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Critic Reviews
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The ABC drama is one of the best new series to hit TV this fall.
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Until we find out what happened long ago, we'll just enjoy watching all the beautiful, golden-tanned people say awesomely ridiculous things like: "These guys really put the suck in seersucker."
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This is a classic guilty pleasure, with campy twists and a fabulously diva-esque performance by Stowe.
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The arrival of one pure and unadulterated drama about a passion as old as man is something to celebrate. That's particularly true when that drama is as spellbinding in its satisfyingly gaudy way, as Revenge turns out to be.
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It's a stylish, elegantly plotted tale of a young woman's sociopathic thirst for vengeance.
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Intriguing and genuinely fun.
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They say Revenge is a dish best served cold, and here it's downright delicious.
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Revenge has enough meaty characters and plot possibilities to keep it going for years. And it just may last long enough to explore them all.
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VanCamp goes about her business with a purse-lipped Jodie Foster earnestness that makes her hard to root for. But Stowe coos, scowls, flirts and thunders. She roils Revenge. [26 sep 2011, p.56]
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Revenge is too juicy to write off as junk. It's got strong performances, from actors who don't condescend to their flamboyant dialogue.
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What gives Revenge the potential to last as an ongoing series (after all, doesn't Emily have to run out of victims?) is the well-drawn characters and the sense that Emily does have a conscience beyond the desire for payback.
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It's Gossip Girl tailored to this economy, with just enough campy suspense to be enjoyable.
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A solid prime-time soap with a burnt-crisp soul.
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For fans of soaps, there is reason for hope. The show looks great, and it often sounds good, particularly when Emily is delivering a line we know is nasty but her victim doesn't.
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There's plenty of guilty pleasure to be had in watching she-wolves in Chanel and their sugar daddies go down week after week. But be prepared to put up with cheesy dialogue and spotty acting along the way.
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Revenge might sound enjoyably soapy in the abstract, but its execution is problematic.
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Way over the top but potentially a guilty pleasure for those with the time to pursue it.
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The show is asking viewers, then, to invest some time and not expect a clean resolution of some black-and-white drama each week. That's a gamble and a risk. Revenge seems confident it can be taken and won.
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If Revenge can curb its more outlandish tendencies, this soap could become a welcome guilty pleasure.
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Even if there are traces of "Desperate Housewives" in "Revenge's" DNA, ABC's latest serial feels oh-so-last decade, which, particularly in the Hamptons, is about as thematically stylish as wearing white after Labor Day.
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There are guilty pleasures and then there are ones for which you just feel guilty about sacrificing your valuable time. Revenge is the latter.
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Sometimes you just want a single serving, with the table cleared by episode's end. This one keeps passing its spinning plates while re-stating the obvious.
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It seems like it could be a fun, if cheesy, soap opera about skulduggery and backstabbing in high society. But Revenge makes the fatal mistakes of wanting to be taken seriously and yet not making its characters worthy of any kind of serious consideration.
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As is often the case with melodrama, I find Revenge essentially unconvincing and also quite likable.
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The story is silly, but not trashy enough to make it your latest guilty pleasure.
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Some are embracing this as a juicy guilty pleasure, a return to Dynasty times by way of The Count of Monte Cristo. I found it all a bit predictable and thick, like I was choking on Crisco.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 280 out of 334
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Mixed: 36 out of 334
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Negative: 18 out of 334
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Nov 15, 2011
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Sep 29, 2011
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Sep 22, 2011