Revolution Season 1 Episode 1

Pilot 

When creating a fictional world, having the people act as if it is their reality is a key part in becoming immersed in that reality. This is the weakness of the pilot episode of Revolution, some of these characters seem to exist only to give band exposition an stand around. The subtle details of characters backstories seem to be gone in favor of tying to get the audience to understand that this is a world without electricity. From the heavy handed voiceover to the dying breath of [Spoiler] Ben, and then some the show tells the audience an abundant amount of times that the lights aren’t coming back on anytime soon.

Ben is killed by a group of militia (by accident). They are at Ben’s sleepy little town to take him and find his brother Miles because they might know something about the blackout. The tense standoff is a joke, but the bloodbath that follows is worth the anticlimactic moment. 

Charlie, Maggie and Aaron take off to find Danny, Charlie’s brother, after he is taken by Tom, the leader of the militia group. And we get out most interesting character so far, Tom (played by Giancarlo Esposito). He plays his character with depth and emotion. He is also a cold blooded killer (he kills most of the people in the fire fight himself). 

The gang of three find their way to an airplane and sleep for the night only to be awaken at knifepoint by bandits, who are killed off my poisoned whiskey. Maggie finds her moments in this episode, but she mostly falls flat, only stating the obvious for a majority of her on screen time. Aaron is just interesting, playing the likable fat, nerdy guy. 

Moving at light speed, they make it to Chicago with another guy who happens to find their group (totally not a bad guy) and find Miles, Charlie’s uncle. Miles is the second interesting, well written character that we meet. Miles is funny, witty and steadfast all while still remaining believable at the same time. The stranger turns out to be a bad guy, who knew, and Miles kicks everyone out to fight the good fight. This fight scene makes the entire episode worth slogging through blatant exposition. Miles kicks so much ass in a few minutes, with the help of Charlie, Maggie and Aaron. The twist at the end is that [Spoiler] Miles knew the leader of the militia who is hunting him all along. Miles and Monroe where old army buddies. 

And there was some b story line with Danny, where he meets a nice woman who gives him back to the militia. But she has one of the devices which allows the power to come back on, interesting twist including a seemingly third rung character into the fray. Didn’t see that one coming. 

The episode got better over the hour, with the first half beating the audience over the head with the basics of the show and the second half filled with great action set pieces and an ending that wasn’t obvious. Hopefully the show will build off the momentum the pilot ended with. 

Rating: Watch

Original Air Date: 9/17/12 
NBC, Monday's at 9/8 central