We’ve seen a lot of post-apocalyptic stories and most of them are, not surprisingly, bleak and dark, including a couple on TV right now. But speaking at the TCA (Television Critics Association) press tour today, Eric Kripke and Jon Favreau stressed that was not their intent with Revolution and they were going in a different direction. The show is set fifteen years after all electricity stopped working, but Favreau – who directed the pilot and serves as an executive producer -- noted, “We didn’t want this to be a dystopic view of the future.”
While there are characters in the show working to try to restore the power and bring back the society they knew, the idea with the fifteen year jump is also to focus on, “A new generation who never knew the old ways. They see this almost as a pastoral, simple place where they grew up. It’s not like The Road or Mad Max.”
Kripke, the creator of Supernatural, said his main influences with Revolution -- which also includes J.J. Abrams among the executive producers -- were classic "Hero's Journey" stories like Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings. Kripke also stressed he was, “Not a fan of endless mystery. I like to know where the mythology is going. I like to get there in an exciting, fast-paced way.” He said the intent with Revolution was to have, “A really clear, aggressive direction on where it’s going and pay off mystery and reward the audience’s loyalty.” He added, “I’m never like to get too precious with the questions. You can answer the questions and ask new ones.”
The overall mystery of what caused the power to stop will be a part of the show, though not always the focus. Said Kripke, “I think it’s a really compelling ‘What if?’ What would happen if we all lived without electricity in this overextended world of ours.” But Kripke stressed his main goal was to create, “An epic journey of how can we save the world and get the lights back on. It’s a really epic, fun saga. It’s this journey about this family that’s struggling to reunite. It’s intensely character drivern. They’re struggling to come together against incredible adversity.”
The main characters include the teenage Charlie (Tracy Spiridakos) and her uncle, Miles (Billy Burke) – the latter of whom was one of many characters who remember what happened when the power first went out. Kripke said there would be flashbacks in every episode, showing, “What happened in those first days after the blackout. How people survived. What happened next - how they made their way out of the cities, found food and found water.”
However, he stressed that he felt those flashbacks were “Effective in small doses,” noting the stories of the immediate aftermath of such a situation were innately “Very harrowing and very dark,” and again that the intent with Revolution was a show that, “Isn’t about death but is about rebirth and hope and adventure” and “heroes actually working to restore the world.”
Kripke said that he and the Revolution writers did their research for the series and brought a physicist into the offices, giving him the secret about what caused the power to stop on the series. Kripke recalled, “His face just lit up. He said, ‘That is absolutely possible! I hadn’t even considered it but that’s amazing.’ We came up with something that is quite plausible.”
When the producers were asked about the perception that a show like Revolution might be a better fit on cable, Favreau said he felt there was an overall change on TV. Remarked the Iron Man director, “It started as trend with cable but now is hitting the networks. The audience has tremendous capacity for complex storylines. Movies become more restrictive for many reasons. We’re seeing an opening up on TV. There’s always gonna be dumb stuff out there, but there is room for smart storylines.” He said the key with a show like Revolution was, “Developing a balance so people can jump right in,” even if they miss the first couple of episodes. He added, “There’s an a underlying mystery with an internal logic to it, but you still wanna make it about the people and the emotion.”
Kripke, who balanced serialization with monster-of-the-week stories on Supernatural -- which he ran for the first five years -- said that there will be plenty of stand-alone adventures on Revolution, including, “All sorts of ass kicking adventures along the way.” He said he didn’t feel it was a burden needing to do more episodes on network versus cable, remarking, “22 episodes is not a problem, it’s a gift.”
Source : feeds.ign.com
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