Wreck

This was such a fun discovery for me - think Below Deck meets Hot Fuzz with a dash of Scream and Scream Queens. Each episode just got better and better. After reading some of the other user reviews, this is clearly a show that some will appreciate and others will not. I think some reviewers have missed a couple things. Wreck is firmly set in a Slasher universe, and so tonally it's a little madcap, but it also has a lot more depth than most slasher films. It's clear that a lot of thought and love has gone into the making of this show. It features all the other horror conventions we've come to know and love, but also proper, real feeling 3D dimensional characters - and hooray for proper queer representation that isn't all doom and gloom. I'll admit it, I'm a grown woman, and not the target audience, but I love this show. It kept me guessing to the end, and I never saw the BIG twist coming...

I started watching with low expectations, especially after reading a couple of reviews in here. I gave it a shot, and sure enough from the second episode in, I was hooked.

Granted, it is not the second coming, but it is a smart, well acted mystery story, with many twists and turns. I have to admit, the final revelation, caught me off guard, because I was expecting many things, but not this.

By the way, for the people who rant because this is tagged as comedy, and they didn't laugh while watching, please keep in mind that this is not a slapstick comedy. This is a dark comedy-mystery, with a lot of social undertones.

I binged watched the whole thing on a lazy Saturday, and I, personally, am thrilled that there will be a new season. Underrated little gem- give it a try!

Jamie buys the identity off a guy named Cormack, to get a job working on board a ship called The Sacramentum, his mission, to discover what happened to his sister Pippa, who vanished on board three months back.

It's an enjoyable six part series, it's clearly aimed at teenagers, it's a mix of comedy, horror, mystery, with shed loads of LGBTQ themes thrown in.

Episode one is very good, I loved Quacky, it provided a very different killer, no scary costumes or grim masks, this guy is soft and fluffy, it presents something a little different, it worked.

The disappointment for me came in episode 6, Part 5 offered so much, it just all fell a little bit flat.

You can tell it's from The BBC, it's a wonderfully diverse cast, in terms of the good guys that is,.

The baddies are still white and straight, it's amusing enough, but I liked the characters, I liked the diversity of it. You can see the demographic they're going for, my sixteen year old self would have loved this.

It's well acted, Thaddea Graham and Oscar Kennedy are both very good.

I look forward to series 2.

7/10.

I'm so glad to see this series starting to catch some fire. It was a surprise of the year. I caught it late night on the BBC and then went to watch the rest on iPlayer. Wow - there are some snobby, mean-spirited people leaving user reviews on IMDB. "I sat through all 6 hours but I didn't enjoy it" smells off to me. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but some people get a kick out of being rude. Maybe it's an older crowd who don't get it? (I'm 34) Lighten up. Anyway, on with the review...

Horror comedy is extremely difficult to get right as both can be objective in their own ways, but this show managed it for me, and did it with aplomb. Leads Jamie (an excellent Oscar Kennedy) and Vivien (Thaddea Graham, also excellent) are living and working in the bowels of an ocean liner. But, Jamie is secretly there to find out what happened to his missing sister. She had been working on the ship previously but had gone missing. It's a simple enough setting but it works very nicely. I wasn't going to watch at first, as a lot of reviews said it was a duck hunting people for six episodes and that did sound a little too daft for me...this was not at all what the show was. It's so much more than that! It's a slightly slow starter, but it sets the scene in a fun way and it had me hooked from the end of the first episode - an inspired move to kill off who they did in episode one. Episode 4-6 were the strongest for me, a rollercoaster that had me on the edge of my seat. I liked the way the show grew with each episode and wasn't just crazy from the off.

What follows are six episodes of blood, laughs, and genuine heart. That was perhaps what I loved most about this show. Despite all of the silliness, it has characters that feel real and vulnerable. They could have done a Scream Queens or Harpers Island and killed someone every 5 minutes, and although there is a fair body count (4 or 5), they smartly opted to invest in the characters more, which paid off with the stakes being raised higher. The bond formed between Viven and Jamie was especially beautiful. It was nice to see a male/female friendship without romance. I'm happy to hear the show has already been renewed as I want more of this dynamic duo ASAP. The performances from everyone were stellar. American actor Donald Sage Mackay really stood out for me as the Cruise Director - he gives a really fun and often terrifying performance.

I won't spoil the plot, but it is genuinely surprising and there are at least three big twists that caught me way off guard. The writer really played a blinder with that very last reveal. It kind of goes to a political place near the end but is never preachy, and perhaps the messaging isn't new, but it does need repeating and I appreciated it.

Wreck showcases its knowledge of horror history with amazing references and easter eggs throughout, and it was a lot of fun spotting them (although very occasionally distracting; but I imagine viewers less horror obsessive wouldn't mind). I think the friends I watched the show with were tiring of me pausing to point something out in the background.

Is Wreck perfect? No. It's a really good time that keeps you guessing, tensing and laughing from start to finish. It felt like it had shades of Edgar Wright but also a little Giallo and even some Romero when it came to the social commentary. It really is a show worth binging.

Bring on series two.

If you're watching this thinking it's going to be a hardcore comedy then you're in for a disappointment. However, as a mystery thriller with horror and comedy elements then I really enjoyed it.

Six episodes was the adequate amount of time to introduce, investigate and resolve the case (but leave enough left to lead into series 2 which I am looking forward to).

The writer has also peppered the script with callbacks to famous films of the last 30 years, which is a fun little Easter egg to keep an eye on.

I wasn't really familiar with any of the cast beyond Liam from Ladhood, but they all played their parts well (even if you hated them).