There’s no shortage of zombie-themed contemporary series. Black Summer, Daybreak, Z Nation, Kingdom, Santa Clarita Diet, iZombie, The Walking Dead all have tackled the genre as of late and, for years, they have attracted large audiences. But despite the wide interest, they have become increasingly repetitive and hollow.

Based on the British series Dead Set, Netflix’s new Brazilian drama Reality Z is yet another series to explore the zombie theme, this time set in Rio de Janeiro and featuring a Big Brother inspired scenario. Few are able to achieve the mastery of social criticism of George Romero, the inventor of modern zombie stories, but in Reality Z’s case, its failure is almost as illuminating.

Like the original series created by Black Mirror’s Charlie Brooker, Reality Z tells the story of survivors of the zombie apocalypse inside a reality show program. In the case of the Brazilian series, the Big Brother look alike is Olympus, in which participants are “gods.” Each week contestants are eliminated from the program, and are thus expelled from paradise.

Full article at Remezcla’s website. Date of publication: 01/07/2020.