Did anyone Watch the Premiere Episode Of...

[Lord Jim]

The new TV series, Revolution?

The premise of the show; what happens to society after all the power goes out on a global scale....

Is one that has long fascinated me...(years ago, I wrote a short story based on that premise; in my scenario it happened as a result of a series of catastrophic solar flares.)

We've got it on Xfinity; I was just wondering if anyone had seen it, and if so, whether you thought it would be worth giving a watch. (NBC hasn't been the greatest producer of new quality programming in recent years...)

[Gob]

Ever read the book "Fade Out" by Patrick Tilley, Jim? Excellent "end of the world" novel.

[Lord Jim]

I haven't read that one Strop, thanks for the tip

[Scooter]

I saw it. Without electricity society devolves into isolated agrarian communities that are under the sway of strong men who exact tribute from the inhabitants. Cities have been largely abandoned and have fallen into ruin. Law and order are pretty much non-existent. But there is a secret to getting the power on again, seemingly known by a few, that would enable whichever strong man who got his hands on it to gain enough of an advantage to reunite the continent under his rule. I'll continue watching to see how it develops.

[Scooter]

The full episode is here but I couldn't get the video to load.

You can read a pretty detailed recap here.

[Lord Jim]

Thanks Scooter, we've got the episode in our cable system, I think we'll watch it tomorrow....

Despite the vaunted advanced technological civilization that we are so proud of having created, the fact is we are now completely reliant on two fundamental pillars to sustain it; the electrical power grids, and the system of thousands of satellites we rely on to co-ordinate it....

If these were suddenly taken away on a global scale, the existing social order and civilization we have created would unravel in a matter of days....

[loCAtek]

The Postman

The Postman (1985), is a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel by David Brin. A drifter stumbles across the uniform of an old United States Postal Service letter carrier and with empty promises of aid from the "Restored United States of America," gives hope to a community threatened by local warlords. The first two parts were published separately as "The Postman" (1982) and "Cyclops" (1984). Both were nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Novella. The completed novel was awarded first prize in the John W. Campbell Award's for the best science fiction novel of the year in 1986,[1] and won the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel that same year.[1] It was also nominated for Hugo[1] and Nebula[2] awards for best novel.

[loCAtek]

BTW - Do NOT, under any circumstances, be conned into thinking that dreadful Kevin Costner movie was anything like the above book.

[loCAtek]

Wolf and Iron by Gordon R. Dickson

You could say another title for this book could be A Man and His Wolf.
Dickson is less interested in telling a story about the collapse of society, and more about one man, and the wolf who befriends him, and in so doing, tunes him into the essentials of survival in this new world. There are painstaking descriptions of building simple weapons and shelters, and how much ingenuity might be required to survive something like injury in a wild environment. There's a rather extensive descriptive passage about a birth that's fairly impressive in it's completeness. It seems that Dickson wants to make a point about how much life would slow down in such a circumstance. He lingers long on simple and small things, and he has the descriptive talent to do it effectively.
In that sense it reminded me of classic mountain man books like the one about Liver Eating Johnson (the title escapes me, but it is the basis for the movie Jeremiah Johnson), or perhaps the more compelling parts of Knut Hamsen's novel of farm life,The Growth of the Soil.
And then there is the extensive research about wolves that has been pulled into the book to make the wolf character more credible.The wolf sort of functions as a familiar or animus, as the the central character who was a mathematics academic before the collapse, gradually comes to terms with the darker aspects of what it means to be both wolf and man, in order to survive.

[Reality Bytes]

I just watched it Jim and my answer as to whether its worth watching is ..... it depends.... lol

It has the potential to either suck big time or develop into something good, based on the pilot I'd say the suck potential is 60/40.

SPOILERS BELOW







A couple of things not to be distracted by, seems to be a heck of a lot of comment on IMDB and other forums being made about how EMP doesn't work "that way" - ignore this as at no point does the pilot suggest that this was caused by an EMP indeed in the very first 2 mins or so of the pilot one of the main characters actually says they are "going to turn it all off" and later on the google guy explains to the kids that physics has gone all screwy - this was clearly some kind of deliberate action by persons or aliens unknown. If you can accept that then the other glaring plot holes won't matter too much such as why 15 years after power out people are only able to use single shot muskets, cross bows & swords?

You'll also need to ignore any conjecture over how come theres a working computer .... I suspect that will be explained at some point, whether that explanation is swallowable will determine if the suck potential is going to increase or decrease.

I did think some of the cgi was a bit naff - but this is a made for TV show so they probably didnt have the budget, shame really as that could have lifted the pilot back to 40/60.

Where this has the potential to really bomb is if its going to turn into some kind of post apolcalypse soap opera, thats why I stopped watching Jericho after the first 2 seasons, and why I skipped parts of the 2nd season of The Walking Dead and why I will stop watching Sons Of Anarchy if they go any further down that road.

I'm going to give it a couple of episodes before making my mind up.

[rubato]

Science Fiction (aka "speculative fiction") is almost always political in nature. That is to say that nearly all writers have a political/social agenda which they are expressing via some plot device or other.

In this case we have the "apocalyptic future" scenario which is a fairly common plot device of the past 40 years. For those who bother watching (and there is no reason to) they will discover if the writers are generally Hobbesian (pessimistic about human 'nature') or optimistic about human 'nature'. Most S-F writers are fairly dripping with appreciation for the products of science so there is often a pro-knowledge bias which is inherently anti-conservative but there is also a broad Libertarian streak (starting with Heinlein) which is common in people with relatively crude understandings of society overall.

There is little to really be learned from complete speculation like this so if it is good light entertainment that is the only height to which it can be expected to attain.

yrs,
rubato

[Gob]

For those who bother watching ....

.....it is good light entertainment .....

Thanks for your review.

[Sean]

[oldr_n_wsr]

I watched it. The jury is still out. Being an EE, I can't help but wonder how no one has figured out how to make electricity flow again. Is lightning affected? Static electricity?

And tha lady with the computer was "texting" to someone else so there are more than one who have the power.

Last nights episode is recorded for future viewing.

[loCAtek]

Science Fiction (aka "speculative fiction") is almost always political in nature. That is to say that nearly all writers have a political/social agenda which they are expressing via some plot device or other.

In this case we have the "apocalyptic future" scenario which is a fairly common plot device of the past 40 years. For those who bother watching (and there is no reason to) they will discover if the writers are generally Hobbesian (pessimistic about human 'nature') or optimistic about human 'nature'. Most S-F writers are fairly dripping with appreciation for the products of science so there is often a pro-knowledge bias which is inherently anti-conservative but there is also a broad Libertarian streak (starting with Heinlein) which is common in people with relatively crude understandings of society overall.

There is little to really be learned from complete speculation like this so if it is good light entertainment that is the only height to which it can be expected to attain.

yrs,
rubato

Older than that;

Apocalyptic fiction is a sub-genre of science fiction that is concerned with the end of civilization due to an existential catastrophe such as nuclear warfare, pandemic, extraterrestrial attack, impact event, cybernetic revolt, technological singularity, dysgenics, supernatural phenomena, divine judgement, climate change, resource depletion, or some other general disaster. Post-apocalyptic fiction is set in a world or civilization after such a disaster. The time frame may be immediately after the catastrophe, focusing on the travails or psychology of survivors, or considerably later, often including the theme that the existence of pre-catastrophe civilization has been forgotten (or mythologized). Post-apocalyptic stories often take place in an agrarian, non-technological future world, or a world where only scattered elements of technology remain. There is a considerable degree of blurring between this form of science fiction and that which deals with dystopias.

The genres gained in popularity after World War II, when the possibility of global annihilation by nuclear weapons entered the public consciousness. However, recognizable apocalyptic novels have existed at least since the first quarter of the 19th century, when Mary Shelley's The Last Man was published.[1] Furthermore, the subgenres draw on a body of apocalyptic literature, tropes, and interpretations which are millennia old.


Wiki

[rubato]

A good overview.

For those who care.

yrs,
rubato

[Gob]

Care about what?

[MajGenl.Meade]

I remember reading two childrens' (?) books by the same author back in 1960-something - one in which all the electricals in the world stopped working and the other in which all metals became soft and malleable. Can remember nothing about the plots and my usually productive googling didn't help.

Wasn't that interesting?

Meade

PS I wish someone would TV/film Stand on Zanzibar and/or A Canticle for Liebowitz. Beats that German Nobel prize-winning crap hollow.

[Lord Jim]

I don't believe the premise of this show is that the world is taken over by Lucas Electrics...

Though that would certainly explain things....

Well, we haven't watched the first episode, (and every time I review this thread, I scroll past RB's spoilers...)

And I like to get a better sense of a show than one can get from a single episode..

So I think we'll watch the pilot and the second episode back to back....

[Big RR]

Jim--after watching two episodes. my guess is that the writers don't really have a coherent vision of what caused the massive power disruption or where the series will lead. Indeed, while i will give it a couple of more chances before I walk away, my guess is that it will devolve into a soap opera set in a post-apocalyptic world. The settings of the melodrama, from teen angst and love to an on again/off again relationship between adult leads--throwing in an intelligent computer operator for comic relief. It's the way most series go (fox had a series based on aliens captured in the 40s and breaking out that went this way, and also a series on people trapped in some sort of prison town that looked good at the beginning but fell apart)--this probably would have made a better miniseries with a definite beginning and end.