Dead Set

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

11:13 / 26.10.08

So this launches on Monday night on E4 and runs for the next five days. I'm rather looking forward to it. It's Big Brother and it's eviction night, so far so normal. Unfortunately for the housemates there's something rather nasty happening out in the real world. The zombies are coming.

Brooker's Screen Burn rants often centre around his hatred of reality television shows (he once described two housemates pre-eviction on-screen shag as "rutting with the desperation of doomed livestock"), and his ability to create some truely vile characters in Nathan Barley is hopefully going to give us some truely awful people, some of whom will get torn apart by the undead and some of whom may just rise to the occasion and, at least, go out swinging.

From what little I've heard though this is going to be horror rather than comedy. The trailers make it look very grimy and dark. Just how I like my survivalist horror (unless it involves Mila Jovovitch that is).

jamesPD

11:53 / 26.10.08

Shame I missed the zombie casting, but I for one can't wait until Monday. Interesting choice to have all five parts aired this week (much like the 'real' BB show) rather than at 7-day intervals, and it'll be interesting to see how far ex-BB housemates and the host Davina are prepared to take the piss out of themselves.

From what little I've heard though this is going to be horror rather than comedy.

That's what I've heard also. Brooker has mentioned several times on his blog that folks expecting a comedy might be slightly disappointed since it's weighted more firmly as a horror. Having said that, a review in the Times said that when one of the contestants finds out that the rest of the human race have either been eaten or become zombies wimpers the line "Does that mean we're not on telly anymore?"

Triplets

22:46 / 27.10.08

It was good. Liked how it eased into it with some comedy and slice-of-life bits then going 180 into horror. Some of the production crew were truely hateable arses. They had an obviously Brookerish take to them, particularly the head producer. He took me out of it a little as he was a little too much of a charicature. Contrast this with Davina McCall being, well, Davina McCall, and not a piss-take of herself. Or at least not a blatant one.

Protagonist Girl annoyed with never checking to see what was behind her.

The gore in this was particularly nasty I found. The head smashing at the end and Davina's gouged throat were cringey.

SEND MOAR COPS

17:04 / 28.10.08

That was very good indeed. If it keeps up like this for the rest of the week, it could be one of my favourite zombie things. A more intelligent take on the ideas in Diary of the Dead, methinks, though I was REALLY drunk when I watched that, so I'll have to check it out again and see how it compares as media satire.

18:04 / 28.10.08

Yup, very excellent (all my Mindless chums agree!). I thought it was pitch perfct. A lesser creative team would have parodied Big Brother - Brooker knew better.

08:30 / 29.10.08

I've managed to watch my recorded ones up to the point where Davina meets her end. Her acting isn't as dreadful as I was expecting, even if she is just playing herself. But her death scene was pretty realistic and all the more nasty for it.

I like how, up to the point that I've seen it, the housemates are still housemates. All we've seen of them character-wise is exactly what we'd see on "real" BB. I'm hoping that when Kelly enters the house we see start to see that they've got personalities beyond housemate cliche.

I'm still praying for Aisleyne to have survived and to turn up with a chainsaw. Tis a dream I have.

09:42 / 29.10.08

That's my point, the housemates are just Big Brother housemates. That's all that's needed, that's funny/interesting enough.

And - bonus! - they do pile on the humanity as the drama progresses.

10:16 / 29.10.08

I did like the scene with the car rolling to a stop at the security gates, blood-splattered interior obscured by tinted windows and then sudden zombie-movement.

Although I have mad love for the Romero "shamblers" I do prefer the heightened threat of the "sprinter" in the initial outbreak sequences.

Slow them down to a stumble once there's thousands of them.

Quantum

10:28 / 29.10.08

Blimey, something good on telly? I'll have to wait until it's downloadable or youtubed to see it, damn. Brooker Zombies FTW!

12:04 / 29.10.08

Great fun so far. Really liked Mika's 'Grace Kelly' being piped into the BB house for the housemates to drunkenly dance around to whilst hoards of zombies rampage through the production offices. Some great lines as well...

'Is that Davina?'

'Sort of'

And last nights classic, 'Does this mean we're not still on the telly?'

13:29 / 29.10.08

Thought that line was a little heavy-handed

15:22 / 29.10.08

I thought the heavy-handedness was the whole point of the line. It's exactly the sort of dumb line that someone ALWAYS says in zombie films whilst standing on a roof looking out over the zombie carnage and its the exact BB referenced line that you'd expect in this show. It made me laugh.

16:36 / 29.10.08

Actually, the one obvious self referential joke which i felt was a bit heavy handed and did jar a bit was the Night of the Living Dead quote.

Mug Chum

16:46 / 29.10.08

The "coming to get you Barbara"?

The thing that striked me the most was how the workplace had many qualities of the BB house. It was all sort of shot as a dystopic set, insulated from everything that was happening on the real world, it had a very weighty gray feeling of separation and rust, this iron bubble that had some weird repressed shit bubbling underneath set to break loose. Part of the nasty nihiliistic streak in horror that Brooker talked about.

It was quite good.

08:48 / 30.10.08

Ahh, unstable gun-toting police officers. When you absolutely, positively have to arm every Big Brother housemate in the room.

I was a bit pissed that Grayson got killed off so quickly. I'm wondering if Brooker's going to take out housemates in a certain order in some sort of eviction sequence mockery (ending with whitehetmale as they often do)?

Still, enjoying the out-and-out nastiness of the survivors trapped in a small room by The Zombie Davina whilst everyone else has got booze, cigs, and access to working toilet facilities. Plus, there's nothing funnier than a zombie in a swimming pool.

Triplets

11:28 / 30.10.08

This is true.

Anyone else noticed the strong woman vibe running through it so far? The three female protagonists (Kelly, Veronica and Alex) are all quite nails. The blokes, by comparison, are a bit rubbish (Marky letting in the zombie, Joplin's complete spinelessness and creepy wanking session etc).

Bit shit that Grayson was killed off so soon. Could've done with a bit more post-apocalypse development between him and Marky. Still, it made the point clear: you need to work with your fellow man but you can't show any compassion towards the devouring dead.

What was up with the shitting in a bucket scene, though? Felt really out of place and tone.

11:43 / 30.10.08

Yea, didn't really get the shitting in the bucket bit either. That and the pissing in a bucket seemed to be there just to show that Pippa is as grossed out and terrified by wee and poo as she is of zombies and guts. I imagine it may lead somewhere.

11:48 / 30.10.08

I loved that scene, actually. It does feel a bit tonally off, but the idea of this office come prison cell inhabited by a vile, hungover little man, a bucket of shit and piss, a desperate big brother contestant, and guarded by a blood crazed Davina McCall can't help but raise a chuckle or five.

It's old fashioned Brooker extremism at its best.

11:49 / 30.10.08

I hope that Pippa kills the fucker

12:38 / 30.10.08

Looked at that way Boboss it does raise a chuckle. Davina does do a damn good zombie head butt against doors. I also liked Joplins attempt at an acupuncture massage last night.

12:47 / 30.10.08

(Keep getting sad about this ending tomorrow

)

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

14:51 / 30.10.08

I hope that Pippa kills the fucker

I did find myself weighing up her chances of survival if she'd decided to open the door whilst he slept and try and escape as The Zombie Davina was eating him to death.

Probably not high.

I bet she'd be able to get out through the crawlspace in the ceiling without it collapsing though.

Davina does do a damn good zombie head butt against doors.

She does do a really good zombie doesn't she, no holding back.

GogMickGog

15:50 / 30.10.08

Just watching the 1st ep. - 4od doesn't seem to like my mac, but surfthechannel seems to work.

'look at that, face like a Manchester Morgue'

Muchly impressed.

Also, nice to see Mr. Brooker's unexpected friendship with Ashleyne [sic?] is still bearing fruit.

18:01 / 30.10.08

It's a very Brooker nightmare, isn't it, a world in which the only TV broadcast available is the BB live feed. And a live feed with nothing happening on it for hours on end.

This is EXACTLY what I was dreaming of all those hours I spent watching the actual show.

Triplets

19:07 / 30.10.08

She does do a really good zombie doesn't she, no holding back.

Yeah, I think every zombie film from now on should have Deadvina in it. The zombie choreography is probably one of my favourite things in this. It might seem easy on paper but I imagine playing a terrifying sprinting mouth is actually quite hard to do well.

In fact, the initial zombie stampede about the production office really stands out. Single, lingering shot as silouetted zombie forms shoot back and forth. Total chaos and death. And Mika.

19:19 / 30.10.08

Loved the producer snoring into the champagne bottle.

Absolute genius.

09:48 / 31.10.08

Darn it, I was hoping The Zombie Davina would make it til the end.

Creepy sequence out on the river with absolutely no zombies around until you step off the boat.

Wonderfully graphic butchery scene.

"I don't even know what that is."

Got to say though, I'd probably want to wear gloves when rooting around in a zombie's entrails.

11:40 / 31.10.08

God I've been enjoying this. More Halloween telly=good times.

Perhaps the BBC will materialise a decent ghost story for Christmas.

12:46 / 31.10.08

Yea, its been great. I'm hoping the telly has been taking notes from Marvel Zombies and is planning some sort of cross-over zombie plague for the festive season. All i want for Xmas is a zombie David Jason fighting over brains with a half-dead Barbara Windsor.