If you missed it during the Olympics last night, NBC previewed Revolution, their new post-apocalyptic drama due to debut this fall. The show stars Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad’s Gus Fring), is produced by J.J. Abrams, and directed by Iron Man director Jon Favreau. There’s a lot of talent behind this show, so why does it look so bad?
The extended preview doesn’t look much different than the online preview NBC released during pilot season. Unfortunately, it appears that the central premise of the show is still intact. If you need a refresher, the premise is this: For some mysterious reason, an event causes everything in the world that runs on energy stops working. Planes go down. Cars stop running. Electricity goes out. There are no more computers. No Internet. NO INTERNET PORN. The show takes places 15 years after the event, and now the world has morphed into a post-apocalyptic Old West. People fight for control of the new territories. D batteries are the new global currency, or something.
That’s the show. Aside from the ridiculous plot, with the exception of Giancarlo Esposito, it looks like NBC took a page of the the Terra Nova casting book: Cast as many bland, pretty-looking people as possible, actors with fresh family-friendly faces, like the Dad from the Twilight movies, and put them in a setting where fresh, pretty faces look most inappropriate. There’s no energy remaining in the world, and yet, hair gel is PLENTIFUL.
I don’t even want to address the logic of the show because it hurts my brain.
NBC has a lot riding on this show. I’m sure the pilot alone cost them millions. That’s too bad, because it looks like another The Event-like failed idea. Gus Fring deserves better. Hell, Elizabeth Mitchell deserves better.
Here’s the preview.
That’s depressing. To cheer you up, here’s young Gus Fring in Eddie Murphy’s Trading Places.
