The Year Zero

Anyone else watching Survivors and if so, do you think it’s any good?

I can’t make up my mind. I feel I’ve invested 2.5 hours of my time in it (over 2 episodes) so I ought to follow it to the end. I remember being very disappointed by that other (similar) drama that was on a while ago with a related plot (though that was pre-apocalypse; this is post).

Survivors is OK so far. I wouldn’t review it as yet as only 2 out of 6 episodes have so far aired. It’s watchable but the clichéd characters don’t do a huge amount for me. Abby, the ‘mother and home-maker’, is about as clichéd as they come. Matriarchal, only sees the good in people, is a fighter, etc, etc. I found her acting in the last episode pretty unconvincing (she’s trying to find the man who may lead her to her son).

As dramas go it’s too mainstream for me (in its rendering). However, I do like the storyline (because it’s basically a modern day Lord of the Flies) but am just not convinced by the acting. It’s the people you’d expect to see in Casualty or Hollyoaks suddenly cast in a Heroes-esque drama and for me that doesn’t work.

Anyway, this is a remake of the 1970s version which was carried over 30 episodes or something. I do wonder if that was better and also the book.

Imagine being the only survivor of a disease that kills every member of your family, that kills lovers, strangers, friends, nearly everyone you’ve ever met.

You are among the lonely few to live and now you must start over in a strange new world where everything that was once safe and familiar is now strange and dangerous.

Set in the present day, Survivors focuses on the world in the aftermath of a devastating virus which wipes out most of the world’s population. What would we do? How would any of us cope in a brave new world where all traditional 21st Century comforts – electricity, clean running water, advanced technology – have disappeared?

These are the questions faced by the bewildered but resilient group of survivors at the centre of the drama. It is an opportunity for new beginnings, but with no society, no police and no law and order, they now face terrible dangers – not just the daily struggle for food and water but also the deadly threat from other survivors.

“Survivors is about what it means to be human,” explains writer and executive producer Adrian Hodges. “It asks questions about our nature and confronts us with our deepest fears. When everything else is stripped away, would we band together and find the best in ourselves, or would we fall apart and retreat into barbarism and savagery? Survivors is about adventure, fear, love, loyalty and friendship. But above all, it’s about new hope.”

Survivors, by Adrian Hodges is a re-imagining of the classic 1970s BBC drama series which was based on the novel by Terry Nation. It launched in April 1975 and ran for 38 episodes over three series.
Source: BBC Survivors website