A couple years back, the BBC premiered one of those rare reboots that's actually not half-bad (see an earlier post on Plisskin, Snake for a short and incomplete list of the bad remakes/reboots). This one is Survivors, the modernized of a popular speculative series of the Seventies, in which a deadly "European Flu" wipes out 99% or more of the population, and we follow a group of good-hearted but damaged survivors as they try to ... well, just survive at first, and then more intentionally try to rebuild the world, with the interference and help of other survival cells and the remains of a government that's going very solidly to the right.
There's some good thinking, some strong British acting, and some realistic and heart-wrenching characterizations in this piece, which manages to stay ominous without being grim. And it was good enough for the BBC to commission a second set of shows, which began running in the UK this January. Now BBC America is reshowing Season One, hopefully in preparation for bringing the second series across the pond. Worth a look, especially if you're a lover of the post-apocalyptic thriller ... or just good suspenseful storytelling.
Series One is not yet available on DVD, so see if you can catch one of the multiple showings on BBC America in the coming weeks. And strangely, you can get the British novelization of the first series from the late Seventies, written by the notorious Terry Nation. Odd.
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