The new survival related movie series airing is starting on September 17th in the US on NBC. It's called Revolution - a lot of info inside. Looks like a nice cast in natural decorations. Trailers looks somewhat medieval, but might be worth watching.

Spoiler Alert!!

Looks like Lord of the Rings, Brave, and Red Dawn 2012 meet up for the quest of the electricity prepayment meter card to turn the lights back on through out the world after the post Apocalyptic financial collapse of the North Korean owned conglomerate Koenron Inc, apparently after Kim Song-ill secretly became the majority share holder back in 2013. Koenron Inc at the time was the worlds only electricity and carbon trading tax company which provided all electricity for the all the worlds Megacities at the time.

The prepayment card was no doubt to be located within the Temple of HAARP guarded by Iranian Re publican Guard trained Polar Bears on a tropical Island just off the Cayman Islands located in the Adriatic sea in the 7th Season. Boy lets hope not. Can't wait to find out if the Worlds lights and Ipads get switched back on in 2019.

Now where is my Cross Bow! I need some practice.

We're talking fiction/fantasy/make believe - right?

Its getting a little difficult to tell, as we can see from the NBCs unfortunate attempt to make trendy, areas of various parts of the world to appear to be 'hauntingly beautiful' which have been subject to war, economic collapse and nuclear industrial accidents etc;

http://www.nbc.com/revolution/photos/the-haunting-beauty-of-abandoned-places/11373

The synopsis of the TV show



Considering the past Abrams drivel such as 'Lost', this show could go anywhere no matter how ridiculous.

Maybe I'm just not trendy enough to get the message themes that will undoubtedly run throughout the show from season to season.

I'm planning on watching the first few episodes of this show to see if it's any good. But not as a "survival" show. Simply as popcorn-chomping brain-numbing entertainment. Kind of like "Falling Skys" or "Terra Nova".

I believe the most interesting aspect of this series is the fact that on the face of it the "event" can be based in fact... not fiction.

An well-placed detonated HEMP (High altitude Electromagnetic Pulse) could take out the entire US grid, most of Canada's and most of Mexico's... but it gets a bit Hollywood to suggest an EMP is responsible for the entire globe going down. Unless you had around 10+ geo-spaced HEMP explosions all about the same time...

Anyway, one neat aspect to this series is that even though it is set 15 years on and the main plot will be how they lived without power, each episode is supposed to feature one "Flash Back" scene from the event and near-post event activity to build a "back story" for the characters... a glimpse at the carnage just after the event.

My buddy and I are launching a weekly podcast to discuss where the realism and fantasy meet in this series and welcome your feedback and input (we will have a comment line). Come on over and register to get notified of the first episode!

www.RevolutionFanCast.com

Cheers

There is a "fan website" before the show has even broadcast its first episode? Doesn't take much to entertain the fans these days, does it?

Do folks have such little understanding of Electricity, that the underlining premise of this TV fictional show will actually permeate via propaganda and will become fact to a wide proportion of folks who watches such nonsense?

There was rapid progress that was made when the main components of the modern electrical world, such as electricity generation and transmission were invented in the UK by Faraday (Electric Dynamo and Transformer), James Bowman Lindsay (Electric incandescent light bulb) James Clark Maxwell, David Edward Hughes (Radio Communications) etc, even without a previous industrial base for this technology. Would these discoveries by lost forever by today's society?

An electrical grid black start would be problematic but not impossible to bootstrap back from.

Is electricity such a mystery? Everyone must know how a simple electrical circuit is built and works. It was taught to everyone at School. There are folks known as Electrical Engineers still around!

There are even many folks in the USA who can even rig up a Generator to provide electrical power for their homes every other 6-12 months when there is some poor or wet and windy weather.

If the lights do go out over an extended period, it would probably be more likely that the majority of folks couldn't afford to switch them back on again rather than a HEMP.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeNOjbvA74g

EMP damages semi-conductors.

We Electrical Engineers have been using semi-conductors as the building blocks of our trade for many decades now.

The younger engineers use software to represent their semi-conductors as they do their designs.

Soldering skill isn't as widespread as it used to be and hand-soldering is likely to be regarded as a niche skill at best.

Even ham radio operators can't be relied upon to know anything about wiring or soldering anymore.

Going back to the technology of vibrator (relay-based) voltage regulators and such would be difficult as the fundamentals of that technology aren't really in the toolbox anymore.

Consider a technology reset to be akin to going back to the days of flint-knapping to build edged tools. It's still out there but it's not common.

Based on the show's synopsis saying that all electric devices (not just electronics) have "mysteriously blacked out forever" I assumed the show would have some supernatural and/or inexplicable reason that there was no power.

Like Am_Fear_Liath_Mor, I don't buy that any natural or materialistic event could make electricity disappear from our landscape completely.

I take that "mysteriously blacked out forever" means that electronics stopped and no one knows why. Forever is a relative term the fix may be simple but if you have no clue, forever is a valid time period.

This is one of those shows I'll DVR and make any judgements about later.

OK, I can understand the appeal of a show dealing with a post-EMP-like event, but on the face of it, I don't see how any one event can negate the laws of physics. If a car is disabled, it still has an alternator full of wound copper wire and a magnet. It should be straight forward to rig a mechanical method of spinning it and to hook the output to a lightbulb, and then you have light. You can generate low milliamp currents from a lemon. All of these have been disabled too? Any EMP pulse will be widely disruptive but not 100% so -- there will be some percentage of the equipment that still functions. I'm just very skeptical of the premises, but I guess it will be easier to comment when we know what the event is, after the premiere.

Magnet? You mean the electro-magnet that is controlled by the semi-conductor based voltage regulator that controls the output of the alternator (it hasn't been a generator since the 1960's)?

It's always easy to do stuff in theory.

Agreed that some stuff may survive.
That'll be the stuff that's fought over or commandeered.

The first thing that came to my mind after seeing the previews was what's with the swords and crossbows? There are almost 3 guns for every person in this country, and they work just fine after an EMP.

It appears the sword and crossbow nonsense is trying to profit off of the Hunger Games mania.

I doubt it will last a whole season. Meh.

G

I finally got around to watching some of the trailers and now see there is a "sciency" reason for the blackout, not a supernatural one. I also didn't realize originally that this series is set 15 years after the lights went out.

It looks like the show's main character is the daughter of the man who knew why everything shut down and a fair bit of the plot seems like it will revolve around the secret of why this happened and, potentially, how to fix things (e.g., in the trailer you see the dad hiding something in a locket before the lights go out, then hands it off 15 years later before his death).

All that said, it looks like it could be a fun show but, in my opinion at least, is one of those shows that requires a healthy dose of suspended disbelief; for example, one of the interviews mentioned that even batteries stopped working.

That's not very far off.

I don't have very many batteries in my house that will last 15 years in use. And many (such as car batteries) won't last that long in storage unless stored without acid added. (as new - before delivered to the auto parts store)

My friend with the solar/wind powered house has to change house batteries every decade or so.

The only batteries I know of that last decades in use are those on satellites and they are managed continuously and VERY, very carefully,

The older type of lead acid cell with solid lead plates should last 20 years or more.
A basic lead acid battery is easy to make, and the materials keep indefinatly.

Nickel Iron batteries can last 50 years or more.

Disposable lithium cells are stated to last for 15 years from production, and would probably last for 30 years, though with declining reliability.

Alkaline cells of reputable make are warented to last 7 years from production, and most will work after being stored for 15 years, though not every cell will work, and the capacity will be appreciably reduced.

Wet Leclanche cells are easy to make, provided that you have the materials.
The materials are cheap and last indefinatly in storage.

The true doomer keeps stocks of materials to make batteries.

The issue with batteries, at least within the context of this show, isn't storage life or availability. According to the show, or at least what's been made available about it so far, batteries ceased working at the initial "event." Apparently everything electronic or electric simply stopped working.

Actually, it turns out batteries were mentioned in the Revolution trailer, not an interview (at least that I've found again). Around the 1:10 mark the narrator says: "... but after the blackout nothing worked ... not even car engines or jet turbines, hell even batteries ... all of it gone forever ..."

Oh, and apparently the blackout also caused passenger jets in mid-flight to loose all horizontal momentum and fall straight to the ground like rocks.

This is why figure this show, like many, will require a healthy dose of suspended disbelief. After all TV guys are worried about creating a good story, not technological realism.

Those items sound truly bogus.

Makes you wonder how screenwriters cope with real life, doesn't it?

I just watched the full pilot episode and came away very unimpressed and actually very underwhelmed by it. I don't want to reveal much as most have not yet seen the pilot episode but if you are expecting a "Jericho" type show, you will be very disappointed.

I really cannot see this show lasting long if the pilot episode is any indication which is full of fantasy plot lines, bad cliches, bad science, bad acting....then climaxing with a ridiculously bad and stereotypical B grade movie fight scene. Lastly, the ending was bad, bad and bad.

For those who are interested, NBC has streamed the pilot episode before the network TV release here on Hulu. Note that the show is only available in the USA but is also online in other places if you know where to look...

Ditto on the prospects for Revolution. Definitely not Jericho. It has potential but networks have no patience these days so they won't give a series time to gel and find its natural audience.

Okay, I watched the series opener and after thinking about it I've decided to let the whole realism thing slide. I was reminded of the Arthur C. Clark rule: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. The "technology" to alter physics in this series definitely resembles magic to me!

That said, it wasn't really that interesting of a show. I even tried giving the show a second shot (it was repeated last night) since I was pretty distracted the first time I saw it, but it still didn't really work for me ... the problem not being the underlying premise of the blackout but with the actions & choices of the show's protagonists and the overall lack of development of the world and its characters.

For example, by how they presented things, we're basically told the good guys are good and the militia is bad without really establishing any of that. They're simply relying on old archetypes instead of actually telling (and showing!) us what's what (so far at least). However, it seems to me the "good guys" are only good because the producer said so, nothing in the show actually made me want to root for them at all.

So, thinking about it a bit, I thought why not reverse things ... maybe root for the militia. I think the following makes more sense than what the TV show has said so far .

In a shocking, premeditated act, a group of terrorists built and used a weapon that fundamentally altered the rules of physics which resulted in a worldwide blackout; electricity no longer worked. This horrible act resulted in the death of billions of men, women and children. Even worse, the men and women who were a part of this original cabal held on to the key to undoing this modern apocalypse and did nothing but use this for their own, personal means. For 15 years they've watched the world burn - all the while holding the key to its salvation in their very hands.

However one man, General Monroe, has found out about this conspiracy and will use the full force of his resources to find the key behind the great blackout, and return power to the world.

In the series opener, family man Captain Neville comes to what he assumes will be the conclusion of his tiring quest to find one of these original terrorists, Ben Mattheson, and hopes to bring him peacefully back to General Monroe. In an unexpected turn, his forces are attacked and his query is killed in the crossfire. Hoping the instigator of these troubles, the terrorist's son, will help him find one of the other conspirators - the boy's uncle - Neville takes the boy into lawful custody.

The search is now on for the key to restoring power and the hope for a return to the modern age for mankind.

I too suspended my disbelief in order to try to enjoy this show. Unfortunately, it couldn't hold my complete attention. The interactions between the good and the evil were too hokey. I really wanted this show to work. Maybe it gets better in later episodes. I have had TV shows get worse for me as the episodes go on. For example, "Parks & Recreation" got worse for me. "House" also got worse for me after the original team left. So, maybe "Revolution" will go the other way. There is plenty of room for improvement.

It seems to me the method of the storytelling is to leave the audience in the dark intentionally. For example, we're supposed to wonder why General Monroe is evil and why the family man is good. The flashbacks start to reveal it, but it's evident it's supposed to remain a mystery for now. The problem for me is I'm not that intrigued. I don't really care why General Monroe is evil and the family man is good, but I should.

SPOILER ALERT, FOR THOSE WHO DIDN'T WATCH, STOP READING NOW.

Again, the show could not hold my complete attention. So, can someone explain the ending? How did that woman have electricity and was communicating over a computer network? I chalked it up as another hokey thing about the show, but this thread motivated me to figure things out so that I can obtain some value from that hour of my life I spent.

I think they are trying to emulate LOST! Where you never really understood what was going on, but were intrigued anyway (at least for the first season).

A couple guesses about the ending ...

Guess 1. Whatever caused the blackout is an active force. Whatever it is, it's actively retarding electricity (possibly other forces too?) and by activating the pendant it blocks that force (kinda like a cell phone jammer?). This would assume she was running things off of battery power since it didn't show her firing up any power supply like a generator.

Guess 2. The blackout caused a permanent physical change in matter that retards electricity. The pendant temporarily restores the natural properties of matter in its direct vicinity and even causes electricity to flow when no power supply is available.

In either case, due to it's size it has a limited effect.

Regarding the communication network, I'd assume it is operating on some sort of radio technology because the existence of any sort of wired connection is simply not plausible. It's also possible that this inner-circle of conspirators have some sort of blackout resistant central command or satellite since it seems like the pendant holders were involved in the cause of the blackout.

As a side note, was I the only one to think that it's not exactly subtle to hide your secret communication centre behind the only interior door with 5 locks on it? And then, after unlocking it, she leaves the door wide open while inside?

as with most JJ Abrams "dramas", this one is also made to keep the viewer confused and off balanced. answers aren't ever offered, just more questions. that alone is suppose to be the draw. it works for some folks (mainly 20-somethings if the discussions i've had are any indication), but it sure doesn't work for me.

although the concept of the show intrigues me, i found it dull-witted and silly, with very 2-dimensional uninteresting characters. the sets/costumes have no sense of reality. the fighting tactics are even dumber.

i didn't even set my DVR to record future episodes. i'm saddened...

I find the cities = death part interesting; the show is stressing that those that survived were the ones that got out of the cities. They seem to believe that outside of the cities there is plenty of water, food and space just sitting there ready to be claimed by any who would make the trek (at least that's what's said through the Mom in the flashback).

This seems to be a popular idea, that in a major, nationwide disaster you could just head out of town with minimal supplies and find/take whatever you need.

Makes me think that if anything were to happen, maybe the cities will be the safest place after all .

right on that Denis..my only survival interest is taking care of myself if something go's wrong on a wilderness canoe trip.
having said that i was at a drive-in camp up in Northern Minnesota to spend a night before heading out for two weeks on the canoe path.i was sitting around having a can of stew and for about 5 seconds thought that this would be a good place to come too if "anything really happen".i say 5 seconds because first off getting out of Minneapolis would be a joke,if "it" was that bad i would not make it from the local streets to the freeway north with traffic jams and loss of law and order.
even if i made it to Jennette lake the locals would have the place locked down with not only every camp site taken but new ones cut out of the forest everywhere.the roads would be lined with cars out of gas and people camped next to them looking to get fuel any way possible.so on and on and on.
our house and the people around us we have know for years would be a better bet than anything on the road.the Mississippi River and the woods around it would be a source of water and fuel and the Vets Hospital just blocks away would be a good stable anchor.
the "problem" with ETS is that it does make me think of what i might do if "it" came down on us and we had to get along for years with little back up..task #1 would be to cut down the 60 foot pine in the back yard for fire wood!!!!
but in Real life the search for a better foil blanket to put in the PFD Ditch Kit is more up my line...