Emily Thorne AKA Amanda Clarke (Emily VanCamp, Everwood) is a beautiful, wealthy, self-assured young woman, but she wasn’t always. Some 15 years ago, she was a sweet 9-year-old girl, daughter to widower David Clarke (James Tupper). They had a wonderful life leaving in a beach house in the Hamptons, that is, until David got tangled up with the Grayson family, who live in the mansion next door. As an employee of Conrad Grayson (Henry Czerny) at Grayson Global, he meets Conrad’s beguiling wife, Victoria (Madeleine Stowe), and this is just the beginning of David’s woes. Before he realizes it, he becomes the unwitting patsy in a money laundering scheme with terrorism ties that leads to the downing of a plane filled with people and he instantly becomes America’s Public Enemy #1. Left in the wake of this devastating web of lies that ends with a life in prison and eventually his death is Clarke’s innocent daughter, Amanda (Emily Alyn Lind), who gets caught up in the juvenile system and is forever damaged. What emerges from those ashes is a driven young woman who wants nothing more than to destroy the family and friends who did the same to her.
Emily, who has changed her to name to, ahem, protect the innocent, can’t do this monumental task alone. Her partner-in-crime is eccentric young billionaire Nolan Ross (Gabriel Mann), a brilliant software engineer that David Clarke once mentored. He has his fingers in every digital pie and is able to easily help Emily get information she otherwise couldn’t and to keep tabs on everyone by using bugs. Slowly, one by one, Emily begins taking down those who engineering her father’s doom.
She is able to easily charm Daniel Grayson (Joshua Bowman) and he soon falls captive to her spell, but his mother, Victoria, self-proclaimed "Queen of the Hamptons," is another story altogether. She is quite wary of this pretty young interloper and perhaps recognizes something of herself from many years ago in the girl who is able to so easily slip into their lives and manipulate things. On the complete other side of the coin is Jack Porter (Nick Wechsler), who owns The Stowaway, a local beach bar, with his younger brother Declan (Connor Paolo, Gossip Girl). Jack is Amanda’s first love and she must quell her long-time feelings for him if her plot is to succeed. Declan is smitten by Charlotte Grayson (Christa B. Allen), younger sister to Daniel, but finds trouble fitting in with the rich kids, whereas Jack finds himself strangely drawn to Emily, even though he avoids the Hamptons crowd and their money. Well, he does except for Nolan, who becomes his friend through a strange turn of events, but ends up being quite the ally.
The season is chock full of intrigue and deceit as Emily plots to take down the Graysons from within. By the end of the season, she has not only taken a lot of the players out, but she’s had a few folks hot on her trail as well. Frank (Max Martini), Conrad’s top security man suspects something’s up and because of his devotion to Victoria, goes above and beyond the call of duty landing one person in the hospital and another in the ground. Daniel’s social-climbing roommate, Tyler (Ashton Holmes, Nikita), is too busy worming his way into Grayson Global, but when his plans are threatened, he turns his crosshairs on Emily as well. The explosive season finale leaves us hanging with the tease of an important person from Emily’s past re-emerging, a possible suicide, a handful of murders, a shocking pregnancy, and a few broken hearts.
Revenge is simply fantastic and plays out like a grown up Gossip Girl, with all of the decadent excess and backstabbing, but on a much deeper and more dangerous level. These people have absolutely no problem playing with people’s lives, quite literally, and will stop at nothing to preserve their own. The acting is believable and the Graysons will become the family you love to hate, especially matriarch Victoria, who tears people apart like tissue with her words. Madeleine Stowe is brilliant in this role. Emily VanCamp plays Emily/Amanda perfectly as she is always in complete control, although the viewer knows that a storm lurks beneath her calm surface. My favorite character is Gabriel Mann as Nolan Ross. He completely annoyed me in the first episode, but once his story unfolds, he became my favorite character. Other interesting characters include Emily’s friend and social hanger-on Ashley Davenport (Ashley Madekwe), Victoria’s "best friend," Lydia Davis (Amber Valletta) and Emily/Amanda’s juvi bestie and doppelganger of sorts (Margarita Levieva).
Special features are plentiful and include deleted scenes for just about every episode (listed on each disc for easier viewing); commentary for the pilot episode; two music videos for songs from the haunting and excellent soundtrack; Nolan Ross Exposed, which is an "unauthorized interview" that teases about a twist for next season; Roadmap to Revenge which details the vision for the show; At Home in "The Hamptons" which is a tour of the sets and locations for the show; Haute Hamptons, a featurette on the fantastic fashions of the show; plus a reel of funny bloopers. I was really impressed with the special features and they hit the highlights of what I wanted to know about Revenge. My one and only complaint about Revenge: The Complete First Season is the fact that the backgrounds are CG in a lot of the locations, which is understandable, but still a little distracting.
Simply put, Revenge: The Complete First Season is can’t miss stuff. It’s got a great cast, wicked plotlines, gorgeous settings and fabulous clothes. If you like drama, intrigue and deceit delivered in a package of witty writing and great acting, you’ll love Revenge. Hurry up check it out so you are all set for the season premiere on September 27th.
