A Tale of Two Plots: Why NBC’s Revolution Ultimately Failed (but Didn’t Have to)

Almost a year ago I wrote about NBC’s drama Revolution which had just closed its first season and earned renewal.  Based on the predictable pattern that the network has of allowing their dramas to tank in their sophomore season, I was always a bit worried that the show’s second season would end in cancelation.  And I was right.  While some of the fault lies with the network, I have to admit that some of the problems may have stemmed from the plot itself… or should I say plots (as in plural).  Ultimately Revolution became two shows rolled up in one and I found myself invested in one storyline while slowly becoming disengaged with the other.

For a better plot synopsis, see my earlier post, but in general the program was about a post-Apocalyptic United States that had divided into (mostly) warring militia-run territories after a technology adopted by the Department of Defense was used to create a world-wide blackout.  This world without electricity looked much like the colonial days but faced constant violence as leaders fought for the power and land up for grabs after the government fell apart.  While the catalyst for the dystopian setting (like most catalysts for dystopian settings) requires a little suspension of disbelief, the aftermath was quite believable and a show based on that premise alone could have been as compelling as a show like The Walking Dead.  What made it even better was the season one finale that revealed that a corrupt United States was behind it all, including the final act of season one:  bombing many of the major cities of the country.  It was one of my favorite moments on television, the slow pan out to reveal that the President of the United States (hiding out in Guantanamo Bay for the past 15 years) had made this call to cause the deaths of so many civilians.  (This shocking cliffhanger moment reminded me of the season one finale of Fringe where the camera slowly pans out to reveal that the main character is standing in one of the top floors of the World Trade Center in 2008, revealing the existence of a parallel universe). 

I’m a sucker for shows that give me my scholarly fix on post-9/11 political commentary so I was thrilled with the direction that Revolution was headed this year.  The season opened with the government officials and military, who had been safely in hiding, returning to the main land to play the heroes after the bombing (which was blamed on one of the main characters, Sebastian Monroe, the leader of one of the Monroe Republic which covered the Northeast part of the former U.S.).  This government body returned as “The Patriots” and played the heroes, but viewers saw what most of the characters on screen didn’t:  that they were capitalizing off of the devastation in order to return to power.  Throughout the season they did a series of horrible things:  they incited violent insurgences so that they could then save innocent communities from the warlords running them; they released dangerous viruses into communities so that they could weed out the weak in the population and also look like the saviors when they produced the antibiotics to save the town; they recruited youths from the communities and put them through mental retraining, causing them to be brainwashed militants who would kill on command and remember nothing of their acts afterward; and they put things in motion to start the next Civil War. 

The lead up to the season two finale was focused on the Patriots’ attempt to assassinate the President of Texas, framing the neighboring territory of California for the act.  Although they made various attempts, the final plan involved not just killing the President, but allowing an entire town to perish in the process.  The Patriots planned a Memorial Day Celebration full of pomp and circumstance (and a children’s choir to really pull at viewers’ heartstrings).  The city hall was rigged with mustard gas that would be released to kill everyone inside.  The narrative to explain the terrorist act would be that it was done by California, thereby ensuring that Texas and California would go to war, decimating one another, and allowing the Patriots to eventually gain control of both territories.  This act, on top of the previous act of setting of nuclear bombs in the territories of the east, would virtually guarantee that the entire country would be theirs again. 

Although the main characters stop this act, the Patriots succeed in killing the President of Texas and his rangers.  The war seems inevitable.  But, the good guys prevail after (in a Scooby Doo like moment where the bad guy confesses to a crowd) the President of the United States makes the following incriminating statement that the remaining Texas government officials hear:

Rachel Matheson: [to President Davis] I know you remember me. You were my boss' boss, after all. I actually went to a party at your house once. Company thing. It was a barbecue. Fourth of July - do you see the irony in that? And look at us now. What I need to say from the bottom of my heart... is screw you. Screw you for ruining everything you're trying to do to this country. You are an insult to the true America. 

President Jack Davis: Did you really think that you could shanghai the President of the United States? 
Rachel Matheson: President? Please. You are a lying car salesman. And sooner or later, people will figure out the truth. 
President Jack Davis: The truth? Americans don't want the truth. Americans wanna feel safe. And they'll hand over control to anyone who will give them that, and that is why I can rape Texas and destroy California, and everyone will just smile and say thanks. I'm an insult to the real America? Lady, I am America.

If that doesn’t scream “post-9/11 commentary,” then I’m not sure what does.  (Again this gives me flashbacks to previous television shows, for example the line in the first season of Heroes where the chief bad guy justifies wanting to let a nuclear bomb destroy New York city so that the country can be reunited through the act of terrorism, claiming that American need “hope, but trust fear.”)  So, all in all, a nicely woven plot.  I was satisfied.

But then there was the other plot.  Evolving along side of this action-based, politically-charged dystopian plot was the science fiction one.  The nanotechnology that had depleted the electricity had evolved into a form of god-like artificial intelligence capable of altering the environment and the things within it. (It could cause spontaneous explosions, storms, could kill, and bring back to life).  For the first part of the second season it was evident that the technology was dying (due to a fault in the code).  It ultimately manipulated its creators (by leading them to certain locations, producing hallucinations of lost loved ones, or taking over their bodies – keeping them stuck in a dreamlike state where they lived in perfect happiness) into fixing it.  Afterward, it took over the body of a minor character in order to continue “studying” humanity.   In the end, disgusted by humankind’s propensity for violence and inability to live in peaceful conditions, it announces that it plans to rewire the human limbic system so that humans are all perfectly controlled.  The finale shows the nanotechnology invading many of the villainous characters, suggesting that they would be doing its biding in this next quest, and the final shot of the show is off a brainless mob of humans flocking to a small town in Idaho at the order of the nanotechnology. 

It’s not that I don’t like the second plot; it’s just that it seemed so different to me from the first that it was almost like watching two television shows.  Now that the governmental struggles were over, should the show have gotten a third season the science fiction plot would have been at the center and maybe the show would have felt a bit more unified.  But, of course, now that won’t happen.

And perhaps it wasn’t just the plot that gave me pause.  While I loved the tragically flawed characters of Miles (Billy Burke), Sebastian (David Lyons), and Neville (Giancarlo Esposito), the other characters sometimes left something to be desired.  Rachel’s character (like the other characters that Elizabeth Mitchell has played:  Juliet on Lost and Erica on V) was often cool and reserved and hard to identify with.  Her daughter, Charlie (Tracy Spiridakos), annoyed me to know end in the earlier episodes but as time passed I grew to enjoy her interactions with Miles (her uncle who, ultimately, would surely have been revealed to have really been her father).  And while in theory I liked characters like Aaron (Zak Orth), Priscilla (Maureen Sebastian), Connor (Mat Vario), Jason (J.D. Pardo), and Gene (Stephen Collins), they never quite drew me in like the trio of bad boys that carried the show.

It’s too bad that NBC didn’t give the show another year to see where it would head because I think the potential was certainly there and the next season could have taken viewers on a different adventure.  But, apparently the network can only nurture one drama at a time (and this year’s darling is certainly The Blacklist). 

For those of you out there still faithfully watching network television like me, here’s the secret I learned (too late in my scholarly career) about predicting cancelations if the show you like is on the bubble for renewal:  it’s all about syndication prospects.  If a show is close to reaching the number of episodes needed for syndication (100 episodes are preferred but 80+ is doable), then it is likely a network will renew it for another season.  So, if a show in its third season is struggling, a renewal may be likely just so that it has enough episodes to be sold off for syndication (e.g. Nashville, Revenge).  However, a sophomore show is often too much of a gamble because it requires at least two more seasons to get close to their numbers.  Sigh.  So, the moral of the story:  we should all just watch shows on Netflix after we know whether they made it or not!