Home Video Exclusives

[JohnIan101]

Past Tense - Not A Blown Fuse Part I


Another brand new entry!

What will you do when the power goes off and there is no more internet porn or cat vids - join a "Revolution" to get them back?



"Revolution: The Complete First Season" was released on home video on September 3rd, 2013.

It streeted against "Vampire Diaries: The Complete Fourth Season", "Now You See Me" and "The Lords Of Salem".

This release originally came with a non-embossed cardboard slipcase which mirrored the wraparound. It also came with two inserts: episode booklet with air dates and special features listing; small, one sided ad for season two (then upcoming in three weeks).

- - -

Target offered the sole exclusive.



They offered an exclusive pendant which came with a pouch. The power pendant from the series. This was for both DVD $34.99 and BD $39.99 on street.

Did not get this when it came out. It was kinda weak exclusive and wanted a better price on the DVD. Which didn't happen then. In fact I only got this set in December of 2017; was goofing off and looked on Ebay and saw a seller had the Target exclusive still sealed, brand new for less than ten bucks total (with free shipping).

So yes, I bought it.

Originally thought it was BS when I got it. The Target sticker on it reads, "Revolution Pendant With Glowing Power Symbol". No it does not, no power switch to light up. The following day it hit me and I gave it a try. Yup.

The pendant does indeed glow, as in glow-in-the-dark; shine light on it then it will glow a lime green in the dark. Kinda neat. But they should've been better worded since I'm pretty sure many though just as I did.

The trinket was packed in the front of the DVD in a protruding plastic pocket. Can't say it was the best of packaging ideas, must have been a pain to make the DVDs and BDs fit in the slots on the shelves, no flat surface.

- - -

Sure.

The "Complete Series" streeted on May 12th, 2015 on both DVD ($44.99) and BD ($59.99) formats.



Just a repackaging. Now with a larger slipcase which houses both regular seasons sets with their own slipcases.

No new extras or bonus disc - like what happened with "http://www.movie-list.com/forum/showthread.php?33252-Home-Video-Exclusives&p=239757#post239757"]Jericho: The Complete Series[/URL]" (a previous Past Tense).

What sucks, there was was a third season, a resolution - finale; done as a free digital comic from DC (exclusive to ComicBook dot com in 2015).

Four issues told the aftermath of season two and how it all closed. Hint, power was never restored. Because without electricity, humanity would still have free will. If you saw the last episode, you'll understand.



This is cool, but not included on any disc format.

The comic was written by series writers, David Reed and Ryan Parrott with ideas by the show runners and producers. Sway.

Illustrated by Angel Hernandez. Did not know about these until researching.

By the way, the Blu-Ray (season one) has two bonuses not included on the DVD version.

1) UltraViolet digital copy of year one (twenty episodes).

2) The Paley Fest 2013 panel discussion for the show (March 2nd, 2013 at Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills, CA); moderated by Michael Schneider (L.A. Bureau Chief) from TV Guide Magazine. Guests include stars Billy Burke, Tracy Spiridakos, Giancarlo Esposito, David Lyons, Daniella Alonso and JD Pardo. Along with series creators/executive producers Eric Kripke and J.J. Abrams and pilot director and series producer Jon Favreau. They talk about filming season one and weaknesses they had with the show (early on). A run time of 27:41 minutes.

This would've been, a nice bonus disc for the DVD box set, but those comics couldn't fit.

The series ended on May 21st, 2014. Those digital comics were put online May 4th, 2015 (the final issue on June 15th [same year]). Complete Series was on May 12th. You can see why.

Man, it's so frustrating. I can't find these comics, downloads (PDFs I suspect). I did however find a guy named Hassan Othmane who had uploaded the comics as YouTube videos. This is as good as I can get.

Did discover there's a comic book commentary by Reed and Parrott for each issue, also on YouTube. Why it went this direction, interesting stuff. No pages shown, just the cover and them talking about the issue and series. Search: "Revolution Digital Comic: Chapter 1 Audio Commentary" to start. They range from four to eleven minutes each. I suspect these were a podcast first - transferred to video.

- - - - - - - - - -

Rant.



Okay, a step back since not everyone is familiar with this show.

The series takes place fifteen years into the future - where humanity has regressed to an early industrial age. Why? All electrical devices and power generators, crashed around the globe. I'll explain in a few.

We lived in an electric world. We relied on it for everything. And then the power went out. Everything stopped working. We weren't prepared. Fear and confusion led to panic. The lucky ones made it out of the cities. The government collapsed. Militias took over controlling the food supply and stockpiling weapons. We still don't know why the power went out. But we are hopeful that someone will come and light the way.

- opening credits narration

THIS was a core problem viewers had with it. While I understand this universe is explained, bit by bit in each installment - which is solid storytelling. The problem is so much of the first episode does not make sense. As if we all already know what had happened. Don't need to talk about it. And it bothered a ton of people.

Now this worked quite well in "The Adventures Of Buckaroo Banzai Across The 8th Dimension" (1984); the film's characters and story lines were so over the top and interesting. We went along for the ride. Here? The heroes are abrasive - we need to get to know them before we can like them. For this case, that kind of blind commitment is a negative. Why the hell should I care? Add to that, the universe logic - it infuriated viewers which did not help their ratings...

So government collapes because everyone's iPods quit working? The entire concept of the show is retarded. It's only been 15 years since power no longer works? So that means libraries should still be around and I'm pretty sure every engineer on the planet didn't just cease to exist. Suddenly the U.S. reverts to it's early 19th century self where, as has been pointed out, steam is king. Manufacturing, logistics, and the economy move on. As a matter of fact unemployment rates would PLUMMET because factories full of robots are gone. And the ridiculous shots of Chicago with building overgrown with plants...JESUS! Oh no how ever were cities maintained before electricity? **** sakes this show isn't getting one second of my viewership.

- Lukes Lost Hand

I think the shots of Chicago would be more believable if the landmarks were seen burned down instead of covered in vines. No electricity = people light candles for light, and fires for heat. Fires get out of control due to accidents, negligence, or stupidity. I don't get this show's premise so don't know how much today's firefighters would be hampered by no power. Regardless, they'd be working more than normal and, I guess, modern buildings' fire suppression systems wouldn't work. Also take away people's twitter and youtube and microwave pizzas = riots. And with riots come fires. Firefighters aren't keen on going into a riot zones to put out fires so they'll tend to burn unchallenged.

- Jim

Then comes something else, a bit of controversy. Did the show creator commit plagiarism?

Nothing major, but enough to so say - yeah.