Playlist: Dead Set

Sometimes it's best to stick with the basics. Charlie Brooker did just that with his 5-part British TV series about a night of the living dead. That's right, zombies, but the hook here is that the action is centered around an episode of Big Brother, which is stupidly popular across the pond (see they're not better than us. They just sound as if they are).

Zombigeddon quickly and unexpectedly sweeps across the country, and probably the world, leaving the isolated BB contestants uninfected in their TV set stronghold. It actually looks a lot like another Brit end of times story, Survivors, but, you know, with reanimated cannibalistic corpses roaming the land. It also has a strong connection to that touchstone of all things zombie, Romero's Dawn of the Dead, not just in the underlying commentary about the shallowness of society, but in the simpler, claustrophobic setting. When in doubt, giving your characters nowhere to run always works in horror.And that tact is particularly effective in traditional zombie stories where the terror from the slow moving killers comes from their overwhelming numbers. You can outrun the shuffling dead, but you can't run through them.

Yet Dead Set's dead set are new school sprinters, essentially negating that logic, so why is it getting a pass? Calm down, I'll tell you. Brooker has said that he only made his zombies fast-moving because he needed the outbreak to spread quickly so the BB contestants wouldn't have time to know what was coming. While I don't think compromising to fill in a plot hole is good practice, it works here because he remains true to the other tenants of Zombiedom.

This is good stuff and the final half hour is some of the best zombie action I've ever seen.

Playlist: Survivors (Series 1)

As with most things British, a little history is in order. Survivors is based on the 1976 novel by Terry Nation, which itself was based on the 1975 BBC series of the same name. So, it's not a remake in the traditional sense, though it really is. All three are about a band of people who, well, survive a massive global flu pandemic. 99% of the human race massive. Which still leaves almost 70 million people. 50,000 of which would proportionately be in England, which at approximately 242,000 sq. km would result in roughly 1 person every 5 km. All of which means nothing to me since I have no idea what a km is. However, I would like it noted that I did not look any of that up.

This is a realistic post-apocalypse, so no zombies or Thunderdomes. And that's a nice change of pace because, really, what would you do if you were left nearly alone in a world that was basically intact? No, really, what? It's a good question. Okay, I know you would resort to cannibalism eventually because of course you would, but what would you do at first? The main characters (all seemingly immune to the fatal disease) here choose the safety of others and form an alliance of companionship. There are only 6 episodes, but it's enough to discover that not everyone else who's still around shares their view (at least not the different groups they meet each show). Of course, there is an overarching conspiracy in play, perfect for the finale cliffhanger. Overall, though, I had trouble bonding with the characters. It took me halfway through the season to remember everyone's name, even my supposed favorite, Zoe Tapper's Anya. There's a good story here, but not necessarily told in a captivating way.

What this brought to mind was the 1983 TV movie, The Day After. I wasn't allowed to watch it when it first aired because there was this campaign to warn parents about emotionally scarring their kids. Remember, this was the height of Rambo Reagan's Red Scare. And while that sounds a lot like a marketing angle, it wasn't without merit. It was chilling even years later when I finally saw it. Truth may or may not be stranger than fiction, but it's usually scarier.

Playlist: In the Loop

If you like the British "The Office," you'll...well, you know the rest. And you will. This is classic Brit satire, this time in the world of politics. Specifically, in the State Departments of both Great Britain and your United States of America. Even more specifically, a fictionalized take on the build-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. It's funny in that scary Strangelove way in that, yeah, this is probably how it all really did go down.

Actually, if you like ranting, cursing Brits in general--and who the hell doesn't--then you'll love this. Specifically, the f-carpet bombing Peter Capaldi as pro-war Director of Communications Malcolm Tucker. Capaldi (who I loved as Sid's dad on the BBC's "Skins") is worth watching this for by himself. Not that you have to because the whole cast is good, including a very un-Tony Soprano James Gandolfini as a skeptical U.S. general. But my favorite bit of casting is this: Anna Chlumsky. Yes, the return of My Girl herself. And it's about damn time. Thomas J. would have wanted her to keep acting.

Playlist: Bronson

Why? I was impressed by Tom Hardy in Inception. Plus, it looked badass cool.

If I hadn't known this was the same actor going in, I would not have pieced it together. Seriously, take a look:

Pretty, ain't he? Hardy is the whole show here. He is completely taken over Raging Bull-style by the character, the real-life Charlie Bronson, aka "the most violent prisoner in Britain". Bronson is an absolute nutbag who has only been out of jail for four months since 1974. The movie is a very loose depiction of his life, choosing to brush over facts for visuals. Mainly, scenes of Hardy beating the snot out of people. A lot of which he is completely naked. We're talking full-frontal, ladies.

Director Nicolas Winding Refn does a lot of good things here, including framing the story around a stage monologue by Bronson. But the thing is that for all Bronson's nutbagery, he's basically just a thug. There's no character arc, no climax. And he's never actually killed anyone, which, yes, is a good thing, but lowers the stakes a bit. The DVD cover boasts that it's "A Clockwork Orange for the 21st Century" (a quote from some magazine called Zoo). It's not. It looks good and Hardy is excellent, but it ultimately comes up a little on the dull side. Disappointingly so.