“Reality Check” is—drum roll please—a great episode of Revival. Perhaps the first even good episode of Revival. It actually flowed properly and felt like it was utilizing the interesting questions at the heart of its premise while maintaining solid, cohesive plotlines. I wasn’t frustrated; I wasn’t thrown off. The episodic and the serialized nature of this story are finally working in harmony.
Let’s go back into the powder keg of possible issues that is Revival with the next episode, “Keeping Up Appearances.” And I am happy to say that this episode doesn’t turn into what I expected. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t have issues; it’s just not the episodic structure I assumed a show like this would default to. It’s remaining an ongoing drama.
Revival has kind of a bad first episode in a lot of ways, but does reveal how a good premise can carry an audience through the initial setup. And that one big, showy premise can give rise to several core questions/concepts that are so intriguing, and open so many doors for seasons of storytelling that it’s hard not to want to see what could happen next.
