Wednesday, July 1, 2015

A Tribute to the TV Show Revenge

It is IWSG day, an event Alex Cavanaugh started to get writers sharing about their insecurities and other things on the first Wednesday of the month. Here in California, it is around 11:30 PM on Wednesday, so I consider myself to have still “made it!”  I believe this is the latest I've ever posted my IWSG post. It has been such a busy summer. I sometimes feel like I'm behind on everything!

My husband and I finally finished watching the series finale of Revenge on our Tivo. While the show had its ups and downs for me as a viewer, the writers kept me hooked nonetheless. A brief intro to Revenge:  Amanda Clark (played by the talented Emily VanCamp) sought revenge on the people who framed her father, David Clark, for treason, and subjected her to a childhood of misery. At the top of her "you're going to be sorry" list were Hamptons royalty Victoria and Conrad Grayson, her father’s former lover and boss, respectively. Other targets were the corrupt judge and the district attorney paid off to wrongly convict Amanda's father, the author paid off to write his unauthorized biography, the therapist paid off to institutionalize Amanda as a child, the foster mother who abused Amanda, etc…

I admired Amanda’s careful execution of her plans, even the ones that failed. She planned ahead, refused to be intimidated by others, and kept working and waiting until she got her revenge.

I imagine some of you shaking your heads as you’re reading this. Dedicating your life to revenge is a bad idea. I don’t believe the writers of the show were promoting revenge as a pastime. But they were tickling the part of our moral center that aches to see justice served to people who seemed to have gotten away with their crimes. And don’t we writers sometimes write for that very reason? 

I also believe that creating or being an audience to a good revenge story can ease our insecurities about the world not being a just place. 

If you watched Revenge, what did you think of the show? The series finale?
What do you think is the appeal behind revenge stories?

9 comments:

Pat Hatt said...

I watched it from beginning to end, some of the stuff in the middle was meh, but overall pretty good. Yeah, a good revenge tale to those who think they got away with it is always fun.

S.P. Bowers said...

I've never even heard of it. Shows how behind I am. It sounds bit like the book Count of Monty Cristo. While I never could approve of his behavior I was fascinated by the details of his plot and I kept reading, hoping for him to find a way to redemption, rather than revenge.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

I've never watched it, but sounds like she gets to do what we'd all secretly like to do!

Romance Reader said...

I was a big fan and watched all episodes...but it sort of ended all of a sudden...or maybe I was not ready for it to end!

Michelle Wallace said...

I'm not really a TV watcher.
You get those who DO dedicate their lives to revenge. It's a reality. I'm not condoning or condemning, but we'll never understand the demons they may be wrestling with...
Writer In Transit

John Wiswell said...

Revenge fiction is rarely my thing, unless the revenge is particularly interesting. I Saw the Devil gets so messy with the failed attempts at revenge that it engages, but I'm not so into "getting back" at people. I'd much prefer we remedied bad situations and prevented further ones rather than avenge them.

Sherry Ellis said...

I haven't seen Revenge, but you have to admire that sort of tenacity.

Claire Annette said...

I started watching it in the middle and felt too lost to go on. I'm glad to have your explanation and think I'll start to watch this show. You've made me very curious about it ends.

Stephanie Faris said...

I watched the first episode...I couldn't get into it. It just didn't have a character that grabbed me right off the bat, as shows I connect with do.

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