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Revolution 1.06 “Sex And Drugs” TV REVIEW

Episode: 1.06
Writer: David Rambo
Director: Steve Boyum

THE ONE WHERE Miles puts the gang in jeopardy by seeking aid for Nora.

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VERDICT In a desperate race to find drugs to help heal Nora’s chest wound from last episode, Miles takes the crew to Drexel, a mentally-unhinged ex-militia leader in his posh marbled mansion. As it turns out Drexel doesn't just make nice drugs though. Miles owes him a debt, and before you can say fetch the penicillin it turns into a sleepover at Scarface's house.

There's clearly no love lost between Drexel and Miles, as he calls on a debt forcing Charlie to kill his next door neighbour with a chopstick in the eye. Charlie's had her mettle tested most weeks, and here her toughening up continues. In a reflective moment alone, she silently tears up her postcard collection, destroying the memories of the “nice things” she been holding onto and providing a nice emotional weight to proceedings that the dialogue often lacks.

Narratively it's a strong episode too, with dilemmas for all the Matheson gang. It's in the performances where it tends fall a little flat. A gun-waving Drexel tells of his time serving with Miles in the Militia: “He would order a man in front of a firing squad the way we would order a beer.” Billy Burke plays a great world-weary ex-soldier, but as with previous episodes it's hard to equate such a harsh comment with the character, unless we're to assume that he's so morally reformed he's quite literally a new person.

The stand-out character is Aaron who gets the flashback character development treatment this week, and it’s a good’un. After a couple of weeks of him simply standing around looking worried it's nice to see him with stuff to do. The ex-internet millionaire is one of the more interesting characters in the show, and token geek. Zac Orth has been giving a consistently good performance as the beardy techy, a guy feeling emasculated and frustrated by the new rough and ready frontier world without computers. He's not the toughest guy in the room and he knows it, but he may be the smartest, and it would be great to see more of him using his brains to get the gang out of scrapes.

The show has settled into a groove of travelling across the States to rescue Danny, who's now in Monroeville, his final desination. It's only a matter of time now before the gang come to the rescue and it'll be interesting to see how that affects the format of the show.

UNFORTUNATE VICTIM OF THE WEEK Drexel’s poor henchman, who is victim to a rather limp theatrical neck twist.

ELECTRIVIA
• Electricity always tries to find the easiest path to the ground. Don't get in it's way.
• Of all of the fruits, lemons conduct the most electricity.

BEST LINE:
Aaron: “Does anyone know how many bullets this psycho put in this gun?”

John Cooper @JohnCooper_uk

UK airing information: None As Yet.

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