The zombie subgenre is a monolith in the horror community, a concept that has spawned countless iterations and posits the intriguing question: What would you do if the world fell to mobs of rotten flesh and gnawing teeth? From The Walking Dead to 28 Days Later, the media has become saturated with these gritty stories of individuals losing their humanity and struggling to survive against undead beasts and malicious humans alike. It takes a truly innovative spin to distinguish one piece of zombie culture from the rest – cue Charlie Brooker’s Dead Set. Setting its outbreak within the walls of the real reality show Big Brother, the British miniseries series plays with not only how this disaster would shake the world but also the effect it would have on a cast of reality TV competitors and the producers meant to manipulate them. Surprisingly poignant in its critiques of how destructive reality TV production is to the people it casts, this take pairs the fun theatrics of reality TV with the stark horrors of a zombie apocalypse, breathing life into a tired genre.
‘Dead Set’ Lifts the Curtain on Reality Television
From The Amazing Race to Survivor, modern television is filled with reality competitions that have captured audiences’ attention for decades. While many have proven successful, it’s hard to find one that has achieved as much acclaim as Big Brother has since premiering more than two decades ago, a televised social experiment confining a group of strangers in a house where their strategic gameplay can grant one lucky winner a large cash prize. While this show has rightfully gained acclaim, Dead Set brings attention to a fact of its premise that is not often acknowledged: it’s really, really creepy. The series grants viewers insight into the people who ‘create’ Big Brother and learn just how much these contestants are exploited during their time on the show. Aided by the inclusion of Big Brothers’ actual host from 2000 – 2010 Davina McCall to give it authenticity, the miniseries realistically depicts the inner mechanisms that allow reality competitions to produce entertaining drama. Before its first episode’s bloody climax, it establishes a creepy and mean-spirited tone as we watch not only how the producers critique and maneuver the contestants to create good storylines, but also how these people lose so much of themselves in trying to impress them.
This unnerving quality is only worsened when a horde of zombies begins attacking the studio, struggling to get inside and feast on whoever they can find. Showrunner Kelly (Jaime Winstone) survives this initial wave and finds refuge in the strangest of places: inside the ‘house’ the houseguests stay in during their tenure, a facsimile of a home set within the larger studio. Her arrival leads to confusion as she informs the players of the apocalypse occurring just outside their walls. After their initial disbelief, each one realizes just how much they’ve sacrificed by taking part in the show and willingly giving themselves over to television producers they’ve never even met. They’ve surrendered knowledge of the outside world, making themselves vulnerable to the catastrophe they’re currently witnessing. The zombies steadily approaching is scary enough, but what makes the series truly haunting is seeing these competitors learn just how much they’ve damned themselves in the pursuit of a prize.
‘Big Brother’ Only Has One Winner
A mainstay of Big Brother is strategy, the competitors forming bonds with one another and using this social capital to their advantage as they fight not to be ‘evicted’ (voted out). As the undead begin invading the studio, Dead Set’s survivors find one another and unconsciously beg in relying on these ingrained strategies as they struggle to survive. Even in the face of the roaming dead the issues they have with one another still breed contempt and cause more stress than necessary in an already lethal situation. This brings Kelly face-to-face with the corrupted setting she had a hand in creating, recognizing the ultimate irony of her safety depending on the people whom she helped push and prod for weeks. And just as she’s been watching them fall apart behind a screen, because of the live feeds the show has set up, her fight for survival is being broadcast to thousands of TVs across the country with people watching her fall more and more into despair.
Patrick (Andy Nyman) is a crass producer on Big Brother who makes it clear that anybody (contestant and underling alike) is disposable in his path to ratings. When the zombie outbreak erupts, this mentality doesn’t leave as he believes that while others band together, his best bet at survival relies on using people rather than working with them. Even further, as a producer, he’s had a direct role in spurring the petty differences of the players and understands the complex personalities that each carries. He draws on this knowledge to turn them against one another, manipulating players like the meek Joplin (Kevin Eldon) by convincing them that the social dynamics they’d used in the game were still in play and determined whether they lived or died. His selfishness leads to numerous deaths of individuals who’d been working decently together before his arrival, showcasing the wild amount of power engineers of shows like this possess – and how easy it is for them to use it for evil.
Zombies Are Even Scarier Than You Think
Beyond its complex depictions of reality television and the cruelty of its mechanics, Dead Set is overall a chilling tale of a zombie apocalypse – not only the blood and guts it would bring but just how much it takes from those struggling to survive it. Alongside scenes of tearing flesh, the show follows Kelly’s boyfriend Riq (the astounding Riz Ahmed) as he struggles toward the studio in the hopes of finding her. During this journey, both make friends and lose them, witnessing in emotional horror as these people lose their lives trying to escape their dangerous surroundings. Grounding itself in these relationships grants Dead Set an ability to weave social dynamics into its story; it terrifies with blatant zombie attacks while stressing this fear further with the recognition that even if you survive, odds are many of the ones you love won’t. This adds a distressing quality to the miniseries that explores an aspect of zombies that less-nuanced projects wouldn’t have the ability to detail. Add to that many nerve-wracking scenes of would-be survivors falling to the hungry hordes and the show instills a deep sense of dread that scares on a multitude of levels.
While a genre with astounding potential, zombie television could have its own network with several disappointing projects that fall within this category. From zombies on a boat to zombies in a city, to zombies nowhere near as bad as the living they want to eat, the takes on this idea are plentiful and typically have diminishing returns. Yet it’s that inconsistency that makes Dead Set such a marvel of the genre. In utilizing another iconic franchise and twisting its premise to its bloodiest version, it not only creates an interesting conceit but sees it through with a terrifying 5 episodes of heartache and horror. For reality television and horror fans, this miniseries thrives by setting itself apart from a genre filled with duplicates.