Revolution
NBC | Release Date: September 17, 2012
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
63
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
15
Mixed:
18
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
Boston HeraldMark A. PerigardSep 17, 2012
Season 1 Review: The pilot, directed by co--executive producer Jon Favreau ("Iron Man"), poses numerous questions, and to the credit of everyone involved, delivers some surprising payoffs that other shows would hold for weeks, if not seasons. Read full review
83
Uncle BarkyEd BarkSep 12, 2012
Season 1 Review: Revolution, which has the overall look and feel of a big budget feature, delivers some consistently terrific action scenes. Read full review
80
Miami HeraldGlenn GarvinSep 17, 2012
Season 1 Review: Revolution is big, bold and brassy adventure, a cowboys-and-Indians story for end times. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalDorothy RabinowitzSep 14, 2012
Season 1 Review: If the quality of this one, so irresistible in its vitality and suspense, does fail to hold up, its creators will have delivered, at the least, one remarkably fine hour. Read full review
80
Washington PostHank StueverSep 14, 2012
Season 1 Review: The mind reels with possibility, and even hope, which is why we keep coming back to stories like these. Read full review
75
New York PostLinda StasiSep 17, 2012
Season 1 Review: If you loved Spielberg's "Terra Nova," you'll love Revolution. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchGail PenningtonSep 17, 2012
Season 1 Review: It's worth giving Revolution a shot for its surprising imagery (wait till you see what's become of the Gateway Arch in an early scene), strong adult characters and fascinating possibilities. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleDavid WiegandSep 14, 2012
Season 1 Review: Yes, Revolution is a good adventure yarn, but the other reason we're likely to watch future episodes is that it grounds the action in thought-provoking themes. Read full review
70
The New York TimesAlessandra StanleySep 17, 2012
Season 1 Review: Ambitious setups like this don't always hold up, but Revolution has the potential to be a more disciplined "Lost"--not necessarily more plausible but with any luck less preposterous and pretentious. Read full review
70
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob OwenSep 17, 2012
Season 1 Review: The pilot is a pretty solid hour of television, setting up the show's premise and in several instances defying TV norms with plot twists viewers won't see coming. Read full review
70
Denver PostJoanne OstrowSep 14, 2012
Season 1 Review: If you like dark action-adventure with a deep mythology, you may enjoy this suspenseful hour, intended to perplex as it entertains. For some viewers, however, the questions will get in the way. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterTim GoodmanSep 12, 2012
Season 1 Review: Does that make sense? If not, well, Revolution doesn't make a lot of sense, but it's a lot of fun. Read full review
63
USA TodayRobert BiancoSep 17, 2012
Season 1 Review: The less you think about Revolution the more apt you are to like it. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesLori RacklSep 14, 2012
Season 1 Review: It's already clear, however, that the writing can be a bit corny, the action sequences a tad ridiculous and the plot prone to nit-picking. Read full review
63
San Jose Mercury News/Contra Costa TimesChuck BarneySep 13, 2012
Season 1 Review: You get sort of an odd, been-there-done-that feeling when watching the pilot, which contains, to varying degrees, traces of "The Hunger Games," "The Walking Dead," "FlashForward," "Jericho," "Lost" (Elizabeth Mitchell is in the cast) and other dystopian fare. Read full review
60
Philadelphia InquirerDavid HiltbrandSep 24, 2012
Season 1 Review: Revolution had better worry about generating some voltage of its own. The pilot was excellent, but where does it go from here? Read full review
60
Zap2it (Inside the Box)Rick PorterSep 17, 2012
Season 1 Review: A cool premise can only take a show so far, and there's some work to do on the character front to make the show worthy of using all available technology not to miss. Read full review
60
Boston GlobeMatthew GilbertSep 17, 2012
Season 1 Review: Revolution is just all right, no better, no worse. Read full review
60
Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen GraySep 17, 2012
Season 1 Review: While I'm intrigued, I'd prefer to be carrying something stronger than a candle before I head too far down this particular rabbit hole. Read full review
60
TimeJames PoniewozikSep 17, 2012
Season 1 Review: The pilot of Revolution comes across better than either of the aforementioned shows [FlashForward and The Event], but there are still too many forgettable characters, stock scenes and flat patches of dialogue. Read full review
60
TV Guide MagazineMatt RoushSep 17, 2012
Season 1 Review: There are worse ideas. And far worse shows this fall. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsDavid HinckleySep 17, 2012
Season 1 Review: It relies less on mystery and more on physical action, like a video game-style scene where Miles, Charlie and their small band wipe out what looks like about a hundred bad guys. Read full review
60
PopMattersChris ConatonSep 17, 2012
Season 1 Review: While this is a lot of plot to deliver in one episode, Revolution manages it efficiently. But still, it doesn't feel very special. Read full review
60
VarietyBrian LowrySep 14, 2012
Season 1 Review: For every arresting image, there's a lot of wandering around in the overgrown woods, and reason for skepticism as to whether audiences will patiently stick with the show. Read full review
60
The Huffington PostMaureen RyanSep 13, 2012
Season 1 Review: The clash between the callow and the compelling set off an ongoing debate between the hopeful part of my brain, which wants to like a sci-fi-ish show dreamed up by executive producers J.J. Abrams and Eric Kripke, and the scarred part of my brain, which has been burned dozens of times by genre-flavoroed shows that had interesting elements or cast members but also disappointing executions and annoying younger characters. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMatt RoushSep 25, 2013
Season 2 Review: Revolution is too convoluted for its own good. Streamlining would have been a better option for a show being thrown to the Wednesday wolves. Read full review
50
People WeeklyTom GliattoSep 21, 2012
Season 1 Review: This is well-produced, but it could just as well be Mission:Colonial. [1 Oct 2012, p.38]
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Matt Zoller SeitzSep 17, 2012
Season 1 Review: It's not quite so bad that you lose all hope, some of the images and performances are memorable, and it's not inconceivable that future episodes could pique my interest again. But for now I'd put it in the "wait and see" column, without enthusiasm. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesRobert LloydSep 17, 2012
Season 1 Review: As a professionally discerning adult, I could not help but notice that the characters are fairly stock, the situations familiar and, some nifty digital backgrounds notwithstanding, the production continually felt more like an elaborate game of let's pretend than it did a window into some real other world. I didn't buy a second of it. Read full review
50
SalonRoger CatlinSep 17, 2012
Season 1 Review: Revolution takes a high-stakes, specific premise--the end of the world through a total collapse of technology--and makes it as dull and generic as possible. Read full review
50
HitfixAlan SepinwallSep 17, 2012
Season 1 Review: Though Esposito and Burke are both excellent--and Kripke and Favreau stage a classic swashbuckling swordfight for Miles that's easily the highlight of the first hour--far too much time is spent on the boring (Charlie) or annoying (Danny) teenagers. Read full review
50
NewsdayVerne GaySep 14, 2012
Season 1 Review: There's an almost overwhelming been-there-seen-that feel to the pilot, which doesn't really offer any suggestion of "well, you haven't seen this." Read full review
40
SlateTroy PattersonSep 18, 2012
Season 1 Review: On the bright side, no one is in danger of having to watch this inert action show. Read full review
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