As I sit here on day four without any electricity, I have come to realize why REVOLUTION misses the mark for me.
While the show is giving us bits and pieces of how the loss of power brought about the end of civilization, that is the story I want focused on. I’m sure I’m a horrible person for not caring if Charlie reunites with her family. Danny’s seemingly endless Perils Of Pauline-esque attempts at escape hold no appeal to me.
The story of how we as a people slowly but surely went mad because Twitter was downed by a permanent Fail Whale? I’d watch that. The tale of people driven to the brink of sanity by something as simple as being able to hit a switch and have the room flood with light? I’m all in.
Over these past few days, the news has dished out story after story about acts of heroism and bravery and courage. But what they haven’t focused on quite so much is the small, quiet crisis which overtakes each of us when you take away the things we take for granted every single day.
REVOLUTION set out to tell an epic adventure story wrapped in a family drama. Or maybe it set out to tell a family drama wrapped in an epic adventure. But for me, the real story is in the slow de-evolution of society. I’m not talking about the point where you pull a gun on your neighbor to steal their food and gas, but rather the daily grinding down of the psyche caused by having to wash yourself in a basin of water you heated on the charcoal grill in the backyard. The having to decide whether or not to risk eating the meats that are thawing in the freezer. And that voice in your head that, around day three or four, begins asking, “Is the electricity ever going to come back on?”
You think the REAL HOUSEWIVES OF SAN SCRANTON are bitchy? Spend a little time with a family that barely tolerates one another under the best of circumstances as they deal with what is slowly becoming the worst.
Yes, yes, we’ll eventually get to the lootings and ritual sacrifices made in a vain attempt at appeasing the PSE&G gods.
But that’s what Season 2 is for. 
Richard M. Simms is the executive editor of Soaps in Depth and author of Crimes Against Civility. Having been without power or hot water since Monday afternoon, he is also not someone to be messed with or stand upwind from.