After watching the preview commercial for ABC’s new prime time series Revenge I have to admit I was completely put off. How many more shows do we need about rich suburban types from the richest neighborhoods doing bad things? After watching the pilot episode what I found wasn’t some trashy CW deviate that confirmed all of my suspicions about the show but a complex tale that will have me coming back week after week. I was pleasantly surprised and I hope that a lot of people just don’t assume the same things I did after seeing the commercial and disregard it. Definitely one to watch.

The story centers on Emily Thorne, a young woman who has just moved into a beach house in The Hamptons. Much like the rest of the population Emily has a secret. While most of the men and women in the area have secrets that include affairs, money scandals, and drug problems, Emily’s secret is darker, more sinister. What’s her secret you ask? She was once a young girl living with her Father in the very house she’s renting, that is, before they took everything away including her Father. Now Emily has returned to take her revenge on the people who took her childhood away from her, the very same people who profited from her pain and now rule The Hamptons as kings and queens.

There are a lot of familiar faces on the show including that of its star Emily Van Camp who was on both Everwood and Brothers & Sisters as a regular. Also starring is Madeline Stowe (Twelve Monkey’s, We Were Soldiers), Connor Paolo (Gossip Girl, World Trade Center), Christa B. Allen (Youth In Revolt), Gabriel Mann (Bourne Identity, Bourne Supremacy), and more. What’s more is the show is evenly spread with characters ranging from filthy rich to middle class and the emphasis is never really pushed, at least in this first episode, that the characters are anything but human. Their not identified by their wealth, only their deeds. That alone is an alluring factor in the show that had me watching without being able to pull away. In the first ten or fifteen minutes of the show your invested in each and every one of the characters in the show and your rooting for Emily, hating the bad guys, and locked on other characters that are as mysterious as where this show will end up by the end of the first season. I’m already looking forward to next week which is a bit scary because these days if something is great it usually gets the shaft. Let’s hope not. As always final judgment is yours. Enjoy.