Everyone, we're coming to get you!!!!! (Dead Set)

Member Name: pmcds

Product:	Dead Set
Date:	01/11/09 (28 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Well written, emphasis, FX

Disadvantages: Nothing really

A year ago, to coincide with Halloween, the clever guys over at Channel 4 decided that, in order to help push the upcoming series of Celebrity Big Brother, they would release this 5 part series, giving us a drama featuring the reality TV show, but with a zombie twist.

The story starts as the BB house is on the verge of an eviction night. While Davina McCall is announcing the evictee, unbeknownst to everyone, the production area of the house is overrun with zombified people. Apparently, there has been a mass outbreak of zombies, and now we're all at risk.

What we get right from the off is a slight sense of reality, angling the show from a voyeur point of view, showing the runs around the house, the production studio, Davina off screen, all the things you don't normally see on the show. When the zombies first start coming on, I expected for some reason to see some form of comedy. However, what we got wasn't this at all, and as the body count starts to mount, and word gets out, widespread panic sets in.

A few members stand out from the start, and as those uninfected become less and less, we form our small band of survivors who are struggling to keep the hounds at bay, as it were. Most notable to start with is Jaime Winstone, daughter of Ray and one of the stars of the hard hitting Donkey Punch. She is very good in this.

Andy Nyman is also very good as the arrogant and easily dislikeable producer, Patrick, while others don't really start showing their colours until the last couple of episodes. The cast overall is very good, though, and by the end you really feel like you know the characters very well.

It's a rather serious horror series, albeit only 5 episodes, and it does maintain a sense of tension throughout. You never know when a zombie is going to appear round a corner, and as some of them end up trapped in the house, apparently safe, you wonder who's going to be next. It's dealt with very maturely by writer Charlie Brooker, who adopted a very modern zombie angle. He went with fast, modern zombies, as opposed to the historical and traditional almost slow motion stumbling ones. This, I felt, was a good thing, as it added to the frantic and tense nature. It also made some of the attack scenes more realistic, portraying the zombies as being more athletic and able to give chase effectively.

Overall, this is a series well worth watching if you get the chance. There are some gory moments, some tense elements, and a mature handling of what could have been disastrous in the wrong hands. Brooker writes it very well, and it is transformed onto screen with the right degree of emphasis on the zombies as well as the emotions of the survivors. Recommended.

Summary: Channel/E4's Big Brother zombiefest