The Stadium
- Episode aired Apr 11, 2019
- TV-MA
- 20m
IMDb RATING
6.8/10
1.4K
YOUR RATING
As the group approaches the stadium, everything goes sideways. The survivors blast through their bullets -- and their options.As the group approaches the stadium, everything goes sideways. The survivors blast through their bullets -- and their options.As the group approaches the stadium, everything goes sideways. The survivors blast through their bullets -- and their options.
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAs with Heist (2019), there is barely any dialogue throughout this episode (though there's quite a lot of screaming).
Featured review
Season One Review
Netflix's Zombie drama, produced by "The Asylum" has a promising start, but fades badly and despite just eight episodes probably isn't worth your time.
Though the series focuses on a bunch of characters, if it has a centre it's Jamie King's character Rose, who is attempting to cross the unnamed city to get to the stadium where her daughter has been evacuated to "safety". With the rabid infected frantically killing whoever they come across, and several human groups having gone (seemingly immediately) full murder cult crossing the city is a dangerous proposition.
I'm going to split the review into stages here, because I felt differently at different points. Firstly, after the first two episodes. Here I felt the show was promising. We're a few weeks into the burgeoning crisis, with the military still having some form of control. I liked how the series differentiated itself from "The Walking Dead" by using the fast manic infected, rather than the shambling shuffling version. This has, of course, been done before in something like "28 Days Later" but it distinguish itself further by having characters "turn" at the moment of death rather than reawaken at some point in the future. This can make for an interesting dynamic as the odds can very quickly turn in the infecteds favour. The show is also different by having named "chapters" and jumping around the intertwining characters various narratives before pulling them together. If the show was better written throughout, this could have been an excellent storytelling tool, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
Secondly, episodes three to five. Things are starting to get a little shaky now, mostly around how much I believe in the "world building" of the show. The fourth episode has to be one of the most infuriating episodes of any series I've ever seen. The character of Lance is so useless, so incapable that there's no way he would have survived the six weeks or so, that I believe we are into this crisis. His refusal to lock, block or even in some cases shut doors whilst being chased is staggeringly dumb, as is his refusal to arm himself until the last possible moment. Other aspects of the show, like the infected inability to break through a glass window when the plot requires, starts to become questionable. The feral schoolkids too, murdering and booby trapping the school, seem way too far along if we are only six weeks into this crisis. There's still food in the super markets, why they're luring people to their doom isn't explained
Finally, Six to Eight. Here it starts to become a bit baffling. Our rag tag bunch of survivors move from mistrust and in fighting to become a stealthy infiltration team and conduct a heist worthy of "Ocean's Eleven". There is no bonding, or planning shown, so much so I thought we'd missed an episode and went and checked . Rose flirts with mental instability, or perhaps PTSD very briefly and then we reach the repetitive and banal conclusion. In which hundreds of people are shot, or are bit and none of it matters, as if the somehow the spectacle of it is supposed to be enough. (Although the ending that I assumed we were heading towards from the beginning is avoided).
"Black Summer" is a promising idea in a filled market that is ultimately let down by sub-standard writing and too much repetition. Hopefully, if there is a second season, it will be more constant in this.
Though the series focuses on a bunch of characters, if it has a centre it's Jamie King's character Rose, who is attempting to cross the unnamed city to get to the stadium where her daughter has been evacuated to "safety". With the rabid infected frantically killing whoever they come across, and several human groups having gone (seemingly immediately) full murder cult crossing the city is a dangerous proposition.
I'm going to split the review into stages here, because I felt differently at different points. Firstly, after the first two episodes. Here I felt the show was promising. We're a few weeks into the burgeoning crisis, with the military still having some form of control. I liked how the series differentiated itself from "The Walking Dead" by using the fast manic infected, rather than the shambling shuffling version. This has, of course, been done before in something like "28 Days Later" but it distinguish itself further by having characters "turn" at the moment of death rather than reawaken at some point in the future. This can make for an interesting dynamic as the odds can very quickly turn in the infecteds favour. The show is also different by having named "chapters" and jumping around the intertwining characters various narratives before pulling them together. If the show was better written throughout, this could have been an excellent storytelling tool, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
Secondly, episodes three to five. Things are starting to get a little shaky now, mostly around how much I believe in the "world building" of the show. The fourth episode has to be one of the most infuriating episodes of any series I've ever seen. The character of Lance is so useless, so incapable that there's no way he would have survived the six weeks or so, that I believe we are into this crisis. His refusal to lock, block or even in some cases shut doors whilst being chased is staggeringly dumb, as is his refusal to arm himself until the last possible moment. Other aspects of the show, like the infected inability to break through a glass window when the plot requires, starts to become questionable. The feral schoolkids too, murdering and booby trapping the school, seem way too far along if we are only six weeks into this crisis. There's still food in the super markets, why they're luring people to their doom isn't explained
Finally, Six to Eight. Here it starts to become a bit baffling. Our rag tag bunch of survivors move from mistrust and in fighting to become a stealthy infiltration team and conduct a heist worthy of "Ocean's Eleven". There is no bonding, or planning shown, so much so I thought we'd missed an episode and went and checked . Rose flirts with mental instability, or perhaps PTSD very briefly and then we reach the repetitive and banal conclusion. In which hundreds of people are shot, or are bit and none of it matters, as if the somehow the spectacle of it is supposed to be enough. (Although the ending that I assumed we were heading towards from the beginning is avoided).
"Black Summer" is a promising idea in a filled market that is ultimately let down by sub-standard writing and too much repetition. Hopefully, if there is a second season, it will be more constant in this.
helpful•82
- southdavid
- Apr 23, 2019
Details
- Runtime20 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
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