Confession: in the weeks leading up to this year's Fall TV Premiere season, the shows Ringer, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Revenge, with Emily VanCamp, looked all but identical to me. They seemed like carbon copies of just about everything else you'd find on the CW and, for someone who loves programming that takes time to craft an intelligent plot for its season, that didn't bode well. With the first episodes aired, it's fair to say that one of these shows was just as miserable as it looked, while the other still has potential if the writers are willing to put in the work. The failure in question is Ringer, the plotting and acting for which do little to make an audience care for its duped (and seemingly ill-fated) protagonist or even the show's future, and so I'm expecting the show to be canned by mid-season. Then there's Revenge, which we got an early look at courtesy of a show-themed pre-Pilot care package from ABC which included the pilot episode and a message from Emily VanCamp (in character) loaded onto a similarly themed iPad. And while the shine off an iPad can blind us to some things, in terms of Revenge, there are a few notable improvements that need to be made.
If you plan on checking out the Pilot but haven't yet, we'd recommend not reading any further, as there be spoilers ahead.
The premise is simple enough, seemingly taking its cue from The Count of Monte Cristo, wherein Amanda Clarke, the daughter of a CEO and family man wrongfully accused of fraud, plots the downfall of everyone responsible (all of whom apparently hang out in the Hamptons) for her father's arrest and subsequent death in prison. Jumping forward to present-day, we see the murder of a man (which we're supposed to assume is Daniel Grayson (Joshua Bowman) but just hold off on that) on a secluded beach on the night of the nuptials between Daniel Grayson and Emily Thorne aka Amanda Clarke. From there, the story goes back 5 months, to the start of the summer and Emily's arrival in the Hamptons.
So begins Emily's double-life, one divided between her flashbacks of a broken past wherein her father is hauled off by the FBI and another where she plays the part of the new girl, with no foreknowledge of the people and community she's "stumbled" into. Of course, she knows full well the nature of the shark tank we call the Hamptons and quickly finagles appearances at a high-end fundraiser arranged by the queen shark: Victoria Grayson (Madeleine Stowe). Madeleine rules the higher echelons of the social circle with passive jabs, politicking, and icy sidelong glances. In her first week Emily arranges the downfall of one of Victoria's closest "friends" and sows seeds of dissent for the future.
It's not a bad premise, but it feels like the writers have grossly underestimated the capacity of the audience to figure things out on their own. With characters announcing who they are and spelling out their problems, it certainly sets the stage but it makes the first episode grating. The show even goes so far as to give us character profiles in its attempt to explain away exactly who will be future targets of Emily's vengeance.
And yet, therein lies the problem established by the pace of the first episode. Even as it spends so much time laying out the path for less than intuitive viewers, it also jumps right into Emily's agenda instead of slowly building for a massive takedown of the individuals responsible for what happened to her father. Is Revenge really going to take down one person a week? And if so, how can you expect audiences to believe that the queen shark doesn't notice Emily's hand in each affair? (Especially since the first victim meets her social death at the hands of Emily right in front of Victoria.) Even if that elevates her, how can you not notice that the new girl is sowing a path of destruction amongst her co-workers? Most likely, the show is going to slow down quite a bit from its second episode onward, treating that first victim like a hook to lure viewers in. However considering the woman who went down played such a large role in her father's framing, you'd think the writers would have done it with a little more tension and build up.
The show's promise comes from its cast and the number of loose threads hanging off the pilot's frame. Between the one person in the town who knows who Emily really is, the less than subtly set up romantic interest who just might be able to sway Emily from her warpath, and the undisclosed identity of Emily's groom-to-be's murderer, there's a lot to be explored.
Emily VanCamp wasn't the strongest member of the Brothers & Sisters cast, but in her defense that was one of the most stacked saccharine dramas out there, and she was never intended to be front and center in that situation anyways. How could she be when she has to contend for screen time against Sally Field, Rob Lowe, Calista Flockhart, and Ron Rifkin. This time around, there are still plenty of recognizable faces, but in this case VanCamp is one of the top names. It was undoubtedly a conscious choice not to drown out her fame with that of bigger name actors, and so instead they padded the cast with plenty of "oh, it's that guy" players who can carry their own weight while giving VanCamp her spotlight. The obvious question at that point is whether or not VanCamp is ready to lead. Her performance in the pilot only hints at lead material about 50% of the time, and in those moments she's spot on and as convincing as she needs to be. The rest of the time, though, she falls back into her Everwood days, when her delivery was flimsy and she exuded little to no 
charisma on the screen. Hopefully she'll exert more of the former and less of the latter in the future, but for now it's up in the air.
For the rest of the cast, there are three that stand out, though I was a bit dismayed to learn that the pilot ABC had packed onto the iPad and the one that aired differ in a significant way: the casting of Marc Blucas as Emily's father. In the pilot that aired on TV, the role was played by James Tupper. Nothing against Tupper, he's done some good work in Men in Trees and Mercy, but Blucas nailed the role. On top of that, the purported scheduling conflict caused by Blucas starring in USA's Necessary Roughness seems nonexistent considering both appear to be filmed in New York. It just seems silly to cut out Blucas, who was pitch
perfect, for a role in the show which will be comprised of brief flashbacks. [Update: turns out Revenge's pilot was shot in North Carolina, but the rest of the season is being shot in Manhattan Beach, CA. Whereas Necessary Roughness films in Georgia, making double-duty a serious commute issue. Thanks to reader "Stacyebushong" for the clue in.]
Of the supporting cast that did stick in the final version of the pilot, Madeleine Stowe is entirely capable of playing the vindictive bitch who controls everyone around her like puppets. Combine her with the subdued will of Henry Czerny as her husband and the dynamic might just be the most interesting creation of the show. Both of them will make for suitable villains, and its clear from the pilot (assuming the events that open it are the season finale) that Emily won't have gotten around to ruining them completely at the close of a 22-episode span. So at least there's the evolution of that relationship to look forward to.
Sadly, beyond those three, the cast of youngsters are mostly forgettable fresh faces who give less than promising performances. Even Connor Paolo, a regular on Gossip Girl, disappoints and does little to stand out among a homogeneous cast of brown-haired, 20-something guys playing teenagers. By contrast, the number of blond-haired 20-something co-stars to Emily VanCamp can be counted on zero fingers. Weird, but I guess that allows writers to kill off those other characters left and right while minimizing the effect on the show. Or whatever the writers want to do.
The second episode airs tonight at 10pm/9pm central.
