By Maaike Oosterling
Welcome back to the second episode of ‘Have You Watched…???’.
Yes, that’s the title now. Just imagine me flapping my arms and yelling that at you. Perfect. Now you understand what I’m really trying to do here. Hopefully, the more #hardcore ones of you have watched the entirety of Steven Universe in a week. It’s possible, I did it. But if you didn’t, that’s okay, too. You’ll learn. In any case, I will be moving on to another TV show.
This week I would like to promote what is quite possibly my favourite TV show ever made: In The Flesh. This BBC miniseries only got 9 episodes before it was cancelled, but it truly is a small masterpiece that doesn’t get the attention it deserves. And it’s about zombies.
In the universe of In The Flesh, there has been a Rising. People, long or recently dead, have risen from their graves and turned into rabid, aggressive zombies. Standard zombie media material, but here is the twist: they have found a cure. Suddenly, the loved ones you saw die are back, not quite alive, but also definitely not dead. Partially Deceased Syndrome, they call it. Kieren Walker is one such PDS-sufferer. He is medicated and returned to his parents in the tiny town of Roarton. This presents the people of the village with a dilemma; the zombies that ran amok in their town and killed so many in aggressive attacks are returning to their town as civilized, yet dead, members of their village. Are they to be trusted? Or are they still the monsters they used to be?
The first season, only 3 episodes long, deals primarily with introducing the characters and the difficulty of society to adapt to this new situation. The second season, however, presents a whole different storyline, when a new union, the Undead Libeartion Army, arises. They are led by a man who calls himself the Prophet, who is sure a Second Rising is inevitable. Even in a town as small as Roarton, this leads to a lot of tension and struggle.
What caught me most about this show is the absolute uniqueness of the premise. I am, like many, a great fan of anything that has to do with zombies, but using them to tackle a societal problem as large as the discrimination of minorities was something I was fully surprised by. Because the story is set in a small rural village, the show offers a small, but personal window into this changed world. It truly makes you wonder how the real world would deal with an ordeal as devastating as this. The characters are fully, excuse the pun, fleshed out and it is difficult to think of anyone as the villain. The story isn’t afraid to tackle issues like mental health, homophobia and bullying as well, making it an emotional, but very realistic whole.
All in all, this show keeps your attention for the full 9 hours and long after that, too. It’s one of the most gritty and realistic things I have ever seen, without it becoming too depressing to watch. It is a thought-provoking show that is definitely worth your time.
It is not on Netflix, but seeing as it is a BBC series, it’s easy to find a good quality download. So watch it. Have fun.
Maaike Oosterling, Class of 2016, is a Cognitive Science and Psychology Major from Zwijndrecht, the Netherlands.
