For a second there, it looked like Revolution might be in trouble. The NBC show had just returned after a hiatus, and the ratings were good, then it took a dip its second episode back.
Thankfully it didn’t signal a downward trend for the show, which was one of the surprise hits of last season.
In fact, not only did Revolution come back strong the following week, but genre TV is general is doing very well with sci-fi like Revolution, fantasy like Game of Thrones, and horror like Bates Motel, Walking Dead and Hannibal. (Hannibal debuted to a so-so start, but it is now doing much better, which means it’s probably now starting to find its audience).
As Variety reports, Revolution stood strong with 6.3 million viewers against last Monday’s basketball game, where Louisville played against Michigan, Louisville’s first championship in 27 years. The week before, as Deadline reports, Revolution hit a series low, down 12% from the show’s post-hiatus return, but bounced back a week later.
As Eric Kripke, the creator of Revolution, told Geek Monthly, “I’m a fan of Joseph Campbell and movies and books that follow the structure of the hero’s journey. Movies like Star Wars or Lord of the Rings; books like The Stand. Part of it is you look on televion at what people are doing and what I really found was that was a style and genre that’s really being serviced in feature films, but not as much on television.”
Kripke continued, “So what I came up with was, ‘OK, what if American society fell and a feudal society was put in its place?’ With that, I could have everything I wanted and have the return to a simpler, more exciting adventure story but set in the ruins of modern America.”
While a lot of viewers may not look at Revolution in those terms, ultimately it’s an intriguing concept. What if we had to deal with all the power in the world going out? And of course audiences want to know what caused it, and we’ll have that answer soon.
As David Rambo, who writes for the show, told Geek, “The writers are often looking at each other and saying, ‘Are we burning through too much story too quickly?’ but it seems like it was hard to stop that train. Which got us to start talking about season two: If we do all this in season one, what’s left for season two? Well, ideas just keep popping, so much that we had to stop it and get back to season one.”
It’s good to hear that Revolution won’t be a one-idea series, and that there’s plenty to look forward to in season two. But we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves either, and are also looking forward to how the first season will end, especially once the big question of how it all happened is finally answered.
