Revenge (season 1)  The first season of the ABC American television drama series "Revenge" premiered on September 21, 2011 and concluded on May 23, 2012, with a total of 22 episodes. The series was created by Mike Kelley and is inspired by the Alexandre Dumas novel "The Count of Monte Cristo". The series stars Madeleine Stowe and Emily VanCamp. Emily Thorne (Emily VanCamp) comes to the Hamptons, renting a home next to the Grayson family to enjoy a bright summer. However, it is revealed that Emily has been to the Hamptons before as a little girl. In reality, Emily is Amanda Clarke, whose father was framed for a crime he did not commit and sent to prison for life. She was permanently separated from him and never saw him again. Now, she has returned to the Hamptons, intent on getting revenge against those who wronged her and her father, the top of that list being Victoria Grayson (Madeleine Stowe), matriarch of the Grayson family and the woman whom her father loved and who, in the end, betrayed him. As she sets her plan in motion, Emily tries to navigate the upper society to destroy those who betrayed her father. But the further she goes, the more her emotions get involved and the more she questions her motives and the moves she makes. In January 2011, ABC ordered the script to pilot. In March 2011, actress Emily VanCamp was cast as the lead character, and shortly afterwards it was released that Ashley Madekwe was cast in the series. Madeleine Stowe and Henry Czerny joined the cast as well. Max Martini and Robbie Amell joined the cast as Frank Stevens, a private investigator and Adam, a wealthy student who is hoping to attend Yale. James Tupper replaced Marc Blucas in the role of Emily's father, after Blucas was forced to drop out due to his commitment on "Necessary Roughness". Recurring "Gossip Girl" star Connor Paolo was cast as a series regular playing the character of Declan Porter. Former "Nikita" star Ashton Holmes landed a recurring role as Tyler Barrol, a Harvard classmate of Daniel Grayson. On May 13, 2011, ABC picked the project up to series. On May 17, 2011, ABC announced that the series would air on Wednesday nights at 10:00 pm Eastern/9:00 pm Central in the 2011 fall season. The first season has been met with generally favorable reviews, with a collective score of 8.3/10 from 37,268 users on IMDb and 65/100 from 20 media reviews on Metacritic.