Television: Revolution, "The Children's Crusade"

I am finally getting a little bit bored with the overtly manufactured elements of this show. If it were done well, subtly, that would be one thing, but the problem here is in how every plot point falls like a hammer. Sometimes the writers strike more than once in the same place, too, like having Nora explain to Aaron exactly why Miles is reacting the way he is. You know, just in case the viewers somehow failed to connect the planet-sized dots.

Meanwhile, Charlie remains as irritating as ever. And can we go even one week without her throwing herself into some kind of situation, using herself as bait or whatever? Last week it was the Irish people, this week the conscription ship . . . A few weeks back it was to get the gun . . . (Where is that thing, anyway? Do we need that back?)

Fine, fine. So in this episode Our Gang witnesses the capture by the Militia of a teenage boy only to discover this boy had been the primary caretaker for a band of orphans. We get the sad, sad story of how the Militia had come and killed all these kids' parents. Based on the ages of these kids, some of them were what? Only a few months old at the time? Anyway, Charlie is in her element as she insists they must save the abducted boy, and for once Miles agrees. Now, it wouldn't take any kind of mental math to figure out why, but for the remedial class, Aaron asks Nora, and she points out that Miles had been head of the Militia at the time the kids' parents were killed and therefore feels responsible for their situation. Ding ding ding! We have a winner!

Turns out the abducted boy, whose name is Peter, has been sent out to a conscription ship to be basically reprogrammed into becoming a member of the Militia. Is there a Nazi metaphor in here somewhere? Probably, but the fabric of this story is so thin as to make analysis a waste of time and effort.

Of course, Charlie then volunteers to get captured and sent to the ship so she can rescue Peter. The typical series of events follows, including Charlie needing to be rescued by Miles and Nora, and Aaron once again summoning something like a backbone. Seriously, we just did almost the exact same story the week before. The only exciting thing about this week was a lighthouse.

I don't know. I feel like this show could be good if the writing were clever and there was far, far less of Charlie. But as it stands, it's becoming stale. Someone please save it . . . Preferably by not sending Charlie in as a decoy.