Channel 4's "Dead Set" created a bar for TV zombie serials that was very high indeed. So it was with great anticipation I sat down to watch “Generation Z”, the channel's latest Zombie series written, produced and directed by acclaimed film-maker Ben Wheatley. He did the movie of JG Ballard's "High Rise": great! And the movie "The Meg 2: The Trench": not so great! How would Generation Z play out?
The 6 part series aims to deliver an edgy, hyper-modern take on the concerns and lives of today’s young adults. It's title can be read as 'zombie generation' or as the current generation of young people 'Gen Z'. What it ultimately serves up is an exaggerated caricature of Gen Z culture that feels like it was put together by a committee of 'oldies' trying to guess what “the kids” are into these days. The show attempts to tackle complex themes like mental health, social media addiction, and identity politics but does so with a shallowness that renders every serious topic trivial. Topics such as County Lines are touched upon and skimmed over like a stone in a lake, barely addressing that very real social problem. It's supposed to be "satirical" in that the older generation suddenly becomes powerful and begin picking off the younger ones, but that's what zombies do, isn't it?
The writing is especially disappointing—filled with cringey, outdated slang and meme references that feel stale by the time they hit the screen. Dialogue is often contrived, and the characters, instead of being the nuanced, multidimensional people this generation deserves, are flat stereotypes: the "influencer with no depth," the "activist with no real convictions," the "overworked student," and so on. Each seems designed to represent a hashtag more than a person. It's also wildly inconsistent. We are told that the virus will kill young people if infected and we see one go through this, but then another gets infected with zero side effects at all. Towards the end of the series it becomes less about the zombies and becomes a bit of a Mad Max style revenge tale. There's so much going on, there just isn't time to spend on anything of substance.
Plotting and pacing are all over the place. For instance, in the midst of the army rounding up people and oldies eating younger folk, the students find their geography A levels are back on in school. I think this was meant to be funny, but it's such a stupid thing to do that it takes the viewer out of the moment and reminds them why they can't forgive this awful programme.
Visually, the show leans on gimmicky editing techniques that do more to distract than enhance. It’s as if the directors watched a few viral videos and decided this must be the dominant Gen Z aesthetic—ignoring that an actual TV series has a different pacing and visual language. It then has strange 80s style home video graphics throughout, which jars with the 'modern' approach. There's a lot of running around The Woods which wastes an opportunity to do a real zombie show in a modern town and rehashes the old zombie movie cliche of....running around in the woods.
Casting television legends such as Sue Johnson, Robert Lyndsey and Anita Dobson and then lumbering them with this flat, bland dialogue seems a waste of their talents, and as for casting a bunch of teenagers who are clearly way older than the roles they play hark back to the days of Beverly Hills 90210.
The real tragedy of “Generation Z” is that it squanders an opportunity to tell meaningful stories about a complex, misunderstood generation. I almost felt as if the poor plot, script, acting and production WAS the satire. That Wheatley and Channel 4 had pulled some kind of social experiment trick on its audience that would be revealed as the series climaxed. I wish it had, but I was to be disappointed.
Generation Z is one of the biggest disappointments and one of the worst serials I have ever watched. There is genuinely nothing to enjoy here, except perhaps, the much-hyped demise of a cockapoo. Dead Set, Shaun of the Dead even Cockneys v Zombies have shown how good modern satire can work within the Zombie story setting.
I wanted to give up on this series after episode 2, but in order to give a genuine review of the series I felt obliged to watch it all.
Rating: 2/10
Year: 2024
No of episodes: 6
Availability: currently broadcasting on Channel 4 Sundays and Mondays or streaming on Channel 4 on Demand