TV Spotlight: ABC's "Revenge"

Revenge
Wednesday Nights on ABC

Main Plot:

Centers on a young woman who is welcomed into a community filled with people who don't know she's only there to exact revenge on those who had destroyed her family.

Stars:
Emily Vancamp
Madeline Stowe
Gabriel Mann
Joshua Bowman
Nick Wechsler
Henry Czerny
Christa B. Allen
Connor Paolo

If you aren't watching ABC's "Revenge" you are missing out on one of the biggest guilty pleasure TV shows ever made! A lot of people call this a primetime soap opera, which in many ways is probably true. Now I hate soap operas, but I love this show, so I don't know what to make of it. It most ways though, it's not like a soap opera: there isn't cheesy dialog, there aren't 100 different storylines, there aren't long stupid gazes into the camera as the show goes to commercial, there aren't a million love triangles and people having babies and people coming back from the dead a million times. This is more solid primetime, network television than it is lame soap opera. It has a cool story: a woman comes back to her summer home in the Hamptoms under a false identiy to exact revenge on a wealthy family and their cohorts who were responsible for framing her father as a terrorist and having him imprisoned and ultimately led to his death. She hasn't been here since she was a young girl, and now she is an adult so no one recognizes her.

The season starts with a bang...literally. It opens with an engagement party that is quickly cut short when an unknown man is shot dead on the beach. Then it cuts back to several months prior and this is where the story begins. It was higly speculated that the dead man on the beach was Daniel Grayson (played by one of the main actors on the show, Joshua Bowman). It was not until episode 15, (02/15/2011) that we get to find out if it was him. But I won't spoil that. It was a long wait, but the episode was the best of the whole season, but all the episodes leading up to it were fantastic!



Emily VanCamp plays Amanda Clark but goes by her alias Emily Thorne to all her new friends and future enemies in the Hamptons. She has somehow become insanely wealthy and buys her fathers old summer home, which happens to be right next door to Grayson Manor...the home of her primary targets. Only one person there knows who she really is and what her plan is, and that is Nolan Ross (played by the much older than he looks Gabriel Mann). He an eccentric, and slightly flamboyant rich playboy who has a knack for all the technical gadgets and gizmos and assists Emily on her revengeful path. The wonderful Madeline Stowe plays Emily's main eventual victim, Victoria Grayson. The woman who along with her husbad Conrad set up Emily's father. Victoria has no idea the real identity of Emily but still feels threatened by her and does not trust her. Even more so after Emily sneaks her way right into the family by dating their son Daniel. Week by week we get a bigger glimpse into this apparently huge conspiracy against Emily's father. Emily takes down the little people involved in the lot one by one. She doesn't kill them, but she ruins their lives in pretty bad ways. Some people do end up physically harmed though, but not by her choice.

Revenge isn't a show with the same level as quality as my favorite tv program "Breaking Bad" or on the same lines as "The Walking Dead" or anything of that nature. Yes, they are totally different shows but hopefully you understand what I mean. This is an excellent show that is the pure definition of guilty pleasure. It has it's flaws, and it does get a bit corny at times. There are definitely moments of "soap opera" thrown about. There are little side storylines that are usually romantic in nature but ultimately they all have some vague tie in to the main story. This is just one of those shows that is fun to watch and fun to go along with the mystery that unravels slowly each week. It doesn't have some deep mythology or anything, most of the show is easy to follow and you aren't left with tons of questions. You get to experience plenty of interesting twists and turns though. It's a show that just has fun with itself and the audience gets to enjoy.

It's a thriller, it's a mystery and it's a drama all in one. The story won't captivate you and there's nothing all that powerful about it, but damn I'd be lying if I said this show wasn't an amazing experience each week. It's like a LOT less murderous version of the short lives CBS murder mystery "Harper's Island" in a very vague way. I see similarities between the two. But this has beome a huge success and more than likely it will be greenlit for a second season. From what I hear, it might take the same path as "American Horror Story" and do an all new revenge story with a new cast next season. Could be interesting, but it's hard when you get so invested in a cast and story, but we shall see. There are 7 episodes left in this current season, and it's due to wrap up in May.

Almost forgot to mention, the whole cast is really great to watch. There may be one or two weak links or characters you can do without but for the mos part, all the performances are pretty good. Emily Vancamp is great at being dry and sinister each week and she can be pretty bad ass from time to time. The best performance on the show week to week is Madeline Stowe as the needy and bitchy and pretty awesome Victoria Grayson. She's someone you love to hate but at time feel bad for her. You don't know if she's pure evil or if she's someone you want to root for. I love it. I also like Gabriel Mann is the weird, bi-sexual sidekick.

This is seriously one of the best shows on network television right now. It's addictive and I cannot stop watching it! If you haven't started it, try to catch up on it! Online, On Demand, I don't know...but this is a show worth watching and it get's better each and ever week!