Surviving

Because I'm a glutton for punishment (and a diehard fan of the BBC) I got hold of a copy of the only two seasons of Survivors, a 2008 production featuring survivors of a flu-like pandemic that wipes out most of humanity. Bit of trivia: the production had to be halted at one point because of a real world outbreak of swine flu. The series was cancelled after two seasons, too, so this is all you get.

Despite some obvious flaws I liked it. The story is fairly realistic, and the characters are an interesting mix despite the odd ethnic representations. Two of the characters are Muslim, one is black, one might be of Russian descent; the rest are white. I would have liked to see more East Asians, as there are twice as many of them as there are blacks in the UK.

Another glaring flaw for me is how quickly the pandemic kills, and how the extremely dramatic reduction in the population (almost everyone in the world literally drops dead over night) impacts the survivors. The characters' frequent foraging and their struggles to find clean water and food seemed most out of whack; one person could probably live for a year on what non-perishable foods they could scrounge from a dozen households. Some of the choices the characters make seem really foolhardy. Survivors, especially in the aftermatch of so much death, are not that stupid. Then again, I saw an elderly couple at the market the other day without masks. Maybe they are.

There is plenty of drama. Despite many personal differences the seven survivors bond as a family group in the first season, and then commence trying to save each other from various threats. Four of the group begin forming romantic attachments to each other, which always guarantees the BBC is going to kill off at least one lover (yep, in season two; probably a Christmas episode.) There's a very odd relationship between a slightly psychopathic male convict and a shell-shocked lesbian doctor that I'm still not sure how I feel about, honestly. I think there probably weren't any actual gay people involved in the production. Anyway, I will admit that it was the most interesting plot line in the show.

Is it something you should watch while we're dealing with our own pandemic? Depends. If you like post-apocalyptic stories, this one is pretty good. It ends on a bit of a cliff-hanger, but the main conflicts of the series -- who is responsible for the pandemic, and does the mom character ever find her lost son -- are resolved. There aren't too many similarities to what we're dealing with during our pandemic, either. So that's my conditional rec.