Zombie Review : Dead Set

From time to time I will be reviewing zombie related media, whether that be films, T.V shows, games ect. This is the first zombie review and what better place to start than the Charlie Brooker's Dead Set.

Dead Set
Dead Set has just finished its week long run, 5 episodes, the first of which was one hour and the rest 30 mins on E4. The plot revolved around a group of people trying to survive a major zombie outbreak, the twist was that it was based around the Big Brother house. Lets just stay here for a moment because I want to say what a brilliant idea this is, think about it, the contestants in BB have no contact with the outside world so when the outbreak starts they are left clueless and only find out when one of the girls (Kelly) from the studio escapes into the house and even then they don't believe her until one of the zombies charges in.
This leads me to the ultimate criticism of this show, the zombies run, there I have said it, I hate running zombies and I plan to come back to this subject at the later date.
This aside I thought Brooker missed a trick here because the contestants went from thinking Kelly was insane to believing her in the space of 5 mins, I thought this area could have been developed a bit further to allow the characters to develope without the threat of the zombies down their necks, even if it was just for another 10 mins or so.
Moving on to the characters themselves. The contestants were just what Big Brother contestants are, 2D sterotypes and Brooker never manages to break them out of this mold, all of them remain dull and uninteresting and you really don't care if they live or die. Maybe this was his point? but I really think he wanted them to brake typecast, evidence of this can be seen when the transexual turns out to be a paramedic or when they are discussing how to take care of a problem member of their group. In fact this charge of 2D characters can be made at all the cast with the exception of Kelly.
It says something about the character developement when the most memoriable characters are basically extras. The coppers and Lisa, a woman who teams up with Kelly's boyfriend (he is standared in the middle of nowhere and trying to make his way to her). The coppers opened up questions about authority in a world where there is no law but their time is tragically short and the issues are never really explored as we head back to the house for more time with the housemates.
Then there is Lisa, whose back story is more seems to be more interesting than all the other characters put together, maybe it's because her script allows her to act as she delivers a brilliant speech about surival and having to blow your best mate's head off. I wanted more screen time with her and learn more about her, if only Brooker had spent as much effort with the rest of the cast as he did with her then I might have found myself caring about them.
The violence in Dead Set was suitably awesome for a zombie film, from Kelly bashing in a zombie's head with a fire extishger to the ripping apart of a victim it was stuff to match any zombie film that has preceeded it. So in this aspect it was not a let down.
Then there was Brooker's none too subtle message, just like the racism in Night of the Living Dead or the consumerism in Dawn, Brooker used his zombie show to deliver that message that people who watch Big Brother are idoits. However it is delieved with all the subtlity of someone smashing you in the face with a brick what has the words "Big Brother is shit" stamped on it. From zombies watching the housemates on a tv to the final shots, the message is too overt for this zombie fan. The same message is delievered better in the short film Detained (a cracking little zombie film, you should all check it out, it's free as well!)
Having said all this though, it was entertaining and worth a watch for any zombie fan. It does trick the right boxes when it came down to the violence and the end game, after all character devoplement really doesn't come into it when hundereds of zombies are chasing the contestants all over the place, it just means you are cheering for the zombies instead of the humans.