For four seasons, Revenge balances icy revenge thriller and bittersweet drama as we follow the main character Amanda Clarke on her uncompromising quest for revenge
With great relish for dramatic entanglements and wicked twists, Revenge on Disney+ unfolds a ruthless intrigue against the picturesque backdrop of the Hamptons. The series cleverly plays with the question of who or what the protagonist is actually willing to sacrifice in order to finally put her revenge plan into action.
Genius revenge thriller on Disney+: This is what Revenge is all about
Inspired by Alexandre Dumas’ novel The Count of Monte Cristo, the series essentially tells the story of a revenge plot: young Amanda Clarke returns to her hometown in the role of the wealthy Emily Thorne.
Here she makes the acquaintance – not by chance – of the wealthy Graysons. They hold Amanda responsible not only for the death of her father, but also for the tragic course of her childhood. In short: Amanda does everything she can to infiltrate the Graysons’ convoluted family life and destroy them from the inside out.
Here you can watch the trailer for Revenge:
Amanda has to realize that the business of revenge is not an easy one. The deeper she digs herself into the family morass of the hated Graysons, the more sordid secrets emerge. At the same time, Amanda becomes more and more like her enemies – or is there still a way out?
Revenge is best served hot and cold: The moral aberrations of Amanda Clarke
The series is not afraid to present its protagonist as an ice-cold beast. With almost notorious schadenfreude, Amanda makes it her life’s work behind her mask of the supposedly guileless Emily Thorne to shake the already fragile house of cards of the unscrupulous Graysons.
In the process, she often makes decisions that deeply hurt or endanger her newfound comrades-in-arms in her vendetta. Amanda – and with her the audience – is repeatedly confronted with the question of whether her revenge actually serves its purpose. And above all, whether the main character will not become the very people she is so hatefully trying to fight on her way, should she see it through to the bitter end.
It is thanks in part to the nuanced performance of lead actress Emily VanCamp (Everwood, Atlanta Medical, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier) that Amanda/Emily does not become a template. She is allowed to be a multi-layered, complicated character who longs to build her own life as much as she wants to reduce someone else’s to rubble.
