Survivors

This remake, in a way, just like the original series, was way ahead of its time.

With the hindsight of a post CoVid19 world, the dire warnings from shows like this seem to have been totally overlooked, discarded and scoffed at.

The original from 1975 - 77 is much better, but was out of date in places. With the popularity of zombie films at the time, it probably seemed a really good idea for the BBC to have a go at updating this classic tale of post-apocalyptic survival. Again, with hindsight, if only they had waited until after The Walking Dead, this probably would have found a more receptive and dedicated audience.

I really liked The Walking Dead at the start, but it rapidly decreased in quality, and looking back, this show was overall a much better watch.

If you know the original, it plays with some of the characters in very interesting ways, most especially Tom Price, in the original an almost cartoonishly two dimensional Welsh villain , and turns him here into a complex character always on the edge of being an anti-hero or just an outright baddie.

There is a bit more dark realism with how some of the characters cope in such a horrible scenario than there was in the original, and the Greg Preston character remains just as memorable with the excellent performance of Paterson Joseph, and they have turned it from a show with three central protagonists to a multi-strand narrative in true form.

However, the charm, pragmatism and starkness of the original is lost. Sadly they only made two series before it was unceremoniously canned.

Well worth watching both though.

This series should have gone on. There's a lot about it that's high quality, great production values, terrific long shots of empty cities. The storyline was really barely touched- besides the evil island machinations, there's a whole planet empty and going primitive not just a small piece of English countryside. I particularly liked the character who's so certain she's the government, and seeing it her way is magically always best for everybody. Her patronizing line of bull remains what we hear on the news from our officials every day. I'd like to especially praise the casting in this show-- the faces really fit the character. It's easy to imagine an actor willing to play a weasel like Dexter but to look so genuinely despicable, I do wonder where they get these very unlovely guys. It's not characterization by makeup in this show, it's a casting director with a great sense of face. All in all, it's a mystery to me why this was canceled, I think the decision was a bad mistake.

A sudden and deadly flu epidemic sweeps the population of the world (Britain in particular) leaving few survivors. Those that remain each have strengths and weaknesses aplenty, perhaps a personal mission to fulfil, and most likely something to hide; some reason to be glad of the fresh start offered them by this disaster.

In order to get to the true meat of the story; which is about negotiating new identities, new relationships, new positions of power; the BBC pushes some unlikely scenarios on us in the first couple of episodes (I don't want to go into detail because that would involve spoilers - there are some surprises early on). Individuals, by various means, form into loose groups of shared interest and we watch their stories begin to intertwine.

Some might be tempted to stop watching the new Survivors at this early, somewhat unrealistic point.

Others who were fond of the 1970s series might drop out in disgust, having hoped for a true remake, whereas the 2008 version is asking different questions - yes they will eventually have to start making their own fuel (methane playing a major role in the original as I recall), but in fact I think the 2008 incarnation is more realistic in the sense that to start with, there will be plenty of long-life supplies and vehicles available. The story is satisfied to hint at more desperate survival struggles to come.

What this new version does superbly is generate a mix of characters and histories, with understandable suspicion of each other but also with a mutual need generated by the strength found in numbers and by the common desire for comfort in intimacy; as the story develops and stirs this unstable cocktail of personalities there are explosions waiting to happen around every corner.

For me the tension builds through the episodes. Rather than issues being resolved it seems that more and more potential conflicts and dangers arise at every encounter between the different groups of people that are forming. There is no chance to truly settle; no oasis of genuine security or freedom.

The seething tension reaches its height in the very last episode of the series. I for one cannot wait for the next outing of the new Survivors - in fact I am expecting series 2 to crank up the intensity even further.

At the start - not fully convinced. By the end - excellent, genuinely edge of the seat fare. Overall - definitely worth watching.

halfway through third episode but from what I have seen, v. good, and scarily believable,people are quick to trash this show as they look at things from the past with rose-coloured spectacles on, the same with Merlin they probably think Excalibur was the ultimate Merlin film. Anyway, the acting is particularly good esp. Julie Graham Max Beesley and Paterson Joseph-seem to remember him being good in The Beach as well-anyway anyone who hasn't watched this yet, tune in and give it a go, thoroughly recommended, and OK the idea of the characters being on the same road at the same time was far-fetched, but for me, it worked. 10/10

This post-apocalyptic remake is an excellent escape into a desolate Great Britain after a global pandemic wipes out most of humanity. How a small group of surviving strangers come together and grow into a protective family of friends in a new world where hostile villages and gangs have already started to emerge is fascinating to watch!

And just to add more intrigue to the entire situation, the secret organization that appears to be responsible for releasing the plague in the first place is still up an running as they attempt to find a cure that will allow them to re-emerge from their high tech ecologically isolated facility.

I can't wait for the second season!

Marcel F. Williams