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Dead Set: A Televisual Zombie Apocalypse for Halloween

post #1 of 47
10/23/08 at 4:57pm
Thread Starter 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhGLM49k8ck

So Charlie Brooker's, a genuine genius, new show starts next week. All next week in the UK we're going to be treated to his vision of Britain under zombie infection with only the housemates of Big Brother left alive.

Looks like it could be a shitload of fun and I love the idea of playing it every day next week in the build up to Halloween.
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post #2 of 47
10/24/08 at 8:53am
It does look good, but I also have a feeling it could be terrible. That shot in the trailer where the girl says, "Does this mean we're not on telly anymore?" is excruciating. I'll give it a go though, cos we're starved of home-made, high conmcept stuff and programs that don't revolve around doctors or people going to the pub.
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post #3 of 47
10/24/08 at 9:20am
Thread Starter 
Come on, it's Charlie Brooker. It's got more of a chance of being great than awful.
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post #4 of 47
10/24/08 at 9:30am
Nathan Barley was awful, and that had Brooker AND Chris Morris.

But I have high hopes for this. Can't go wrong with the actor Kevin Eldon.
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post #5 of 47
10/24/08 at 12:36pm
Yeah, Kevin Eldon + Zombie Apocalypse should be greatness.

I've very high hopes for this. They are pushing for a big audience (well E4 big, anyway) but this comment from Brooker:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlie Brooker
Dead Set should set some new benchmark (or low point, depending on your point of view) for onscreen gore. There's a particularly explicit bit of skull-smashing in episode one, but that's nothing compared to what happens later. There's no point making a 15-certificate zombie flick. Money shots, that's what you want. And that's what you'll get. I sincerely hope some of you vomit.
has me thinking that they're not making any concessions to the mass market. I worry slightly about the 5 consecutive days format they're showing it in, though, but it's certainly better than it not being broadcast at all.
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post #6 of 47
10/24/08 at 4:21pm
Hmm. He makes a convincing argument.
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post #7 of 47
10/27/08 at 5:56am
The ads have been abysmal, but I'll definitely make sure to check this out. If I could sit through each episode of "Nathan Barley" then this probably won't be too much of a struggle.
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post #8 of 47
10/27/08 at 7:38pm
Thread Starter 
Holy shit, never expected them to lovingly show Davina McCall having her voicebox ripped out and dying alone in the corridor. Quite bitterly funny as well.
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post #9 of 47
10/27/08 at 8:06pm
Thread Starter 
That was fucking greatness. Loved that final fire extinguisher kill, definitely a homage to Irreversible but still brilliant given the context and so fucking gory.

LOVE
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post #10 of 47
10/27/08 at 8:08pm
The whole thing was awesome and the dude who got irreversible'd was fucking brutal.
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post #11 of 47
10/27/08 at 8:11pm
I wasn't going to watch it because I thought it was cashing in on Big Brother.

My Boss phoned me and told me it's surprisingly good. That's all I needed to know, i'm catching it on E4+1 or whatever it is.

Very modest - the trailers didn't do this slick little show justice. great production values.
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post #12 of 47
10/27/08 at 8:13pm
Thread Starter 
Just wait, just wait Bees. You need to have faith in the Brooker.
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post #13 of 47
10/27/08 at 8:24pm
Yeah, that was grand. Loved that Irreversible homage at the end. I'd have preferred it with less shaky cam, though, but I expect that will happen down now that cast of thousands has been whittled down.
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post #14 of 47
10/28/08 at 5:28am
Excellent. Looked great too, production values far beyond anything we usually produce in this country.

Jaime Winstone was AWFUL though. Her screeching was more annoying than Big Brother itself.
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post #15 of 47
10/28/08 at 3:19pm
Patrick is a fantastic character.

I had faith, Spike - it's just that it was badly advertised, and the initial BB ties were difficult to shake off.

It's easy the best season of Big Brother we've ever had, and it's only one day in.

I'm also loving this daily format, the disabled zombie and once again, production values are outstanding. His cameraman pushes his luck with the shakeycam a little too often, but usually reigns it back in before it becomes annoying.

I'm looking forward to tonight's episode.
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post #16 of 47
10/28/08 at 4:49pm
I must have been excited last night as my post makes almost no sense.

Anyway, what is certain is that Charlie Brooker has watched far too much Big Brother. The housemates he's written are completely spot-on in a way that - the presence of Kevin Eldon excepted - they could almost have pulled a Ghost Watch if they'd played it as a straight BB opening night.

Loved Patrick and the disabled zombie. Didn't love the screaming but that's a necessary evil in these things. Hopefully that and the shaky cam will calm down for the rest of the run as presumably it'll be more of a siege situation.
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post #17 of 47
10/28/08 at 7:33pm
Thread Starter 
"Over here you decomposing fuck"

It's actually getting better, kind of liking the fact that the show has at least four or five people who can think laterally.
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post #18 of 47
10/28/08 at 7:43pm
"I'm a normalite". Great line.

This show is very, very good. I love Zombie Davina, it kind of sums up the whole thing. Darkly funny and nicely bloody.
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post #19 of 47
10/28/08 at 7:48pm
Thread Starter 
I kind of loved the manic speech by crazy survivalist lady, largely because it seemed to really reflect Brooker's absurdist writing style.

"Have you ever picked lumps of skull out of your cardigan like cats teeth?"
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post #20 of 47
10/28/08 at 7:52pm
Yeah, enjoyed that episode a lot more than the first. Really liking the way that despite every zombie movie cliché being both present and correct, the script is so great that it never feels boring or over-familiar.

Good sound design as well. Never has a piss in a bin resonated quite so much!

Also: Joplin = Charlie Brooker
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post #21 of 47
10/28/08 at 8:04pm
Consistantly good, for me felt like it lost a little momentum from the first - but I expect the outbreak will always feel more action-packed than the ensuing "survival".

Still, it's odd to have people who use their brains in a zombie film. It makes the violence more oddly believable.

I'm assuming the infection doesn't get you if you swallow infected blood then? Only if you're bitten?
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post #22 of 47
10/28/08 at 11:41pm
Did anyone else think that killing Davina next to a water cooler was meant to be a sly nod to a "water cooler moment"?

Or maybe I'm thinking about this too much...
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post #23 of 47
10/29/08 at 10:04am
I also like the commentary that the Big Brother contestants of the world - obsessed with looks, materialism and celebrity - are completely useless in a crisis. This was beautifully demonstrated by the ginger girl in the green room with the producer complaining about him pissing next to her when there is a killer zombie celebrity trying to get in to kill them.
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post #24 of 47
10/29/08 at 12:02pm
A montage of characters somberly sitting around, silently reflecting on their situation is meant to stand in for actual character development.

I'm being too hard on this. The first episode was quite good, and it still has time left to actually live up to its premise.
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post #25 of 47
10/29/08 at 7:42pm
Thread Starter 
"We'll let you off with a caution"
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post #26 of 47
10/29/08 at 8:18pm
The black girl turning in the first half worked wonderfully on my female housemate. She started squirming every time they cut back to Grayson tending to her. That last shot into the ad break (her comng back from death and her teeth jutting out) was perfect. When the ads ended it was almost as if she'd forgotten what we were watching - she started groaning again. Makes watching things like this all the more fun. Despite her protestations, she's really enoying it too. I'd be interested to see what the ratings are like, cos it must have cost a fair bit to put together.

Very interested to see where this goes over the last two nights of its run. Unfortunately (but not really), I'm at an Elbow concert tomorrow night, so I'll have to catch up on 4OD, unless I get back in time for E4+1.
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post #27 of 47
10/30/08 at 7:06pm
Davina met a wonderous end.
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post #28 of 47
10/30/08 at 7:27pm
I can almost hear Spike squealing with delight at this episode
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post #29 of 47
10/30/08 at 7:38pm
"I don't know why you don't come out here and help. It's not as bad as it looks"

Patrick is great!

Davina's end was excellent and they managed to get the "I'm coming to get you" joke in after she's been topped.

Excellent cliffhanger too.

Tomorrow's finale is another half hour show. It seems like they've a lot to get through given that most of the main cast are still walking.
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post #30 of 47
10/30/08 at 8:35pm
Thread Starter 
Patrick is one of the greatest TV characters ever and I'm actually starting to really like most of the BB Housemates too.
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post #31 of 47
10/31/08 at 7:32pm
Consistantly amazing until the end. The format left me wanting more, yet satisfied me perfectly. Some beautiful shots. Amazing characters, dialogue - some fantastic gore.

I'm stumped. E4 does this so rarely that I regularly forget why we have that channel.
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post #32 of 47
10/31/08 at 7:46pm
I'm pleased - yet not surprised - that Charlie Brooker knew the correct number of people who should survive a zombie apocalypse.

Great stuff all round. Hopefully the quality of the production and viewing figures/subsequent DVD sales will convince the bosses that there's a market for genre serials like this and that there'll be more of this kind of thing on E4 in the future.
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post #33 of 47
11/1/08 at 5:40am
Downer ending, but zombie stories really only have two possible endings, don't they?

Great series overall. I'm stunned that something like this could have been made for television.
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post #34 of 47
11/4/08 at 11:38pm
I was on holiday when this was on so I'm working my way through it on SKY+ and have 1 episode left to go. I think it's brilliant, a really good level of gore and the production value is great. It touches all the things he remarks on in Screenwipe (that's why I laughed when I saw Ashilnye(sp?)).

Makes me wonder when Screenwipe will be back on BBC4. One of the best moments of the show was when he said " Pussy loves the Mateley"!
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post #35 of 47
11/6/08 at 3:05pm
The new series of Screenwipe starts on the 18th of November which is but 12 days away. There's a spin-off - Newswipe - coming in 2009.
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post #36 of 47
11/6/08 at 3:20pm
Excellent, I was trying to find out when Screenwipe was back but couldn't find it anywhere.
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post #37 of 47
11/10/08 at 7:58pm
A little addendum to the show via the Guardian newspaper here in the UK that will be of note to chewers.

Last week Simon Pegg wrote this excellent article about Dead Set and its running dead.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Pegg
The fast zombie is bereft of poetic subtlety. As monsters from the id, zombies win out over vampires and werewolves when it comes to the title of Most Potent Metaphorical Monster. Where their pointy-toothed cousins are all about sex and bestial savagery, the zombie trumps all by personifying our deepest fear: death. Zombies are our destiny writ large. Slow and steady in their approach, weak, clumsy, often absurd, the zombie relentlessly closes in, unstoppable, intractable.

However (and herein lies the sublime artfulness of the slow zombie), their ineptitude actually makes them avoidable, at least for a while. If you're careful, if you keep your wits about you, you can stave them off, even outstrip them - much as we strive to outstrip death. Drink less, cut out red meat, exercise, practice safe sex; these are our shotguns, our cricket bats, our farmhouses, our shopping malls. However, none of these things fully insulates us from the creeping dread that something so witless, so elemental may yet catch us unawares - the drunk driver, the cancer sleeping in the double helix, the legless ghoul dragging itself through the darkness towards our ankles.
This week in his Monday Column Charlie Brooker Responds:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlie Brooker
Simon: your outright rejection of running zombies leaves you exposed, in a very real and damning sense, as a terrible racist. And if the recent election of Obama has taught us one thing, it's that the age of such knee-jerk prejudice is firmly behind us. Still, let's indulge your disgraceful bigotry for a moment by assuming speedy zombies need defending, and list the reasons why ours ran, shall we?

1) I like running zombies. I just do.

2) They HAD to run or the story wouldn't work. The outbreak had to knock the entire country out of action before the producers had time to evacuate the studios.

3) We had to clearly and immediately differentiate Dead Set from Shaun of the Dead, which had cornered the market on zombie-centric horror-comedy. Blame yourself, Simon: if you'd made that film badly, it wouldn't have been so popular, and drawing a distinction wouldn't have been an issue. Each time one of our zombies breaks into a sprint, it's your own stupid talented fault.

4) Even George Romero, the godfather of zombies, bent the rules from time to time. Witness the very first zombie in Night of the Living Dead, which moves at a fair old whack and even picks up a rock to try to smash a car window. Or the two kiddywink zombies in Dawn of the Dead, who burst out of a room and run - yes run - towards Ken Foree. I know you saw these scenes. You know you saw these scenes. And you also know that if this were a trial, this would be the moment where you splutter in the witness box and admit you're completely wrong.

5) Running zombies are, to be frank, cheaper than stumbling ones. You only need one or two to present a massive threat. I love a huge mass of shambling undead as much as the next guy, but we couldn't afford that many crowd scenes. The original plan was to set the final episode six months in the future, by which time the zombies were badly decayed and could only shuffle (although "freshies" would still run), but budget and time constraints ruled this out. Which would you rather see - running zombies or absolutely no zombies at all?

Hmm? HMM?

Face facts. It's time to embrace diversity, Simon. Make room in your heart for all breeds of zombie. Except ones that talk. They're just silly.
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post #38 of 47
11/10/08 at 8:00pm
Thread Starter 
I really do hate that article by Simon Pegg, it's eloquent but utterly wrongheaded.
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post #39 of 47
11/11/08 at 9:39am
Do you? Or do you just love Charlie Brooker too much to hear sense?

Hmmmmm? HMMMM?
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post #40 of 47
11/11/08 at 9:58am
Hilarious response aside, I still agree with Pegg.
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post #41 of 47
11/11/08 at 5:24pm
I just watched the first episode. Good stuff so far, going to watch the second one later.

Oh, and Pegg is wrong in this case. Having a bunch slow moving zombies attack a crowd of people gathered for a Big Brother eviction wouldn't really work, as it would be hard to believe that so many people were killed.
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post #42 of 47
10/26/10 at 2:45pm
Some notes from watching it again for Halloween on the trusty multiregion (also showing on IFC in the US):

-Andy Nyman I liked in Severance and Death at a Funeral, but this is the best I've ever seen him. He's SUCH an annoying wanker here. He uses a wheelchair bound man as a human shield against the zombies! Maybe the single douchiest act ever in a horror story.

-Zombie staring transfixed at useless reality TV show: not subtle, but neither was Romero. Bravo.

-The characters use some excellent insults in this. "You specimen!"

-McCall is surprisingly great in her prolonged death scene/slump to the side/subsequent reanimation

Love this series.
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post #43 of 47
10/26/10 at 2:51pm
I really enjoyed DEAD SET.

It's really simple -- "infected" style zombies should run. "Undead" style zombies should shuffle. If we could all just agree to follow this simple rule, we could put the whole running vs. shuffling zombie debate behind us forever.
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post #44 of 47
10/27/10 at 11:42am
It can't be said enough, Nyman really is brilliant in this.

"What's the fucking matter with you? Bloody backwards fucking livestock.

Think you've still got a fucking audience? Do you? What are you gonna do? Fucking sit here? Breathing in each other's fucking bum clouds until the sky falls in?

Pardon me, but I am a fucking bit more ambtious than that. A bit more fucking ambitious, thank you very much. If you had to fucking work for a living, instead of trying to do a fucking quick fix. Hey? "Look at me! Look how famous I am! I've been a twat on telly for two months! "Maybe you'd know what that means. But no. Want it now, want it fucking now. Well come and get it.

Look at that! Precision!"


Hope O'Bannon doesn't haunt me, but this is the funniest zombie comedy ever. Another winner: "if we're doing this, we're smashing his ankles like in that film, Mystery." (it's all in the blonde's delivery)
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post #45 of 47
10/27/10 at 11:47am
Brooker has said that he wanted them to be "fast zombies" because otherwise the show doesn't really work (everybody would've been able to escape the BB studio). It simply had to be something that happened very very quickly. He also said that his zombies do get slower over time as the bodies start to decompose and such.

There was a rather funny argument between Brooker and Simon Pegg about this via their Guardian columns.
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post #46 of 47
11/7/10 at 4:58pm
Yeah it's about uh...8 posts up.
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post #47 of 47
11/8/10 at 9:58pm
I didn't buy the ending. Yeah the producer was a yanker, but his plan to drive off was stupid. Once he saw how many zombie's were outside, he should have know his plan wouldn't work.
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