among the best of P-A shows
Far better than the half-dozen network TV shows that try to show a post- apocalyptic world, this is still not perfectly imagined.Here's the central premise: a plague has wiped out everyone over the age of puberty, all at once, leaving children 0-12 to find their own way. 15 years later, they've done amazingly well. I suspect there'd be a little more Lord of the Flies behaviors in such a situation, but here, not only are the people reasonably happy and well-adjusted, everything in this world looks organized, only mildly dirty, and fairly well engineered.
Moreover, the casting and the stories keep forgetting the central premise. Luke Perry looks 40-something (he wasn't quite that at filming but looks older), yet the oldest person alive should be 27, and no way can he pass for that. One can imagine that almost none of the infants alive at the time of the plague would have survived (having only traumatized orphans to find and mince food for them), so people from the old times should be 17-27 and their post-plague children 0-12. But clearly older actors abound and you'll get a plot where a stated 16- year-old has a father. Huh?
Plot-wise, good (if damaged) guy Perry and his sidekick (whose personality shifts about in season 1) meander around in a surviving automobile, never running out of gas, and which they seem to know how to drive at once without any chance for training at that skill, and they have episodic adventures that reminded me of the old Incredible Hulk and Fugitive series. (Guy arrives at new town each week, meets someone with a problem, helps him or her solve it in 45 minutes of screen time, drives off into sunset at end of show.) There's an overarching narrative, too, involving various groups trying to set themselves up to rule a greater number of people, but mostly this episodic plot, developing an emotional connection for the leads to a girl or child, and after someone has made the Big Speech, the leads drive off into the sunset. While that's not original, it is an appropriate choice for a P-A series, as it gives us a chance to look at how various dystopic groups that may have formed. It would have been interesting had they occasionally driven into town, mis-assessed the situation, and hurt more than helped, but the show's writers played it safe and kept to the formula.
For a world in which technology is dying and the knowledge needed to keep it going mostly forgotten, it sure keeps popping up a lot. Cars, gasoline, bullets, helicopters, running water, short-wave radios, whatever a plot needs, the tech is there, but precious little time is spent suggesting that there are people working at figuring these things out and keeping tech working. Admittedly, that's not very exciting stuff to show, but an occasional added reference would make the wider world more believable, as would more awe from the natives at their arriving in a working car. Nor do you see a lot of farming, which would be what 99% of people do 99% of the time.
Still, it is far less cloying and unrealistic than the networks' attempts at PA stories, and it's pleasant to hear cursing, frank talk about sex, and even some atheism (without growing up with religious training, surely most people wouldn't be). And the leads are almost always wearing the same clothes and don't look overly well-scrubbed, for which I give points.
I got bored so didn't watch the second season; this is a review of the first season only.
score 6/10
grnhair2001 18 February 2013
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2755509/14376
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