4030 replies to this topic

[marketdoctor]

I didn't see a thread for this show yet, so here goes:

If you haven't heard of this show, here's what I'm talking about.

The concept is a LOT like the book series of The Change, starting with Dies the Fire, by S. M. Stirling. I liked the concept, but for me the books moved slowly. I'm interested to see how the concept works on television. Does anyone know if this is a TV adaption of the books, or if it's something else?

[BDArizona]

Looks like it'll be on NBC. I guess they're trying to get on the Abrams bandwagon. I'm not a big fan of Abrams or the writer from Supernatural, so the show will have to have more than their names to pull me in. I do like the concept, though. It reminds me of the British show Survivors, along with about 100 other post-apocalyptic stories, shows, and movies. I might watch the pilot if it makes it to air. I might give up on it quickly, though, much like I did with Lost.

[FurryFury]

I'm not psyched about it being about a family. Kind of hate pretty much all family-focused shows, especially when they inevitably feature annoying kids or teenagers. The only kid I don't hate is Henry from Once Upon A Time.

[marketdoctor]

I'm not psyched about it being about a family.

That takes it away from Dies the Fire, and from what I can tell, it's a different work.

Hopefully, they'll take a page from Once Upon a Time, or the kid with glasses (not the main kid) in The Cape. I'd also accept the way Psych uses kids: sparingly, and as a framing device for the episode, but not asking/expecting them to carry the series.

I also hope they address, in at least some capacity, that all life runs on energy reactions, as does weather, the sun, etc. Maybe only certain kinds of energy (such as exothermic reactions above a threshold) have stopped--otherwise it'd be a very brief, very depressing series.

[Lugal]

AKA JJ Abrams rips off the Emberverse. Has SM Stirling made any comments about the series yet? The concept could be cool, but I don't trust Abrams to do it right. Is he bored with Alcatraz already?

The family story makes me wonder if he's ripping off Falling Skies while he's at it.

[mustbekarma]

Kripke's doing this? I started out loving Supernatural, and now I've given up on it. I'll give this one a miss. This will be one series where I see how it ends, and if the ending sounds cool, then I'll catch up via DVD or Hulu or something. With Kripke, it does have the possibility of starting out awesome. If this show is true to Kripke's form, then all the supporting characters die. I really don't feel like investing time, energy, and emotion into a show just to have all the characters I like die off.

[pyralis]

the first thing I thought on hearing about this show was Peter Dickinson's Changes trilogy in which a wizard REALLY did do it. Of course, that just affected England/Scotland/Wales, so there was only a limited area being zapped. As marketdoctor said, since all life requires some kind of energy transfer, I do wonder what handwaving they'll use.

[Crim]

I took it to mean that the forms of energy that humans are using for technological purposes no longer work (sadly, not the best way to phrase it) so a "ruin of modern civilization as we know it" type of post-apocalyptic survival show. If it's that literally all forms of energy are just poof! totally gone... O.o

Anyway, I probably won't watch if it's indeed a family-focused show (dropped Fallen Skies and Once Upon A Time and didn't even bother with Terra Nova).

Edited by Crim, Feb 5, 2012 @ 11:08 AM.

[FurryFury]

Well, i'm not 100% sure, but it was mentioned that this show focuses on a family "trying to find its way together" in the sorta post-apocalyptic America. I'm not sure which type of family it is. Could be just older folks, I suppose, although I wouldn't bet on it.

[Boundary]

When I read "family trying to find its way together" I thought of Cruise's War of the World with Dakota Fanning. Now there's a talented kid. And the whole apocalypse scenario with warlords, the military, and the like is a mixture of familiar stories. Of course since this is JJ the myth arc will be about who/why/how the blackout happened. I'm not too psyched since this sounds like such a familiar concept but I'll check out a few episodes to see how I react to the cast.

[Mormegil]

Casting News

[FurryFury]

It seems my fears about annoying kids and a lot of family drama were unfounded. I've read a review of the pilot script, and
The father dies midway, while the main characters seem to be his 20-year old daughter and her tough no-nonsense uncle, whom she reunites with after a 15-year long separation. Both of them are looking for her 17 year old brother who is missing/kidnapped/something (I wasn't paying much attention). Of course, he could be the annoying teenager in the vein of V or Terra Nova, but maybe not.
Also, seems that the show is going to lean on the road movie concept a lot.

[MDKNIGHT]

Obviously there has to be kinetic energy or nothing would move. I'm pretty sure that there are other kinds of energy that HAS to exist for ANYTHING to exist. I can buy that somehow all fossil fuel was destroyed by aliens or something but there are laws of physics that can't be avoided. For instance how would you prevent solar energy from working? How could you keep wood from burning? Then again I haven't read the Dies the Fire book/books so I'm not clear on what the environment is like.

[Tricksterson]

In Stirling's Emberverse, basically all energy gets "tamped down" as it were. Electricity doesn't work at all, gunpowder just fizzles and steam works in a way but not enough to be useful.

[Humbugged]

Picked up and scheduled for Monday at 10pm


http://tvline.com/20...tv-lineup-2012/


extended promo . Looks pretty good

[AimingforYoko]

Nice little Favreau touch from the pilot preview:
Chicago Cubs, 2012 World Champions.

[Humbugged]

Nice little Favreau touch from the pilot preview:
Chicago Cubs, 2012 World Champions.

Maybe that's what causes whatever happens .The Cubs winning the World Series will surely bring the End of Days.

Thought the militia uniforms were very Planet Of The Apes

[Hanahope]

After Jericho they really think this show will survive?

[Princess Lucky]

I'm all for post-apocalyptic shows so I'll give this a try. The fact it's on NBC, the fact there's a strange ~magickal~ object (sure, it's a USB stick but its function is pretty ~speshul~), the fact it evokes The Event, and its visual style (too Terra Nova-ish) are against it, though. And I also dislike the family aspect and the high number of teenagers, like many above (though I actually enjoy Falling Skies, I find it the teenagers in that far less annoying than those of Terra Nova or, like, V etc).

But I have had a crush on Billy Burke for many years so I want to give this a try, the role looks decent and badass. And I remember David Lyons from the last few seasons of ER, he was good (though not good enough to get me to watch The Cape). I also kind of dig the old school fight sequences with swords and arrows.

I'll give this a shot. Not sure it'll last, but I'll try it.

[AngelKitty]

Ooh, ooh, I loves me some post-apocalyptic stories! I gave up after reading the first two Dies the Fire books, too many battles.

[shapeshifter]

It sounds like Falling Skies, which was fun to make fun of.
Well, it has Giancarlo Esposito, so I'll give it a go.

[hny312]

I love Alias, Lost, and Fringe, so I'll pretty much follow JJ Abrams to whatever he works on. Plus, I need a new show now that Fringe is ending.

[mustbekarma]

It's up against Hawaii 5-0, my favorite eye candy, for both location and purty, purty men. I'm out, except maybe for when it shows up on Hulu.

[Nightmare Logic]

This show is on my give it a shot list. I like the concept and dystopia stories are always a hit for me (well in theory anyway.) The mistake with Tera-Nova was that they made it all about the main family and made them painfully stupid. From the previews Revolution looks a little more high concept which could be both good and bad. One family trying to struggle in a world without electricity might actually....uhhh fly. Then add into it the obvious worst case scenerio...dudes with guns forming militias and you have a survival of the fittest situation. Yes maybe too many kids and worse...teenagers but as long as they keep the teenage angst to a minimum it might not be that bad.

I'm giving the show a 50/50 chance of it being good and about the same of it lasting the season.

[Crim]

Around halfway into the trailer I thought this definitely wasn't the show for me(teenagers, romance, teenage romance), then it redeemed itself. The action scenes seem like they'll be a lot of fun. On the To Watch list, though still wary of having teenagers so central to the show.

[Temis the Vorta]

Giancarlo Esposito as a badass is enough for me to give it a shot. But why can't they develop steam engines? I guess there's plenty of time for all the Science Does Not Work That Way debates.

If nothing else, the premiere will get enough attention that the series has a shot at survival, even on NBC. The YouTube trailer has 7 million views. Other fall preview trailers are getting maybe 50k if they're lucky.

No idea what the attraction is, it looks like it has potential, nothing more. Could very well be another misfire along the lines of The Event, FlashForward, Alcatraz, Terra Nova, et al. I've been burned too many times to get my hopes up.

[shapeshifter]

Now that I've seen the trailer video I'm not sure it's for me. It looks like it might have a lot of violence just for the sake of action, which does attract many viewers, just not this one. I really liked "Giancarlo Esposito as a badass" on Breaking Bad because it has carefully, thoughtfully constructed scripts and plots. And I do like scifi and speculative fictional stories, but, well, this doesn't look too great.

[BooBear]

No idea what the attraction is, it looks like it has potential, nothing more. Could very well be another misfire along the lines of The Event, FlashForward, Alcatraz, Terra Nova, et al. I've been burned too many times to get my hopes up.

This looks good but seems to have the same issue as all the others... too high concept. We have to suspend our disbelief for the concept to work and then the big issue will be about what caused it. I can see, like flashforward, no place to go with a series of stupid moves by the characters to explain things. Also, just me or is this a super downer.

I think networks must start investing in limited shows. 24 episodes and then done. Then I could trust the story was going someplace. Maybe they could be sold into syndication in a package -- best of 2012 season or something. But these never ending high concept shows don't work because of the stall factor.

[randomchance]

But these never ending high concept shows don't work because of the stall factor.

I watched the trailer and thought, if this were a movie I'd be all over it, but these days I'm wary of TV shows that feature a mystery that won't be solved until the series finale. Not even so much because of not knowing it for years, although that alone will drive me crazy - I just don't want to be some writer's chew toy anymore.

The premise is great (it helps that I don't really understand electricity), but it also looks like it's just an excuse to have a bunch of characters go on a Quest - they skip right past what would have been interesting to me (people learning to cope with the ramifications) and fast-forward to the results instead (crossbows, crumbling buildings).

But I'll watch the premiere anyway, because I'm a sucker for end-of-the-world stuff. If it's a hit, I know it'll go into stall mode pretty fast, and that's where I'll jump off.

It looks like it might have a lot of violence just for the sake of action, which does attract many viewers, just not this one.

Me either, it's always been the thing I have to put up with in order to watch an otherwise-great show. If it's the main thing that ever happens on a weekly basis, I lose interest pretty fast.

[Temis the Vorta]

The stall factor works only when the cast can keep us entertained. That's what saved Lost. They've got one actor like that on the show - Epsosito - but they'll need more than just him if this is going to work long term. No idea about the rest of the cast.