| Author | Message | ||
     Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.129.20.12 |
I balked at the images, but the trailer isn't bad to be honest; http://www.bbc.co.uk/survivors/ | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.219.8.243 |
I'll be watching (Sunday, isn't it?). I have huge fond memories of the original, so it could colour my viewing. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.129.20.12 |
It feels slick, like so much beeb stuff now, but I like the dialogue. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.159.141.80 |
Bring back Talfryn Thomas! | ||
| Gcw (Gcw) Username: Gcw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.43.119.113 |
Survivors was the only adult drama my parents had to switch off when I was a nipper because it gave me nightmares.... Bloody Julie Graham in this one...Bonekickers...Argh!! gcw | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 90.203.130.245 |
Here at Probert Towers the minute we saw Julie Graham was in it the entire thing became a no-no. "Bring back Talfryn Thomas!" And legendary zombie killer Ian McCulloch | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 89.19.90.228 |
Ugh, that cast of characters has a severe case of the trendies. Arab character? Check! Eastern European character? Czech! | ||
| Gcw (Gcw) Username: Gcw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.43.119.113 |
And I bet they will have their regulation Spooks:Code 9 trendy clothes/haircuts/facial cleanser all post apocalypse yah? After all, viewers wouldn't want to see anything visually unappealing eh? grrr... gcw | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.129.20.12 |
I hate it too. Their trendiness and PC touches will outweigh any qualities it might have. These things disable - nay, cripple - drama. I wish they'd see it. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.152.208.109 |
Yeah, social relevance and/or self-consciousness is death to art, isn't it? | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
I'd say it's more like an overdose of social relevance is death to art; when done properly, it can be brilliant. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.157.25.29 |
Thew inverse of Big Brother / Deadset in the sense the 'disaster' creates the 'housemates' who previously didn't know each other rather than the 'disaster' destroying them. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
Just watched the first episode, and I must say that I really enjoyed it. Very promising stuff. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.44.101.224 |
Hmm... (as you guessed I would say) | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.152.205.52 |
I thought it was boring. Was there a single new thing in it? Surely that's what creativity, is about -- creating things. It felt like potato prints. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.106.69 |
Pretty underwhelming stuff. But it was only the first episode so hopefully it'll improve. Was going to type up a long list of things that irritate me about this first ep but frankly that would involve me expending more effort on the ep than the programme makers did. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 83.98.9.4 |
I enjoyed it. then again I didn't see the original. Looks like I'm easily pleased. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.23.233.247 |
It just feels like the zone has gone, that creative thing artists are meant to keep getting lost in. It's like they have an idea but the execution is flat as a pancake and does nothing to further the original excitement in a subject. 'It's the end of the world - let's make it trendy and slick and punctuate it with explosions and humour and jaunty music. Heck - we could even have a spot of footy! And precisely one of each type of person!' This, after the tedium that is Exorcist guy! Where have all the feelings gone?!? | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.23.233.247 |
Stu;  | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 147.252.230.154 |
The zone's still there, Tony, but it's harder to get to because of modernity. I think that those William Gibson thoughts I told you about are the reason. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 83.98.9.4 |
Is the black guy the same one as played Armstrong in Peep Show? He's also been touted for the next Doctor Who | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.219.8.243 |
I don't think creativity or originality are high on the agenda when it comes to a BBC crowd-pleaser (particularly when it's a remake), chaps. If I want experimentation and originality, I don't look for them at 9pm on BBC1 on a Sunday evening...certainly not these days. Taken in context and bearing in mind it's target audience, I thought it was pretty entertaining (and certainly a lot better than I'd feared). Decent TV fodder with a few nice touches. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 85.158.139.99 |
Is the black guy the same one as played Armstrong in Peep Show? Yep, plus he was the IT chap in Green Wing. Name of Paterson Joseph - made me wonder if he was originally called Joseph Paterson and did the 'getting a screen name' thing. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.104.141 |
Tony, thanks for typing out part of my list for me :-) I'm probably going to miss Tuesday's episode which is where the series will hoepfully become at least halfway decent now the scene-setting is out of the way. Anyone know if the Beeb is showing repeats of the episodes? (Btw, I don't have digital so if it's on BBC3 or something I still won't get to see it.) | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.23.233.247 |
It broke a film and book rule; should have started the action as far in as possible. The audience is always three or four steps ahead so the whole 'the world is ending' - we don't need to see it. We could have had the hostel guy burying the dead, a bit of mystery and dread, and 'WTF?'. Instead it's the Dorling Kindersley guide to the apocalypse with every speck in highlighter pen. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 83.98.9.4 |
Alternatively, it's following the characters through the apocalypse so we see their reactions to it and learn their characters. The geography of Manchester was a little strange though. Apparently the courthouse building is luxury flats and when he turned that corner in the flash car, he would not have landed in the same street the boy was playing footy in. There must be wormholes in space developed as well. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 147.252.230.154 |
"Dorling Kindersley guide to the apocalypse" I love this. What a book that'd make for Christmas. | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 212.74.96.200 |
I watched SURVIVORS last night. It felt bound in the time of its original concept, the late 60s/ early70s, when it appeared as a novel by Terry Nation, creator of BLAKE'S 7 (and the Daleks, I think). Would've been more interesting to see it set in a chav estate. And possibly a lot funnier. But it stuck with its mild mix of a supposed cross-section of society. But in the end it just resembled a "cosy catastrophe", I'm afraid, for all it tried really hard. I'll probably, if I remember, watch part two on Tuesday. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.44.101.224 |
Thing is, I don't look for stuff on at nine o'clock to be original or experimental - just fucking good will do. I for one would love to see a show set some decades after the fall of society, with parliament overgrown with weeds and trees growing around Buckingham Palace. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
I liked the dancing girls. And the boobies. The boobies were just great. | ||
| Gcw (Gcw) Username: Gcw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.43.119.113 |
Boobies-Yes! Watched Survivors...yes, it had moments, as Zed said, for it's target audience it was quite adventurous, but I want more...It's on in half an hour again so I will watch some more to see how it develops. Hated the terrible music playing during the football scene on the motorway - how stupid can a production team be? Oh, and of course we had to have the obligatory speeded up title sequence just like Apparitions...Must have been a law passed saying you have to do it in these sort of shows. (sigh) gcw | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
It was pretty good again tonight, I thought. I must be watching a different show to the rest of you, as I'm really enjoying this. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.23.233.247 |
I enjoyed last night's a lot more. It felt made by different hands now it's shaken off the shackles of having to set stuff up, and do something small. The characters seems to be breathing a bit. But really - that guy - when he fired off the second round they could have killed him! Sigh - little things, little things. But definitely better. Fave bit - 'I killed the chicken'. | ||
| Gcw (Gcw) Username: Gcw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.43.119.113 |
"Fave bit - 'I killed the chicken'." Absolutely. It was all the more shocking as that character had previously appeared so shallow. I'm enjoying it so far...just trying not to let the little niggles annoy me. Zed, I guess it doesn't seem hopeless and terrifying enough....It's not threads is it? How about if you were in a wheelchair? or in a hospital recovering from an operation? or had Down's Syndrome? I know we had the supermarket manager, but it didn't quite shock enough. The chicken scene was superb though...But I do want a bit more. gcw | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
Zed, I guess it doesn't seem hopeless and terrifying enough....It's not threads is it? I doubt we'll ever see anything as grim as threads on TV again. Actually, I can't even think of a film that grim. It was too bleak even for me - Billy Bleak.  This remake of SURVIVORS is clearly meant as a piece of escapist entertainment, and as such it works for me. A fun apocalypse, just the way I'd like the end of the world to be. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.157.125.161 |
I saw the first episode and found that it belonged in what King called the "dull thudding tract" of horror fiction. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.157.25.29 |
It's greengage jelly compared to Dead Set. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
Ah, well...it's all about taste, and I'm enjoying it. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.23.233.247 |
I don't know if it is about taste. Taste feels too loose. I think there is a right, somewhere, but that some refuse to dig because it takes them out of some comfortable place. It's like when you see a film you used to adore, and when you catch up with it again you have to admit with sinking heart it actually sucks (it's why I'm scared to watch such films). It's the point of view from where you are at any given moment in your life. 'I killed the chicken' is the best bit from either Dead Set or Survivors so far. Nothing in DEad Set moved me as much as that. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
Of course it's taste. For example, that chicken bit you were all so moved by...I thought it was bloody hilarious. Some folk like some things; other folk like other things. Taste. If we all liked the same things we'd have nowt to talk about. It's like when you see a film you used to adore, and when you catch up with it again you have to admit with sinking heart it actually sucks You know, that doesn't happen to me often at all. I still manage to retain a sense of what made me like the films in the first place, and enjoy them in a different way. For example, I'm rewatching those old Hammer films and loving them all over again. Noticing little things I never did when I was a kid. It's actually a wonderful experience. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.157.25.29 |
You've got too much common sense, Zed, for my taste. ;-) | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.44.101.224 |
 >Backing slowly away from EVERYBODY< | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.44.101.224 |
Gary - that was the feeling I was after summing up. But really, ep 2 was better. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 83.98.9.4 |
Just watched episode 2 last night. Once again I really enjoyed it. I never saw the original so I have no yardstick with which to beat it. I'm guessing the original was a lot grittier with grainy filmwork. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.44.101.224 |
Not so much gritty - just quieter, slower, more natural feeling. You felt like you were wandering an empty, very threatening country. For me it felt like a western. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
You've got too much common sense, Zed, for my taste. That's the first time anyone's ever accused me of having common sense, Des. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.157.25.29 |
it's like blakes seven, character-wise? terry nation influence? | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.129.23.231 |
Anyone still watching? I'm quite absorbed in it now. Does this mean I've been brainwashed? I'm reading this book, After the Flood, and there's a bit in it where this woman dies and you never see here again as she died in this tenty hospital that folk weren't allowed into. This bloke had promised he would take this woman to some place, for her husband, but she just died quite casually like that. Then there was a bit where this other woman was almost taken away by these old blokes on a raft from this other bloke, the woman's boyfriend. It was awful because in a real 'adventure' like this this would happen, people just coming and going out of your life suddenly and unfairly. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.145.36.225 |
Yes, still watching it. It's like being hooked on Pineapple Chunks as a kid. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.129.23.231 |
Yes! With custard! Oddly, I'm more into it than Dead Set, even though Dead Set was better made. Anyone explain that? Part of it might be that it's not as predictable as I'd thought it would be. Maybe that first ep was the first paragraph some writers say should always be chopped (or first three chapters if you're me). | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
I told you it was good. I'm really enjoying it. Like I said earlier, it's a cosy apocalypse. Oh, amd Max beesley is great in it (and I've never liked him in anything before). His character is refreshingly twattish. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.129.23.231 |
No - it's just *got* good!  | ||
| Steve Bacon (Stevebacon) Username: Stevebacon Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 90.209.220.53 |
Gary, I know what you mean about the Max Beasley character. This is the best I've ever seen him; he's edgy and cool. It helped that we saw him kill that prison guard in such a ruthless way. I like the character of Al (in fact I like all the characters). The triangle of Anya, Tom, and Sarah is interesting. I really hope a second series is commissioned. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 83.98.9.4 |
I'm still watching and enjoying. Looking forward to the final episode next week. | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 90.203.130.113 |
I've got the whole thing SkyPlused so maybe I should catch up on it over Xmas. Did anyone see the documentary on the original series? Best bit was the 'And what did they do next?' bit at the end so Ian McCulloch had to try and look embarrassed (well is IS BBC4 you know) discussing his Italian splatterthons |