Revolution

Series two, episode one
The complexities of this post-apocalyptic drama are such that unless you watched series one, you’ll have absolutely no idea what’s going on in this series two opener.

This is essentially a modern ‘Lord of the Rings’ fable with electricity replacing the ring and a pair of scientists – the human equivalent of Frodo and Sam – trying to restore humanity to a world literally gone dark. Makers JJ Abrams and Bad Robot Productions are clearly not targeting newcomers, happy to pick things up with a bare bones ‘previously on…’ This simply recaps series one’s finale before reintroducing us to key players Rachel, Charlie, Miles and Aaron six months after the brief ‘surge’ and Randall’s attempt to launch a nuclear attack on the US. Atlanta and Philadelphia have both gone – annihilated by the fall out from the missiles – and the world is an even blacker place than it was.

While kinder critics have made favourable comparisons with ‘The Hunger Games’ and ‘Lost’, on this viewing it plays to us like a fairly dull cowboys and Indians drama with a high action and violence quotient and little to engage the brain or the emotions. For engaging TV sci-fi, we’ll stick with the silly but far more fun ‘Under the Dome’.