Dead Set - One of Tom's favorite zombie miniseries on Netflix

This kind of an oldie but a goody. It’s Dead Set from 2008 and it’s now available in the US on Netflix! For all you Black Mirror fans, it’s from Charlie Brooker. For all you zombie fans, it’s a 5-episode miniseries with lots of gore and drama.

Basically, the premise is Big Brother, the reality show, during a zombie apocalypse. I know, it sounds dumb, but this is way better than the elevator pitch, and if you’re worried about it all being shot from the in-house cameras like a cheesy Paranormal Activity or something, you can rest easy. It’s a normal production. The fact that it takes place (mostly) in a Big Brother house is the basis for the personal conflicts, not the camera setups.

It features a younger Riz Ahmed (Rogue One, The Night Of) in a good early role.

Fun fact: Dead Set was produced by an arm of the company that also produces the real Big Brother show in the UK and has cameos from past Big Brother contestants.

About time. Sheesh, America.

We had a great thread about Dead Set that was kicked off by Simon Pegg’s dumb but famous essay about how they’re not zombies if they can run.

-Tom

This show is amazing and highly recommended.

Also Tom you misspelled “correct” as “dumb”.

Oh good, this thread is going to be fun.

I think Dead Set can almost be considered a prequel to Black Mirror. You can see the same Brooker deftness with turning the tech in question against the characters and the viewer, while never getting heavy-handed about it. At one point, he even has a character lampshade the theme with a wry callback to Dawn of the Dead’s reasoning for why zombies go to the mall.

Great series. Completely forgot about it.

I always loved that essay! When my girlfriend and I watch a zombie flick one of the first things we note is whether they’re runners or walkers. And while I’m no purist, I do prefer walkers. We watched Wyrmwood over the weekend and that throws a spanner-- well, a few, actually-- in the works.

Anyway, yeah, Dead Set was great.

Hah! I like what you’re saying here!

One of the best things you can say about Dead Set is that it is like a top 3 Black Mirror episode.

Not because Dead Set isn’t great, it absolutely is, but because Black Mirror is a highly polished version of the same machine…

Just started watching this. Awesome stuff. Except for the fast zombies. Fast zombies suck.