Generation Z (Channel 4) | channel4.com
Storyville: Eternal You (BBC Four) | iPlayer
Helmand: Tour of Duty (BBC Two) | iPlayer
Doctor Odyssey (Disney+)
Of all the sights modern television has to offer, still, it’s a shock to see Sue Johnston gnawing on human flesh with blood caked all over her face. It happens in Ben Wheatley’s new Channel 4 horror series Generation Z, which features young characters, but also pensioners first seen stuck in care homes. In the opening moments, a truck spillage releases a chemical that turns the residents into marauding zombies who crave youthful flesh.
As the government and army cordon off the area (Michael Smiley appears as a sinister operative), the drama doesn’t stint on blood and guts. Anita Dobson bites into necks; an undead Paul Bentall pushes his arm through a dog like it’s a cardigan sleeve. While the teenagers (Lewis Gribben from Somewhere Boy, Viola Prettejohn, Buket Kömür, Jay Lycurgo) battle to survive, their elders form a group and hide in the woods, feeding on joggers and conducting bacchanalian orgies. Their late-life zombification isn’t a clearcut tragedy – it’s a chance for rejuvenation, relevance and revenge. “I feel a power in me,” roars Johnston’s Cecily. “Something has transformed us.”
This is another textured, unnerving piece of work from Wheatley (Kill List). I loved his subtle, uneasy 2012 black comedy, Sightseers. Generation Z isn’t subtle: it’s full-on Disaster TV wielding an abattoir’s-worth of gore. At the same time it spits out big themes: Covid (the young are once again the lost children of lockdown); clashes reminiscent of Brexit; government control; toxic masculinity; intergenerational resentment.
Robert Lindsay plays an anti-establishment conspiracist. A strong supporting cast includes Johnny Vegas, T’Nia Miller and Rob James Collier (playing against type as a loutish stepdad). There’s a layer of homegrown horror history mixed in (John Wyndham, The Wicker Man), and a big stylistic wink to 1980s nuclear war-obsessed Threads Britain.
Over six episodes there are a fair few unnecessary sub-strands; while the younger cast are great, their trials and tribulations sometimes dominate too much. It’s more novel to watch the crazed, vengeful elderly running amok, cavorting satanically around bonfires. Some of the more poignant scenes see them remembering what they’ve done, blinking, momentarily saddened by the memory. Generation Z emerges as flawed but compelling to the last shot.
From dramatising the undead to monetising the dead. If you’re anything like me, watching Hans Block and Moritz Riesewieck’s BBC Four Storyville documentary Eternal You may leave you feeling unclean. It’s concerned with a fast-developing branch of the death industry called the “digital afterlife”, in which the bereaved are given the chance to derive comfort from “communicating” with the dead.
As explored here, it’s a bit like an AI-generated medium or seance, but with different levels of effect and intrusion. One looks basic: back and forth messaging, with the AI drawing on the dead person’s digital information to make them sound legitimate. Another painstakingly reactivates the voice of the departed. A third, courtesy of a Korean TV station, produces a full-blown interactive virtual reality avatar: a playful little girl runs around as her sobbing mother, wearing a VR helmet, gropes the air trying to hug her.
This is the point at which I recoil. It all seems so exploitative. Even the basic chat version goes awry: the dead man suddenly announces “I’m in hell” to his horrified, grieving partner. Where is the ethical accountability in any of this, poised as it is to become a lucrative global industry? If grief is a heartbreaking but necessary process, won’t this just stall it? One of the documentary’s experts sagely likens the technology to a proxy for religion and eternal life. It makes for a riveting but highly disturbing watch.
To mark 10 years since the withdrawal of British troops from Afghanistan, Hannah Lowes’s brutal feature-length BBC Two documentary Helmand: Tour of Duty recounts the Welsh Guards’ six-month tour of the province in 2009. It became known as the British army’s “bloodiest summer” for more than 50 years. Steering clear of the political dimension, the film is delivered as a straightforward oral history from 10 servicemen. It isn’t long before any shreds of bravado (“It was fucking carnage, I loved it”) give way to grim realities: IEDs exploding, limbs lost, friends blown in half. Returning home, there’s physical and psychological scarring to deal with: one guardsman keeps shooting rifles in his sleep.
Lowes’s film becomes 80 minutes of personal reflections on an experience people can’t believe they survived. As much as the documentary is about service and sacrifice, it’s also about futility. Referring to the Taliban seizing back control of Afghanistan in 2021, a sergeant asks: “What was it all for?” His question hangs in the air like smoke.
What in the name of uber-campery is the deal with Doctor Odyssey, the latest TV offering from US showrunner Ryan Murphy? It’s set on an idealised cruise ship called Odyssey, and every tone and moment is candy-hued and super-sized as well as curiously hollow. Everyone channels Barbie and Ken dolls and poses in racy white uniforms.
Older viewers may be reminded of shows such as Fantasy Island. Joshua Jackson plays the head medic, sauntering around the decks like a duty free-Clooney. Don Johnson is the captain tasked with droning out faux-philosophical lines (“We’re tending to their dreams”). Gina Gershon randomly pitches up as a passenger, because this is the kind of show that pumps up the volume on guest stars. In the first couple of episodes, medical crises include syphilis, overdosing on shrimp and a broken penis.
Doctor Odyssey has its amusements but, ultimately, all the colour and commotion can’t disguise plots staler than a week-old captain’s table bread basket. Weird thing is, even as it deeply bores and irritates me, I can’t stop watching it.
Star ratings (out of five)
Generation Z ★★★★
Storyville: Eternal You ★★★★
Helmand: Tour of Duty ★★★
Doctor Odyssey ★★
What else I’m watching
Prince William: We Can End Homelessness
(ITV1)
Hard-working two-part docuseries about the prince’s well-intentioned initiative, Homewards, and his five-year project to eradicate rough sleeping. Along the way, homeless people are consulted, innovative solutions are explored and Christmas dinners handed out.
The Soldiers That Saved Britain
(Channel 4)
With Remembrance Day imminent, Mobeen Azhar’s timely, thought-provoking documentary tells the story of the contributions of men like his grandfather, who served in the British Indian army during the second world war.
Ellis
(Channel 5)
The magnificent Sharon D Clarke (also terrific in Mr Loverman on BBC One) stars in a taut new crime series as DCI Ellis, who finds herself drafted into failing investigations.
