This year at San Diego Comic Con, there was no shortage of SWAG featuring a power button symbol and ominous looking portraits of people looking into the distance. Cheesy? Yes. Effective? Yet to be determined. I didn’t make to pilot screening or the Q & A.  And I was really sad about it, because with all the promotion, I was really curious. So when the pilot became available, I jumped at the chance to watch it. I was not disappointed!

The premise is fairly simple. Electricity goes off. And I mean off. Nothing works. Nothing!! Even battery powered stuff. Off. How do people survive? What are the ramifications? It’s a heavy concept. It got me thinking, “How would I contribute to society? What could I do? What would my life be like?” and it made me very grateful for electricity, frankly. But moving on. There’s more to the story than just survival. Because there is no electricity, the flow of information is painfully slow therefore chaos comes in spades.

The show starts with a man, Ben, racing into his family home where his wife is on the phone, his toddler son, (Danny) is playing on an iPad and his daughter (Charlie) is watching television. He obviously knows something. He tries to warn his brother, Miles (played by Billy Burke of Twilight and THE CLOSER fame) via cell about “It’s all going to turn off…” but naturally, at that moment the connection breaks up, the lights flicker and a sense of doom falls squarely onto the planet.  And it is a horrendous thought. Thankfully the show doesn’t show the actual carnage, but the sequence of planes literally dropping out of the sky made me shudder.

Instead of forcing the audience to watch the transition from modern living to, well, let’s face it, Colonial times; the show fast forwards 15 years. People have adapted, there have been mass casualties from the global EMP to the fallout for many years after. A sort of martial law has taken over. Smatterings of villages have sprung up from what can only be assumed is the suburbs. People use their useless automobiles as gardening planters, which I found hilarious but brilliant! The priorities of humans have shifted: food, crops, supplies, hunting, homeopathic cures, these are the important things.

Naturally, as is the human condition, there are good guys and bad guys. The allusion is that within the confines of a Village, there’s a safety. Anywhere else? You’re open to danger. Roaming gangs of ne’er-do-wells and less-than-shiny Militia groups are a constant threat. When circumstances force the now late-teen Charlie (Tracy Spiridakos) to leave the confines of the Sub-Vill, she doesn’t leave unaccompanied. She’s got Aaron (Zak Orth) a former wealthy Corporate Executive who provides so much fantastic comic relief; he’s endeared himself to me (which, in an Eric Kripke (Supernatural) show, is very, very dangerous). Kripke is not afraid to rip the figurative heart out of the audience by causing great pains to their favorite characters. (I’ve got my shields up, Kripke. And I’m giving you side-look. Be nice!). There’s also Maggie (Anna Lise Phillips formerly of Terra Nova) who is somewhat of a medical-MacGyver and whom I would gladly go with on a danger-filled nature hike to the overgrown city of Chicago.

There’s no shortage of action in REVOLUTION, lemme tell ya! When we finally really meet Miles (Billy Burke), Charlie’s Uncle, he’s running some sort of bar/distillery and quips his way into my heart. He’s gruff, he’s smart, he’s jaded. Let’s face it, he’s sexy. Quicker than I thought necessary, we find out exactly how Miles has survived. He’s a badass. Seriously, whoever does the stunt choreography is a genius. I was so impressed! I was rooting for the good guys in no time at all!

While REVOLUTION shows an ominous peek into a possible future, I loved it! I loved all of it! Which I was not expecting! I’m really looking forward to more episodes, and I’m hoping that the network has invested enough in REVOLUTION to make the endgame of Kripke’s show-vision possible, whatever that may be. I’ll definitely be watching!

What does Amrie think, you ask? “I’m cautiously optimistic about where this show could go.  The plot is fantastic, and I really do think that it could be more LOST than THE EVENT, as far as sci-fi adventures.  Do I love it?  No, but I appreciate it, and find myself rooting for the rag-tag bunch, for sure.  Plus, what’s not to love about Elizabeth Mitchell?  And HELLO JD PARDO’S ARMS!”

REVOLUTION airs Monday nights at 10/9c, starting with tonight’s premiere, and check out Am’s interviews with the cast of REVOLUTION from Comic Con 2012: