Well it's been confirmed after a lot of rumours, that the remake of 70's post apocalyptic drama "Survivors", also called, surprisingly "Survivors" (2008-2010), has been axed and will not be returning for the third season it would have had, had it continued. Largely due to the fact that it was a sci-fi show with decreasing ratings (unlike say Torchwood), and also because (IMHO); lets face it, it was a bit shit as well.
Survivors had a great premise, wipe out just about every human being with a virus, and see how a bunch of "normal people", and others try to eke out a living, with all the comforts and familiarity they took for granted totally stripped away. It's the classic eschatological; fantastic fish out of water - scene setting; that sci -fi writers are so keen to utilise, and when well done it's an ideal environment for a good bit of sci-fi.
Perhaps because I purchased a copy of Alan Weismans. "The World Without Us." , that despite a promising start, the series never capitalises on the premise of this new, nearly post human world (which, the human part would fall apart very quickly, as "World" describes"), in some of the rural scenes, apparently the end of mankind, will be a bit like having a rubbish camping trip, with no one about, and no electricity. Hmmm. The good, apocalyptic sci fis, like the first episodes of the newer "Battlestar Galactica" and Stephen Baxter's novel, "Flood" manage to convey the dire (and unusual) situation these people face, in their now destroyed worlds, in the context of keeping it with a tight character piece. Survivors doesn't do this. The show had an aimless quality, where the characters more often than not, encountered the dull plot of the week, and everything would be fine by the credit roll. There was little scope to see how society adopts to this new world. Indeed when they discovered a colony set up by the highest surviving government official, they fled it due to the harsh rules, so in a way the series ducked the bigger questions of how a new order would be built, in exchange for our characters walking around the Peak District, pretending to be in an apocalyptic wasteland.
Survivors had a great premise, wipe out just about every human being with a virus, and see how a bunch of "normal people", and others try to eke out a living, with all the comforts and familiarity they took for granted totally stripped away. It's the classic eschatological; fantastic fish out of water - scene setting; that sci -fi writers are so keen to utilise, and when well done it's an ideal environment for a good bit of sci-fi.
Perhaps because I purchased a copy of Alan Weismans. "The World Without Us." , that despite a promising start, the series never capitalises on the premise of this new, nearly post human world (which, the human part would fall apart very quickly, as "World" describes"), in some of the rural scenes, apparently the end of mankind, will be a bit like having a rubbish camping trip, with no one about, and no electricity. Hmmm. The good, apocalyptic sci fis, like the first episodes of the newer "Battlestar Galactica" and Stephen Baxter's novel, "Flood" manage to convey the dire (and unusual) situation these people face, in their now destroyed worlds, in the context of keeping it with a tight character piece. Survivors doesn't do this. The show had an aimless quality, where the characters more often than not, encountered the dull plot of the week, and everything would be fine by the credit roll. There was little scope to see how society adopts to this new world. Indeed when they discovered a colony set up by the highest surviving government official, they fled it due to the harsh rules, so in a way the series ducked the bigger questions of how a new order would be built, in exchange for our characters walking around the Peak District, pretending to be in an apocalyptic wasteland.
The plotting did have the odd good bit now and then, but the origin of the virus plot was far too tenuously spread, and went on for so long without giving us anything to go on, it just became boring. The characters and (bad) script were uninteresting (especially the Doctor, and the Asian guy.) and poorly realised. We couldn't really relate to Abby Grant (the lead) finding her son, as much as the show wanted. The dodgy hard man Tom character, should have been an intriguing one, but spent 90% of his screen time, glaring at stuff in a menacing way. It was all in all, a very long - drawn out, and lacklustre series. And I'm not surprised that it hasn't been renewed, it certainly didn't deserve to be.
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