"Dead Set" Episode #1.1 (2008)

User Rating:

8.2/10   

Director:

Yann Demange

Writers:

Charlie Brooker (creator)
Charlie Brooker (written by)

TV Series:

"Dead Set" (2008)

Original Air Date:

18 October 2008 (Season 1, Episode 1)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Horror

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Big Brother | Zombie | Show Within A Show | Satire | TV Channel

Cast

Jaime Winstone	...	Kelly
Andy Nyman	...	Patrick
Riz Ahmed	...	Riq
Chizzy Akudolu	...	Angel
Liz May Brice	...	Alex
Warren Brown	...	Marky
Shelley Conn	...	Claire
Beth Cordingly	...	Veronica
Adam Deacon	...	Space
Kevin Eldon	...	Joplin
Raj Ghatak	...	Grayson
Kathleen McDermott	...	Pippa
Davina McCall	...	Herself
Jennifer Aries	...	Sophie
Cavan Clerkin	...	Dennis

Runtime:

UK:141 min (5 episodes)

Trivia:

Pippa's fake eviction was filmed on the same night as Belinda's eviction from Big Brother 9. All of the studio audience featured in Pippa's eviction are members from Belinda's. The extended eviction, which wasn't shown in the actual program was cut down shorter, to hide shots of the BB9 eye logo and signs held by the audience about BB9 housemates.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Patrick looks over the bathroom stall he's been hiding in, a zombie is staring at himself in the mirror. The mirror is fogged up as if the zombie was breathing on it. Zombies cannot breathe - they are dead.

Quotes:

Space: They're goin' batshit out there...
Joplin: Yeah. That's the public for you though, innit? They're animals.

Movie Connections:

References Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Soundtrack:

Grace Kelly

Nothing more than mediocre.

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Dead Set (#1.1) starts on an ordinary Friday afternoon here in Britain as the reality TV show Big Brother's production team prepares for the live on-air eviction later that night. The cameras are ready. The crowd outside the house is ready. Presenter Davina McCall is ready. However as the team work to bring the show to air something disturbing is happening in the background, there are vague news reports of sudden outbreaks of violence throughout the country & reports of the dead coming back to life & feeding on the living. Soon the zombies reach the Big Brother set as the contestants inside are oblivious to what is happening outside, but not for long as even the famed Big Brother house isn't immune from the odd flesh eating zombie attack!

This British TV mini-series production has been airing the past week or so here & it was heralded with a fairly big advertising campaign & a fair amount of advance publicity, being a huge horror film fan myself I thought anything with flesh eating zombies in it is worth checking out so I did & I ended up being somewhat disappointed in this opening episode. This opening episode actually runs for a little over 45 minutes whereas the following four (there's one episode per night all week from Monday to Fgriday) clock in at around 25 minutes apiece so in total the whole thing edited together would run just under two & a half hours. I quite liked the way Dead Set started & I quite liked the Big Brother reality TV show setting for the action to revolve around but not much is done with the idea & I can't help but feel that the whole thing was a cost cutting exercise & for gimmick & publicity purposes only. We never really find much out about the house-mates & Dead Set focuses more on the zombie aspect of the script than the Big Brother thing. None of the character's are very likable & seem to swear a lot for no apparent reason although the obnoxious producer has a few funny foul mouthed lines of dialogue as he orders people around but overall this is just 28 Day Later... (2002) featuring the Big Brother house. There's the London locations, there's the hyperactive fast running zombies & the small group of human fighting for survival. Seen it all before to be honest & this opening episode didn't really impress me at all. Did anyone else also spot the Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue (1974) & Ginger Snaps (2000) references here? I did.

While the plot & story are alright in a standard 'people on the run from hordes of zombies' type way I hated & I mean hated the way this was shot. The shaky hand held camera approach looks awful, just awful. There are many, many times when I literally couldn't tell what was happening, every zombie scene has the camera shake around like it's in the middle of a tornado & the quick fire editing doesn't help either. I honestly thought Dead Set was a real pain to through, it is incredibly frustrating not to be able to see what is going on because the camera won't stay steady. Does anyone out there actually like this sort of film-making? I don't know anyone & everyone I have spoken to say the same thing, it's next to impossible to see what's going on & surely that can't be considered good film-making? There's not much gore in this one, a zombie's head is smashed in with a fire extinguisher, a zombie has a pair of scissors stuck in his head, there's some blood splatter, Davina McCall has her throat bitten out & that's all you can make out really.

Dead Set (#1.1) as an opening episode is alright if you like horror & zombie films although if you like to actually see what's happening in the films you watch then this is your worst nightmare. Persoanlly I though it was a reasonable three quarters of an hour with a decent pace but I hated the way it was presented & filmed. I am going to watch Dead Set (#1.2) but I won't be in any real hurry.