Saw parts of it, and have no interest in following it. The last I saw was the hot teen chick and her merry band setting off to find the wizard. Thanks, but I sat through most of Lost.
Fuck no, I am not watching. I can’t even remember the last time I’ve so happily dumped a show. Buh-bye!
As for Medical Gal’s accent, it would be remarkable for an adult to lose her accent. Few, if any, people can lose their accent entirely once they reach adulthood.
As mentioned in my previous thread, diesel engines would still work (assuming it is warm enough and you can get them started) and there was an article on the show that they will get to the steam engine question.
Putting that (the whole premise) aside, I have enough interest for now to keep watching, despite the shows (non premise related) flaws.
Brian
This is clearly headed toward being a Lost-type debacle of a show – the mystery of the lost electricity (which, we are promised, will be dealt with in a perfectly logical way), the gradual introduction of new characters who know and do things we’ve been told are impossible by the “new rules,” the plot coincidences (brother escapes to house where the occupant has another Magic Amulet, uncle is the greatest swordsman/bullet dodger in the world and his best friend before the collapse is now the evil emperor).
And can I just speak up for being sick and tired of anomalous elements such as clothes and make-up (and perfect teeth), afore-mentioned plot coincidences, access to fuels such as wax and kerosene, the lack of mechanical energy technologies (such as steam- or diesel engines) explained away as “it’s network television.”
I turned into the first few episodes of Lost, under the impression that it would be kind of a Gilligan’s Island done-as-realistic-drama or Cast Away; I watched the pilot of this show hoping for an exploration of what might happen to a modern society if access to modern technology were taken away. Imagine a show that details the collapse of the cities as described above – it doesn’t have to be shown, it could be presented as background information while we watch the gradual transformation of the countryside into rural subsistence-farming communities.
I just had to get all this off my chest – I won’t be watching anymore, and I promise not to waste any more of your time coming in here to shit all over the show that did get made (the 6-13 episodes that do get made, anyway)…
Well, I said I’d give this a shot, and I did. Usual disclaimers about someone who doesn’t watch a lot of TV anymore and never saw Lost and whatnot.
First off, the big problem for me is that I’m having trouble seeing the damn point. If we ever lost electricity, we’d be totally hosed? Call me cynical, but I don’t think that needed arguing. Family is important? Yep. Military dictatorship bad? Preaching to the choir. Sword fights are totally wicked cool? Well, making allowances for the level of choreography and how much blood you can show on primetime television…sure, why not. It a whole bunch of stuff happening involving characters I’m having a real hard time giving a dang about. It’s just there. It’s not interesting. If anything, this reminds me of the dull moments on Survivor.
Oh, did I go there? Well, I suppose that’s the other problem, in that if you have a no-tech society, you can’t just show a no-tech society, because that’s going to get boring as hell in a hurry. Nobody wants to wants listless contestants lying under a tent surrounded by jungle and grumbling about their problems, and nobody wants to see the same derelict cars, crumbled buildings, and open barbecues in every damn shot. I mean, think about every period piece you’ve seen that was actually entertaining…say, Xena:Warrior Princess, which I mentioned before (and we’ve already had the inevitable “A wizard did it” post*) What did it have? Riveting human drama, amazing melees, difficult decisions made under pressure, tense power struggles, long-running friendships and enmities, and of course, the stuff that was cool about the primitive world: massive statues and columns stretching to the heavens and great burning braziers and chariot duels in sprawling arenas. In terms of plausibility, it was an unholy mess, but it was visceral. It was fun. It always got that right, and I could enjoy it.
Y’know what, the more I think about it, the more I’m convinced that its best chance would be to simply go the Fist of the North Star/Battle Royale route: lots of fighting, lots of killing, plots, treachery, alliances turning on a dime, and whoever’s not dead at the end gets to decide the fate of the world. Heck, beats poisoned whiskey any day.
I’m watching and will continue to, but hoo boy this is the dumbest premise ever. Electricity doesn’t work? So no magnets then either, of course, being the same force and all. Let’s see, no magnetism, how long before the atmosphere is stripped off the planet completely by the solar wind? No matter, we’d all be irradiated shish kebobs long before then anyway.
May as well say gravity doesn’t work anymore, or the strong nuclear force. Just how fucking stupid can a premise get? One of the four fundamental forces of nature just stops working? Gah!
Right now I’m having a hard time getting past the idea that this was written by some right-wing dipshits. “They took our guns!” And the utter lack of scientific knowledge seems to fit this mindset like a glove.
“What if electricity stopped working?” “The universe itself wouldn’t exist as we know it, dumbass. What if gravity stopped working? Would your hunger games heroine go save her brother then?”
EDIT: The first time they play the sound of thunder in this show I’m going to have an aneurysm.
Revolution looks like a post apocalypse survival show, a premise I really like I’ve just never seen a good one. They have Giancarlo Esposito so it can’t be all that bad.
I caught the pilot. Meh. I’ll give it a few more shows to see how it goes but the characters aren’t really appealing. Tough Guy, Bratty Girl, Older Nerd, Expendable Older Woman. Nothing special. Conflicted Militia Dude is the most promising of the bunch I think. Personally I really like the concept of a mysterious end to technology. I read the S.M. Stirling books along the same lines even though those characters and stories are pretty thin. So I’ll prolly tag along but I’m not hopeful. This looks to be cancelled pretty quick.
I’m not really bothered by the idea that the mechanism underlying the death of electricity will be nonsensical. Nor that’ll it’ll probably be difficult to reconcile electricity, steam and diesel not working but gunpowder still does.
Nor that maybe lightning storms will still happen and the electrical impulses that animate us do.
Nickpicking the reality of all of that may be fun or tiresome depending on quality, but good science fiction often just handwaves to get the central conceit.
What’ll not work for me is if the show is not consistent within whatever arbitrary rules its creates for itself. If it does that (and is otherwise entertaining) I don’t so much care how sensible the rules are.
Posts 87 and 88 were originally made to a new thread Sitnam started. I’ve moved them into this older thread.
Well, I made it through 20 minutes of the second episode before throwing in the towel. The teenage girl is just freaking intolerable.
Well, I gritted it out to the end of the hour, but that’s it for me.
Weirdly, the final straw was having to watch BowGirl wrinkle her forehead up almost every second she was on screen. Some people look thoughtful when they knit their brows, she just looked … I dunno, like a confused baby on the verge of bawling.
Bye!
Lightweight 
I made it all the way through 45 minutes. At some point I fell asleep and when I woke up I had zero interest in what I missed. I was tempted to count the minutes we had to stare at the young girl knitting her brow, with that almost teary look, but it wasn’t worth the touble.
nitpick: the word is “nitpicking” 
So I missed the second episode last night, and didn’t realize it until I saw this thread.
That is all.
Blech. Done with this. The final straw for me was Nora saying that she let herself be captured. Wah wah waaaah…geez. And Charlie can get eaten by wolves.
Still don’t see the point. Okay, I kinda get that Monroe is a petty tyrant, but I’m not at all convinced that the rebels would be any better…or any worse, for that matter. There’s been hints that there was a sinister motive behind the blackout, but c’mon, that much is hardly earthshaking. Who do I root for, who do I sympathize with, who do I want to see taken down? I have no idea.
Eh. Just thought it’d be better given the hype.
What do you have against those poor innocent wolves that you wish such horror upon their guts?
It’s breaking my heart that tv can’t do my favourite genre, post-apocalyptic fiction, properly. Well, maybe my heart isn’t exactly broken, but I am very, very disappointed.
I’m gonna keep watching, because I live in LOWELL, INDIANA!!! For some reason, our Podunk town being mentioned on a prime time show is very exciting! I’m sure they’re going to portray us as hillbilly militia morons, which is not at all correct, but still - we’re famous!
And, one of my favorite things is looking for former ER people - and in this one, we have Dr. Legaspi and the hot Austrailian doctor who Neela left for Ray!
Alright, I’ve watched two episodes now, and I’m torn - I don’t care about anyone in the show, everything is clunky and awful, but the premise and the mystery is drawing me in.
Since when did acting consist of making one pained, strained, slightly constipated face? That would be Charlie I’m talking about.