Reflections on Revenge
Watching tonight's episode (11/9), I was pleasantly surprised to find myself comparing it to the show that was…And the show I'd hoped it might be.
The first season was a wild ride but still tightly written, with the occasional clever twist and a strong seasonal arc. Of course, Season 2 immediately betrayed everything that came before by slipping grossly into post-cold-war corporate conspiracies and a (now passe) paranoia re the evils of cabalistic power mad one-percenters (I'm not saying one-percenters are no longer evil, power-mad, nor cabalistic, just that they have succeeded in ridding us of our paranoia). Season 3, in response to Season 2's reception, decided the whole previous year had been nothing but a bad dream and tried to pick up some of the shreds of Season 1, but—too late! So they decided instead to go all out camp. It was fun. I laughed a lot, rolled my eyes plenty, but kept tuning in.
So far, Season 4 has been mostly more (and by more I mean MORE) of Season 3. But I thought tonight's episode, especially the scene between Daniel and Emily in the elevator (which may just be the best written—and acted—scene of the last two years) was like a breath of fresh air (except for poor Margeauxxx, who had anything but).