"Revolution"
Sep. 20th, 2012 08:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gridloreI watched the pilot for this new weird drama yesterday (hurray for DVRs!) and was mostly impressed.
The basic plot is that one night electricity stops working. Anything requiring electrical power suddenly and irrevocably stops working. The opening sequence shows that at least some people knew what was going to happen in advance and the immediate aftermath of the lights going out. Then we get a voice over covering the next fifteen years bringing us up to the time of the show.
This is a "heroes on the road" sort of series. Very early in the show we see Ben Matheson, the man who knew about the lights going out in advance, get killed by the local police state militia. His Hunger Games-inspired daughter Charlotte (Charlie) along with Maggie, the village doctor, and Aaron a former Google millionaire, head out to rescue her brother from the militia and find her uncle. Before dying, Ben entrusts Aaron with a peculiar silver locket and tells him to guard it with his life.
Here's where my suspension of disbelief got severely strained. The group walks to Chicago (passing the obligatory ruins of Wrigley Field) and go into the first building they find in a sort of outdoor market, walk up to the bartender, and ask if he knows Miles Matheson. He is Miles Matheson. I can understand moving the plot along, but couldn't finding her uncle covered a few episodes while we learn a little more about this world? Soon after that, there's a ridiculous fight scene where Miles does a Matrix-level decimation of mooks.
Meanwhile, in the other plot, Charlie's asthmatic brother Danny has managed to escape from the militia and seeks shelter in the home of a woman named Grace. Grace gives up Danny when the militia comes calling. We see why at the end of the show. Grace enters a secret room, pulls out a locket identical to the one carried by Aaron, and uses it to power up a computer which contacts an unknown party.
I'll keep watching for at least a few more episodes to see how this develops.
But I have one huge problem. No, not with the electrical failure, even the characters admit that it shouldn't have been possible, but with the weapons. It makes sense for the small farming communities to make heavy use of bows and crossbows (especially as it is stated that inside this particular police state owning firearms is a hanging offense) but seeing the militia using swords, bows, and freaking muzzle loaders made me laugh.
There are dozens of books about how to make smokeless gunpowder and primer. Handloading cartridges is common today. It would be far more labor intensive to clean used casings, but there's no reason why the militia shouldn't be carrying salvaged M-16A2s, or at least bolt-action deer rifles.
The basic plot is that one night electricity stops working. Anything requiring electrical power suddenly and irrevocably stops working. The opening sequence shows that at least some people knew what was going to happen in advance and the immediate aftermath of the lights going out. Then we get a voice over covering the next fifteen years bringing us up to the time of the show.
This is a "heroes on the road" sort of series. Very early in the show we see Ben Matheson, the man who knew about the lights going out in advance, get killed by the local police state militia. His Hunger Games-inspired daughter Charlotte (Charlie) along with Maggie, the village doctor, and Aaron a former Google millionaire, head out to rescue her brother from the militia and find her uncle. Before dying, Ben entrusts Aaron with a peculiar silver locket and tells him to guard it with his life.
Here's where my suspension of disbelief got severely strained. The group walks to Chicago (passing the obligatory ruins of Wrigley Field) and go into the first building they find in a sort of outdoor market, walk up to the bartender, and ask if he knows Miles Matheson. He is Miles Matheson. I can understand moving the plot along, but couldn't finding her uncle covered a few episodes while we learn a little more about this world? Soon after that, there's a ridiculous fight scene where Miles does a Matrix-level decimation of mooks.
Meanwhile, in the other plot, Charlie's asthmatic brother Danny has managed to escape from the militia and seeks shelter in the home of a woman named Grace. Grace gives up Danny when the militia comes calling. We see why at the end of the show. Grace enters a secret room, pulls out a locket identical to the one carried by Aaron, and uses it to power up a computer which contacts an unknown party.
I'll keep watching for at least a few more episodes to see how this develops.
But I have one huge problem. No, not with the electrical failure, even the characters admit that it shouldn't have been possible, but with the weapons. It makes sense for the small farming communities to make heavy use of bows and crossbows (especially as it is stated that inside this particular police state owning firearms is a hanging offense) but seeing the militia using swords, bows, and freaking muzzle loaders made me laugh.
There are dozens of books about how to make smokeless gunpowder and primer. Handloading cartridges is common today. It would be far more labor intensive to clean used casings, but there's no reason why the militia shouldn't be carrying salvaged M-16A2s, or at least bolt-action deer rifles.
no subject
Date: 20 Sep 2012 16:16 (UTC)