3x08 - Why You Should Watch: Revenge
Word count: 1500+ words
Pic count: 20+ pics
1. The Premise
I think the premise of Revenge is really interesting. For one, it's a modern adaptation of a classic novel, The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas. I LOVE MODERN ADAPTATIONS OF BOOKS. But not only is the setting modern, but also the main character, in contrast to the original book, has been changed from a man to a woman. So, if you like adaptations of books that genderflip the main characters to give women a more prominent role in the story... I think you'll like this show.
For those not familiar with the story of The Count of Monte Cristo, it's about a man who is framed for treason and gets imprisoned for life. He eventually escapes from jail and is directed toward a large fortune. Using his newfound wealth and various disguises/aliases, he sets about ruining the lives of the people who ruined his, while also rewarding people who were kind to him.
That's the original story. In this show, however, the main character is Amanda Clarke (now known as Emily Thorne), whose father, David Clarke, was framed and sent to prison by a group of people he trusted. Since Amanda was close to her father, and he was her only parent, this event ruins both of their lives. Emily is forcibly kept apart from her father and manipulated into believing he was a murderer and supporter of terrorism. After a troubled adolescence, one day David Clarke dies in prison and his friend, young tech CEO Nolan Ross, shows up with a box containing David's memoirs revealing his innocence and news that Emily now has a 49% share in Nolan's company, making her very rich. Knowing her father wasn't able to do anything to the people who ruined his life - wealthy, influential people still happily living their lives in the Hamptons - Emily sets out on a quest to avenge both herself and her father.
2. The Characters
There are a LOT of interesting characters on this show, but I'll focus on the three I think are most interesting to me and important to the plot: Emily Thorne, Victoria Grayson, and Nolan Ross.
Emily Thorne
Capable of going from "girl next door" to "Inigo Montoya" in the blink of an eye! The main character, Emily is introduced as a friendly, supportive, and fairly normal newcomer to the Hamptons. Underneath that facade, though, she's a cold-hearted avenger trained in martial arts and highly skilled at subterfuge. (The martial arts and the amount of forward planning Emily does IS a bit ridiculous, I have to admit, but it's still kind of awesome seeing such a dangerous main female character.) What I like about Emily is that, despite being, well, a chronic life-ruiner and a person who uses even her friends as pawns, she still manages to remain sympathetic and human, capable of feelings of love, fear, remorse, and so on. I like her for the same reason that I like the Bride in Kill Bill - she's just a very fascinating character with interesting motivations. You can't quite root for her in her revenge but she makes for a fun main character.
Victoria Grayson
If you like Cersei from Game of Thrones, I think you'll like Victoria Grayson too. She is from the social elite (nicknamed "Queen Victoria", even), trapped in a bitterly unhappy marriage, capable of being incredibly vicious, and would do anything to protect her children.
Even though she's one of the main antagonists, you can't help but feel sorry for her at the same time. The show puts her through a lot of emotionally-trying events and there are equal parts cold-hearted steel and vulnerability to her. She's sort of a tragic character in that a lot of the things she does (taking vengeance on her friend, trying to improve her relationship with her daughter, etc.) end up backfiring on her and causing her pain.
She also has fantastic dresses and flawless hair.
Nolan Ross
Young computer genius, who owes his start to Emily's father, David Clarke. There's so much going on with Nolan, I can't even start.
One thing is that Nolan fits the whole socially awkward, robotically unscrupulous, computer hacker stereotype, and yet doesn't at the same time. He tries hard to fit in with the elite circles in the Hamptons, yet because of his made-from-nothing beginnings, something about him is always a little... off. For example, in the engagement party in the pilot episode, you'll notice that all the women are wearing red dresses, all the men white tuxes (as part of Victoria Grayson's "fire and ice" theme). Nolan shows up wearing a red tux - oops.
He's always willing to lend Emily a hand by hacking into someone's computer, setting up hidden cameras, etc. apparently unfazed by the illegality of his actions.
And he basically pays someone to be his friend for a summer. Seriously.
Yet despite his outward awkwardness, he's warmer, softer, and more human than Emily. He balks when Emily's actions escalate to bloodshed, he advocates forgiveness over revenge, and he truly values friendship.
In essence, if you look at the original Count of Monte Cristo novel, while Emily seems to take the place of the main character, maybe more accurately is that the main character has been split into two - Emily and Nolan. Emily handles the revenge actions, while Nolan is more about helping good people by using his money. There's more to him than just detached genius hacker - he actually is Emily's more compassionate foil/counterpart.
Also, he has a hilarious sense of humor.
Also, Nolan is a very rare male character on television who actually identifies as bisexual.
In short, he has a lot of things going for him and he's awesome.
3. The Themes, Ripe for Analysis
Of course, from the title you can expect themes of vengeance to play a major role. The typical things you expect with revenge stories - collateral damage, escalating retaliations, the possibility of forgiveness, etc. - make their appearance.
But I think another huge theme in this show is duality.
Duality as in "two-facedness" surfaces a lot. Emily has two personas - the sweet, philanthropic socialite she plays to get close to Daniel Grayson and the astute, multitalented, calculating avenger she allows Nolan to see. Other characters in the Hamptons are also similarly fake, for example, Victoria Grayson's sweet demeanor whenever she says a pointed barb or vows to hate someone forever. Or Conrad Grayson's hypocritical condemnation of David Clarke, as a way of covering up his own shady actions.
Another way duality is part of the story is when the show introduces Emily's former juvie roommate, Emily Thorne, who she switched identities with when they were younger in order for Emily to be able to get a clean start with her revenge plan. This roommate later assumes the persona of an older Amanda Clarke, returning to the Hamptons where she used to spend her summers. So yes, we have (main character) Emily!Amanda, and (her roommate) Amanda!Emily. THIS IS AWESOME! And horribly confusing in terms of figuring out how to refer to characters! I just really love the way these two characters mirror each other, even to the point where Amanda the roommate starts dating one of Emily's love interests.
Emily!Amanda... Amanda!Emily
And of course there is the ever-important duality of revenge and forgiveness. One way that the show portrays this is actually by giving Emily two love interests. One is Daniel Grayson, who represents the path of revenge. In choosing to pursue Daniel Grayson, Emily gets closer to the Grayson family and has more opportunity to cause them pain. Unlike his parents, though, Daniel is straightforward and earnest, not a schemer at all, and so has high chances of becoming collateral damage. The other is her childhood friend Jack Porter who had a crush on young Amanda Clarke and kind of suspects Emily Thorne is the same girl or at least similar enough that he falls in love with her again. He represents the path of forgiveness, because Emily likes him too and he's pretty much all that's left of her happy childhood, but being with him would mean giving up her revenge plans entirely, and she can't do that. What I like about this plot setup is that both of her love interests are great people, so the romantic conflict really stems from the revenge vs. forgiveness conflict that Emily repeatedly faces. It's actually a pretty nice use of a love triangle!
Daniel and Jack, Emily's two love interests.
Personally I like Jack more but Daniel is really adorable too. I BASICALLY LOVE ALL THE CHARACTERS IN THIS SHOW.
4. The Relationships
Revenge has a ton of interesting relationships of many kinds. From Victoria's strained relationship with her daughter Charlotte, to Jack's unlikely friendship with Nolan, to Amanda!Emily's intense devotion to Emily!Amanda (wonderful lesbian subtext there), there's a wide variety in the way characters interact with each other, and the characters are very complexly linked and interconnected with each other. There are interesting friendships, one-sided crushes, parent/child relationships, sibling relationships, happy couples, unhappy couples, and relationships with multiple layers -- just a ton of stuff going on!
Here's a diagram of the various characters and their relationships. Red boxes are the avengers/saboteurs, blue boxes are the social elite, and green boxes are the middle class/blue collar characters, who mostly are unrelated to the David Clarke incident. As you can see, there are a lot of interesting relationships between characters!
5. The Opening Sequence
The way the show is set up, the opening sequence occurs in the middle of the story, at the engagement party of Emily Thorne and Daniel Grayson. Daniel, out on the beach, is shot. All the major players are positioned in this sequence, but it's a mystery what events led up to this scene. The series then jumps back 5 months to the beginning of the summer, and the arrival of Emily Thorne to the Hamptons. I really like this setup because it makes you curious about the story and confident that the writers have the whole arc planned out in advance, which is nice.
In conclusion, I hope you check the show out if it interests you!
chacusha
Team Animation
Edited to add another image and fix some typos I made this morning.