Revolution (series)

[auroraglacialis]

There seems to be coming a new series by J J Abrams in the US. Its called "Revolution" and here is a trailer:

The story as I got it is, that someone invented a device to turn of electricity. Not an EMP, but something that will keep electricity out even after the initial event. This is similar it seems to the book "dies the fire". Civilization collapses, trees grow on the streets and in skyscrapers 15 years later and society turned medieval or 19th century (though with oddly looking modern clothing). Sounds like a neat thought experiment to me - of course in the series that future is going to have a lot of bleakness and violence and viewers are expected to hope for the heroes to solve the issue and restore electricity. I guess it will be one series in which I do not hope for what would be considered a "happy end"

Episode 1 is out, it seems.

[neytiri1107]

I heard about it and it looks really good i'm dying to see it

[Rainbowhawk1993]

Saw the first episode. It was pritty good. But it didn't quite give me the exitment the first two episodes of Terra Nova did. I'll still watch it never the less but I think it has quite a bit of ground to cover.

[neytiri1107]

what channel is it on ( the name of the channel)

[Human No More]

JJ Abrams? Probably going to be rubbish.

[Rainbowhawk1993]

Episode 2: The resistence is marked by the american flag. Yes! American ideals can still be good ideals after all.

[rosejasmin56]

I've watched the first episode of revolution series...Too exicted for watching next....

[Theorist]

Seen the first two, so don't spoil please!

Like it a lot so far, mostly because of the scenario/setting. The "I can't kill somebody" and the "I don't care if I kill somebody" situation is fairly typical, but still I like it so far.

I do have a question though, it seems the U.S. government fell. Maybe someone more knowledgeable knows, but if electricity stopped working, would there be marines/soldiers of some sort who have orders that if power goes out, and there is no way to make contact, then the soldiers are under orders to group up somewhere.

Like if there's no more electric communication, I don't believe the military would be completely crippled. I feel like there have to be some means that in the U.S., that the national guard etc would group up and make contact with other parts of the U.S. military.

If this is true, then there is no way some group of Monroes with guns would stand a chance against an organized and still well armed military.

Unless perhaps I don't know, and it's a government cover up that knocked the power out, and Monroe's soldiers are U.S. soldiers?

But, if not, if there was a group of marines at a training camp, with their machine guns, I find it hard to believe that a band of random guys with guns could really do much against a highly trained platoon?

[auroraglacialis]

Monroes past identity is revealed in one of the next episodes. I would assume thatmany of the men are inf act soldiers and the guns are from military. Military would certainly be extremely crippled if electricity would stop. They would have no planes, no tanks, no cars, no communication, no rockets, no explosive devices that are ignited with a spark, no drones, no functioning bases and of course no leadership. At least they would break up in smaller groups and maybe become local feudal lords or something like that. I think the size of the republics they depict in the series is unrealistic anyways without communication other than horsemen. It is after all about the size of the roman empire and they had centuries to build the knowledge on how to organize such a large empire.

Also, the US seems indeed to be not really well prepared: National EMP Awareness Day

Especially for a long term power outage. And in the movie, it is not that just the power went out (like power plants going out), but that it is physically impossible to create significant amounts of electricity, so even hand-powered battery chargers or solar panels or bicycle power generators all dont work. It would even be impossible to produce a battery that runs a radio assembled from raw materials. This is a very fantastic fictional setting that is of course impossible in reality.

[Theorist]

Isn't the duty of a US soldier to protect the constitution? I'd be surprised to see them so quickly giving up that duty, as I think most soldiers do enlist to protect the constitution?

[auroraglacialis]

Well - I guess duty is all nice and well but if everything breaks down - command structure, payment, food security - how much worth is that duty then.

Spoiler: Besides, as it is shown in the series: 

Some of the high officers in the Monroe Republic are actually soldiers. And actually, as bad as the "Monroe Republic" seems to be - I would assume that for soldiers who are used hierarchical structures to create law and order is a form of governance that is preferrable to a situation that is chaotic. Actually the motivation of one of the main figures to create the Monroe Republic was, that he did not want to see people going around and shoot others for food.