"Dead Set" Episode #1.5 (2008)

Director:

Yann Demange

TV Series:

"Dead Set" (2008)

Original Air Date:

31 October 2008 (Season 1, Episode 5)

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 (credit only)
Liz May Brice	...	Alex (credit only)
Warren Brown	...	Marky
Shelley Conn	...	Claire
Beth Cordingly	...	Veronica
Adam Deacon	...	Space
Kevin Eldon	...	Joplin
Raj Ghatak	...	Grayson
Kathleen McDermott	...	Pippa
Davina McCall	...	Herself (credit only)
Jennifer Aries	...	Sophie (credit only)
Cavan Clerkin	...	Dennis (credit only)

Runtime:

UK:141 min (5 episodes)

Quotes:

Kelly: There's been enough killing.
Veronica: Well, what d'you propose we do?
Kelly: Cripple him.
Veronica: Cripple him?
Kelly: Yeah, break his ankles, stick a hammer to his feet.
Marky: It would have to be pretty bad to stop him movin'...
Kelly: Yeah, well we'll do it bad enough he won't be going anywhere...
Pippa: I don't like it...
Kelly: Well, it's better than killing him?
Riq: Look, she's right...
[...]

Movie Connections:

References Day of the Dead (1985)

Not impressed at all.

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Dead Set (#1.5) starts as Riq (Riz Ahmed) manages to reach the Big Brother house where his girlfriend Kelly (Jaime Winstone), the remaining Big Brother house-mates & Patrick (Andy Nyman) the producer are all hold up from the hordes of flesh eating zombies outside that have seemingly taken over the world. The majority of the group feel they should stay put but Patrick wants to make a break for it in a van, unfortunately to do so would require opening the gates & letting the zombies into the Big Brother compound which doesn't sit well with anyone else...

This was the fifth & final episode of Dead Set a British produced TV mini series rip-off of 28 Days Later... (2002) & just about every George A. Romero zombie flick going that some people appear to have enjoyed although I think that it's been pretty dire stuff & this less than enthralling final episode has done nothing to change my mind. The whole Big Brother angle amounts to nothing more than the setting while the supposed social commentary & relevance are absolutely woeful, to me the final message that Dead Set seems to want to leave it's viewers with is that if you watch Big Brother your a mindless zombie. Gee, talk about insulting your audience. This episode reeks of Day of the Dead (1985) with the fenced compound that one of the human survivors opens up & the place is overrun with the things as the few remaining humans run & try to stay alive just like in Day of the Dead & even the way Patrick is killed & behaves is the mirror image of the way Captain Rhodes is offed in Day of the Dead only not as gory or memorable. The majority of episode five is nothing more than arguments between the various surviving humans & the zombies don't feature until the final ten minutes or so. I am also somewhat surprised that there is never any sort of reason given for the zombies or what was turning people into zombies. All in all I didn't like it.

Again I have to mention the shaky hand held cinematography which I just hate, I hate the way Dead Set looks & is filmed. The gore levels are low despite what anyone says, when you can actually see what's going on (which isn't very often) Patrick is ripped open & there's one or two blurry scenes of flesh eating but nothing else. The one that does stand out about Dead Set is the amount of profanity & that is why this will get adult ratings rather than the mild violence levels.

Dead Set (#1.5) is another episode that I didn't like in a five part mini series that I equally didn't like. Overall I would give Dead Set a disappointing 4 out of 10 stars across it's five episodes of clichéd annoying as hell tedium.