Revolution

NBC debuted it's new bigger than life drama last night. The initial reviews are strong and the numbers from the ratings are even stronger. Today it was reported that it was the most viewed drama series premiere on any network in over three years.

All of this bodes well for the series. Produced by J J Abrams of Lost fame the show has been heavily buzzed about all summer. I, myself, watched the trailer last last spring and told my wife that this certainly looked like an interesting show.

The premise is strong. At the beginning of the series a man comes home from work and tells his wife to go fill the tubs and sinks with water. She gives him a meaningful look and says in a quizzical voice " It's happening?" Next thing we see the man talking to his brother on the phone, his brother stuck in traffic, has a bad signal and just barely makes out him telling him " it's all going to shut down" and soon enough the phone goes out, and all the cars on the highway stall.

We then move ahead to fifteen years later and as you can imagine the world has changed. We see interesting visuals of Wrigley Field overgrown with moss and realize that Abrams must have watched the Life After People series that was on a year or so ago.

We can fairly predict where the series is going. We have little empires and warlords and of course there is a secret that a few people have, information that a few people know about and want that these people have in necklaces.

The cast is not well known but in episode one appear to be solid. What will be the real issue here is if the show can keep its viewers. My middle son has just finished watching Jericho on DVD and he mentioned some similarities to it. I watched that show when it was first on and though this show, being an Abrams show might have a few more buttons and whistles he is not incorrect in noticing the similarities.

For those of who were excited by Flash Forward a few years ago and The Event just a couple of years ago we know that as strong as these shows start out it is not an easy thing to keep the interest of the audience. The first sign of trouble will be if NBC starts moving the show around, a death knell for most shows.

For now I will enjoy the show but I will not get too comfortable with it, these shows rarely succeed.