What did we do on Wednesday nights before Revenge? The show really got almost no hype except for a few commercials and those weird ads that look like Emily Van Camp is wearing a dress made of weeds. But the show has become the most deliciously shallow treat of the fall. It is like 90210 (the old one) meets The O.C. with a little bit of Gossip Girl and any other soap opera that ever took place by the beach. It is a soap opera and it doesn't apologize for it. It doesn't require people to think, just kick back and enjoy. Don't get me wrong, I love a good thinking show but sometimes they get exhausting. I was obsessed with Lost for the first two years but then it just made me cry because it absolutely made no sense anymore and I was fairly sure the writers felt the same way. This is a show where you don't have to think and that is why it works. Amy Lee of HuffPo wrote, "Revenge" is a pleasantly brain-blanking joyride into the imaginary lives of Hamptonites out to screw each other over. While it doesn't often rise above the level of soap, you don't really want it to do anything other than what it's doing."
In case you don't know the plot Emily Van Camp plays Emily Thorne (but her real name is Amanda) and when she was five her hot dad was framed by his rich friends for killing all these people in a plane crash. He was sent to jail and she was put in foster care or some children's institution and then Juvenile Detention. Then finally she comes into her father's millions (did he die in prison? I'm not sure). Her father also leaves her this amazing wooden box that holds every single secret of the plot against her father and pretty much how to take revenge on all her father's enemies (quite a box.) I guess she toils around for a few years and trains with some revenge expert in Japan and then eventually decides it is time to execute her plot. So she dies her hair blond and gets all hot and buys a house in the Hamptons and then starts to take down these WASPy bitches one at a time. Amber Valetta got it bad. Girl fell out a window on to a cab but lived somehow. Of course, none of them seem to recognize her even though she has blond hair again. In this world people look entirely different than they did as children. Plus there is romance and a party literally everyday. I think the show was supposed to start in May and ends on the 4th of July and there has literally been at least one party a day.
Now part of what makes this show so good is the great albeit weird cast. First of all we have Emily Van Camp as the lead. Now I have liked her since she was on Everwood but did I expect she would ever get her own show? Not really. But she is good for this part as she is so composed while she ruins people's lives and you can't ever really tell if she has emotions. Then we have Madeleine Stowe as the matriarch of the richest and evilest family in the Hamptons (even more so than the Seinfelds.) Madeline Stowe was an early 90s "it" girl after her roles in Last of the Mohicans and Short Cuts. This seems like a bit of a step down after working with the Daniel Day Lewis but she is so pitch perfect in this part that you can't imagine anyone else doing it. Then Nick Wechsler (who some of you may remember from Roswell) plays the local owner of the bar who was Amanda's childhood best friend but doesn't recognize her anymore even though his dog, who was actually her dog, freaks out every time he sees his former owner. And then Eric from Gossip Girl decided he wasn't getting enough action on that show so he decided to go play someone else's brother on this show and put his horribly annoying Hamptons accent to good use. Then Gabriel Mann who had a career for like five seconds in the late 90's (you may recall his performance in Josie & the Pussycats) plays a billionaire tech entrepreneur who knows all of Amanda's secrets and is sort of her sidekick. Then add a bunch of other young hot people and you've got a show. Anyway, if you just need some juicy fun, this is your show.
