TV - Survivors is Back
Well, the 're-imagining' of grim seventies cult post apocalypse series Survivors has aired. I was looking forward to this, as it really is a story that should be told every generation, and I suspect it will be just as relevant to each age.
The original series had a germ warfare bug outbreak that swiftly became a pandemic. This time, not surprisingly, it is a flu epidemic that sweeps the world. The few people who are left are the survivors and they must make their way in a world where everything they have known has already gone, or is in danger of running out.
The story has taken some of the most dramatic moments form the first episode, and transplanted them (often) whole to the new series. This is provides the shows weakest point, as they really aren't as dramatic and intense as the original which had a very closed and personal atmosphere.
Where the show has succeeded is in where it is different. It of course has to be different as this is a different country to the one in the mid-seventies. There are some clever switches in the story based on our expectations (especially for those who have watched the original with one very red herring in the form of Jenny) as well as some nice character changes and new characters introduced. The spoiled rich girl for the British Kuwaiti playboy is a good example (who makes a very good double act with the young boy he finds) and there are others, such as the chilling character of Tom Price played by Max Beasley, who has been transformed from a Welsh filthy murdering rapist tramp initially disguised as comic relief.
As for the cast, Patterson Joseph makes a very good Greg Price. Abby is neither as well cast or portrayed as the original dynamic performance by Carolyn Seymour. There was a marked contrast between who Abby was and who she had to become in the original that just isn't there in this one. I had also hoped that the search for Peter would be better defined than it was in the original, but it's not the case; the search being put to one side with the idea it will be occasionally revived.
Overall I found it to be a glossy makeover that loses some of the power of the original, and it would certainly have been better for it to have been more of its own beast. A side plot involving a mysterious lab echoes 90's Survivors wannabe The Last Train, but promises to add something new.
So I am disappointed in part, but hopeful that the series will improve. I can't see it having the same raw impact as the original. It had a sort of science fiction sheen that I think distances the show from really making an impact with the viewer. This was summed up for me with Vaseline edged shots in the series that blurred the focus of the world and what should be its starkness. This was a very sanitised end of the world.
Survivors should be compelling and terrifying in equal measure. It should grab people by their lapels and shake them into looking at something nasty and horrible and all too possible. Perhaps in thirties years time, if we're still here, we'll get that show.
The original series had a germ warfare bug outbreak that swiftly became a pandemic. This time, not surprisingly, it is a flu epidemic that sweeps the world. The few people who are left are the survivors and they must make their way in a world where everything they have known has already gone, or is in danger of running out.
The story has taken some of the most dramatic moments form the first episode, and transplanted them (often) whole to the new series. This is provides the shows weakest point, as they really aren't as dramatic and intense as the original which had a very closed and personal atmosphere.
Where the show has succeeded is in where it is different. It of course has to be different as this is a different country to the one in the mid-seventies. There are some clever switches in the story based on our expectations (especially for those who have watched the original with one very red herring in the form of Jenny) as well as some nice character changes and new characters introduced. The spoiled rich girl for the British Kuwaiti playboy is a good example (who makes a very good double act with the young boy he finds) and there are others, such as the chilling character of Tom Price played by Max Beasley, who has been transformed from a Welsh filthy murdering rapist tramp initially disguised as comic relief.
As for the cast, Patterson Joseph makes a very good Greg Price. Abby is neither as well cast or portrayed as the original dynamic performance by Carolyn Seymour. There was a marked contrast between who Abby was and who she had to become in the original that just isn't there in this one. I had also hoped that the search for Peter would be better defined than it was in the original, but it's not the case; the search being put to one side with the idea it will be occasionally revived.
Overall I found it to be a glossy makeover that loses some of the power of the original, and it would certainly have been better for it to have been more of its own beast. A side plot involving a mysterious lab echoes 90's Survivors wannabe The Last Train, but promises to add something new.
So I am disappointed in part, but hopeful that the series will improve. I can't see it having the same raw impact as the original. It had a sort of science fiction sheen that I think distances the show from really making an impact with the viewer. This was summed up for me with Vaseline edged shots in the series that blurred the focus of the world and what should be its starkness. This was a very sanitised end of the world.
Survivors should be compelling and terrifying in equal measure. It should grab people by their lapels and shake them into looking at something nasty and horrible and all too possible. Perhaps in thirties years time, if we're still here, we'll get that show.
posted by paulvonscott at 10:35 PM
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