By Dean Robbins

Lights out

‘Revolution’ imagines a world with no electricity

J.J. Abrams’ “Revolution” (Monday, 9 p.m., NBC) plunges you into an alternate reality. Ben (Tim Guinee) hurries home to tell his wife (Elizabeth Mitchell), “It’s happening.” Then “it” abruptly happens: The electricity shuts off all around the world. We see stunning images of lights going out down a highway, then all around the Earth.

Fast forward 15 years, and the world has reverted to a chaotic state. Humans huddle in small clans, armed with primitive weapons. Militias terrorize the countryside, controlled by a warlord named Monroe (David Lyons). Ben’s teenage daughter (Tracy Spiridakos) heads off on a quest to find her surviving uncle (Billy Burke) in hopes of protecting her extended family from Monroe’s depredations.

There is much more to tell, but I don’t want to spoil any of the surprises. All I’ll say is: Watch. This. Program.

The premise is beautifully thoughtful, both in the plot and the imagery. The apocalyptic scenario isn’t the downer you’d expect, thanks to thrilling action scenes and a welcomed streak of humor. The actors make you care about the characters — though don’t get too attached to any of them, since they’re prone to die or turn traitor.

Who knew that the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it could be so wonderful?

‘Yukon Men’

Friday, 9 p.m. (Discovery)

Discovery’s gorgeously-filmed reality series ventures into the Alaskan tundra to chronicle a small town’s struggle for survival. The 200 people in Tanana are facing the worst winter in a century with 60-below temperatures. There are no roads into Tanana, but wolves know how to get there, with that jaws that “snap shut at 1,500 pounds of pressure per-square-inch, easily enough to tear a man apart!” explains the sadistic narrator. If the wolves don’t get you, the “monster bears” will. And if you do happen to live to see another day, you can enjoy eating your sled dog for dinner.

As horrible as it is in Tanana, I can’t feel sorry for the residents who chose to live there. But the poor cameraman who obviously drew the short straw back at Discovery headquarters? Him I feel sorry for.

‘The Mob Doctor’

Monday, 8 p.m. (Fox)

We know viewers like shows about hot, single women, doctors and mobsters. So why not a show about a hot, single woman doctor who works for the mob? Grace (Jordana Spiro) is a plucky Chicago surgeon hoping to make a difference. Unfortunately, her family is mixed up with mobsters — the kind of TV mobsters who, for some reason, look and talk like characters in a 1930s James Cagney movie.

In the pilot, Grace must decide whether or not to follow their orders and kill a stoolie on the operating table. As if that weren’t enough excitement for one episode, she also gets in a life-or-death car chase, has sex with a hunky colleague, engineers an illegal operation on a pregnant 14-year-old and keeps quiet when the mob boss offs a guy right in front of her.

HBO or Showtime might have dug into the moral complexities of this story, but Fox wants Grace to be a standard sympathetic prime-time heroine. In episode one, the network has already hit rock bottom in terms of shamelessness. Which means, of course, that I can’t wait for episode two.

‘Be Good Johnny Weir’

Monday, 9 p.m. (Logo)

Johnny Weir, the gay Olympic figure-skater, is “feeling really lost” in his reality series’ new season. He’s decided to stop skating competitively and become a singer and impresario. This opens him to mockery, even from his own agent. “I hate when people don’t think I’m serious,” he says. “It’s extremely motivating.”

When Weir is motivated, watch out. He has an athlete’s intensity, though he also owns up to his fears. We get close enough to him to share his anxiety — always expressed with sharp wit. In short, he comes across as an authentic guy even in the context of reality-show artifice.

I, for one, think he’s serious. CV