Well it's finally here. Round 2 of Revolution and as all rounds go, this one seems to be interesting in that the series is finally getting interesting; Monroe has power, the gang is back. Round 2 is when shows usually find their footing, when they fix the misgivings of Round 1. I'm guessing the question everybody will be asking is this,
has the series improved at all?
Well somewhat, but
not to the point that you're expecting.
First off,
many of the things you wanted from Revolution are finally here. You want less Charlie? you got it! More purpose? you got it! Emotion, better character reactions, something actually happening? You got that as well. When you first start off the episode, you see tons of things; you see explosions, you see characters betraying other characters and you see previously minor characters start to gain major exposure. Flynn the military guy, Rachel the mother of the two, and a certain surprise in the end that will have viewers hooked. It seems like Revolution has
finally understood that in order to keep an audience, it has to introduce things viewers will question and things that'll lead to better plots in the future.
We got power!
One of the things they did well was showcase how
powerful the Monroe Republic could be with power, it's like they have the ability to dominate the entire world and that is shown well throughout the entirety of the episode. Those helicopters provide a sort of hecticness that engages people in the action, that really gets the blood pumping; will they be able to escape the grasping hand of the Monroe republic? Another thing they did well was pair up Rachel with Miles. Rachel has a
better ability to emote and pairing her with Miles allows him to bring out that rugged side; he seems more heroic, less suspectable and is actually quite an enjoyable guy. Though his lining reading may suck and his overall purpose may remain the same, the better attribute of Miles makes him slightly tolerable.
It's certainly an episode that says "
we're here and we're not going to take it anymore" but somehow the regular elements of Revolution manage to bring the episode down which means poor Charlie acting, overemphasis on the lines and tons of illogic. For example; the Monroe Republic has power. Now that could be
something that'd span an entire season (just imagine the group as rebels fleeing from them) but instead it's something that spans one episode after months of buildup and promise, I can understand not making anybody that powerful but putting your entire victory into one or two helicopters? Don't you know someone could shoot you down? If I were running the Monroe republic, I wouldn't have the amplifer on the helicopter mostly every time; I would just park the helicopter somewhere and have that other helicopter in the air for them to mow down enemies. Alas, this type of thing is just something Revolution
never learns from.
Someone of future importance.
The main problem is that there isn't much of a reason to care about what happens; while the show has finished off the plot of finding Danny, it left a
gaping hole in what can be used to motivate the characters until the next episode and much of the episode is of course a journey from everybody united to finding the next character motivation; there isn't much to the action inbetween, we don't get much of an investment with the rebels other than the fact that their the target of the Monroe Republic and despite the fact that they have power, it doesn't manage to make the Monroe Republic feel interesting, the scenes with Monroe and Nevil are as boring as ever with Nevil managing to outact anybody in his vicinity almost every time; this affects the buildup to the scenes where future players appear and it
definitely effects the impact of which future events will have.
Still, one has to
admire how much this episode sets up and one has to admire the brief good moments this episode has. Even though we lose a main character, we get
something in return in the form of a mystery which will likely span a season; we have the intrigue of this Rachel character which will have us forming the daily ritual of turning on the TV screen and we even have Flynn... The action was well presented and certainly had impact, every gunshot had the feel and impact of regular gunshots and they made the showoff at the rebel camp much more interesting, plus they even have a small bit of humor in the beginning of the episode as they try to get out of Pennsylvania and even through there might be two flashbacks, it defiantly has emotion and it's focus on life and death is relatable to say the least.
So it's not
truly terrible but it's not truly good either. It seems to have learned a couple of lessons during that month long hiatus and those lessons are put to good use here but it still has
many of the detractors that made Revolution a mockery last year and it seems like there's going to be a battle between the good parts of the show and the bad parts of the show as time goes on.