Great Series/Clues For The Future

Really enjoyed this series. Has some clear limitations, the smaller budget is evident, and the writing is off and on at times, but seems like this is a real labor of love and a pretty simple concept done pretty well.

What is sort of pathetic ( not this show ) but in The Walking Dead on AMC, the characters are written to do inexplicably stupid things to drive the plot, with A list level production values and budget and network support. On this show, the characters behave fairly logically, at least to the conditions of the "universe" created for them to exist. The people who make the Walking Dead should be ashamed, some low budget 6 episode dart throw of a show has outclassed it's basic premise and most of it's writing in one shot.

Characters die, but it makes sense in terms of their motives and their situation, in context.

Things I liked

- The pre credits "Before Event" sub stories are pretty interesting. They give a lot of context to the characters. They draw in the audience to care about the characters.

- The end of the 4th episode, where two people have a "date" and try to live as best they can before the end, I thought it was actually thoughtful and bittersweet. Despite the off and on writing and acting at times, you feel for these characters.

- There is a nice balanced chemistry with the doctor woman, the addict, the boy and the black pilot. Everyone sort of fills a role and they seem to flow naturally with each other. I suspect one benefit of a lot of people being on the same run of shows on this same tiny network is that they actually have some kind of real life rapport, that ends up translating on screen

- Given the limits of the premise ( how long can they reasonably survive? Even with drugs and other work arounds, maybe 20 days?), looks like the show is trying to hit every possible angle it can. Good creativity. If you say to yourself, "Well what about if they did this?", at least it looks like the show is going to try to cover the topic.


Things for the future ( *** SPOILERS *****)

- The blonde sniper, Meredith, clearly can sleep. She has a rifle, radio and raven. Notice she was looking at her watch when she was shooting. Given the 3AM situation, clearly "time" is one of the conditions of survival

- The broadcaster talked about rumors of a "sleep safe zone" , which I suspect is not based on geographic location, but based on time

- When Ellis, the black pilot, was hallucinating, one of the new locations was the discussion of heading to NASA and killing the signal through the satellites. That the DND gamers were talking about the threat being man made and their theories helps to reinforce this.

- When exhausted, Meredith, let it slip that her husband was in that nursing home, while Ellis looks exhausted and appears to not listen, I think he heard, he realized over time Meredith was not "right" and set a plan

- Big believer in that Ellis recorded his voice like a "Good Bye" in the last episode, so Meredith could "hear him" and when she actually fell asleep, he checked all three people in bed, realized the other two were dead, and she was still alive ( hold up a mirror to the mouth, shes breathing, etc) Then when she woke up, she realized he was gone, and left, without considering he was either hiding on the balcony ( how the bird got back in) or under the bed. I think Ellis naturally follows her to find out what is going on.

- Nice blend of potential returning characters
The douchebag doctor looking for a cure and the lesbian ex girlfriend Lex
The latino minister and the little girlfriend of the boy and their sub group
The guy with fatal familial insomnia ( yeah, I looked it up), who can't sleep, and clearly has a role moving forward
Possibly the girl who stole the backpack of drugs in the first episode
The original hospital group where the first lady doctor, the radiologist, left from.

This really is a gem of a little series, and like Billy and Billie, every now and then you find a little sleeper show that is vastly more entertaining than a lot of bigger budget network stuff.

Honestly ,this is the kind of show, like Black Mirror episodes, where I wouldn't be surprised if a bigger network tried to buy the show, then infuse it with a larger budget and bigger name actors, and give it a solid run.

While the acting is a little off and on, I think it's generally pretty good, all things considering. That the kid doesn't annoy the living crap out of me, while most big budget shows have incredibly irritating kids on the show, and is actually pretty sympathetic is a minor feat.

Really impressive. If you haven't seen this show and are looking for a review, my take is to give it a shot ( No, I do not work for these people, I just actually appreciate pretty good TV when I can find it)