We are currently surrounded by ‘a global explosion’ of the zombie text throughout ubiquitous media platforms (Hubner, Leaning & Manning 2014 p.3). With a particular focus on television, we see the ways in which the zombie text has taken place and shaped the notion of the contemporary zombie throughout popular culture. Being a zombie text and a television series, it is through Charlie Brooker’s Dead Set (2008) that we see the construction of a contemporary zombie and what it represents. Dead Set’ explores the outbreak of unconventional fast zombies intertwined with a fictional version of the British reality television show, Big Brother. In this five-episode mini series, aired on E4, the classic slow zombie has been transformed to an undead creature that viciously and rapidly attacks the living, spreading infection. The only safe haven from the outbreak is in the Big Brother household. Oblivious to the outbreak, the first episode of the series shows the contestants of Big Brother and the production company staff as the last survivors standing.
It was George Romero’s horror fantasy films that sparked the emergence of the modern zombie into popular television culture (The Guardian 2008a). He re-ignited the popularity of the zombie genre, making the zombie figure a ‘cultural icon’ in society (Hubner, Leaning & Manning 2014 p.13). Romero’s traditional and classic representations of a zombie in Night of the Living Dead (1968) and Dawn of the Dead (1978) affirmed the notion of a zombie as being a slow, cruel, undead creature that seeks human flesh. As a result of Romero’s work, Brooker was inspired to produce Dead Set. In juxtaposition to Romero’s work, Dead Set challenges the conventional zombies seen in Romero’s films and essentially draws upon the traits of the fast zombies depicted in Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later (2002) (The Guardian 2010).
(Davina McCall in Dead Set n.d)
Within the mini-series, Brooker creates a modern zombie text which possesses a deeper underlying social commentary on the consumptive nature of the television audience- an audience which has become mindless, deadened and passive as a result of television’s consumptive control (The Guardian 2008a). There is an element of satire which undertones the audience’s consumption of television throughout the series. Particularly, this is evident through the ways in which Brooker parallels the traits of ‘Big Brother’ contestants and the production staff with the traits of the zombies. A parallel which Brooker perhaps uses to highlight that the destructive human traits aren’t all that different from the zombies.
Ultimately, Brooker intended on creating a zombie series that differentiates itself from the representations of zombies in past texts (The Guardian 2008a). Whilst the zombies do run and are fast-paced in Dead Set, they still reflect aspects of the traditional zombies seen in Romero’s films such as being flesh eating, brain-dead creatures (The Guardian 2008a). In contrast, Simon Pegg, co-writer of the satirical zombie film, Shaun of the Dead (2004) is against the way in which Dead Set steers away from Romero’s traditional slow zombie (The Guardian 2008b). He believes that the zombies shown within popular culture should possess the same attributes and values as the zombies seen in classic zombie texts (The Guardian 2008b). However, perhaps Pegg is wrong in assuming that audiences should see stereotypical zombie texts. Had Brooker not taken the risk of evolving the typical slow-brainless zombie to a fast-paced-destructive one, the regularity of a stereotypical zombie could have made the series stale.
Consequently, Dead Set is a mini-series that challenges the classic zombie text and re-interprets it into a contemporary and fast-paced creature. A creature that we are all arguably becoming today – fast-paced in the sense of technology and technological advances, but ‘zombified’ in the sense that we are becoming a brain-dead and mindless society consumed by television. The modern zombie representations such as those within Dead Set are changing the perceptions of the traditional zombie seen on television and transforming them into a social commentary on the consumptive society we are becoming today (Hubner, Leaning & Manning 2014).
Take a look at the first episode here:
(Dead Set- Episodio 1)
References:
Hubner, L, Leaning, M & Manning, P 2014, The Zombie Renaissance in Popular Culture, Palgrave Macmillan, London.
The Guardian, 2008a, Reality Bites, The Guardian, viewed 9 August 2015, <http://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/oct/18/horror-channel4>
The Guardian, 2008b, The Dead and the Quick, The Guardian, viewed 8 August 2015,<http://www.theguardian.com/media/2008/nov/04/television-simon-pegg-dead-set>
The Guardian, 2010, Is Obama really president or am I just watching a fantasy? It’s almost too good to be true, The Guardian, viewed 10 August 2015, <http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/nov/10/barack-obama-zombies-running>
Davina McCall in Dead Set, n.d. photograph, viewed 12 August 2015,<http://cdn-static.denofgeek.com/sites/denofgeek/files/styles/article_main_wide_image/public/images/35204.jpg?itok=Erk8914G >
Dead Set- Episodio 1, video, YouTube, 10 September, viewed 7 August 2015,<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNwTfK4Kddk>