‘Revenge’ a guilty pleasure
BY LORI RACKL TV Critic/lrackl@suntimes.com September 20, 2011 7:12PM
Emily Van Camp stars in “Revenge.” Warns her character:“This is not a story about forgiveness.”
‘REVENGE’ ★★1/2
9 to 10 p.m. Wednesdays on WLS-Channel 7
Updated: November 10, 2011 1:50PM
Take the vengeance-seeking plot of The Count of Monte Cristo and set it in the Hamptons with a bunch of pretty people and you have the framework for ABC’s soapy — and often campy — drama “Revenge.”
“This is not a story about forgiveness,” warns Emily Thorne at the beginning of the show, which gets off to an intriguing start when a man is mysteriously gunned down on the beach.
We learn that Thorne (Emily Van Camp, “Brothers & Sisters”) has unfinished business to settle, and it involves methodically destroying the lives of a slew of rich folks who ruined her father when she was a child.
There’s plenty of guilty pleasure to be had in watching she-wolves in Chanel and their sugar daddies go down week after week. But be prepared to put up with cheesy dialogue and spotty acting along the way. One notable exception to that last part is Madeleine Stowe, who’s a delight to watch as a devilish diva.
