TV Review: Great Cast Nearly Rescues Deeply Flawed ‘Survivors’

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CHICAGO – Who knew the end of the world would be so dull? BBC America makes a rare misstep this weekend with the debut of “Survivors,” an ensemble show with a strong cast and timely concept but self-serious writing that rarely clicks into anything entertaining in its premiere. With cliched dialogue and awkward pacing, “Survivors” improves drasticallly in future episodes but never lives up to its potential.

TV Rating: 2.5/5.0

Updating the ’70s BBC mini-series “Survivors” for a generation terrified of SARS and swine flu was actually a brilliant idea. The very structure of the concept should work with both the excellent caliber of science fiction often available on BBC America in programs like “Torchwood,” “Doctor Who,” and “Primeval” and should deliver for fans of ensemble mysteries like “Lost”. Perhaps that’s why “Survivors” feels so generic.

Survivors
Photo credit: BBC

The show definitely improves on this weekend’s dull opener (almost immediately in the better-paced second episode) and the cast is so good that it’s never unbearable and could maintain interest through the twelve episodes being shown stateside (technically, it’s two six-episode BBC seasons being aired back-to-back here) but it should have and could have been better.

Survivors Photo credit: BBC

The first act of the first episode of “Survivors” basically details the end of the world as we know it. Imagine the opening of “28 Days Later” but without the zombies. A European flu starts up that kills people almost immediately and ends up having a 99% mortality rate. This leaves only a few survivors who band together by the end of the first episode and spend the rest of the series trying to stay alive and wondering who they can trust.

The band of road warriors are led by matriarch Abby (Julie Graham), a woman convinced that her son must still be alive despite no real proof that he would be, and tough guy Tom (Max Beesley), a hardened criminal who ends up the only living murderer left in a prison decimated by the virus. They help and are helped by Anya (Zoe Tapper), Greg (Paterson Joseph), Al (Philip Rhys) and Najid (Chahak Patel).

With echoes of “Lost” and “Jericho,” “Survivors” is at its best when it embraces its popcorn entertainment. The set-up in a two-hour premiere is tragically self-serious as we spend way too much time getting to the good stuff. By the opening of the second episode, it’s clear that our heroes aren’t the only people left in the world but they may be the only good ones and that each new person they encounter could be someone worth saving or someone merely trying to steal their supplies. The drama of that set-up episode is poorly written and slowly paced but the show picks up steam in the second and subsequent episodes.

Survivors Photo credit: BBC

I still wished for a more fully realized world. The sense of danger is not absent merely because there are no zombies roaming the streets but because it’s never quite believable that the world is now 99% emptier. It too often feels like the characters are just in a less populated part of town not that the world is less populated overall. And the pacing of that first episode, which should have been half as long, is deadly enough that I worry few viewers won’t make it to the next one.

Despite a marked improvement next week, “Survivors” still struggles from an abundance of cliched dialogue and melodramatic moments. As for the cast, Beesley is notably effective at displaying just enough menace that one is left wondering if he will turn on the people who have taken him in and Tapper, Rhys, and Joseph are all quite good. In fact, the ensemble is often better than the dialogue they are given, elevating the characters off the page. The casting of “Survivors” goes a long way.

To call “Survivors” a guilty pleasure would be a misnomer because it’s not all that pleasurable and yet it’s the kind of show that becomes harder and harder to turn away from even when you acknowledge its flaws. Every time it felt like I was ready to give up and call “Survivors” a failure, something, usually in a performance, would click. Consider this one barely alive.

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com [email protected]