⚠️ Warning: this article contains major spoilers. ⚠️Yes, good… The world has ended. And we can watch ten people try to survive and rebuild it. They go through many problems, both technical and social.
It is a “Reality TV” show, so be ready for lots of drama and filler.
Who was the team?
- Allison White (nurse)
- Amy West (marine biologist)
- George Fallieras (doctor)
- Joey Sciacca (independent contractor)
- John Cohn (computer engineer)
- John Valencia (machinist)
- Leilani Smith (martial arts instructor)
- Michael Raines (handyman)
- Morgan Hooker (aeronautical engineer)
- Vladimir Beck (mechanical engineer)
What were they?
A group with different specialties; pretty much an ideal group for zombie survival.
To me, the main characters were John and Michael; they had the most interviews. I would speculate that’s because the others weren’t role-playing enough.
It could be because the editors needed to make an understandable story; which could be one reason why they reduced the group size for season two.
My thoughts
I liked the TV show, it was good to watch.
When thinking about creating a society, it’s hard to start from a blank page, so I found it to be a good starting point. And then think about what could be different.
It was a good attempt to investigate what could happen in a disaster, but I would have liked to see more food production.
It also investigated some interpersonal issues.
For example, when they were discussing the overnight security shifts and Michael and Morgan were arguing over which was the harder shift. If it was me, we’d be making a more formal schedule and rotating shifts. Michael felt that his longer but earlier shift was more difficult than shorter shifts in the middle of the night; for me, interrupting sleep is a big pain, so I would disagree, but maybe other people are different, so they could also have a system that plays to people’s strengths.
There was also the issue of gender roles: laundry, dishes, and cleaning. They show a moment when the women washed everyone’s clothes in the rainwater while the men were just watching. We could see the men standing around and basking in their enjoyment.
Due to already existing skill gaps the men were largely responsible for building stuff; cars and infrastructure. I have no idea what the other people did all day.
And there was also the issue of killing and eating the mice. Many women were against it. I don’t remember the reasons for this, but I felt it may have been motivated by the women’s traditional roles.
In this situation, I’d like to see a system to distribute the gender tasks to everyone.