It’s always fun watching the ill-mannered privileged get their chair kicked out from under them, particularly when they have it coming. “Revenge,” which premiered on ABC on Wednesday September 21st, delivers said comeuppance with good mean fun.
Transparently derived from The Count of Monte Cristo, “Revenge” is not really on the level of Dumas père or Shakespeare, but it does begin with a murder most foul. The victim is Daniel Grayson, the handsome and entitled young fiancé of Emily Thorne, the show’s lead. The setting of Daniel’s murder is their engagement party, thrown on Labor Day at the palatial Southampton estate of his parents, Conrad Grayson and his wife Victoria, the Queen Bee of Southampton and the story’s formidable icepick of a villainess.
After Daniel’s murder is discovered at the party, “Revenge” redirects us to the beginning of that summer on Memorial Day weekend. Emily has just rented a beautiful house on the beach, right next door to the Graysons. Though the new girl next door is an ostensible stranger in town, we learn through flashbacks that Emily summered at this same house as a child with her father until his life (and her childhood) was ruined by the Graysons and other corrupt business accomplices. Emily, who’s real name is Amanda Clarke, is unrecognized by a town that hasn’t seen her since she was a little girl. She’s come back to exact vengeance on the very people who destroyed her family.
Emily VanCamp is very appealing and effective as Emily Thorne. Gabriel Mann, whom I remember from High Art, The Bourne Identity/Supremacy, is delightfully creepy as Nolan Ross, an internet New Establishment A-lister and the only one who knows the truth about Emily. And the wonderful Madeleine Stowe is back on the map as Victoria Grayson, a real monster who puts the “c” in “woman.”
All in all, “Revenge” looks like a fun ride.
The show airs on Wednesday nights on ABC. It’s also available at abc.go.com and on Hulu.
Links:
“Revenge” on ABC (full episodes online)
“Revenge” on Hulu (full episodes online and on iPhone, iPad and other Hulu-capable devices)
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