Netflix Review: If It's The End Of Days, At Least There's REALITY Z
Zombies are probably one of the most overused plot devices in modern media. This being said, any show, movie, comic or game will need to have a new twist on the zombie formula or a profound human element or story along the world of zombies to be worth watching. Reality Z is a Brazilian show based on the British miniseries, Dead Set. The show revolves around the airing of a reality TV show like Big Brother that gets interrupted by a zombie breakout which strands the cast and production crew inside the set/stage of the show. Reality Z tries hard with engaging acting, brutal gore, and dark themes/characters, but ultimately uses a lot of familiar tropes, plot devices, and zombie ideas that amount to a pretty average show.
If a zombie film never came out in the last ten years, then Reality Z would be much better in reality. The characters are mostly interesting, the blood and guts are never held back and the story was mostly well executed. However, because we have all seen so many things with zombies, this show doesn’t really add anything to the conversation other than pointing people to the British show Dead Set, recognizing it’s smart storytelling and presentation.
The one thing that impressed me the most was the dubbing. I can speak and understand Portuguese well enough, but I tried out a few episodes in both languages and was blown away by the dubbing. If a person is watching carefully, they’ll obviously see the words and lips not lining up perfectly, but if you just go along with it and watch the show like normal, the voice acting and matching with the Brazilian actors is crazy good. But other than that, this show isn’t going to be any better than most zombie movies/shows.
I wouldn’t say the show is a waste of time, if you have nothing else to watch or love zombies, blood baths, and reality TV drama, then this show will do just fine and entertain. As an added note, this may be a very personal opinion, but the way they handled new characters, character deaths and the ending just felt like a giant waste of emotional investment. I know it is normal for zombie TV to introduce a bunch of new characters every couple of episodes and then kill off some of the new and old cast, but this show seemed to have a higher and more pointless turnover rate than other shows. By the end, I personally did not like how it ended and who was alive and why. If you are expecting a deep dive into hidden meanings and messages about the world being dead except Television or how all people have personal demons or other more profound stuff like that, you won’t find that here.
