A quick review of NBC's "Revolution"

To paraphrase Monty Python's Australian Wines sketch, "This is not a show for watching. This is a show for turning off and avoiding."

I'm not going to do a long analysis of what's wrong with the show. I'll just hit the high points of what pisses me off:

• The first episode starts in the modern times when a Plot Device happens to turn off all forms of electricity everywhere. Categorically NOT an electromagnetic pulse, apparently it is capable of affecting the entire world, and prevents things like batteries from working. At least they acknowledge within the show that this is bullshit and, according to physics, shouldn't happen. 
• Of course, according to Hollywood logic, losing power causes transformers to explode; airplanes to go into flat spins and crash; and turn off cars in a dramatic down-the-line fashion. 
• Then the series skips ahead to fifteen years later, thereby bypassing all of the interesting post-apocalyptic bits about survival and rebuilding. (A viewing of the second episode shows that we may get bits and pieces of this parceled out in flashbacks. Still, that's 10 minutes of flashback to 40 minutes of show.)
• 15 years later, and all the kids have remarkably perfect teeth. Their hair is washed, their faces are clean. They have clothes which look BRAND NEW and have undamaged, top of the line, compound crossbows. Apparently entropy only happens to the sets and not the props. 
• Speaking of which, I've watched "Life After People," and these places do not look like they've been abandoned for 15 years. Five, maybe. It's amazing how good Chicago looks. 
• Oh yeah, the St. Louis Arch is missing a chunk at about the 2:00 position, but it's still standing. I'm not an engineer but I'm pretty sure this is impossible. 
• Given all the guns in America, we are supposed to believe that they've either gone missing or have been confiscated by the Militia? But yet these same militia troops are using Civil War-era flintlocks?
• But the named bad guy has a modern semi-auto pistol. Well that's movie logic again: why would you want to arm your front-line troops with good weapons when you can give them crap and only arm the officers with modern equipment? I swear, it's like this Monroe guy is reading from the big list of villain cliches. 
• Oh, okay, so the key-fob thing is another piece of Plot Deviceium that somehow turns the power back on... and also apparently rebuilds crumbling infrastructure such as telephone lines, because there is a computer that is communicating long-distance with another. If it's cellular, replace phone lines with cell towers. About the only way this might make sense would be if they were connecting over satphones, in which case I have to ask how the hell they restored power to the satellites in orbit (assuming their orbits hadn't degraded to the point of uselessness or re-entry). 
• Was anyone at all surprised that the big bad guy was the other man in Uncle Badass' car? I mean, they all but telegraphed it. 
• Speaking of Uncle, he's one of only two characters who seems halfway competent (the other being Deagle Dude). Two episodes in, and I already want to punch the others in the face. How did any of them manage to survive this long?
• Flexible morality: It's immoral to kill someone who was trying to kill you, and who will cause you future grief if you let him go, but it's perfectly okay to kill slavers as long as you act angtsy about it later. Sure, that makes sense. 
• The female teenage lead is basically Katniss. Her love interest is basically Jacob from Twilight, minus the lycanthropy. And so far, the entire series seems to be written at about the intellectual level of a young adult novel. 

I could go on, but you get the point. For all that Cormac McCarthy's The Road was too bleak to be believable, this series isn't bleak enough. I could understand that if this was an 8 pm show, but it's on at post-watershed 10 pm instead. 

My initial prediction was "One-season wonder" but NBC is trumpeting how it's a "hit new series" so it might stick around for a while, increasing in suck. I'm torn between giving up on this show entirely, and watching it like a trainwreck where I can skewer it on a weekly basis. If you haven't started watching it, then please, take my advice and stay away.

It's not Revolutionary; it's Revolting. 

WNW: Don't be stupid, be a smarty...

... come and join the SPARKLE PARTY !

Tacticool Geardo Porn

Spent yesterday at the dentist, which was why there was no free icecream. Hopefully some pictures of my tarted-up Sub-2000 will make up for it.

These are the rails I got in the mail on Monday:

This is what my Sub-2000 used to look like:

The one on the left. 

With the addition of the rails, it now looks like this:

Mine came with side rails as well. This is what it looks like with just the default top and bottom:

And with the side rail added.

And yes, it even folds with the rails in place. (Anything up top will obviously have to come off first.)

A full review will come later. The short version is:

1. The rails are awesome;
2. The instructions they come with suck;
3. While it doesn't require gunsmithing, attaching them isn't the easiest thing in the world. My mother would not have been able to do it. I accomplished it with much cursing. 

The aluminum forend with picatinny rails may be found here (when in stock).

Addendum to update

Oh goody!  Look what the Brown Truck o' Happiness brought me!

Yayayayayayayayay!  This is my "Pal-pal is a happy girl" dance.  /)^3^(\


Off to play with my new toy!

Monday Gunday: Shootin' Update

Not a lot to report today, as last week a heapin' helpin' of crazy was dropped on my life and I was unable to make it to the range. However, it looks like I have some good things in store:

1. Via Google+ I have found a nice lady named Gwen who not only uses the PMR-30, but carries it concealed as her primary weapon because she has an injured neck and cannot tolerate the recoil of anything stronger.  I have asked her to write a guest post about her experiences with this gun, and she has graciously agreed. 
2. I hope to take my mother shooting this Friday. If so, she will shoot not only the PMR, but also her .380 S&W Bodyguard. This will give me excellent blogfodder. 
3. I have a tentative schedule to meet with Gun Shop Guy at his private range to shoot the PMR and possibly other things. I would love to finally get a chance to use my shotty. 
4. A little birdie tells me I will soon receive a set of rails for my Sub-2000....
5. I'm trying to get Timney Triggers to send me their patented "Drop-in" Mosin-Nagant trigger. Since I've posted my shot groups already, it will be easy to see if the new trigger measurably improves my shooting, and since I'm not especially handy we shall see if they are truly as idiot-proof as the words drop-in would indicate. 

So, it looks like good times are on the horizon as the temperature drops and the season changes from "Hell" to "tolerable". 

As always, if there is anything you would like me to review, or explain in my own weirdly affable manner, let me know!

What's on my Desktop

Because all the other gunbloggers are jumping off bridges...


This is what I have on my desktop. I've heard it described as "Earthporn" by a friend.

Before that, it was a picture of Power Girl.

Before that, it was a picture of the Andromeda Galaxy.

You could say I have a thing for heavenly bodies.  (ba-dump tish)

Joie Brown, Avatar of Discordianism

Icon? or Iconoclast?  Joie aptly demonstrates the juxtaposition of false dichotomies fnord. 

III - A Discordian is Required during his early Illumination to Go Off Alone & Partake Joyously of a Hot Dog on a Friday; this Devotive Ceremony to Remonstrate against the popular Paganisms of the Day: of Catholic Christendom (no meat on Friday), of Judaism (no meat of Pork), of Hindic Peoples (no meat of Beef), of Buddhists (no meat of animal), and of Discordians (no Hot Dog Buns).