J.J. Abrams (creator of LOST, Alias, and the latest Star Trek reboot) has a new series coming to NBC called Revolution.   Revolution is about a world that lost all electricity 15 years ago for an unknown reason.  Now people are trying to survive after the apocalypse.   Basically, its my worst nightmare put on TV.

Like all J.J. Abrams shows, there is a big mystery.  Revolution starts out in present day Chicago before the power goes out.   Just before it goes out, Ben Matheson (Tim Guinee), runs into his house frantically and tells his wife Rachel (Elizabeth Mitchell), to  fill the sinks and tubs.  Rachel asks him if “it’s” happening.  The interaction here lets us know that whatever caused the power to go out, people knew about it for a while ahead of time.

The power goes out not long after and the show flash-forwards 15 years.  A voice over describes the atrocities that took place because the power went out.  All power, including power stored in batteries, was completely drained.  The government fell and billions died.  Now there are militia ruling over different areas of world as people try to survive.   This all takes place within the first few minutes of the show.

After that the show goes into its setup, and showcases its main characters.  The premise looks like its going to revolve around discovering why the power went out.  There are other forces at work, but I don’t want to spoil the episode.

Another plus that this movie show has going for it is the director, Jon Favreau (who directed Iron Man and several other films) directed the pilot.  The episode has the look of a decent size budget.  Some of the camera work as they moved through future Chicago looked excellent.

Revolution feels a lot like Jericho because of its post apocalyptic nature.  Jericho also had characters that knew more than they were letting on.  Hopefully Revolution can succeed where Jericho failed. Several of Mr. Abrams post LOST projects haven’t fared well.  This show has several twists going so far that have me interested enough to come back for more.  So far the characters are mostly interesting and semi believable.

I did have a few issues with the pilot.  One of the main characters Miles Matheson, (Billy Burke), seems a little too bad ass to be believable.  If this show was a Rambo action movie I think I’d have less of an issue with it.  Another problem I had was with a character having Asthma.  He had 2 bad attacks in the first episode alone.  I really don’t think he would survive as long as he has in a world like this.

Revolution premieres on NBC, Monday September 27th at 9PM 10PM, but you can watch it now on Hulu.  This is going to be NBC’s big show for the fall.  They have had screenings in movie theaters, and other events and released it 2 weeks early on Hulu to give it an even bigger buzz.  Hopefully the show survives a while.  I have a feeling with J.J. Abrams’ record, the season is going to end in a cliff hanger, and I’ll need a season 2 fix for sure.  The only bad part about seeing the pilot early is that now I have to wait several weeks to get a new episode :(.