Welcome back to a series we’re calling “Must See,” a collection of editorials on TV shows, movies, or anything you watch that we’re suggesting you see. Reviews would fit a single episode, but some shows or movies require a broader discussion. Let’s say there’s a TV show you must see (pun intended), but one episode doesn’t do it justice, or a movie with one scene that’s only described by: fantabulous or dreck.

Big Brother, the reality show that captivated audiences across the world for about a decade, started in the Netherlands, it was a social experiment. The UK version, in particular, was quite popular to some extent, capturing headlines when housemates in either the celebrity or normal show used racial slurs, were overly abusive to one another, or generally rattled enough cages for tabloids to titillate the public into watching. It was trash TV at its peak, and while many watched, they knew the whole thing was dreadful. Though for 90-so days, you would keep watching for some cat-fighting or other to make you forget about the bad day you had.

Clearly, by the title, I’m not going to talk about some reality TV show full of dull-minded cretins with hopes of fame from five minutes on TV. However, I sort of need to talk about the format of a bunch of idiots locked in a house in England, forced to play for the cameras; and all for the status, aspiring to be that useless git that was on TV last week. I need to because Dead Set, much like GLOW, is a fictionalized version of something that we may or may not have watched at one point.

Dead Set takes place around 10 to 15 years ago, the show itself airing just over 11 years ago, and beings towards the end of the fictional season of the show Big Brother. Set in England, it has the typical house cast: the anti-social and spiritual one, one northerner, the big-boobed blonde, the idiot, the gay one, the gay one’s new friend, and the “normal” one. However, we also follow those behind the cameras, in the production studio, and the presenter of the real Big Brother on the night of a housemate getting evicted. For the production team, it is hellacious.

Meanwhile, the channel the fictionalized episode is set to go live on is running a breaking news segment over millions returning from the dead. Production is in disarray, housemates are unaware of the national panic, and the staff are running around like headless chickens ahead of the show. To put it nicely, there’s a big build akin to that of Shaun of the Dead happening in the background that no one is all that bothered about. 

Our series lead is a young woman named Kelly, a runner who gets coffee, does what producers tell her to do; and gets more coffee. For the most part, as a serialized zombie show it would be boring. Yes, it is another zombie thing, though luckily unlike The Walking Dead there is an ending in sight. It is a short series of five episodes, running a total of 142 minutes over those episodes; and was created and written by this Charlie Brooker bloke. Some game review writer who made a series called “____wipe,” wrote for Brass Eye, and created something called Black Mirror.

Anyway, this zombie flick set around a fictionalized version of a reality series is a bit satirical. Who would have thought it? Pretty early on, it is clear that in this dark-comedy about the world being turned upside down by the now very common-place zombies, there is only one safe place. Eviction night happens, hundreds of people are surrounding the house, people get bitten, and surprise to no one, it all goes to pot. Though the housemates don’t know as they are isolated from the world purposefully.

As a concept, it hasn’t really been explored to great length (as far as I know) in a TV show or movie. I guess when everyone else was high on the whole zombie thing after Shaun of the Dead, many saw the market as drenched in gore as Twitter is with idiots who can’t spell. This is something that’s yet to slow anytime soon; the same could be said of Facebook too. Nevertheless, it is hard to keep lead characters away from the threat long enough for a Planet of the Apes-style reveal. So it is used more for the haven motif than a long-lasting B-plot.

Speaking of usual plot devices, the villain isn’t particularly a character. The idea that is usually lost in the serialized zombie shows or movies, happens to be showing the zombies as a true threat and antagonist. Yes, the usual character in a show about TV, the executive producer, plays a secondary villain role, though he isn’t effective as such for quite some time. Even then, he isn’t a threat to anyone other than his aggressive and angry put-downs that are meant to offend the recipient. He instead uses his influence and aggression to antagonize others, leading to his final last-ditch effort to get what he wants that backfires.

Though our so-called protagonists are the now de rigueur group of miss-matched characters, they aren’t effective to any means. They themselves aren’t a reason to sit upright and yell, “Brilliance!” Instead, it is Brooker’s satirical and cynical nature that shows why even before his show about a Prime Minister having sex with a pig (allegedly), he was and is a brilliant writer. 

While Dead Set doesn’t revolutionize the genre of zombie flicks, you may notice Brooker’s early Black Mirror-style handprints all over it. However, as a small British film with major budget issues that takes on a heavy effect and extra based project, it is done well. Take it seriously and you’re bound to dislike it, watch it as a zombie B-movie and you’ll find some enjoyment in it.

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