Contributor: J.M.
Written by David Rambo
Directed by Steve Boyum
“Revolution” has been extraordinarily disappointing, struggling with many of the same issue its spiritual predecessors like “Alcatraz” and “V”: writing strong characters, finding focus, and building coherent plots. The premise of the show is decided large scale: electricity stops working and we examine the consequences of it, but the problems in the episodes or most notably small scale: in this case, get medicine for Nora so she doesn’t die. When combined with the flashbacks though, it implies that the producers want to make this a bigger deal. The flashbacks clearly are influenced by “Lost”, but unlike them, they are scattered and very rarely (Neville’s being the exception) impact the story in any way except tangentially.
The one critical character note that was controversial was Aaron’s choice to abandon his wife after the blackout because he couldn’t protect her. In other, better written shows, it wouldn’t have come so out of the blue, or seem so disjointed from the rest of the character development. Here though, it seemed arbitrary and what should have been a defining moment for the character turned into a really awkward moment that took away from the growth of one of the more sympathetic characters. All of this though was overshadowed by the ridiculous choice to have Aaron shoot himself, and then live because he had the flask in his pocket. That little stunt blew what was actually a decent episode with some decent character interactions into another disappointing episode in a disappointing series.
The good with Aaron in this episode is in stark contrast to the nonsense with Charlie. She continues to be one of the most frustrating characters on the show, and writers have made her so ridiculously dumb that it is difficult to root for her. Despite her big play about killing the family opposing Drexler (who as a drug lord, should have been able to handle this on his own), she still sounded like a scared little girl. While this point again might have been executed in a far better way, it again falls ridiculously flat and makes her look like a whiny and useless character.
Drexler himself is a shadow of what the character could have been. All throughout the show I’ve had the sense that I am watching people play these characters, rather than watching them in behave in a consistent manner, Drexler is another example of this, it was easy to see what the writers wanted to happen, but instead the execution failed and we’re left with another frustrating, half-cocked episode.
Score: 5/10
