UK: Survivors

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I just heard about this show - I believe it just had its first episode tonight in the UK? Its about a group of survivors of a global flu pandemic, and it sounds fascinating.

I hope I can figure out a way to watch it. Its a 6 part series (a long mini-series? :lol) and it sounds great.

Linkies: http://primetime.unrealitytv.co.uk/watch-survivors-on-bbc-one/

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Anyone in the UK watching this show? :)

[Dasquian Belargic]

I downloaded it from BBC iPlayer, so I'll be watching the first episode tonight. Will report back on how it goes ;)

[Rutabaga]

When I saw the topic of this thread, I thought it was about a UK version of Survivor. :lol

I would imagine that it will air on BBC America next year, especially if it does well in the UK ratings and gets good critical reviews.

[Dasquian Belargic]

My thoughts on the first episode:

It was an interesting take on the 'end of the world' concept which we so most often in zombie movies. A flu pandemic leaves the majority of the worlds population dead and, as the title implies, only a small number of survivors remain. Rather than being pitted against zombies or some other monster foe, the survivors are facing... well, two things mainly: first, the prospect of surviving without the amenities they are so used to (electricity, telephone communication, clean running water, food supplies, petrol, law enforcement, etc etc the list is endless really) and secondly, other humans. One of my favorite scenes was a character overcoming the first obstacle (i.e. the world), when she reaches an 'automatic door' and realizes that it will no longer open because there is nothing powering it. After an unsuccessful attempt to pull the doors open, she just drives her car right through the glass!

The big question that most of the character interactions seem to be posing is "How would you survive this situation?" We have a character in a four-by-four, who has stocked up on survival gear and plans to eke out an uncomfortable living on a remote farm somewhere. We also have an escaped convict, a young doctor, a rich play-boy, a 10 year old boy and a mother who is searching for her (possibly dead) son. What skills do each of these people have that would allow them to survive, and how can they come together to begin to form a new society, given the complete collapse of government control? This is something they are considering less than a week after the virus has wiped out the majority of the planets population. For them, there isn't any time to grieve.. they have to start planning for the future right away.

The end of the episode was, for me, unexpected and strange - as we see someone, presumably in the government, making his way into an air-tight labratory, saying it is "time to begin." It's heavily implied here that the virus is man-made, but for what purpose?

The previews for the next episode show our band of survivors encountering others, who seem to have taken a more tribal approach to survival and have killed people who tried to loot from shops on their 'turf'.

All in all, I'd say it was definitely worth watching :)

[Dasquian Belargic]

Episode Two plot and thoughts:

This episode focused mainly with how the Survivors deal with meeting other Survivors. Faced with the reality of having to survive on their own, the group decide that they must go out foraging on a daily basis, to find supplies of food, water and so on. They head down to the local supermarket, only to discover the body of a dead man hanged in one of the isles, with a sign reading "LOOTER" around his neck.

Not long after this, we meet the people apparently responsible for the 'looters' death. Dexter and his gang are a bunch of drunken thugs, basically. The problem is, they're also armed. Dexter has a rifle and seems quite willing to shoot anyone who trespasses on his territory - which includes pretty much anywhere that he sets foot on.

We also meet another pair of survivors, Sarah and Bob, who have been living in a huge supplies depot, containing everything that they could need to survive for the rest of their lives. One of the original group is given an offer, by Sarah, to stay in the depot with her, and to turn the place into a business by offering goods to anyone who is willing to work for them. The choice seems to come down to staying in one place and surviving, quite selfishly, or moving on and looking for a self-motivated way of surviving. Two of the others, for instance, find some chickens which they bring back to the groups 'home base', so they can farm their own eggs.

We also get to see the reprocussions of one of the characters accidentally killing someone. The kid of the group raids a sweet shop, when the owner suddenly appears with a baseball bat. The older of the pair steps in to stop the boy from getting hurt, and when he shoves the shopowner backwards into a shelf, the owner ends up dead.

The whole question of whether or not you're willing to 'stoop' to the level of killing someone to survive seemed to be the main theme of this episode, really. The convict who is part of the original group keeps reminding the others not to expect everyone they meet to be 'good people', because the virus has exposed the human race for what it really is: selfish, greedy, ruthless, etc.

We also got another glimpse of the labratory where people - not sure who - are locked away from the world, working on some secret project. I'm guessing that we'll start to get more info on this in the next episode, if the previews are anything to go by. To be honest, though, I'm more interested in the character interactions between the survivors than I am in the nefarious scheme that seems to be behind the virus outbreak.

[Dasquian Belargic]

For anyone who did watch this, the second series started this week:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00pzch5/Survivors_Series_2_Episode_1/

[Rutabaga]

I follow BBC America on Twitter, and the series is starting here on February 13th. :)

[Lilaena De'Ville]

First season or second? I never got to see the first season. :(

[Rutabaga]

A later tweet said that they would be showing seasons 1 and 2 back to back.

[Vega Van-Derveld]

That is a much better idea, because I had a hard time remembering what had happened in the first 6 episodes, even with a couple of flashbacks.

[Rutabaga]

I watched an hour of BBC America last night (the premiere of The In-Betweeners, which was very naughty and hilarious, even with all the bleeps), and they were advertising Survivors very, very heavily. Premiere is definitely Saturday February 13th at 8pm ET. Looks very moody and atmospheric.

[Dasquian Belargic]

I'm pleasantly surprised to hear that The In-Betweeners is showing over there. It's not made by the BBC - nor is the majority of our quality comedy these days, it mostly comes from Channel 4. I'd definitely recommend trying to watch whatever you can of The In-Betweeners and, if you enjoy that, try looking into Peep Show :)

[Rutabaga]

I haven't heard of the Peep Show, so I don't think it's been shown here yet, if it ever IS going to be shown. If it DOES show up, I'll give it a whirl.

While watching The In-Betweeners and laughing my ass off at it, all I could think is that if someone over here tries to remake it for US TV, it will NEVER work. It would be so watered down it would be ridiculous.

And speaking of remaking things for US TV, I read online last week that there's going to be an American version of Torchwood??!!!?? No, don't like that idea at all. And apparently SyFy (?) is developing an American version of Being Human. George the werewolf is so precious and priceless in the UK version, I don't like the idea of a US version of that either.

Before showing Survivors, they're finishing up Demons, which I've been watching just because I have this weird thing for Philip Glenister. I love the Guv, what can I say? Brilliant on Life on Mars (which was remade here and lasted only a few episodes, what a surprise!), and I sure hope we get to see more seasons of Ashes to Ashes...so far we've only seen the first season over here.

[Rutabaga]

Watched the first episode last night, and I thought it was very good, quite compelling at times. They did a really good job of getting across the desolation and scariness of being ALONE. The constant sounds of birds and nothing else was more effective than complete silence at times.

So far the most interesting characters are the playboy and the Muslim boy. Really interesting pair.

Besides the ending, which does suggest that this was a man-made virus, I'm most mystified by why Abby basically died from the virus but then woke up fine after 3 days. And interesting that it was after 3 days...coincidence, or some kind of winking commentary?

Will definitely continue to watch!

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I'm watching it! First two episodes under my belt. Really enjoying it so far. :)

[Dasquian Belargic]

Tom is my fav :3

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I like him too, a lot. :D I can't decide if he's going to 'be good' or just remain opportunistic.

I think the chick from the warehouse is going to be T R O U B L E. Those types of people always are. :colbert

And this is making me wonder what I would do if faced with such a situation. Would I try to bury as many people as I could? Or?

Logically every house they go into with dead bodies in it is another plague waiting to happen. So I think they should go through, keep track of the names of the dead that they dispose of for a record, and then cremate as many as they can in their surrounding area. I would.

Well, if I could. :uhoh