Survivors

[Guest]

I loved this programme when i was a kid. I've always loved books, programmes and films where the apocalyse has happened and they are featuring a plucky band of survivors.

Nothing beats the Day of the Triffids (the book not the film) but I'm really looking forward to this even thought I know it will be shit and a massive disappointment.

[My Name Is Ian]

Survivors

I'm watching this now. Not a patch on "Silent Weapon", and not a patch on the original "Survivors" either, at the moment. Part of the excitement of the original series was the claustrophobia of the main characters not knowing what was going on. Presumably it was a conscious decision of the makers of this version, in the media age and all that, to give away considerably more about what is happening in the grander scheme of things than they did in the original series.

[Ray de Galles]

Survivors

Allez Fritz wrote:

I loved this programme when i was a kid. I've always loved books, programmes and films where the apocalyse has happened and they are featuring a plucky band of survivors.

Nothing beats the Day of the Triffids (the book not the film)

The 1981 TV series was excellent though and my starting point for dystopian stories, like you I've been obsessed with them ever since.

I thought 'Survivors' was OK tonight, certainly interesting enough to hit the 'series link' button to see where they take it.

[Kowalski]

Survivors

I liked it in general but I found the music a bit intrusive. I've always like this kind of stuff too, probably since we watched z for Zachariah and When the wind blows in school.

Speaking of chilling programmes. I bought the The War Game on DVD a couple of years ago. I'd been slightly obssessed with seeing it since I was about 8, my mum had a copy of the book and the pictures were very haunting.

She told me that it had been banned from TV and I could see why. It is very, very unsettling.

[Mumpo]

Survivors

I thought it was competently made with some slick direction (there seemed to be a preponderance of 'tilt and shift' style panoramas - presumably these are in vogue right now), but overall it was pretty formulaic and unimaginative. The story was told with very little flair, with promising sub-plots like the prisoner/warder situation disposed of too quickly (and with a hamtastic performance from Alan Partridge's builder). The dialogue was terribly clunky in places - "Mark... you're remarkable" being an excruciating example. But the biggest problem was, as mentioned above, that the main plot unfolded with very little intrigue. I know it's a cliche with apocalyptic dramas, but it might have been better to start the whole thing at the "...28 days later" stage and work through the character's backstories week by week. As it was the whole thing wasn't bad, but screamed 'Sunday evening drama'.

[Wyatt Earp]

Survivors

Heavy over-reliance on the Russell T Davies-style fake BBC News broadcast to the nation thingy. But I liked it a lot more than Stuart Jeffries in the Guardian did, and I do want to see what happens to these characters.

[Felicity, I guess so]

Survivors

I was thinking 'backstory to come' when the black guy in the land rover kept wanting to head off alone. Then again anyone in tv must be gutted that 'Lost' was built so successfully around that, kind of makes it impossible to copy/follow.

It was Ok, but one or 2 moments of dodgy/illogical plotting: how come all the praying Muslims died simultaneously, but nobody died on the motorway or in the shopping centre car park?

[Lucy Waterman]

Survivors

I liked it a lot more than Stuart Jeffries in the Guardian did

Well, he goes on to say that the new Doctor Who is a load of rubbish because the makers don't realise the only reason people liked the original series was because the sets wobbled. So his opinion is worth about as much as the rest of the Guardian TV reviewers, really.

[Guest]

Survivors

I liked it, but something about the stirring, "come on guys, we're a group of people who are all jolly different but are going to have to work together to rebuild this great country" final scene tells me the rest of it might be shit.

[Ray de Galles]

Survivors

Mumpo wrote:

I thought it was competently made with some slick direction (there seemed to be a preponderance of 'tilt and shift' style panoramas - presumably these are in vogue right now)... But the biggest problem was, as mentioned above, that the main plot unfolded with very little intrigue..

I thought that about the "tilt & shift" shots as well.

Obviously the short final scene was the kicker to continue watching and more than a nod to 'Lost' and 'X Files'.

[Ray de Galles]

Survivors

Felicity, I guess so wrote:

It was Ok, but one or 2 moments of dodgy/illogical plotting: how come all the praying Muslims died simultaneously

I presumed the Muslims had been praying for a number of hours and therfore died gradually, as it were?

[Felicity, I guess so]

Survivors

All in the same position...

[Ray de Galles]

Survivors

Er, I thought that's how they did it? Praying that is.

[My Name Is Ian]

Survivors

The biggest objection that I had was the music, which was clunking and obstrusive. Much was made in the original series of the atmosphere of suffocation that was brought about by the sudden descent of silence on the world.

So far as I can see, the prisoner replaces the tramp from the original series, and the young couple in the Volvo replace the two children that are found in the second or third episode of the original series. The Muslims all dying in a mosque may have been a nod to "28 Days Later", when the guy wanders into a church before he fully knows what has been going on and finds the pews full of corpses.

So, it was okay, but obviously had a very different feel and tempo to the original. They should have a go at remaking "Threads", next.

[hobbes]

Survivors

Max Beesley can't carry off the brooding scary bloke, can he?

[Guest]

Survivors

I liked the way the virus running out of contgrol was covered and the feeling of everbody being taken by surprise.

Agree that they missed a trick by not playing on the silence. I thought there was a real sense that the men were all flaking out and were pretty high risk for women.

[Felicity, I guess so]

Survivors

Er, I thought that's how they did it? Praying that is.

Well, yes but I believe there is some movement, so the implication (other than 'ooh, let's get a shot of the kid standing up from a crowd of kneeling worshippers') is that they all died simultaneously.

[Tactical Genius]

Survivors

The first episode was ok, nothing special. There are some subplots that if worked well could make this a good series. There is also the twist with the scientists at the end who seem to have something to do with the disease.
I reckon it will be made easy viewing and not to challenging though.