Think of a TV show that you’d like to see a zombie outbreak occur during: The Sopranos? The Brady Bunch? Duck Dynasty? What about Big Brother? Well, that’s what this one is about. And it isn’t an episode or a movie, its a miniseries. Bitchin!
For those unfamiliar with Big Brother, it is a reality show in which a number of contestants live in a custom-made house isolated fro the outside world and watched over by "Big Brother," the producers and viewing audience. A regular "eviction night" sees a contestant voted off by the viewing public and a "24-hour Live Feed" allows constant monitoring of the goings on and misadventures of the test subjects... I mean, "contestants." Originally a British program it has gone on to worldwide production and has achieved an unfathomable global following. Now you know.
Yup. Five 30-minute episodes of Great Britain’s most popular reality show just happened to take place as the apocalypse hit. The result is simply brilliant.
And that’s your scenario. The series starts at “Day 64” of the isolated, one-house, “social experiment” where the outside world no longer exists to the contestants and they are all caught up in their petty, encapsulated lives, completely unaware that the world has stopped.
An employee of the show manages to escape the deluge of running snarling undead attackers onto the closed-off set and informs the hapless contestants. It takes one of the undead to break in and do some zombie-esque damage, (the kind only a zombie can wreak on the uninformed, panicky, incredulous, and self-absorbed,) to let the situation sink in.
The show has a great sense of pacing, ending each episode on a point of both set-up and closure, just enough of each to force you to tune in, (or ‘binge watch,’ if you happen to be a zombie film fanatic. And if you are, then welcome, Brother!)
The characters are both annoying and realistic, but the REALLY annoying ones are much made less-so by an obnoxious producer, (played to the suffocating hilt by Andy Nyman!) and his running commentary on them. He is so intolerant of the contestants that it really makes you feel bad for them and their lack of graces. Ingenius device. Truly.
Okay. The zombies run. There: I said it. For those that do not know, I dislike running zombies. The dead should be dead-like: slow and uncoordinated, as George Romero decreed. Not running and growling like animals. I realize there are different schools on this, so I don’t harp on this fact. Plus, in this case, they work. This show needed the fast-paced-type of dead to make this work. Also, very convincing and gory. In essence, great zombies. Go figure.
Heroes, villains, zombies, subplots, a definitive story line, and decent acting. It must be because it was a 'made for BBC4 TV' that this is such an overlooked gem in this country.
So, I held it up to the cold, grey truth of the unforgiving eye of the Zombie Movie Rubric and it was deemed worthy of a 3.5 out of a possible 4.0! Serious stuff. That puts Dead Set in the 'repeated views' and 'highly recommended' categories.
But, If you are NOT the type who likes to own-and-loan, (or simply ‘lord over’ friends and fam,) then GOOD NEWS! The five episodes are findable and viewable on them YouTubes-things! In fact, as I was looking for a trailer for this review, I had to wade through them all to find it. (Your welcome, BTW.)
Trailer: Here ☞ DEAD SET
Worthy of extra mention: Andy Nyman steals every scene as an absolutely intolerable bastard of a producer. Such a great character, but Davina McCall, the long time presenter of the actual show, turns in a surprisingly convincing performance as both herself alive, and herself dead and full-on zombie menace!
Yup, that's Davina McCall.
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