Amiable if uninspired (so far) ITV horror-comedy series "Zomboat" is going to benefit from the fact that I'm a bit slack in reviews at the moment, to be "promoted" to me reviewing the individual episodes, rather than just the whole season - as I might ordinarily do.
The first episode cuts around a little in terms of time, but we're introduced to Brummie sisters Jo (Cara Theobold) and Kat (Leah Brotherhead) who awake to find the second city in the midst of a Zombie Apocalypse. As Kat is a zombie nerd, she's been planning for this eventuality for a while, so attempts to get them to Jo's ex-boyfriend's canal boat, for a safe, if slow paced escape from the City. At the same time we meet Amar (Ryan McKen) and Sunny (Hamza Jeetooa) lapsed friends who were in Birmingham for a stag party. They are looking for more conventional ways back to London, but at the conclusion end up on the same canal boat.
So, first episodes, particularly of comedies, always have a lot to do, as they have the premise to explain and characters to establish - so I'm not prepared to write off the whole endeavour at this stage, but this first episode would best be described as "just about passable". The show's Zombie's contrasting to benign British life premise will inevitably draw comparisons with "Shaun Of The Dead" which is unfortunate, as that's a towering shadow to exist under, particularly when you're operating with a much lower budget - that said, the Zombie effects were usually pretty solid, if the Birmingham we see was rather sparse with life. Although Cara Theobold was one of the reasons I decided to give the show a shot, in this first episode I preferred to spend time with Sunny and Amar, rather than the sisters. I don't know whether it was Jo's patchy accent or maybe just that the characters felt over familiar - the guys bickering was a little tiresome, but they did generate the only laugh of the show.
So, in conclusion, it's not really funny, clever or interesting enough that I'd recommend it, but it's also not so disastrous or amateur that I'm ready to give up on it. We'll see how I feel next week.