Revolution (TV series)

Not to be confused with The Revolution (TV series).

Revolution
Genre	Action/Adventure Dystopian Post-apocalyptic Science-fiction Drama Mystery
Created by	Eric Kripke
Starring	Billy Burke Tracy Spiridakos Giancarlo Esposito Zak Orth David Lyons Anna Lise Phillips Graham Rogers J.D. Pardo Tim Guinee Daniella Alonso Elizabeth Mitchell
Composer(s)	Christopher Lennertz
Country of origin	U.S.
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	18 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Bryan Burk Eric Kripke J.J. Abrams Jon Favreau (pilot)
Producer(s)	Athena Wickman Robert M. Williams Jr.
Editor(s)	Dan Lebental Matt Evans
Location(s)	Altanta, GA (Pilot) Wilmington, NC (Season 1) Texas (Season 2)
Cinematography	Michael Bonvillain
Running time	43 minutes
Production company(s)	Kripke Enterprises Bad Robot Productions Warner Bros. Television
Broadcast
Original channel	NBC
Original run	September 17, 2012 (2012-09-17) – present
External links
Official website

Revolution is an American post-apocalyptic science fiction television drama series. It was created by Eric Kripke and produced by J. J. Abrams' Bad Robot Productions for the NBC network. It debuted on September 17, 2012, and airs on Mondays at 10:00 pm (ET). The network placed a series order in May 2012. Film director Jon Favreau directed the pilot episode. The pilot episode was viewable on Hulu and NBC.com, prior to the series' broadcast premiere. In October 2012, NBC picked it up for a full season of 22 episodes, which was later reduced to 20 episodes.

The show is filmed in and around Wilmington, North Carolina. Many of the scenes were shot in historic downtown Wilmington and on the campus of the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

In April 2013, the series was renewed for a second season of 22 episodes.

Setting

Revolution takes place in a post-apocalyptic dystopian future. Fifteen years earlier, a new technology had been developed by the U.S. Department of Defense to disarm opponents in the battlefield (which you find out later in the series). The technology was based around inert air-populated nano-machines which are capable of nullifying electricity and self-multiplying. The technology was pursued by the Department of Defense and weaponized, but after deployment, the nano-machines spread quickly out of control worldwide and effectively disabled all electricity on Earth within a single night, ranging from computers and electronics to car and jet engines. Trains and cars stopped where they were, ships went dead in the water and fly-by-wire aircraft fell from the sky and crashed.

People were forced to adapt to a world without electricity over the next fifteen years. Due to the collapse of government and public order, many areas are now ruled by warlords and militias.

The series starts with the surviving Matheson family: Ben, Charlie, and Danny, now living near what used to be Chicago, who possessed a pendant-shaped device (a USB flash drive contained in a pendant) that is the key to not only finding out what happened fifteen years ago, but also a possible way to reverse its effects. However, Sebastian Monroe, the General of the Monroe Militia and self-appointed President of the Monroe Republic, an area of the former United States east of the Mississippi River northward of Kentucky and the Carolinas, now possesses that power for himself seeking conquest of the entire former United States of America. The remaining Matheson family, joined initially by Miles Matheson, Aaron Pittman, and Nora Clayton now strive to counter the Monroe Militia. Monroe's new benefactor, Randall Flynn, a former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense who 15 years earlier ordered the deployment of the weaponized technology that caused the blackout, now seeks to fortify Monroe in his efforts after Rachel escaped from his custody.

Opening Introduction:

We lived in an electric world. We relied on it for everything. And then the power went out. Everything stopped working. We weren't prepared. Fear and confusion led to panic. The lucky ones made it out of the cities. The government collapsed. Militias took over, controlling the food supply and stockpiling weapons. We still don't know why the power went out. But we're hopeful someone will come and light the way.

In Season 1 Episode 5, "Soul Train", a map of North America is shown. The map showed the former continental United States, Canada, and Mexico divided into six parts: the Monroe Republic in the northeast, Maritime Provinces and Great Lakes region; the Georgia Federation in the southeast; the Plains Nation in the northern Midwest and Rocky Mountain states; Texas which controls portions of Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana; the California Commonwealth which has the Pacific Coast from Baja California to British Columbia; and the Wasteland in the vicinity of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Mexico.

The same episode also indicates that the Georgia Federation and Plains Nation have allied against the Monroe Republic. Border skirmishing in southwest Illinois, near St. Louis, is mentioned.

According to the wife of Captain Thomas Neville (Julia) in a letter to her husband, the Monroe Republic capital of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is relatively safe; however, life outside west of Pittsburgh is subject to rebel attacks and other dangers such as bandits.

Cast

Promotional image showing the main characters

Main cast

• Billy Burke as Miles Matheson, a former U.S. Marine Corps sergeant turned tavern owner, pursued by the Monroe Republic Militia. As Ben Matheson's brother, he is later revealed to be one of the founding fathers of the Monroe Republic, having established it with Sebastian Monroe after the collapse of the United States. He is also the former Commanding General of its militia and is responsible for making them as brutally efficient as they are now. However, he later became disillusioned with the Republic, unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate Monroe, and deserted. The militia now considers Miles a traitor and seeks to capture him as well as the rest of the Matheson family. Miles is shown expressing regret for his role with the militia although not without conflicted feelings about his former best friend Sebastian Monroe, who offered him his old job back after liberating Rachel. After rescuing Danny, Miles resolves to defeat Monroe once and for all when he realizes that the various pendants Rachel and Ben invented can grant Monroe massive firepower (including nuclear capability) against countless people who are reduced to fighting with swords and arrows after the blackout.
• Tracy Spiridakos as Charlotte "Charlie" Matheson, Ben Matheson's daughter and Miles's niece. Miles described her initially as unusual, insisting that it's not meant as an insult. Charlie has strong remorse for the things around her in the new world and is very caring but is increasingly at odds with trying to find a balance between concern and self-preservation in the post-blackout society, often choosing to emulate her Uncle Miles more than her own family. After Rachel left, she took responsibility for looking after her brother, whom she actively pursued in the first half of the season. After her brother's death, she is determined to assist Miles in stopping Bass Monroe, while reconciling with her estranged mother.
• Elizabeth Mitchell as Rachel Matheson, Ben's wife and Charlie and Danny's mother, who is initially believed to have died following the blackout but later revealed to be alive and working under duress for Monroe. She has told Monroe about the existence of the pendants and provided other information to the militia concerning them and a need for amplification in order to enable vehicular use. Later, it is revealed that Rachel had been equally involved in the blackout as she and her husband know the exact science behind why it has happened. After learning that activated pendants can be tracked by Flynn, she seeks instead to destroy them as they are found instead of using them to counter Monroe.
• Graham Rogers as Danny Matheson, Charlie's brother who gets captured by the militia. Danny is asthmatic and before being kidnapped, was constantly watched over by his sister. Similar to Charlie, Danny feels sympathetic for various people, and in a moment when Capt. Neville was vulnerable, chose to help free him and get recaptured rather than escape and let the Captain die from collapsing rubble. Danny is killed from random fire after shooting down a helicopter. Post-mortem, Rachel pulled a device out of Danny, which has a faint blinking light that is still working, years after the blackout. It is later learned that the nanites helped power the device to keep Danny alive.
• Zak Orth as Aaron Pittman, an MIT graduate, former Google executive and friend of Ben Matheson. Aaron was a teacher in the community, educating children about life before the blackout. He abandoned his wife after feeling unable to protect her from looters and thieves, leaving her with a group they were traveling with. Aaron has a great deal of suppressed guilt and remorse over abandoning his wife. Just before Ben's death, Aaron was secretly entrusted with a pendant flash drive onto which Ben downloaded files from his computer just before the blackout. Aaron and Maggie decided to keep the pendant's existence a secret from the rest of the group, fearing Miles' reaction and complicating the pursuit of Danny's captors; the others later discover the pendant's existence, and it is eventually stolen by Nora's sister (a double agent) and handed over to Sebastian Monroe. Once reunited with Rachel, Aaron is concentrating on the study of her notes and any information concerning the blackout. Rachel suspects that Ben deliberately cultivated a relationship with Aaron because unknown to Aaron, some of his early work in programming at MIT may have been used in the development of the nanites.
• Daniella Alonso as Nora Clayton, a woman who has a history with Miles from a past relationship. She has connections to the rebels, who fight against the Monroe Republic to restore the United States of America as part of an organized Rebellion. Her primary expertise is in explosives, and Nora's connections to the Rebellion help at various points throughout the Monroe Republic. Upon learning that her sister is alive and wants to return to Texas to seek out their family, Nora was going to leave Miles, Charlie, and Aaron to assault Bass, but after her sister betrays the Mathewson family to the Militia in order to assure her and Nora free passage to Texas, Nora returns, rescuing them and leaving her sister to travel alone.
• Giancarlo Esposito as Major Tom Neville, a former insurance adjuster who joined the Monroe Republic militia after the blackout. As a Captain, Neville is the first antagonist in the story - his troops are responsible for both Ben Matheson's death and Danny's capture. He is very calculated and committed to the militia, seeking primarily to survive and to keep his own family safe. Originally a mild-mannered and compassionate family man, the blackout forced him to become more ruthless; he is frequently encouraged to be even more ruthless by his politically-ambitious wife who wishes for him to replace Sebastian Monroe as General. After promoted to Major upon the capture of Danny Matheson, Neville has lost favor with Monroe after his son defected and his subsequent capture by the Rebels(he later escapes) prevented him from completing a critical mission for Monroe. Realizing that Monroe will kill him for his failure, Neville and his wife defect to Georgia where he is rewarded for the intel he provides with a commission as a major in the Georgian militia...but now he must work WITH Miles Matheson who is leading the rebel forces and has joined with Georgia to fight Monroe.
• J.D. Pardo as Jason Neville (originally known under the alias "Nate Walker"), the son of Tom Neville and a former Lieutenant of the Monroe Militia tasked with tracking down Miles. While initially loyal to the Militia, he develops feelings for Charlie, which results in him choosing to protect her on several occasions. When the militia start hunting down the rebels with their helicopters, he defects from the militia as he views the massacres as inhumane. He joins the Rebellion to fight alongside Charlie, with a reluctant Miles refusing to trust his motivations until he agreed to help interrogate his own father.
• David Lyons as President/General Sebastian "Bass" Monroe, a former U.S. Marine Corps sergeant who co-founded the Monroe Republic. He is the President (de facto dictator) of the Republic as well as the Commanding General of the militia. Monroe and Miles were best friends prior to the blackout when they served together in the military, seeking at first to defend innocent people and restore order to society after the collapse using their combined military experience to organize a standing militia. Monroe knew the Matheson family well before the blackout and after Miles defected, he kept Rachel in seclusion letting the world believe she was dead for many years since she was key in turning electrical power back on. After Rachel's escape, Bass is now cooperating with Randall Flynn, who has a limited but ample supply of the pendants and amplifiers to allow vehicles and weaponry to work under Monroe Republic control.
• Colm Feore as Randall Flynn, the Assistant Secretary of Defense who was working with Ben Matheson and his team to fund and support their project to weaponize Ben's research for military purposes in response to the death of his own son in Afghanistan. After the blackout, he seeks to "collect" the remaining scientists on the project (by force or by will) who worked with him in the Department of Defense in the continued production of pendants and amplifiers to further his own plans. Flynn has chosen to cooperate with the Monroe Republic after he became convinced that Monroe didn't have "his own head up his ass" and provides enough information to re-enable the vehicles and weaponry that Monroe collected over the years.
• Tim Guinee as Ben Matheson, Charlie and Danny's father. Along with Rachel he initially developed the nano-robot technology that caused the blackout, which was researched and developed by the other scientists including Grace, John and others. Initially meant as a method of cheap green energy, the project's failure had the unintended outcome of suppressing all electronic activity within a given radius. After the DOD deployed the nano-robots at an area of conflict, Ben was able to warn his family in Chicago and his brother Miles moments before the blackout occurred as the nano-bots spread with air currents and multiplied out of control. Fifteen years later, he was murdered in the first episode by the Monroe Militia, and shortly before his death he sent his daughter to find his brother Miles in Chicago in order to help her find and rescue Danny. Ben's past involvement in the story is revealed throughout the first season.
• Anna Lise Phillips as Maggie Foster, a British medical doctor who became stranded and separated from her children following the blackout. She became Ben Matheson's girlfriend following his wife's supposed death. Maggie's relationship with Charlie is often strained, since she is her de facto stepmother, but Maggie cares for Ben's children as her own. She came to the Midwest and met Ben after failing to find a boat to cross the Atlantic to return to her own family in the United Kingdom. She is killed by a bandit during the pursuit for Danny.

Recurring characters

• Maria Howell as Grace Beaumont, a woman who hides Danny from the Monroe Militia and also has a pendant matching the one Ben Matheson gave Aaron. It is revealed that as one of the scientists who worked at the Department of Defense, she is in contact via a computer with an unknown party until Randall Flynn abducted her. When Aaron and Maggie discover the house she lived in, the pendant she possessed was missing and her computer destroyed. Randall keeps her in captivity with other scientists fixing equipment in a secret location to further his pursuits.
• Malik Yoba as Jim Hudson, an ex-Monroe Militia captain who helped Miles with his initial assassination attempt on Bass and defected after their failure. He went into hiding as a town librarian after marrying a local woman. Miles and Nora seek his help after Miles agrees to aid the Rebellion, but Jim refuses becauser Miles had abandoned him. After fending off a kill squad sent by Monroe to capture him, Jim ends up joining Miles after his wife witnesses him kill an attacker and learns about his past as a soldier.
• Leland Orser as John Sanborn, a scientist who worked with Ben and Rachel in developing the blackout technology. After Rachel and Miles sought him out for assistance, John captured them and turned them over to Randall for interrogation. Miles and Rachel escaped from capture, with John following Randall to Philadelphia to aid the Republic.
• Kim Raver as Julia Neville, Captain Tom Neville's wife and Jason's mother. While supportive of her husband's military efforts seeking to encourage his rise to power, she is also protective of Jason, and after learning of his defection from the militia, confronts Neville and agrees to leave her life of luxury and social elevation to be free of the Republic.
• Mark Pellegrino as Jeremy Baker, a militia captain and former friend of Miles Matheson due to Miles rescuing him from murderous looters six months into the blackout. He is later executed when Monroe believes him to be behind an assassination attempt.
• David Meunier as Will Strausser, a Sergeant in the Monroe Militia who admits his sociopathy adding that his militia work is a good fit. He was the only Sergeant who scared Miles when he was in the Militia. He offers Nora's sister safe passage to Texas if she gives away the positions of her sister's accomplices. After returning to Rachel, Strausser is killed by her after he threatens to kill her children in order to motivate her to complete an amplifier.
• Jeff Fahey as Ken 'Hutch' Hutchinson, a member of the rebels. Nora meets and bonds with him because they both are a part of "the resistance". He later stabs her to prevent her from removing a bomb on the train the militia had headed out of town.
• Leslie Hope as President Kelly Foster, the president of the Georgia Federation.

Production

Executive producer J.J. Abrams told the Los Angeles Times' Hero Complex blog that series creator Eric Kripke "came to us with an idea that was undeniably good. It was such a great premise for a series that it was just that feeling of the misery that you’d feel if you had a chance to be part of that and didn’t take advantage of it. I’m really looking forward to that show. He’s so obviously the real deal, and we’re just really lucky and honored that he wanted to collaborate with us on it."

The series debuted in the United States on September 17, 2012. In October 2012, NBC announced it would pick up the series for an additional nine episodes after achieving an average of 9.8 million viewers for the first three episodes. After November 26, 2012, Revolution went on hiatus for a holiday break and to catch up on post-production. Following this, the show resumed broadcast on March 25, 2013 for the remaining episodes of season 1.

The role of Rachel Matheson was originally played by Andrea Roth until she was replaced by Elizabeth Mitchell.

A portion of episode 4 of season 1 was filmed at Freestyle Music Park in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Revolution was renewed for a full 22-episode second season in April 2013.

In May 2013, it was announced that production will move to Texas for season two.

Series overview

Main article: List of Revolution episodes

Seasons of Revolution

Season		Episodes	Originally aired		DVD and Blu-ray release date
			Season premiere	Season finale	Region 1	Region 2	Region 4
	1	20	September 17, 2012 (2012-09-17)	June 3, 2013 (2013-06-03)	N/A	N/A	N/A
	2	22	Fall 2013	Spring 2014	N/A	N/A	N/A

Broadcast

Season	Timeslot (ET)	Episodes	Premiered		Ended		TV Season	Rank	Viewers (in millions)
			Date	Premiere Viewers (in millions)	Date	Finale Viewers (in millions)
1	Monday 10:00 PM	20	September 17, 2012 (2012-09-17)	11.65	June 3, 2013 (2013-06-03)	TBD	2012–13	TBA	TBA
2	Wednesday 8:00 PM	22	September 2013	TBD	2014	TBD	2013–14	TBA	TBA

In Canada, the series airs simultaneously with the American broadcast on City. It premiered in Australia on Fox8 in September 2012. It premiered in New Zealand on TV2 on October 16, 2012. The series is being broadcast by DSTV in South Africa and to the rest of Africa via satellite; it is delayed by a week from the USA broadcast. In France, TF1 broadcast the show in 2013. In the United Kingdom, the series started airing on Sky1 from March 29, 2013. The episode "The Plague Dogs" was watched by 1.191 million UK viewers, with an additional 123,000 on +1. The episode "Soul Train" was watched by 1.058 million UK viewers, with an additional 172,000 on +1.

Advance screenings

In the summer of 2012, NBC had a voting campaign on Revolution's Facebook page where visitors could vote for which American city should have an advance screening of the series' pilot in early September. The top-10 markets selected were: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York City, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City and Seattle. New York City's screening was held on September 4 for 1,000 guests; 80 of them seated on stationary bicycles to generate electricity for lighting. The remaining cities' screenings were held on September 6, 2012. The pilot episode is available for download in Apple's iTunes Store and is also viewable on Hulu.

Critical reception

The first season currently has a Metacritic score of 64 out of 100 based on 32 reviews, indicating generally positive reviews. Glen Garvin of The Miami Herald described the show as "big, bold and brassy adventure, a cowboys-and-Indians story for end times". Dorothy Rabinowitz of The Wall Street Journal praised the production quality of the show saying "if the quality of this one, so irresistible in its vitality and suspense, does fail to hold up, its creators will have delivered, at the least, one remarkably fine hour". Ed Bark observed that the show "has the overall look and feel of a big budget feature, delivers some consistently terrific action scenes". Some have compared the show to Dies the Fire, The Hunger Games and Lost.

Verne Gay of Newsday however, gave the premiere a neutral review saying "There's an almost overwhelming been-there-seen-that feel to the pilot, which doesn't really offer any suggestion of 'well, you haven't seen this.'" Other reviewers were much more critical, with Mary Ann Johanson summarizing her review with "Revolution is science fiction for people who don’t want to be bothered with any of that tedious thinking stuff that tends to go along with true science fiction, and just want to get to the action. And the action isn't all that fabulous here, either, frankly."

Awards and nominations

Awards and nominations for Revolution

Year	Association	Category	Nominee	Result
2012	People's Choice Awards	Favorite New TV Drama	Crew	Nominated
2013	Saturn Awards	Best Network Television Series	Revolution	Pending
		Best Actor on Television	Billy Burke	Pending
		Best Actress on Television	Tracy Spiridakos	Pending
		Best Supporting Actor on Television	Giancarlo Esposito	Pending

See also

• One Second After
• Power symbol
• Ravage (novel)
• Survivalism in fiction
• The Changes (TV series)

External links

• Official website
• Revolution at the Internet Movie Database
• Revolution at TV.com