| about
trismugistus.com
and digital-bondage.net
are my web sites.
trismugistus.com
is where I upload my anime, manga and tv&film reviews,
and also where I occasionally post short stories and longer
works I've written.
digital-bondage.net
is my wallpaper site and provides anime, manga and other
desktop wallpapers in a variety of resolutions. I also
have some psds for you to download.
I also run a site called scan-city.org,
which provides some scans for you to download and use
in your wallpapers.
You can also read my blog here
or check out my anime list here.
I also have pages on devart here
and urbis here. |
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| details |
| The Genre: horror |
| The Format: DVD |
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| The plot: Big Brother gets a Night of the Living
Dead makeover in horror spin-off Dead Set. The action
takes place during a fictional series of the reality
TV show, with stories unfolding both on camera in
the 'house' and with the staff behind the scenes.
When a zombie outbreak occurs the contestants are
blissfully unaware inside their secure little bubble,
a bubble which soon becomes a fortress when outsiders
seek refuge from the walking undead. Inevitably,
the infection spreads into the 'house', turning
the popularity contest into a scene of carnage,
with cast and crew uniting to escape the ultimate
'eviction'. |
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| opinion |
| I think Charlie Brooker is one of those "marmite"
things.
If you've never encountered that expression it
basically refers to the polarisation of people's
opinions. People either love Marmite or hate it
- you never encounter anyone who is "on the
fence".
I personally don't like Marmite, though I do like
Charlie Brooker.
He writes for the Guardian, reviewing TV and doing
opinion pieces. He also writes and presents a variety
of review-type shows variously titled Screenwipe,
Newswipe, Gameswipe (you don't need me point out
the naming convention, though I should perhaps note
that Arsewipe is a notable omission from the canon).
Recently he's also popped up on a few panel shows
too.
The basic tone of Brooker's style in all of these
is broadly summed up as "curmudgeonly".
He's annoyed about most things and shouts a lot.
He even manages to come across as vaguely annoyed
when he's explaining why he likes something.
But to be honest, this always comes across to me
as something of an exaggerated personae. Don't get
me wrong - I think he's probably quite annoyed and
miserable, but not quite to the level he presents.
I also always get the feeling underneath it all
is a heart that's roughly in the right place.
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Take, for example, Reality TV. As a TV
reviewer, Brooker is in the sort of position
where he's probably required to watch things
like Big Brother for his column. And, as you
might expect, he hates much about reality
TV.
But he's also often quick to admit that while
he hates it, he also becomes addicted to it
and enjoys a lot of it.
If you know anything about Dead Set you'll
appreciate the Big Brother example is not
a random one, because Dead Set is set (eh?)
in and around Big Brother.
The basic idea is that a zombie plague is
sweeping the nation (as they are want to do)
and Dead Set follows what happens when it
reaches the Big Brother house. As Brooker
points out in the DVD extras, the BB house
is probably not a bad place to sit out the
zombie apocalypse.
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I've said before that I'm not the biggest fan
of the new "fast" zombies. While I find
them interesting and scary in their own way, to
me, they're not really proper zombies. They're dead
and they eat the flesh of living, but they miss
one of the key elements of zombies - their slow,
unrelenting nature.
Dead Set does feature the fast zombies and to be
fair it makes more sense here. If they were slow
moving zombies you can imagine them trying to evacuate
the studios and thus undermining the whole idea.
However, in a way they, they're actually a bit
of a compromise. While the zombies are quick on
their feet when chasing living people, if there's
no-one about for them to chase, then they just shuffle
about moaning like the old-skool zombies.
I was quite surprised to find I therefore liked
the approach here.
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In fact, to be frank I was quite surprised overall
by Dead Set.
You see, while I like Brooker doing what he mostly
does - reviewing and giving opinions, my only real
exposure to him as a fiction writer was with Nathan
Barley, which I just didn't really like or get at
all.
I therefore wasn't expecting much from Dead Set,
but I actually really enjoyed it. I actually watched
it when it was first shown on TV (on E4, I think)
across 5 consecutive nights.
If I'm honest, I actually think that presentation
works better. Although the story is actually continuous,
watching it across 5 nights makes the viewing experience
oddly like the actual Big Brother.
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Which is another surprise - it's actually
properly in the Big Brother world, rather
than being a thinly-veiled copy for legal
reasons. I mean, bits of it are filmed in
the real BB house and environs, and it even
features the actual BB presenter, Davina McCall.
Plus the house - although a set for filing
purposes - is roughly like a BB house might
be and the contestants are believable BB-type
contestants. Which ties back to Brooker watching
and enjoying the actual BB (see, I don't just
spout random gibberish - there is a plan to
these reviews!).
But that's what makes this even more surprising.
If you know Zombie movies, then you know that
the Romero films feature a meta-level of parody
to them. This is most noticeable in Dawn of
the Dead, where the zombies go to the mall,
the (not particularly subtle) point being
that they were zombies in real life too.
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And that's what Brooker's doing here - he's satirising
BB and reality TV, but it's with the full consent
of Channel 4 who made the show!
What added even more surprise were that it's a
full-on gore-fest; that the characters are believable
and well written and the ending (without wanting
to be spoilery).
So yeah, I really enjoyed Dead Set.
My only slight disappointment was that for some
reason I was expecting a commentary among the extras
on the DVD, but there wasn't one. There are plenty
of extras, though, so it's not a bad set. |
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| summary |
| The Summary: I was surprised by this - it's
proper zombie mayhem, and all the better for it. |
| The Score: 5/5 |
| The Pictures:
(click for larger versions) |
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