Of all the pilots aired at Comic-Con

As Comic-Con winds down to a close each year, it is always interesting to realize what people are talking about most. This year there were two pilots aired during Comic-Con that I consistently heard people saying good things about. One I did not have a chance to see, Arrow. One woman from Australia very coyly told me, "there's this thing with his father... oh I hope they do something with it, because it looks like it could just be so..." then she glanced around as if some one might over hear us, "interesting!" I admit it, as curious as I already was, tidbits and rumors like that moved it up my list of I want to see this when it comes on.

I don't read the comic book it is based on, or perhaps I should say inspired by, but as often as not, that is a positive as much as a negative. I imagine they'll change as many things as they keep... and I am now chomping at the bit to find out just what it is they might be doing with his father.

The other TV pilot that had people talking, and me right there among them, was Cult. We'll have to wait until mid-season, which is always hard. There are times when I wish Comic-Con were more than once a year, as I know those who come see this as their one chance for the next 11 months and 3 weeks to show us anything and everything they want us to see, so sometimes we see things so very very far ahead it makes the mind spin. But the rest of me knows Comic-Con is such a sensory overload I can't imagine many of us would survive it two or four times a year.

When the other pilots I saw air, I'll tune in, The Following, 666 Park Avenue, and Revolution all appear well worth giving a chance. And hopefully, next year, I'll be attending a panel for a second season of more than one of the shows I've discovered thanks to the 2012 Comic-Con International in San Diego.

Revolution

Could you survive in a world without power? If you were the computer reliant, tech-savy, electronics-dependant sort of soul (like myself) could you transition to a world in which electricity simply ceased to exist?
That is the premise of Revolution, and why the logo of the show is the all so often seen in our lives power button icon.

The image that hung over the convention center is what I tend to think of as 'in the know' advertising. If you know the power button represents Revolution and a lack of power, you know exactly what that banner is all about. And for those who didn't, there was a broken down feris wheel near the trolley tracks, where water bottles were occasionally being handed out, bottles that conveniently said 'Revolution,' and TVs showing the trailer for the show. Overall I liked the pilot, but there were a few plot aspects towards the end that frustrated me. There was one subplot I wished they hadn't had. Maybe, if I'm lucky it will quickly fall by the wayside.

When the pilot ended there were no closing credits to alert the Comic-Con staff time to turn on the lights in the room was approaching, so, for a moment we were without lights... as if we had no power. The poetry, or irony, of the moment was not lost on the crowd, but fear not, cell phones and eager to help audience members to the rescue! Within seconds the moderator was lit up while waiting for the room lights to come on.

When the actors came out and were introduced there were some non-surprises, after all, we had gone in search of Uncle Miles, so I expected Uncle Miles (Billy Burke) to come out on stage. And Charlie (Tracy Spiridakos) had been the one to go in search, so again, I expected Charlie to come out. Then came out JD Pardo who plays Nate, a seemingly small character in the pilot who there is reason to believe might recur, but I hadn't thought the pilot established as guaranteed to be every week, and yet, there he was on the panel. The other character/actor I was surprised to find is a regular was Giancarlo Esposito as Tom Neville. While I saw the importance of the character and how him motivated the events of the pilot, somehow I did not think he would be regular for all of season 1. It was another character that felt like he would recur for several episodes to drive events forward, then having played his part 'be dealt with' by Uncle Miles.

On the other side of that coin, I was surprised Anna Lise Phillips, a surrogate mother of sorts to Charlie was not available for the panel, nor were Graham Rogers (Danny, Charlie's younger brother who instigates a lot of the plot) or Zak Orth (Aaron Pittman) on stage. It felt as though only half of the cast was in attendance, with no real explanation given for how they had picked which half of the cast from the pilot they had chosen... and given at least two of them felt like characters unlikely to last through the season, the choices felt even odder.

But, perhaps, like everything about the show Revolution itself, they were simply choices made to leave the audience feeling a bit off-kilter and out of their comfort zone. Something the show Revolution does all too well.

It's a world of bows and arrows. Raising your own sheep and chicken, and knowing your own home remedies for things like asthma. A glimpse of a world in which some people want to live, because there is no boss calling on your cell phone at inopportune times, yet others are convinced they would not last three days in. After all, can you card wool, or shear a sheep? Or would you be praying your clothing lasted forever, or you kept finding nicely preserved clothing everytime what you had wore out?

As always look for video of wb panels, such as the Revolution Panel at the wb comicon site.

Comic-Con - visible at a distance on San Diego Skyline

For years as I have attempted to explain the San Diego Comic-Con to would be attendees I've used phrases like "over 100,000 people in one building at one time," or "the size of several football fields side by side, all under one roof" yet I could tell from their expressions the full weight of what I was trying to explain, the sheer size of San Diego Comic-Con, aka Comic-Con International, was not truly sinking in. Then again, if you have never experienced that large crowd of people, the huge displays for movies, tv show, and, of course, comic books, how can you truly grasp what is going on without someone telling/showing you?

This year we arrived early in San Diego and decided to visit a favorite old spot for viewing the San Diego skyline, Cabrillo National Monument. When I lived in San Diego it was a favorite place to taking visiting guests so they could see the harbor and skyline and get a grasp for how large and spread out a city San Diego is. While they day we chose was foggier than I would have liked for taking pictures, I almost immediately realized I had found a place that shows better that I can say, just how big Comic-Con, and its accompanying advertising is.

As the crow flies, Cabrillo National Monument, which sits out on the end of a peninsula at the edge of the San Diego harbor, and basically overlooks the mouth to the harbor and greets ships as they sail in, is (my best guess) 5 miles from the San Diego Convention Center where Comic-Con is held.

Look towards the far right of the photo (click on the photo to see it larger) and you can see the logo for the NBC tv show Revolution which is on a HUGE banner taking up most of the side of a hotel next to the convention center. (Looking for the sails on the roof of the San Diego convention center may help you find it faster.

In this second view we zoomed in closer, overlooking the harbor, Coronado Island is still in the foreground, but the photo is now dominated by the San Diego convention center to the left, and the Revolution banner from the NBC show on the hotel to your right.

As we drove down Harbor Blvd. checking out the convention center area, we of course saw other banners, and realized that when we looked closely at our photos we could make out the red one for INJUSTICE that hung on one end of the Marriot. But the one for Revolution, perhaps in part because it was a single very large and simple logo, was easy to make out in the distance from Cabrillo.