Rick doing what he does best: Killin' Zombies

I’ve been eagerly anticipating the forthcoming tv adaptation of one of my favourite graphic novels, the zombie apocalypse serial The Walking Dead, ever since I heard in August last year that AMC were going to produce a tv series based on the comics and Frank Darabont (The Mist and Shawshank Redemption) would direct.

The past couple of weeks have seen a flurry of encouraging announcements, with AMC confirming that at least six episodes will be made. Shooting begins in June and will be broadcast from October this year. In addition, Robert Kirkman, the creator and writer of the comic books, will be one of the executive producers, which should in theory ensure that the adaptation should be faithful to the original text.

AMC also announced that Andrew Lincoln would play Rick Grimes. I’m not so sure about this:  for one thing, he’s English not from Kentucky and unless he does a mean Southern accent he won’t be a faithful Rick.

I’m hoping this a masterstroke along the lines of Hugh Laurie in House but I just can’t see Egg from This Life as the cop-turned-leader from the comics. Kirkwood says that Lincoln is Rick in the AMC press release, but then again he would say that wouldn’t he?

Survivors

The post-apocalypse is going through something of a renaissance on British TV at the moment. A remake of ‘Day of the Triffids’ has been announced; Halloween saw the zombie-Big Brother mini-series ‘Dead Set’ while the  weeks running up to Christmas saw a remake of ‘Survivors’ – the classic 70s post-apocalyptic series set in a world where nearly everyone has perished to a highly infectious disease. While it had its moments, ultimately the remake was an unsatisfying affair, with a succession of nagging gripes that overshadowed a pretty slick production.

70’s Survivors: Modernity Rebooted

The first series was a classic case of a ‘cosy catastrophe’ (a term coined by Brian Aldiss in relation to John Wyndam’s ‘Day of the Triffids’), with a very intelligent take on what was likely to transpire in a world where nearly everyone had succombed to the virus and all the trappings of civilisation had broken down.

There were numerous nice touches, not least a scene when one of the characters notes that the orange they are eating is likely to be the last orange they will ever taste: the infrastructure that had produced, transported and sold those oranges had gone and would not return in their lifetime.

If time and space had been ‘annihilated’ by technological improvements in transport and communications from the industrial revolution onwards, the post-apocalyptic world had re-established those boundaries once again.

On a week-by-week basis, ‘Survivors’ tracked the decline and fall of modernity as the few people who weren’t killed by the virus huddled together in tiny groups as the remnants of modern society (notably food and fuel) began to expire. They had to effectively reboot society to a pre-industrial age, learning traditional skills like farming if they were to survive.

It was great stuff – especially the first two series and had aged remarkly well for a 30 year-old tv programme: when I watched the episodes a couple of years ago for the first time, I was hooked and saw them pretty much back to back.

Survivors Remake: A very ordered apocalypse

Although conceptually similar to the original, the new series of ‘Survivors’ is based on Terry Nation’s novel, with a number of changes to characters and events from its 70s predecessor.  Jenny was killed off early on but her sprit lives on in the shape of doctor Anya; Tom Price is no longer the weasel he was in the original, replaced by an amoral bank robber who shares his name but little else. The series also more accurately reflects a multi-cultural Britain than the overwhelming white, middle-classness of the original.

The main thrust of the show is similar to the original: the few remaining survivors huddling together in an empty world populated by anarchic gangs and dwindling resources. Characterisation is decent, especially the aforementioned ‘new’ Tom who is compelling ambivalent, while the relationship between Al and Najid is particularly interesting. Unfortunately, Greg’s now a little dull and Abby is still annoyingly looking for her son (she spent a whole series looking for him first time around and she was still interjecting pretty much every conversation with a ‘Have you seen my Peter’ in the remake).

While it is a highly polished effort, ultimately this reinterpretation of ‘Survivors’ is somewhat lacking.  The original series was great precisely because there was this sense of anarchy, with the few people who were immune to the virus having to rebuild society by themselves. While there were pockets of authority (such as the paramilitary group and the London-based settlement), in effect the survivors had to fend for themselves. Order had collapsed and no-one was going to save them.

However, perhaps in a reflection of a contemporary society where the Government is more powerful than ever before, the remake cannot seem to imagine a world without the state. The sole remaining Government minister trying to rebuild order from an eco-centre, while there is a woeful  sub-plot about the underground research facility, faintly reminiscent of the Umbrella Corporation in Resident Evil, who are trying to find a cure for the disease. These are run by BAD SCIENTISTS who kill innocent people in the name of research and eventually sweep up Abby at the end of the series, as apparently her immunity to the virus can be the source of a cure.

It is as though some executive didn’t think that the basic premise of a post-epidemic Britain was enough for the main characters to overcome, so they had to introduce a shadowy organisation as well. This detracts from the main concept of surviving in a world without modern trappings and becomes just another bog-standard scenario where the good guys overcome the big bad organisation.

I was surprised that they didn’t really take into account many changes in the past 30 years, especially the internet (which was originally developed as a way to communicate after a nuclear war) – the only real sign of modern technology was when characters seemed waved their mobile phones in the air hoping to find a signal. However, at least initially there would have been some chatter online about the virus, before electricity and the ISPs died. Other recent post-apocalyptic productions (ie. ‘Diary of the Dead’) pointed to this trend and it is surprising that Survivors by-passed it completely.

Ultimately, the remake of ‘Survivors’ was a disappointment. The look and feel of the programme was too clean and there was never really a sense that this was a genuinely post-apocalyptic world. Yes, the cities were empty and gangs rode around streets in sports cars but 28 Days Later this was not. Where were the dead bodies lining the streets or did all the flu victims neatly go home to die? Why were the main characters not stubbled and unwashed? Why did no-one complain about the smell? Where were the rats? And where the over-riding anxiety that this was the end of the world as we know it?

Despite these problems ‘Survivors’ managed to garner enough of an audience to get a second series commissioned, which is due to be broadcast later this year.

Dead Set

Where would you like to be when the zombie apocalypse hits? Would you want to be hanging out in an abandoned farm-house? A suburban shopping mall? Or an underground military facility? Probably the last place I would want to be at the best of times is the Big Brother house, forced to live with a variety of wannabe-celebs while each of my words and actions were monitored by the world at large.

Imprisoned with these unappealing people while outside is being eaten by hungry zombies is even less appealing. However, this is the premise of ‘Dead Set’; an E4 mini-series for Halloween that mashes-up the zombie genre with reality tv.

‘Dead Set’ is a brilliant premise not least because the Big Brother contestants are effectively cocooned from contact with from the outside world during their stay. By fusing together the zombie genre with reality television, there is considerable scope for social commentary and for gentle mocking of shows like BB.

While the five-part series had its moments – especially in the form of the zombie Davina – ultimately the series could not fulfil the expectations of its concept. Characterisation was weak (with the exception of the particularly odious moustached producer Patrick); the horror was deritative with too many nods to other (better) movies;  the pacing was flat and the plotting mediocre.

When I was watching it, I had this nagging feeling that they took the lazy option. While there was an undercurrent of media satire (people watching Big Brother are zombies) it wasn’t strong enough. Why bother set the progamme in the Big Brother house if they didn’t use it more – the characters could have stayed in the set as a relatively safe option for an extended period of time (as in ‘Dawn of the Dead’) while outside the world descended into chaos. The mundane actions of the contestants would have been highlighted even more if they were in there for weeks as opposed to days. This would have allowed more interesting scenarios such as viewers determined to watch Big Brother even though there were zombies outside, or  zombies sitting on the sofa watching/wanting to eat the Big Brother contestents? Alternatively, they could have made more of the zombies-as- contestants analogy, although considering the programme was made with the full backing of BB, this was probably unlikely to be realised.

While ‘Dead Set’ was enjoyable it certainly wasn’t ground-breaking and considering the potential of the concept, it should have been better. However, it is interesting that after ‘Shaun of the Dead’, zombie apocalypses are becoming increasingly mainstream and I wouldn’t be surprised if there were more zombie mashups to come.