Revolution tv series: AHHHHH!!! I CAN'T TAKE IT

[FlowerChild]

Ok, post-apocalyptic scifi series are not something I can just turn my nose up at seeing as there have been so few of them, and I love the genre to death.

But please...for the love of the gods, answer me this:

What genius decided to base this one around a teenage character more annoying than Wesley Crusher?

Please...please kill her off. I don't think I can bring myself to watch another episode, and I enjoy everything else in the series :(

[8bitBob]

Heh, was just thinking something like that after the last episode. I'm guessing it's gonna be a one season wonder.

If you're looking for another post apocalyptic show I'd recommend Falling Skies. It's a pretty different premise (alien invasion) but at the very least it has way better characters.

[FlowerChild]

If you're looking for another post apocalyptic show I'd recommend Falling Skies. It's a pretty different premise (alien invasion) but at the very least it has way better characters.

Yeah, I already watch that one too, but the quality of writing is highly variable, and there's a bit too much jingoism in it for me to take it too seriously.

Fringe this season is doing a nice post-apocalypse bit, and on the *slightly* pre-apocalypse front, I've been quite enjoying the first few episodes of Last Resort.

Walking Dead is of course a reliable standby.

And btw, it was me considering watching the new episode of Revolution and deciding I just couldn't stand another one that brought on this rant. I think the disappointment of that crossbow not taking out the main character last week killed my remaining desire to see another. Seriously, it's like whomever writing the series was the only person on the planet that thought Thunderdome was the best Mad Max film, and decided whiny teenagers absolutely must be part of the post-apocalypse as a result.

[Battosay]

When I heard about this TV show I was absolutely thrilled, because it's based on one of my favorite books of all time "Ravage" by Barjavel, and if you have not read it already, you have to :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravage_%28novel%29

So, yeah, very, very excited when I saw the pitch, but Oh so disappointed by how it's turning out so far :(

[TheAnarchitect]

I know how you feel man. The answer to your question is "Hunger Games Knockoff" I don't have a TV so I'm waiting to watch it all later. With this recommendation I may not bother.

I love me some post-apocalyptic fiction, but with the cold war over, I feel like the soul of the genre is mostly gone. Back in the day, it was something people were constantly aware was a very real possibility, and post-apocalyptic stories were a serious attempt to predict what might happen afterwards. Nowadays most Apocalyptic fiction is either a thinly disguised "Saving Remnant redemption", or the apocalypse was simply the author's tool to clear out enough of the map that they can get creative. Not that the last one is bad, mind you, but it's like the difference between hard sci-fi (2001) and fantasy that happens to use Scifi tropes like spaceships (Star wars).

Oh, and if we're doing recommendations, Paolo Bacigalupi has a wonderful post-apocalyptic Biopunk universe he sets some stories in. I've read all the short stories he's done in it, and I'm waiting for my library to get The Windup Girl

[AngelWithDirtyHands]

I was thinking about The Windup Girl while reading the above post :D it is a brilliant book and I plan on actually buying a copy at some point. There was another book I read around the same time, The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi: it is set in the far far future, mostly on a Martian colony. He really explores the ideas around privacy, identity and freedom :3

[SterlingRed]

I've been enormously disappointed with this series as well. Not only does the main chacters character suck, the actress is bad too. She looks like she's auditioning for Keira Knightley's shocked open mouth pose in every shot.

What bothers me more though is this is set 15 years after a global blackout. Mechanical systems still work. Why aren't they using them at all with the exception of the steam locomotive? I know everything we have now is dependent on electronics such as electric starters and such. But it really wouldn't take 15 years for a mechanic to strip down an older carborator engine and come up with a mechanical starter. Fuel would be an issue, but 15 years is long enough to come up with a way to produce biodiesel. Of course nothing would be wide scale but there should at least be evidence of that activity.

[agentwiggles]

Seriously, it's like whomever writing the series was the only person on the planet that thought Thunderdome was the best Mad Max film

Eek. This alone is enough to make me turn up my nose at the series. Thunderdome was such a disappointment. Except, maybe, for the titular Thunderdome, but that didn't figure nearly prominently enough to redeem the intensely boring last 45 minutes or so.

[DumbassTurtle]

I only made it through the first episode of Revolution. Bimbette and her sheer effort in trying to get everyone killed was just too annoying.

I understand not having life experience but when you go out into that type of world and you act like everything is shiny happy rainbows and puppies you inevitably will get burnt and it will toughen the character up if it doesn't kill them. Which should have happened in this case. But no every possible REALLY BAD IDEA that she went skipping through daisys towards, when it got a bit "too real" they neatly got away with no real harm and especially in Bimbette's case NO lesson learned.

I'm not even going to go into the highly tailored and fashionable clothing that looked like the mall was still open. lol Sorry that part bugged me.

[OldMarriedDude]

Wow Really? I like this show. Yes the main char is a whiny little brat. Her father protected her her from the world around her as much as possible. She only has basic survival skills, but not the skills to deal with dangerous people. Her uncle will teach her those skills. She is after all not much more than a child. Its not like she had the experience of "big city" life or 24/7 media to keep her update with all of the criminals around. Her only dealings with the outside world were limited due to her father trying to protect her from the issues of the day. I think the character was designed to allow her to grow, instead of knowing everything.

[FlowerChild]

Wow Really? I like this show. Yes the main char is a whiny little brat. Her father protected her her from the world around her as much as possible. She only has basic survival skills, but not the skills to deal with dangerous people. Her uncle will teach her those skills. She is after all not much more than a child. Its not like she had the experience of "big city" life or 24/7 media to keep her update with all of the criminals around. Her only dealings with the outside world were limited due to her father trying to protect her from the issues of the day. I think the character was designed to allow her to grow, instead of knowing everything.

From what I've seen, she's not the one doing the growing. Rather, she's the one changing the anti-hero type character (her uncle) and causing him to soften with her big-eyed disapproving looks that almost inevitably get them all killed.

If her naivete were actually a liability and had her hardening instead, then yes, I could see it being more interesting, but so far all I've seen indicates that the writers consider her to be "in the right" and that it's the characters around her that are learning lessons from her example.

[HavokSCOUT]

So, she's pretty much a Mary Sue?

[TheAnarchitect]

From what I've seen, she's not the one doing the growing. Rather, she's the one changing the anti-hero type character (her uncle) and causing him to soften with her big-eyed disapproving looks that almost inevitably get them all killed.

If her naivete were actually a liability and had her hardening instead, then yes, I could see it being more interesting, but so far all I've seen indicates that the writers consider her to be "in the right" and that it's the characters around her that are learning lessons from her example.

Now I understand what you're hoping will happen to me on the server. :)

[FlowerChild]

So, she's pretty much a Mary Sue?

She's a Wesley Crusher. The baffoonish teenager surrounded by extremely talented adults that always manages to fuck up and cause huge problems, but simultaneously somehow always manages to be in the right in the end.

It's like in the first episode, she convinces the anti-hero Mad Max-type to not kill an unconscious bounty hunter that is after them. A few scenes later, he comes back and captures them all, and almost gets them all killed in the process.

Now, after such an incident, I suspect a normal teenager would have learned to STFU, and even if they didn't, everyone around them would refuse to listen to any of their moralizing bullshit from that point forward. He was obviously right, and she was obviously wrong.

But no...somehow "she's right" despite this, and if anything, becomes more adamant in her disapproval of her uncle's tactics. It severely strains the credibility of the series.

[Sarudak]

But... but killing is wrong?

[FlowerChild]

But... but killing is wrong?

Now if you just pull a wide-eyed pouty face that makes people want to smack you in the mouth while saying that, you'll have the character down to a T :)

[DaveYanakov]

From what I can see she's less a Wesley Crusher and more a Katniss Everdeen cash-in.

[Sarudak]

But... but killing is wrong?

Now if you just pull a wide-eyed pouty face that makes people want to smack you in the mouth while saying that, you'll have the character down to a T :)

But... but you can't! Killing is wrong... Let him go please uncle... O_O

[FlowerChild]

From what I can see she's less a Wesley Crusher and more a Katniss Everdeen cash-in.

The thing is, I didn't get AT ALL the same reaction from that character. That one is tough and capable of killing with a *credible* amount of humanity left in her.

[Sarudak]

I found Katniss to be an incredibly believable and compelling character at least until the third book where things went screwy. I've never seen revolution and I don't remember much about ST:TNG but I know the kind of character that you're talking about and I wouldn't put Katniss in that category at all.

[OldMarriedDude]

This thread makes me wonder how many of us would actually survive in a world described in revolution.

[Splee999]

So far I've found Revolution mildly entertaining. Some of the characters, like the Google executive are entertaining enough to make up for the main character. However, this show will never meet my personal favorite post-apocalyptic show: Jericho.

[FlowerChild]

This thread makes me wonder how many of us would actually survive in a world described in revolution.

Hmmm...interesting question. I suspect the character trait that motives someone into escalating a discussion about fictional characters into a mild personal attack would tend to be a liability in such a situation.

[Last_Jedi_Standing]

fantasy that happens to use Scifi tropes like spaceships (Star wars).

Grrrrrrr.

[OldMarriedDude]

This thread makes me wonder how many of us would actually survive in a world described in revolution.

Hmmm...interesting question. I suspect the character trait that motives someone into escalating a discussion about fictional characters into a mild personal attack would tend to be a liability in such a situation.

Wasnt intended to be a personal attack. It just makes me wonder that's all. my apologies if it was taken that way. Frankly, we are dissecting a char who is trying to balance what she was taught as a child and what her "real" world is really like. Her actions are mostly reactionary, she doesnt know how to think and plan which is also part of being 18. Her character would be completely unbelievable if she were fully equipped to deal with the world around her.