Revenge (TV series)

Revenge is an American primetime television series that airs on ABC, starring Madeleine Stowe and Emily VanCamp, which debuted on September 21, 2011. During its first season it aired on Wednesday nights at 10 pm Eastern/9 pm Central time, and its second season aired Sunday nights at 9 pm Eastern/8 pm Central time.

The series was picked up for a full season by the ABC network television after garnering a 3.3 Nielsen rating in the 18–49 age advertising demographics for its pilot episode and regularly winning its time slot against every other television network (CBS, Fox, The CW, and NBC) in 18–35 demos. Madeleine Stowe was nominated for the 2012 Golden Globe Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a TV Drama, while the series was nominated for Favorite New TV Drama at the 2012 People's Choice Awards. Revenge has become ABC's highest-rated series in Wednesday’s 10 p.m. timeslot since Lost 's 2006–2007 season and has become the only new series in more than four years to replicate the 18–49 demo ratings success that Lost had in its timeslot since leaving the air.

On May 8, 2014, ABC renewed the show for a fourth season, which premiered on September 28, 2014.

Contents

 * 1 Overview
 * 2 Cast and characters
 * 3 Development and production
 * 4 Reception
 * 4.1 Ratings
 * 4.2 Awards and nominations
 * 5 Soundtrack
 * 6 Broadcast
 * 7 References
 * 8 External links

Overview[edit]
Main article: List of Revenge episodes

Emily Thorne (Emily VanCamp) comes to the Hamptons and rents a beach house next to the Grayson family mansion for the summer. Emily is really Amanda Clarke, whose father was framed for treason when she was a little girl. After a lengthy trial, he was imprisoned for life, and was murdered in prison by agents of the people who framed him. Amanda was separated from him after his trial and never saw him afterwards. She has now returned to the Hamptons as an adult to exact revenge on those who wronged her and her father. Her primary target is Victoria Grayson (Madeleine Stowe), matriarch of the Grayson family, who loved and betrayed Amanda's father. The show focuses on Amanda's plot to destroy every individual who played a role in her father's imprisonment. Along the way, she discovers various facts about her father's past which change her plans many times. As the series progresses, Amanda brings in other individuals as allies for her plan.

As Amanda executes the stages of her elaborate plan, she finds it difficult to remain emotionally detached. She struggles to identify her true motivations and examines how her actions change her sense of identity. As she enlists trusted friends into her schemes, she worries how their involvement will change their lives and how she will proceed after she enacts her revenge on those who wronged her and her father.

Cast and characters[edit]
Main article: List of Revenge characters Notes:
 * 1) Jump up^ Josh Bowman's last credited appearance as a series regular was the eleventh episode of the fourth season.
 * 2) Jump up^ Christa B. Allen's last credited appearance as a series regular was the sixth episode of the fourth season.
 * 3) Jump up^ Barry Sloane was on recurring status through the first thirteen episodes of the second season before being credited as a series regular.
 * 4) Jump up^ Brian Hallisay was on recurring status through the first seven episodes of the fourth season before being credited as a series regular.
 * 5) Jump up^ Elena Satine was on recurring status through the first fourteen episodes of the fourth season before credited as a series regular.

Development and production[edit]
In January 2011, ABC ordered the script to pilot. In March 2011, actress Emily VanCamp was cast as the lead character, and shortly afterwards it was released thatAshley Madekwe was cast in the series.[10] Madeleine Stowe and Henry Czerny joined the cast as well.[11] Max Martini and Robbie Amell joined the cast as Frank Stevens, a private investigator and Adam, a wealthy student who is hoping to attend Yale.[12][13] James Tupper replaced Marc Blucas in the role of Emily's father, after Blucas was forced to drop out due to his commitment on Necessary Roughness. Recurring Gossip Girl star Connor Paolo was cast as a series regular playing the character of Declan Porter.[14] Former Nikita star Ashton Holmes landed a recurring role as Tyler Barrol, a Harvard classmate of Daniel Grayson.[15] On 22 April 2013, it was announced that Mike Kelley was stepping down as the executive producer and showrunner after Season 2, current executive producer Sunil Nayar is expected to take over during the anticipated third season.[16] On May 3, 2013, it was confirmed that Sunil Nayar would take the reins after signing a two-year deal with ABC Studios to remain as Executive producer.[17] On May 21, 2013, it was announced that Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts had inked a two-year deal with ABC Studios which will see them serve as executive producers on the upcoming third season alongside Sunil Nayar.[18]

On May 13, 2011, ABC picked the project up to series.[19] On May 17, 2011, ABC announced that the series would air on Wednesday nights at 10:00 pm Eastern/9:00 pm Central, beginning in the 2011 fall season.[2]The pilot was screened early on ABC's website during a promotional tie-in with Amazon Kindle.[20]

It was announced in spring 2014 that a Revenge graphic novel was in the works, published by Marvel Comics. It will explore the origins of Emily Thorne and was released on September 3, 2014.[21]

Reception[edit]
The pilot episode has been met with generally favorable reviews, with 66/100 from 20 media reviews on Metacritic.[22] Dorothy Rabinowitz of The Wall Street Journal praised the series, writing that "The arrival of one pure and unadulterated drama about a passion as old as man is something to celebrate. That's particularly true when that drama is as spellbinding in its satisfyingly gaudy way, as Revenge turns out to be", while awarding particular praise to Van Camp for a "beguiling and entirely chilling study in revenge lust."[23] Writing for The New York Times, Alessandra Stanley compared the series favorably with Gossip Girl, concluding that it has "just enough campy suspense to be enjoyable."[24] Episode 5 of the series received particular acclaim, with C. Orlando of TV Fanatic writing that "Revenge took things to a whole new level this week", and noting with reference to the set-up of David Clarke that "Victoria seems the only one with a conscience".[25]

Yahoo! TV mentioned the series among the top television programs of 2011.[26] The series also made the covers of Parade, Entertainment Weekly and TV Guide, and was featured in Rolling Stone,[27] Vanity Fair,Vogue, People, Us Weekly, Cosmopolitan, Seventeen, and Teen Vogue magazines.

On May 10, 2012, ABC announced that it had renewed Revenge for a second season. The Hollywood Reporter reported that it was one of the first series to get a "stamp of approval" from ABC Entertainment President Paul Lee, who called the show "sexy" and "sticky," telling critics in January, "You just want more of it."[28]

Ratings[edit]
The pilot episode scored 10.02 million viewers in live plus same day, winning the 10 p.m. hour time slot against CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.[29] It was reported that Revenge is the highest rated television series in the hour for ABC since Lost. On October 22, 2011, it was reported that Revenge regularly won its hour in the 18–34 and 18–49 age demographics ahead of CSI and Law & Order: SVU.[30]

After a nearly two-month hiatus beginning on February 29, 2012, Revenge returned on April 18, 2012 at No. 1 in the Nielsen ratings and won its timeslot against every other television network with a first-place finish among Total Viewers, Adults 18–49 and Adults 25–54. Revenge won over an original episode of NBC's Law & Order: SVU in Total Viewers (+33%), Adults 18–49 (+53%) and Adults 25–54 (+45%) and generated big year-to-year time-period gains in Total Viewers (+81%), Adults 18–49 (+35%) and Adults 25–54 (+38%), rising over first-run programming on the same night last year. The April 18, 2012 episode attracted ABC’s largest audience to the hour since the middle of February sweeps on February 15, 2012.[31][32]

Revenge was ABC’s highest-rated series overall in Wednesday’s 10 p.m. hour in more than five years since Lost during the 2006–07 television season.[7]

Revenge premiered strongly during its second season, with a 3.2 adults 18-49 rating. However as the season went on, due to negative feedback on the storyline as well as the scheduling of episodes against The Golden Globes, NFC Championship and The Grammys, Revenge hit lows of 2.0, 1.7 and 1.4 in the adults 18-49 rating respectively, within 3 consecutive episodes. The ratings never recovered back to the levels of the Fall 2012, and eventually ended the season with a 1.7 adults 18-49 rating.

The third season of Revenge premiered down sharply from its second season premiere, with a 2.3 adults 18-49 rating. Some critiques have expressed that the storyline of Revenge will not allow for the series to go on for long, although the ratings continue to prove otherwise.[33]

Awards and nominations[edit]
Revenge was nominated for Favorite New TV Drama at the 2012 People's Choice Awards.[44] Madeleine Stowe received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a TV drama.[45]

Soundtrack[edit]
The music for Revenge is composed by iZLER. In 2013 Intrada released an album featuring selections from his work for the first two seasons.[51] From season three's "Dissolution" onwards, iZLER is credited as Fil Eisler.

Broadcast[edit]
In Australia, it debuted on Seven Network on February 13, 2012,[52] with the second season returning on February 4, 2013,[53]the third season returning on February 3, 2014,[54] and the fourth season returning on February 23, 2015.[55]

In Canada, Revenge airs simultaneously on City.[56][57][58][59]

In Ireland, it airs on RTÉ.[60] In New Zealand, the show airs on TVNZ.[61]

In the United Kingdom, the series premiered on E4 on May 28, 2012,[62] with season two returning on January 7, 2013,[63] season three returning on January 6, 2014,[64] and season four returning on January 5, 2015.[65]