ceci_06
France
Netflix Sensationalism With Poor Substance
To quote a great poet "I expected nothing and I'm still let down".
I checked All of Us Are Dead out of curiosity: labelled as a Netflix show but with a kdrama more usual format (12 episodes of roughly 1h). I think this is the first time I wished this drama had been shorter like the other Netflix productions.
The Story
It drags on. The main plot of the students can be summarized in one sentence : a dozen students try to survive a zombie epidemic, moving from safe spots to safe spots while having encounters with zombies and see their group thin out. That's....... basically all there is to that main storyline. As the epidemic spreads, we follow for a while other storylines, notably two : that of Captain Song Jae Ik (Lee Kyu Hyung) and firefighter Nam So Ju (one of the female leads' father). While the first brought a well-needed comic relief and some adorable moments of Lee Kyu Hyung adopting kids left and right (and being his usual great self), the other managed to catch my attention more, balanced action scenes with calmer ones better than the school storyline. Maybe I was more receptive to these two particular part of the story because I like the actors involved or it moved quicker than the students' and gave more information to the stakes of the storyline. But, in my opinion, the part outside of the school were just..... better. Which is quite sad considering the main point of focus of the drama is youth in the midst of a zombie epidemic and the emotional impact such epidemic has on them.
In addition, I was really uncomfortable by the scene of sexual assault at the start of the drama which........ Served no purpose and was never really resolved unless punishing and blaming the victim even further was the point.
And generally speaking I'm just very tired of bullying plotlines. This is an important topic that should be addressed but lately it seems it's in every drama I watch and there is only so much I can take.
The drama could have easily been just 10 episodes or even less, but instead we got long boring scenes of the students talking and talking and talking and being suspicious and fighting (plus some plotholes) not to mention two "love" storylines that were quite honestly kinda cute but unnecessary imo.
The Characters
Going in pairs with my boredom to the students storyline, I did not really get attach to any of the students. I liked them, the actors did a good job portraying them but they were..... Just there. I did not particularly care what would happen to them and even if some scenes were sad I barely felt anything. It just did not click for me. HOWEVER, once again, Lee Kyu Hyung portraying a police captain trying to grapple with the last shred of hope he can find and Jeon Bae Soo in a desperate father role were two highlights and I was disappointed when their arcs were done (especially Lee Kyu Hyung's which was cut way to short for my taste).
Visuals
The zombies make-up and their choreography was really well done (one of the few positives in this drama for me). They truly looked the part and were chilling at times.
As for the rest... I know this is a horror drama and that gory scenes are likely to happen. But this drama really had me think that some gore scenes were simply there just because Netflix can have them - in a "in-your-face" kind of way. Just like with most of their dramas, it seems to me they massively take the route of violent, gritty dramas and just go and escalate what they show each time. I'm not sure why. Is it provocation? Is it cheap shock-value? Is it just to "buzz" on social medias and thus receive extra publicity? I'm not sure, but this Netflix Sensationalism is not IT. And it's frustrating because Netflix knows just how to make shows with violence and still have it be a natural part of the story (Kingdom comes to mind particularly) and not...... the whole personnality of the drama.
The cinematography was subpar at best, not that I was expecting anything in that regard.
In conclusion
If you like zombies and have seen several dramas and movies on the subject, you will probably get bored though you might still want to check it out. If this is one of your first dramas, please check out other dramas. If it's zombies you're interested about, Kingdom is right there waiting for you. If it's simply dramas in general, Netflix and many other platforms like Viki, Viu and others have many titles to offer with better stories, better development, better crafting all around.
I checked All of Us Are Dead out of curiosity: labelled as a Netflix show but with a kdrama more usual format (12 episodes of roughly 1h). I think this is the first time I wished this drama had been shorter like the other Netflix productions.
The Story
It drags on. The main plot of the students can be summarized in one sentence : a dozen students try to survive a zombie epidemic, moving from safe spots to safe spots while having encounters with zombies and see their group thin out. That's....... basically all there is to that main storyline. As the epidemic spreads, we follow for a while other storylines, notably two : that of Captain Song Jae Ik (Lee Kyu Hyung) and firefighter Nam So Ju (one of the female leads' father). While the first brought a well-needed comic relief and some adorable moments of Lee Kyu Hyung adopting kids left and right (and being his usual great self), the other managed to catch my attention more, balanced action scenes with calmer ones better than the school storyline. Maybe I was more receptive to these two particular part of the story because I like the actors involved or it moved quicker than the students' and gave more information to the stakes of the storyline. But, in my opinion, the part outside of the school were just..... better. Which is quite sad considering the main point of focus of the drama is youth in the midst of a zombie epidemic and the emotional impact such epidemic has on them.
In addition, I was really uncomfortable by the scene of sexual assault at the start of the drama which........ Served no purpose and was never really resolved unless punishing and blaming the victim even further was the point.
And generally speaking I'm just very tired of bullying plotlines. This is an important topic that should be addressed but lately it seems it's in every drama I watch and there is only so much I can take.
The drama could have easily been just 10 episodes or even less, but instead we got long boring scenes of the students talking and talking and talking and being suspicious and fighting (plus some plotholes) not to mention two "love" storylines that were quite honestly kinda cute but unnecessary imo.
The Characters
Going in pairs with my boredom to the students storyline, I did not really get attach to any of the students. I liked them, the actors did a good job portraying them but they were..... Just there. I did not particularly care what would happen to them and even if some scenes were sad I barely felt anything. It just did not click for me. HOWEVER, once again, Lee Kyu Hyung portraying a police captain trying to grapple with the last shred of hope he can find and Jeon Bae Soo in a desperate father role were two highlights and I was disappointed when their arcs were done (especially Lee Kyu Hyung's which was cut way to short for my taste).
Visuals
The zombies make-up and their choreography was really well done (one of the few positives in this drama for me). They truly looked the part and were chilling at times.
As for the rest... I know this is a horror drama and that gory scenes are likely to happen. But this drama really had me think that some gore scenes were simply there just because Netflix can have them - in a "in-your-face" kind of way. Just like with most of their dramas, it seems to me they massively take the route of violent, gritty dramas and just go and escalate what they show each time. I'm not sure why. Is it provocation? Is it cheap shock-value? Is it just to "buzz" on social medias and thus receive extra publicity? I'm not sure, but this Netflix Sensationalism is not IT. And it's frustrating because Netflix knows just how to make shows with violence and still have it be a natural part of the story (Kingdom comes to mind particularly) and not...... the whole personnality of the drama.
The cinematography was subpar at best, not that I was expecting anything in that regard.
In conclusion
If you like zombies and have seen several dramas and movies on the subject, you will probably get bored though you might still want to check it out. If this is one of your first dramas, please check out other dramas. If it's zombies you're interested about, Kingdom is right there waiting for you. If it's simply dramas in general, Netflix and many other platforms like Viki, Viu and others have many titles to offer with better stories, better development, better crafting all around.
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