITHIN govt go apeshit, commits false flag terrorism.

    So the real question is, in light of Helicopter Ben’s QE3, making a global currency collapse a matter of WHEN, NOT “if,” and mounting wardrums for Iran invasion, ARE ‘they’ planning another false flag, while the peons keep themselves busy with bread and circus, or in this case, NBC’s Revolution and ABC’s Last Resort?

    Stay tuned…

  20. Is this JJ Abrams?
    All his shows are the same, remember Jerimiah? Same shtick, different actors. Stick the actors in monkey suits and it’s Planet of The Apes

  21. I don’t think that the lack of modern guns and the proliferation of black powder rifles is about the tyrants confiscating them so much as that without modern ammunition plants, those guns can run out of ammunition and be rendered useless.

    I’d expect quite a lot of ammunition had been expended in 15 years of the post-apocalyptic world, such that the ammunition would be exceedingly rare. black powder and lead bullets are much easier to make without modern technology.

    that was my take on why everyone had black powder rifles.

    • In a true teotwawki scenario semi autos will be the first to go. The modern semi relies on clean uniform ammo and a constant supply of replacement mags and parts that simply won’t be there.

      If I was going to pick guns just for this event it would be a Ruger Blackhawk in .45 colt and several double and single shot 12 gauges. And along with a supply of ammo I would get a reloading set up and learn to load modern smokeless shells and their black powder equals for these guns.

  22. I didn’t make it thru the first episode. Too much unbelievable crap to accept. However, I did watch the new show “Last Resort” and I’m planning on watching future episodes of that.

  23. The main actress is terrible. I don’t know which thing about her annoys me more.

    1.) Stupid out of place facial expressions.
    2.) Seriously, does she blink? I think she’s going for doe eyes, but comes across like she’s constipated.
    3.) I don’t buy her as being either tough, smart or wise.
    4.) Judgemental for somone so young. It’s how her character was written but she’s not pulling it off.
    5.) Snaps on the wrong people, where she just is a bitch.
    6.) All in all very unnatural.

    The show would’ve been better if they had another lead actress.

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