“Revolution” 5/13/2013 (spoilers): Charlie vs. the Drones of Devastation

Aaron Pittman, Zak Orth, Revolution, NBC

Former Google executive Aaron Pittman (Zak Orth), possibly the only sci-fi character in history that I can convincingly cosplay at conventions.

Thousands of curious Googlers can rest easy now that their burning question has been answered by tonight’s new episode of Revolution, “The Longest Day”: yes, this is the episode where Charlie and Jason finally kiss. NBC has been teasing the moment in every other promo for weeks, but tonight was the payoff at last. Their initial meet-hate and subsequent cat-‘n’-mouse run-ins have been forgotten or forgiven for the sake of beginning a relationship based on intense circumstances, despite the advice of Speed to the contrary.

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“Revolution” 5/6/2013 (spoilers): Charlie vs. the Sinister Dr. Anthrax

Giancarlo Esposito, Tom Neville, Revolution, NBC

Meet Miles Matheson’s new partner! Can these two dangerous men share a post-apocalypse without driving each other crazy?

Tonight’s new Revolution episode, “The Love Boat”, begins with our man Miles Matheson in the darkest place we’ve seen him so far. Last week his long-lost love Emma, whom we’d just met and didn’t have much reason to care about, was killed after finding herself stuck in the middle between Miles and President Monroe in a hometown gunfight. The episode ended with Miles vowing to escalate the war, which we learn this week is his inefficient, roundabout way of seeking cold-blooded revenge.

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“Revolution” 4/29/2013 (spoilers): Charlie vs. the Love Triangle Trap

David Lyons, General Monroe, Revolution, NBC

If something compels General Monroe to stop sulking in Independence Hall and walk around in open daylight, you know things just got real.

Tonight’s new episode of Revolution, “Home”, opens with our reluctant hero Miles Matheson pouring himself a mug of alcohol after a successful, dynamic raid (shown in three non-consecutive, disappointingly truncated, split-second flashbacks) that earned the Rebel Alliance a new base located in a landfill, albeit with twenty-two casualties. By the end of the hour, it won’t be the last excuse he has for drinking.

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“Revolution” 4/22/2013 (spoilers): Charlie vs. the Nuclear Terror

suitcase nuke, NBC, RevolutionAs of tonight, now we know for certain why NBC tastefully postponed the new Revolution episode “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia” from last week. At first I wondered if the reason would be more scenes of Nora carrying out heroic bombing on behalf of the Rebel Alliance, but no. Even more unnerving, given the events of last week in real life: this week, Sebastian “Bass” Monroe, President of the Monroe Republic, mad with electrical power and incensed paranoia, sends a few henchmen to Atlanta, the capital of the neighboring Georgia Federation, to threaten it with an old-fashioned suitcase nuke. Presumably Monroe and his loyal scientists have been sitting on this portable, stylish WMD through all fifteen years of the blackout, waiting for the opportunity to fire it up and stop postponing WWIII. Luckily for them, most fissile materials have a half-life with a distant expiration date.

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“Revolution” 4/15/2013: Pre-Empted on Account of Evil

Boston, Massachusetts

Please accept this placid aerial shot of Boston in lieu of ripped-from-the-headlines shock and horror. (photo credit: walknboston via photopin cc)

“In the meantime, the news is all about Boston. Three explosions so far, in case you haven’t heard.”

At the tail end of a day-long email volley, in which my wife and I had been taking turns trying to one-down each other and see which of us was having the worse work day, that’s how I learned about Monday’s horrifying bombing tragedy at the Boston Marathon. “Wait. What?” I thought in boldface as I realized she’d just buried the lede.

I had no idea what she was talking about. I’d been so wrapped up in my own pedestrian issues that I was oblivious to anything happening outside my immediate environs. I commenced ignoring what I had been doing, checked CNN.com, felt my heart sink, and closed that browser tab after one jarring image too many. Once again some inscrutable lost soul or an entire defective collective has created a moment to weep for humanity as a whole.

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“Revolution” 4/8/2013 (spoilers): Charlie vs. Neville vs. Neville

NBC, Revolution“No one’s a good guy.”

Thus does our hero Miles Matheson (Billy Burke) sum up the current state of mankind in the final minutes of tonight’s new Revolution episode, “The Song Remains the Same” (another Led Zeppelin song title, for annotation fans). If the power is restored for one and all, to oppressors and oppressed alike, who’s to say the warring factions of the country formerly known as America would set aside their differences and reunite for the good of mankind? If adversity wasn’t enough to inspire peaceful cooperation, why should we expect the restoration of power access to be any less divisive?

It’s a question worth asking, in light of the surprise revelation about the true nature of Ben and Rachel Matheson’s secret invention responsible for the worldwide blackout. Bets were won and high-fives were exchanged for any viewers who guessed that the correct answer is…

…insert drumroll here….

…redundant pause for tension effect…

…one last pause for no good reason…

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“Revolution” 4/1/2013 (spoilers): Charlie vs. the Humvees of Hate

Billy Burke, Revolution, NBCTonight’s new episode of Revolution, “Ghosts”, divides its time between two primary threads, each about former partnerships torn asunder but looking for common ground to reunite, and finding it in the form of evil armed henchmen. Nothing mends fences like common foes.

Of the episode’s two halves, more interesting and personal is the tension between Charlie and Rachel, as mother and daughter grieve the loss of son/brother Danny in last week’s mismatched showdown between a pair of working helicopters and one thermal-guided surface-to-air missile launcher. As the Rebel Alliance relocates its Annapolis base from its now-missile-ridden digs to a nearby former hospital, Rachel wallows in guilt and blame (when she’s not busy drawing electrical diagrams of the mysterious blue-light device she retrieved from her dead son’s innards last week), while Charlie rebuffs her and instead looks for opportunities for action, doing whatever she can for the resistance so that Danny’s death won’t be as much in vain as his hard-fought rescue from Independence Hall ultimately was. She storms off without Mom’s permission to assist in an overnight militia raid and returns the next day with an ugly shoulder wound, rebuking any attempts at assistance and talking back in hardcore Wolverine tough-guy whispers. Their argument ends with Rachel slapping Charlie. That doesn’t help, and seems unnecessary now that Tracy Spiridakos’ performance is showing signs of improvement.

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“Revolution” 3/25/2013 (spoilers): Charlie vs. the Whirlybirds of War

NBC, Revolution, "The Stand"Tonight on Revolution: EXPLOSIONS! GUNFIRE! MAJOR DEATH! BAZOOKAS! PUNCHING! Behold the end results of a three-month retooling hiatus.

We rejoin Our Heroes for the new episode, “The Stand” (I don’t have to explain the reference, right?), quickly resolving last winter’s cliffhanger that saw them facing the world’s first working helicopter in fifteen years, its cannons fully loaded, its pendant-powered generator in working order, its pilot ordered to kill. Fortunately everyone outruns the flying death machine, scampers into the abandoned (fictional) restaurant pictured above, and escapes death by hiding in the freezer until the chopper stops firing missiles into the joint. If a refrigerator can save Indiana Jones from atomic warfare, it stands to reason than an entire walk-in freezer would be just as impervious a bunker.

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“Revolution” Relaunch Refresher: Main Character Guide and Episode Recaps

Billy Burke, Miles Matheson, Revolution, NBC

If this doesn’t work, Miles is gonna look really silly.

The long hiatus is nearly over, even if the worldwide blackout isn’t. On March 25th Revolution returns to NBC with the second half of its twenty-episode debut season. The fall finale, aired November 26th, ended with a cliffhanger in which the bad guys acquired one of the twelve precious pendants that create a localized field permitting electrical power, enabling them to fire up a helicopter whose ignition hadn’t turned over in fifteen years, piloted by a guy who in that same time span has flown exactly zero hours but luckily remembers just enough to avoid running the copter into a brick wall.

If you’re like me and not too fond of extended hiatuses and the effect they have on TV recall, you’ve probably forgotten everything about the show except the few reminders that the “Revolution Returns” preview may have jump-started. You may also have forgotten that the first ten episodes were recapped right here on MCC, as quickly as I could cobble them together after each airing. Rest assured I plan to continue with the show, not only because I insist it has potential (despite the frequent shortcomings), but also because I want to see what sort of changes will be wrought by the “retooling” rumored to have been ordered by NBC execs. A recent TV Guide cover article confirmed that a major character won’t survive the show’s return, so you’ll need to be fully up to speed in order to place your bets.

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“Revolution” 11/26/2012 (spoilers): Mustache Dad vs. the Cape

NBC, Revolution, Matheson, Monroe“It’s been a long trip.”

Charlie summarizes the series to date with five simple words during the long-awaited family reunion that comprises this week’s fall-finale episode of Revolution, “Nobody’s Fault But Mine” (title taken from another Led Zeppelin track, because last week’s tribute episode demanded an encore). After a 760-mile walk from Wrigley Field in Chicago to Independence Hall in Philadelphia for the sake of her brother Danny, she’s calm and resolute all throughout, even when everyone but Miles is naturally taken captive in the first ten minutes. Blame Miles for putting his trust in an ineffective friend named Kip (special guest Glynn Turman — ex-Mayor Royce from The Wire!) who’s useless against the brute competence of Major Neville’s henchmen. Everyone is spirited away so they can be bait in Neville’s obvious trap for Miles.

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