Back in the Spring 2002 “Fight Like a Girl” Issue of BUST, I wrote a feature celebrating flicks about girls getting even. Some of my favorite movies of all time made the list, including Carrie, Nine to Five, and Heathers. And I was reminded again recently what great fodder the young woman + payback formula really is when I received a press screener of the aptly named new ABC drama Revenge*.
Premiering Wednesday, September 21 (10/9 C), the show follows a deceptively sweet-looking young woman named Amanda Clarke (Emily VanCamp of Brothers and Sisters and Everwood) as she returns to the upscale Hamptons beach town where she used to vacation as a kid. But she’s not there to unwind. Unrecognizable to her rich, powerful former neighbors, Clarke assumes a new identity and begins carefully forming relationships with the prominent Grayson clan—a family that once conspired to destroy her father, and will soon regret the day they allowed “Emily Thorne” into their lives.
Every revenge seeker needs a powerful adversary, and in this case, Victoria Grayson, the matriarch who fuels Clarke’s obsession, is a juicy one. Played by big time film actress Madeleine Stowe (Last of the Mohicans, Short Cuts), Grayson is a terrifying vision of what a Real Housewife of New York might look like if she had two brain cells to rub together. Viewers will love to hate her from the very beginning, and the glamorous soirees she constantly throws are a perfect excuse to turn the series into a couture fashion fest reminiscent of glitzy ’80s nighttime dramas like Dynasty and Falcon Crest.
If the first episode is any indication, Revenge is going to be keeping its writers busy manufacturing devious twists and turn for quite some time. Interested in getting on board early? Then check out show’s funny revenge-glorifying website whatisrevenge.com.
*Full disclosure: the aforementioned press screener was sent housed in an iPad. But even if the show had been delivered in a less fancy schmancy way, I still would have liked it.
