Madeleine Stowe (right) is the Van Camp’s nemesis, Victoria Grayson. (ABC)
Revenge isn’t a dish best served cold, it’s a bottomless casserole that everyone gorges on by the sterling silver sporkful — or at least that’s the case on ABC’s latest hit drama, “Revenge.”
The premise of the delightfully soapy series is that Emily Thorne (Emily VanCamp) has returned to the Hamptons to punish every last person who had a hand in framing her father for treason and otherwise ruining her life when she was just a nine-year-old girl.
Her primary targets are wealthy Victoria (Madeline Stowe) and Conrad Grayson (Henry Czerny), parents of her new fiance Daniel (Joshua Bowman) — and the couple that spearheaded Emily’s dad’s frame-up nearly two decades ago.
Every week, Emily exacts some kind of revenge upon the couple.
So far, the vindictiveness has ranged from not-at-all accidentally revealing Conrad’s affair with Victoria’s BFF to ruining Victoria’s precious charity party and encouraging Daniel to go see the girl he nearly killed in a drunk-driving accident despite his having promised his parents that he’d cut off all contact with her.
Considering the fact that “Revenge” just scored a full-season order — and shows great promise for a second season — any viewer with half a brain has to be asking: how soon before “Revenge” gets renamed “Emily’s Big Grudge.”
Precisely to prevent that stagnant state of narrative affairs, series creator Mike Kelley says that he’s implemented the writers’ room directive that “the punishment needs to fit the crime. If somebody keys Emily’s car, she’s not going to take a bazooka to the back of their head.”
In short, “If she’s ever petty, it’s because the crime against her was petty,” he says.
What will keep the series going through the rest of its run — whether it’s one season or six — is that “For Emily, revenge does not have a finite end,” Kelley says. “Her idea of revenge is to make these people suffer as deeply and as long as she and her father suffered.
“She doesn’t want to push Conrad over a cliff or run Victoria over with a car, she wants them to suffer everyday, so the longer she can draw this out, that’s her version of a successful revenge and that’s what will sustain the series, continuing her torment of the family.”
Helping to take some of the pressure off Emily’s actions — and keeping things from becoming pathetically petty — is the introduction of other characters’ desires for revenge.
Take, for example, Daniel’s Harvard Business buddy Tyler (Ashton Holmes), who was recently revealed as a “gay for pay” con man after being blackmailed another man, newly bisexual Nolan (Gabriel Mann). While his plans haven’t been fully realized, it’s a safe bet that they’re going to be outrageous in a “Talented Mr. Ripley” way.
And then there’s Grayson daughter Charlotte (Christa B. Allen) who’s hopes to tick off Victoria by dating a kid from the wrong side of the tracks (Conor Paolo). As for Victoria, she embark on her own revenge plot during February sweeps when Daniel’s shooter is revealed.
“You will find that revenge is a permeating theme on the show, it’s not just referring to Emily’s storyline, but everybody will be wronged and everybody will have their opportunity at it,” Kelley says.
Does that mean that every character in the series will be settle a score?
“If they’re wronged, yeah,” Kelley says, adding that this desire to seek vengeance might even extend to some of the more “good guy” characters down the line, who’ve thus far managed to stay above the fray by letting potential wrongs slide.
“We’re going to mess some of these more noble characters up and challenge them to either stay true to their principles or maybe give in to more base motivation,” he hints.
As you’re watching “Revenge,” Kelley urges you to keep in mind the Confucius quote that opened the series: “Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.”
“The only way out of revenge,” he says, “is either demise or forgiveness, so that’s where we’re ultimately headed.”
REVENGE
Wednesday,10 p.m., ABC