Courtesy of NBC
Last week introduced a giant wrench into our heroes’ plans as Tom Neville (Giancarlo Esposito) swapped sides to join the rebels against Monroe (David Lyons). So how does this uneasy alliance fare?
Let’s bitch it out…
As always let’s discuss the pros, cons and mehs…
+ (Pros)
- Episode title: If nothing else ‘The Love Boat’ makes me smile, though this episode does nothing else to evoke joy in any way
- Miles’ (Billy Burke) bad behaviour…initially: At first there’s a juicy moral quandary at work as Miles becomes the cold, dispassionate, killer he was when he worked for Monroe. It’s an interesting direction to take the character since this is more or less a show populated by goody two-shoes and suggests that the show is ready to delve beyond surface-deep charaterizations. Unfortunately…
– (Cons)
- Miles’ cop-out: …Revolution can’t even keep up the guise that Miles will remain conflicted for more than half an episode. As soon as Charlie (Tracy Spiridakos) – the annoying wonderchild – decides to free Dr. Camp (Timothy Busfield), Miles switches back into good-guy, Han Solo action figure mode and we’re right back to where we started. I’m not suggesting it would have been fun to watch Burke struggle to actually act by dragging out his character’s struggle for a few episodes, but this feels like the character development equivalent of a procedural case of the week: what happens if Miles reverts to being a killer? Don’t worry, we’ll resolve it before the end of the hour! It’s another symptom of how safe the level of storytelling remains on this show, even as they’ve tried to introduce more complex themes and plots
- Tom vs Miles: Last week I hoped that pitting Tom Neville against Miles would produce all kinds of fun drama, but ‘The Love Boat’ demonstrates that the writers simply don’t know how to make this relationship interesting anymore. Compared to the ongoing animosity between Revenge‘s Emily and Victoria, this feels like a neutered version of a familiar story: there’s simply nothing fresh in having these men threaten to kill each other and point guns at each other over and over and over again
- Cliffhangers: Revolution is the king of introducing intriguing cliffhangers that are resolved within the first two minutes of the next episode, or they’re resolved in the most rote, boring manner possible (take, for example, the point above or the resolution of the helicopter fight in the first episode back after the break). This week we once again have dangling threads surrounding Aaron’s (Zak Orth) role in the lights going out, as well as some ridiculous entity emerging at The Tower to threaten Grace (Maria Howell…whom I’d completely forgotten about). At this point in the season, though, it’s just business as usual to end on this note because the series has done this so many times in only sixteen episodes. The cliffhangers simply don’t carry the same weight they once did
- Rachel (Elizabeth Mitchell) breaks her leg: Because of course she does. Ugh. Also, people who haven’t eaten in four days look like sh*t, not like movie stars. Dear make-up department: thanks for not giving a crap about your jobs
Courtesy of NBC
~ (On The Fence)
- Nora (Daniella Alonso) getting nekkid: I mean, the chemistry between Nora and Miles has always been there, but it certainly hasn’t been addressed for at least five or six episodes. Why, after so long, does she randomly turn into a Maxim-like sexpot? Who knows?! It’s as though the writers realized that they hadn’t had any gratuitous female nudity and/or sex in a good long time and decided to throw this in
Best Lines:
- Rachel (when Aaron refuses to leave her): “You walked out on your wife. Why is so hard to leave me?” Meow!
What did you think of ‘The Love Boat’? Do you wish that Miles’ struggle lasted a little while longer? Do you still enjoy the Miles vs Neville storylines or have you had enough? Did anyone else get a Doom feeling when the elevator door opened on a terrified Grace? And how does the militia guard’s statement that he can’t engage Miles (despite Miles not even seeing them or being armed) make any sense? Sound off below
Revolution airs Mondays at 10pm EST on NBC