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In episode 8 of The Revolution Podcast we review and discuss the season 1 episode, “Soul Train.” We talk about the revelation about Tom and Nate/Jason’s relationship and the contrast between flashback Tom with current Tom. We give our opinions on some of the key scenes involving Charlie meeting Tom, Tom fighting Miles, Charlie rescuing Danny and Rachel giving Monroe information about the blackout. We also talk about Charlie’s turning point at the end of the episode, Tom’s wife and some cool new discoveries over at the NBC official Revolution website.
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Riding bikes in Revolution world is more than possible. There are more than one type of bicycle in the world. There are Mountain Bikes and All Terrian Bicylces, both are capable of riding on dirt, gravel, wood, mud, grass etc…..to say that’s it’s not viable for the characters because of the lack of roads is not accurate.
Thanks for the comment Shawn. I’ll give you the fact that there are all terrain bikes that are capable of riding on dirt, gravel, wood, mud, grass, etc. But I still think it’s very impractical and probably should have chosen my words differently. I really doubt that folks could ride a great distance across off-road terrain without either blowing out a bike tire or coming across a river or something that would require them to find a way to carry their bike across. It just seems less practical to me. I could be wrong, but that’s my point of view.
I think that bike use in Revolution would pretty much be like bike use now– great for short distances (around the town), impractical for longer travel. Wear and tear would be a huge factor, and i would think that replacement parts would be pretty hard to come by after 15 years, not to mention the degredation of the rubber in the tires and especially the tubes in that time. I’ve been a bicycle commuter my whole life, and even in this electrified modern society, flat tires and mechanical failures are all too common, and can be a real inconvenience.
Footnotes appeared on Thursday, October 11th
Hi Guys! Thanks for another great podcast. As will probably be typical for me, here are some thoughts or comments on things mentioned in the podcast;
1) At the time I watched ‘Soul Train’ I didn’t think anything when Charlie said she remembered Miles playing a tape in his car. Probably because I was thinking 15 years before now, rather than *now* which is 15 years before the present time in the Revolution world. It’s hard to find a car these days that still plays cassette tapes, but if you recall, in the pilot episode when we first see Miles and Bass in Mile’s car. Bass jokes about asking Miles for ‘tech advice’, remarks on Mile’s ‘Casio 80’s brick phone’. Miles is also listening to the AC/DC song ‘Dirty Deeds’, a late 70’s song. Looks like Miles likes that era and it kind of makes sense he would still have a cassette player in his car in 2012.
2) Interviews with Kim Raver says she will play a Lady Macbeth-like role. Maybe this means she will push Neville to take over the Monroe Republic. We didn’t see any ‘Lady Macbeth’ behavior in ‘Soul Train’ so this leaves me to think Kim Raver will be back in later episodes and we will see he scheming to get Neville in a higher position of power. Alternatively, the scheming may take place in flashbacks to show how Neville became a Captain in the militia.
3) I thought Miles told Charlie to ‘find Danny’, rather than to ‘get Neville’. I will need to watch that scene again. Still, as exciting as the train scene was, I questioned their tactics. I guess when you’re racing to find and dispose of a bomb, your options are limited. I think it was reasonable that Miles when forward to find the log because he knew he would need to confront the guy tending the engine. But why tell Charlie to ‘find Danny’ when Nora could have just told them he was in the silver train car. Oh well. Enough nitpicks.
They should have left the bomb– i wanted to see that train blow up!
Go to the 27 second mark of the following preview. What is the 1 singular light in the middle of the atlantic? that one light…is also the same spot tht in the opener, the lights seem to start going out at.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0fq9j3tQqE&feature=player_embedded
When I play around with Google Earth I find that shot most closely matches the Pacific Ocean view of Earth, with South America on the right edge of the globe. The spot of light is smack in the middle of the Pacific. I don’t see any islands in that area. Hawaii is too far up and to the left. Maybe there is a tiny island in the area of that spot. Don’t know.
Hey Jon! This has us intrigued as well! Jeremy noticed it and we talked about it a little bit back in episode 1. Then a few weeks ago another listener sent in a Youtube video of earth that matched up nicely with the angle of earth used in the Revolution promos. The listener concluded that the light was coming from Hawaii. At first I was skeptical, but after I looked at it more closely, I agreed with him. Here’s a link to the video he sent in. Pause it around the 16 second mark. http://youtu.be/k-oLJxjCzBg
Wasnt Miles driving a Doge charger or challanger or whatever the news ones are, it was big and black if I remember right. It probably would have been more realistic to say CD player, however for someone who only has a memory from when she was 4, they might all be cassette players to her… Just my thoughts..
You are correct, Andrew. I rewatched that portion of the pilot after we recorded the podcast last night and Miles was driving a newer model Charger or Challenger. Of course, it is still very possible that he bought the car shown in the pilot after the story that Charlie shared occurred…or he had mor than one car.
I have to disagree with you guys. I thought that this episode was pretty terrible. Apart from an interesting backstory for Neville, there was just way too much stupid going on. Google dude playing with the amulet right in front of the prisoner, Charlie following Neville (and, surprise surprise, getting caught) and giving away their presence to Neville, Hutch (Lapidus! Awesome!) stabbing what’s her name for some dumb reason, letting the prisoner out of the cage so that he can get away, through the roof (!), while handcuffed(!). It’s just frustrating watching these people.
I liked last weeks episode quite a bit, but this week was a real let down. I hope this show can somehow learn to develope actual characters and give them believable motivation, because i want to like it, but it’s not making it easy for me.
You guys are being too forgiving to this show, and just brushing aside a lot of it’s nonsensicle storytelling. It has a lot of promise, but it lacks depth, comlexity, and at times common sense.
You’re certainly entitled to your opinion, Kevin, as we are entitled to ours. I have never seen a show get nit picked as much as this one does. No show is perfect. There will always be some things that may not make sense b/c the writers have limited time to tell a story or they just need to set up events, etc. They are giving us clear answers each week and the back stories are revealing some very interesting and multi-layered characters.
As for the characters needing believable motivation, I’m not sure how much motivation you think is needed to make this believable. Your father was murdered, your brother was kidnapped and he’s your only family left (at least that you’re close to). Wouldn’t you do whatever you could to rescue him? If you saw his captor face to face and the captor didn’t know who you were, wouldn’t you try and use that to your advantage? I would. Granted, a wiser choice would have been for her to go get the other members of her group, but she was acting out of emotion and made a mistake…a mistake that many people would have made in her exact same situation.
@Mardarrell
Kevin gave a couple of example of stuff that didn’t make sense.
Google dude playing with the amulet right in front of the prisoner. That was very stupid of him to even draw attention to it, when in the previous week he specifically stated that “We shouldn’t tell them(Charlie & Miles) about the amulet. If he couldn’t tell them about the amulet which is secret, why on earth would he even reveal in front of others?
Charlie reasons for acceptable killing and none acceptable killing is all over the place. This is a huge problem with this show. Charlie saving the life of the bounty hunter who was trying to kill them, who posed a real threat. Saving Nate(Jason) by handcuffing him to the pole, when killing him would have been a safer option. Nate(Jason) was trying to capture her uncle Miles that she needs to get Danny back. Yet, Charlie is more than willing to kill the Militia using slaves with the sniper rifle, her reasoning for killing here was to save the slaves, but that was just an excuse to clear her conscience for killing.
Miles continuously says that he’s going to leave but doesn’t. This isn’t an original idea, but what if Miles did leave Charlie and Co.(Google guy & Norra)? What if Miles told them they would have to go to Philly to find Danny and than left after telling Charlie that info. Miles doesn’t abandoned Charlie & Co. he is just trailing behind observing Charlie. Staying outta sight and negotiating with freedom fighters, techs, mercs, medics, traders that are willing to join up with Charlie’s cause(because her mission to get Danny back is going to turn to a Cause at some point, the show imo is setup that way).
I agree with you that we are getting answer each week which is good.
The answer we haven’t gotten that I wanna know is who raised Charlie? Cuz it wasn’t her father nor Maggie. What I mean by that is neither one had the traits Charlie had in the ploit episode or now; like the ability to track animals/people that are ahead of her or behind her, who taught her that? Or the ability to detach herself from the value of human life to kill, whether it be in self-defense or to kill to gain an advantage. Yes, I know Charlie saw her mother kill the guy that was threatening to take their stuff. When Charlie 1st starting killing people she was a seasoned vet, her mother left when she was how old like 10-11?
There’s other questions like who taught her hand-to-hand combat? Charlie became proficient in hand-to-hand combat & tracking; Danny wasn’t the teacher evidence from his fighting abilities or lack there of against Tom Neville.
Charlie has the traits of a soldier, this is something that was taught to her way before she meet Miles, Nora or Jason. Someone taught her theses skills and it wasn’t her father, Maggie or Danny.
Here’s more evidence; Maggie has been with Charlie, Danny & the father for 9 years. Maggie has medical training yet Charlie hasn’t display any traits of medical training. Even if Maggie didn’t teach Charlie Basic Medicine, wouldn’t it be realistic that her father or Danny would have learned medical training from Maggie since she been with them for 9 years. Thus some medical training passed from Maggie to Father/Danny to Charlie/Danny. Regardless of how rebellious Charlie has or hasn’t been growing up, it’s only logical some medical understanding was learned.
Sorry about the long post….
Lot’s of great discussion tonight, guys! I agree that Aaron should not have been playing around with the amulet. And even though he said he should keep it a secret, he hasn’t really ever shown any restraint in keeping it hidden. We even said in our podcast a few weeks ago that it was only a matter of time before he let the secret out. Is this wise? No, but it’s totally in line with his character. He is way too trusting of people. This will be one of his greatest attributes and one of his greatest weaknesses.
I think Charlie’s decisions about who should live or die so far have shown how naive and unexperienced she is. Nate saved her life. She is clearly not going to kill him or allow him to be killed. She is indebted to him. She urged Miles to allow the bounty hunter to live. From her perspective at that current time, she likely thought that Miles had beaten him and that would be sufficient. She learned a valuable lesson through that. She killed the Militia people because they were clearly oppressing people and using them as slaves.
Miles didn’t say anything this week about leaving. He had a turning point in The Plague Dogs and he has now accepted his role and responsibility within this group. This is a very common technique in building a hero’s journey in storytelling.
Now, I’m going to disagree a bit with you regarding Charlie and Danny’s fighting skills. I don’t see either of them particularly skilled in close range fighting. Charlie was easily over taken in the Pilot and Nate (Jason) had to save her. She’s really only been proficient at distance/weapons skills. This makes sense because I think most of her skills have been acquired via hunting. I don’t think we can make a judgement on Danny yet. Even Tom’s trained Militia men were getting the crap beat out of them by Tom. I think it show’s how tough Tom is, not that it show’s how weak Danny is.
Finally, I don’t know about the medical skills. Yes, you would think that Charlie might have picked up some skills from Maggie, but I don’t know how close they really were. In the Pilot Charlie seemed to not really like Maggie. In The Plague Dogs, she seemed to care a lot more about her. That could just be that she had regrets for how she had treated Maggie. Either way, I don’t think that just because you live under the same roof with someone, you pick up their skills. For example (although perhaps a poor example), I grew up in a home with my dad playing guitar all the time. I watched him play hours and hours on end. However, I didn’t learn anything by watching. When I finally decided to learn to play guitar after I had moved away for college, I had to learn everything from scratch. Like I said, it’s not a great analogy, but I still think that it is possible to watch someone perform a skill and not pick up the skill yourself.
Good comments everyone! Keep ’em coming!
Thank You for replying
I don’t think i’m nitpicking here. When i say a character lacks motivation, i’m not talking about plot machinations (he killed my father, i will avenge his death). I’m talking about character development– what drives these characters, what makes them interesting. Take John Locke. He wasn’t driven by the demands of the plot, he was driven by all the events of his life, which the writers took the time to show us. When he did something on that island, we understood without even thinking about it why he was doing those things. We didn’t have to think back find his motivation. It was all right there in that character, in that performance, on his face. That comes from good writing, dialogue, and acting. What we have here are character outlines or sketches at best. The only exception as i see it is Neville, and that’s largely due to Giancarlo Esposito’s performance. I realize it’s unfair to campare anything to Lost, the best show of all time (imho), but it just seems like they’re not trying.
Don’t get me wrong– i like this show. I love the premise, i like all the actors (with the exception of the brother– he’s not as bad as the son on V, but he’s close), and the photography, music and effects are all top notch. I just want a little something more. More idiosyncratic writing, more interesting characterizations, more humor, more dramatic conflict (not just “arguing”). This show could end up being something great, like Lost or Battlestar Galactica or Firefly. Right now, it seems like they’re coasting on the premise, which is cool, but it’s not enough. I’m glad it’s doing well ratings-wise, because that gives them room to grow. And i will keep watching. But if the show doesn’t grow, and give these characters interesting things to say, interesting points of view, i’m not going to ignore that.
By the way, the podcast is great, as is The Fringe Podcast. Not trying to be a naysayer, just wanted to add to the discussion and give a point of view that i hadn’t seen around here much.
I appreciate the discussion, Kevin. I get what you’re saying about how this show lacks the character depth of LOST. That is the same unfortunate comparison that every show has had to face since LOST changed the TV landscape. I also think that while John Lock had some really compelling depth after 5 episodes of LOST, not every character did. Some characters never did. Tom Neville’s depth of character took a great turn into the deep waters this week and others likely will too. We still have a LOT to learn about Miles, Monroe and Rachel specifically. I think those characters will be swimming in deep water soon. So I don’t think it’s fair to compare the character depth of a show that had 6 seasons, to a show that has had 5 episodes. Besides, you and I both know that LOST means so much to us, everything will always fall short.
I think the show is growing and getting better each week. I don’t expect this show to be the next LOST. I’m taking it each week and judging it on itself. I agree that the good news is that the ratings should give it time to grow the story and characters. The show is in good hands. I’m glad you are enjoying the podcast. We love doing it and having discussions like this are what make it an even more enjoyable experience!
While i would disagree with you about the character depth Lost had early on– we had character defining moments for every. single. character right there in the 2 hour pilot– it is unfair to compare it to Lost, which hit the ground running and was one of the best shows ever right there in the very first 10 minutes. I was just using Locke as an easy example. That’s why i also brought up Firefly and BSG. You could take a character from any one of those shows and by the 4th or 5th episode, you had a fleshed out, individual, real character. With Revolution, it seems like all the characters (excepting Neville and, to a lesser degree, Miles) are just a set of traits. And i attribute that to unambitious writing. I don’t want to harp on this too much– like i said, i like the show for the most part and it’s a lot of fun to watch– i just think it could, with a little effort, be a lot better. Maybe not “Lost” better, but better nonetheless.
And thanks for all the great replies– i love talking about cool t.v. shows.
And the reason it seems i’m picking on this episode is that i’d been enjoying the show, and it seemed to be getting better, but there were always these little things that were nagging at me. Then with this episode, there were 4 or 5 things that just seemed so obviously dumb that it brought all those gnawing little thing right to the forefront, and it really got to me. But i’m keeping an open mind and will definitely be tuning in Monday (and listening to the podcast soon after!).