Author of sci-fi/fantasy, horror and adventure/thriller fiction

BLACK SUMMER, Season 2

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BLACK SUMMER (Netflix) is a terrific zombie series, brushing aside its low budget with constant tension, culling terror from even a single relentless zombie, interesting characters and set pieces, and a full range of genuine human reactions. Season 2 delivers the same winning formula as the first season, while amping up the conflict to be more human versus human and finding an almost Old West pathos to its grim story. At the same time, it sacrifices an important human element in its bleak depiction of survival, which was unfortunate.

Rose reunited with her daughter at the end of the first season, which saw the major characters either scattered, dead, or having made it to the stadium. Season 2 seemed to promise a story of how this tribe struggles and survives in a zombie-infested world similar to other shows like TWD and Z NATION, but this isn’t them. In this world, food becomes scarce, there’s a massive die off, our tribe is separated into virtually every man or woman for themselves, and various bands of people struggle in the northern wilderness, where the cold freezes many of the zombies.

An interesting antagonist is introduced, a cop who now leads a hardened band of survivalist-type warriors. He’s an intriguing character, a ruthless badass and a fitting antagonist for Rose, though the show doesn’t set up any real antagonism other than their paths cross searching for the same goal, which is unfortunate. If the show had them have a real run in, setting up personal stakes, their antagonism would have meant far more, and it would have been a better, less fragmented story. The camera often lingers on faces and landscapes, giving the whole thing an Old West feel not unlike THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY, though again wasting its chance at pathos by not tying the primary characters together more strongly.

Mostly, the story centers around various groups and individuals converging on a house that is a point of communication with a supply plane and supposed sanctuary, and then a race for the plane itself. In the midst of this, Rose will do anything to ensure her daughter survives, though her daughter, so accustomed to danger, may not be able to function in any place that seems safe. Unfortunately, Rose is often so ruthless, sometimes for no practical purpose, it makes you wonder who the villain is. It’s the same with most of the show–there’s so little trust, so natural an inclination to hurt and kill, that it seems to go beyond survival into a commentary about the natural brutality of humanity, brutality for its own sake. Which is unnecessarily bleak, as one of the things I liked about the first season was how people will form tribes and try to work together in the face of adversity.

Overall, despite its flaws and missed opportunities, I liked it a lot. Kinda loved it, actually. I hope it gets a third season.

THE STAND (2020)

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I’m usually not a fan of films and TV shows based on Stephen King’s fiction, finding them emphasizing what I don’t like about King’s work while leaving out the critical atmospheric horror that in my view makes it so deep and penetrating. A few notable exceptions come to mind, such as the new IT, THE MIST, and THE SHINING. When an updated adaptation of THE STAND released from CBS Productions, I’d heard a few bad things, but I decided to give it a shot.

The series is overall faithful to the novel with some innovations and numerous shortcuts for time. One big innovation is time jumps between past and present, which allows the show to explore certain characters with some depth before introducing us to the next. I didn’t mind that at all, and I thought it added something. The production quality is fairly good, and with the first episode, I was somewhat hopeful and thinking it wasn’t all that bad. Unfortunately, for me, the series became progressively sloppier until I gave up on it near the end.

I think the series did a lot of things well, but overall it has a TV sheen to it, with everybody wearing brand-new clothes and driving shiny new cars because ka-ching, you gotta have those product placements. The characters are all one-note and overly familiar archtypes, with zero complexity and almost no back story. Numerous shortcuts from the source material look like, well, shortcuts. Randall Flagg’s Babylon in Vegas doesn’t look evil so much as silly, and many of the horror elements, including Flagg himself, similarly come across as silly rather than scary or menacing. The actors are miscast, with few seeming to feel comfortable in their role, though there were a few notable exceptions, in particular Brad William Henke as Tom Cullen.

Overall, I think if you’re going to adapt a classic horror novel that is highly familiar with your core audience, you should stick with the source material and if you don’t, then you should innovate in a way that improves or adds to the story rather than one that appears as a shortcut. With so much great stuff to work with, this new adaptation of THE STAND had the potential to be extremely dark, fun, and surprising. Instead, it comes across as the usual, with little surprising. Clearly, a lot of effort went into it, and there are again good qualities, but I watched it hoping for something both familiar and unexpected, and ended up bored. It’s a shame, as I think of what somebody like Frank Darabont could have accomplished with this with a budget and the gloves off. It makes me wonder why it’s so hard to adapt Stephen King’s work onto the screen?

REVOLUTION

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REVOLUTION (Netflix) is a French zombie series that reimagines the history of the French Revolution as being caused by a disease spreading among the nobility that turns them into undead creatures with an appetite for flesh. Sort of a French version of South Korea’s excellent series KINGDOM, though in this case the zombies retain their faculties. It’s moody, cool, and interesting. Overall, I liked it, though with its complex plot and sometimes sluggish pace, it’s no WORLD WAR Z.

Working at the Bastille prison, Dr. Joseph Guillotin meets a new prisoner alleged to have murdered and partially eaten a number of peasants. He suspects something isn’t right, and eventually uncovers a plague that could transform humanity into a direct food chain. Some in the nobility know something isn’t right and resist; others go along with it; and a resistance group hoping to overthrow them all and institute a republic finds an even greater reason to take action. It’s all leading to a revolution with even greater stakes than its real historical counterpart.

The colors are dark, the actors often somber, the plot complex, the atmosphere moody. And it’s slow, which is probably its biggest difference with KINGDOM, which used humor well, offered plenty of action, and didn’t take itself as seriously. Despite this, I liked REVOLUTION quite a bit and regard it as a terrific reinvention of the zombie in a unique historical context.

The first season ends in a way that promises a second, though unfortunately the show was canceled, which may leave viewers expecting the full-on revolution by the end of season 1 hanging. Regardless, it’s a solid watch, particularly for those looking for something new and interesting with zombies.

SWEET HOME (2020)

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SWEET HOME (2020, streaming on Netflix) is a Korean apocalyptic drama based on a popular webtoon. I tried it on a lark and found it an extremely surprising and ultimately satisfying kitchen sink of apocalyptic tropes made fresh with likeable, complex characters.

The trailer does not do the series justice. Watching it, I expected an over-the-top comedy similar to ZOMBIELAND with a little Z NATION thrown in, only with monsters instead of zombies. It certain has its comedic moments, though it isn’t so comedic as it is charming. The show gets pretty dark and grim at times, and it doesn’t mind punching you in the feels.

So SWEET HOME begins in a high-rise multifamily building that is on the run-down side. Initially, we’re introduced to various people who live there, focusing on a troubled teen who wants to kill himself. He’s not very likeable at the start, and it’s uncertain where this thing is going. As the episode and subsequent episodes progress, we’re introduced to a pretty large cast, whom we get to know in both the present and via short-and-sweet flashbacks, and even the minor characters are given their moments of development and depth.

Pretty quickly, we find out that people are turning into monsters. The special effects are hit or miss, and at first the monsters are a little corny, but they’re cool in their variety, what powers they have, and their origin. A few are downright creepy. The survivors of the initial onslaught find themselves trapped in the building, where they develop into a community and try to survive. Their biggest struggle is to hold on to their humanity as things get worse and worse, while a few who are infected must literally fight to stay human. The result is a story about humanity under stress, survival, community, and occasionally sacrifice and heroism.

So I highly recommend this one–for its fun monster element, likeable and complex characters, usually realistic choices and challenges, multitude of themes, and dramatic punch.

THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR

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Based on Henry James’ novella THE TURN OF THE SCREW, THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR (Netflix) brings back most of the cast of the successful HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE for another emotional, creepy ride. The character-driven narrative was a big too slow burn for me, and the gradual collision of its parts didn’t produce as big an explosion as HILL HOUSE achieved (starting with that stupendous episode 6 at the funeral home). Nonetheless, it’s a great ghost story–multilayered, emotionally deep, and very Gothic.

The story focuses on Dani, an American plagued by guilt living in the UK, where she applies for and gains a job as a governess for two precocious but troubled children, Miles and Flora, whose parents died a year earlier. The staff–the kind-hearted housekeeper, humorous cook, and brassy gardener–welcome her, as do the children, though the kids appear to have a secret. The secret, of course, has to do with a haunting…

Despite taking a bit too long to build tension, this was very enjoyable fare. As with HILL HOUSE, we get frequent digressions in various episodes to examine past events and how they affected each of the major characters. As with HILL HOUSE, sometimes the ghosts are psychological–the “Ghost” in the character arc portrayed as a recurring, haunting mental image–and sometimes the ghosts ar all too real. This is clearly a story about people that happens to have ghosts in it, not the other way around. All the characters are likeable or at least sympathetic. There are thankfully fewer jump scares than HILL HOUSE, as I’m not a big fan of the device, but when they come, they’re much more powerful, particularly when the main ghost is revealed. On a final note, I particularly enjoyed how a same-gender romance was portrayed. It feels completely organic–the people involved displayed real chemistry that starts the first time they meet–and is the best portrayal I’ve seen.

Overall, I’m thankful for this series, which reminds us that in a genre crammed with torture, shock, and jump scares, there are great literary horror watches that focus on character and theme.

UTOPIA

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Adapted by Gillian Flynn for American audiences from a 2013 British series, UTOPIA (Amazon Prime) is a compelling and surprisingly dark story about a group of comic book nerds who get up in a conspiracy to change the world. I liked it, though I found it uneven.

The story begins with comic book nerds finding out that UTOPIA, the sequel to their favorite graphic novel, DYSTOPIA, has been discovered and is for sale. They aren’t just fans of the comic but conspiracy theorists who believe hidden messages in it predicted every major disease outbreak, raising the question as to whether these diseases were natural or bio-engineered. Unfortunately, mysterious forces are in play that want to prevent anybody from seeing the comic and will do anything to stop it while finding its real-life star, Jessica Hyde.

It’s just my kind of thing, and I went into it expecting it to be the next STRANGER THINGS, but the story quickly takes a very dark righthand turn into torture and frequent murder and stays there. In the American version, for example, a character is created only to be killed for shock value and to show how ruthless another character is, a creative decision by Flynn that comes across ham-handed and disrupts the chemistry. (A cute meta reference to herself comes across the same way.) People are regularly tortured in this show for revenge or information, and even while they’re giving it, the torture keeps coming. That aspect just didn’t quite work for me and makes the resulting story uneven, plus it makes a key character who often does it (and constantly casually threatens it) unlikeable when we’re supposed to be rooting for her.

When you find out what the conspiracy is, it’s actually nothing we haven’t seen before, but it’s done extremely well. When the villain reveals the entire plan, many viewers will be like, oh, um, that’s not exactly a bad idea. The bad guys are like a cult designed to produce a certain change in the world, but by the end they’re not necessarily the bad guys, they’re simply the antagonist with an opposing goal, the mark of a good story.

The ending sets up a season 2, though I’m not sure the story needs it. I’m curious how the British version ended and will try to find it. On a final note, John Cusak and Rainn Wilson are in the show, and they’re fantastic in their roles.