On In the Flesh’s Zombie Apocalypse

I’ve already written about the characters, relationships, and social discrimination aspects of In the Flesh.  Today, I’m putting the aside the drama and metaphor to focus on the supernatural backdrop.  I obviously adore In the Flesh as a drama, but it also really works for me as a zombie story and, since virtually nothing works for me as a zombie story, that’s saying something.

First off, I’m so thankful that In the Flesh’s undeadness is not spread through bites.  Instead, the PDS population is entirely composed of people who died in the year before the Rising.  This works better, both for the show’s allegorical elements – a finite number of people with PDS is a clearly-defined minority population, instead of an exponentially-growing slew of monsters overrunning the world – and for my zombie discomfort.  The infection angle is what really freaks me out in a leave-all-the-lights-on-and-double-check-the-locks way, so for whatever reason, I can handle Kieren killing people in his untreated state much better than I can handle him turning them.  This also dovetails nicely into the theme of rampant misinformation about PDS.  It isn’t spread through the bites, but many people think it is, earning the undead reputations as both murderers and carriers.  Based on the movies, people just assume they get how it works.  And by the way, I love that they know about zombies from movies – far too often, characters in zombie movies are genre-oblivious.  You’d think they’d never heard the concept before, let alone seen Night of the Living Dead, and it takes them forever to figure out the thing with the bites.

Even without the undead people, there are lots of little touches to remind you that this is post-post-apocalyptic England.  There’s the obvious, sidewalk memorials and “Have you seen my missing loved one?” posters, the quarantine/warning signs at the graveyard and the “Beware Rotters” graffiti on walls.  The Rising has recently joined the history curriculum at school, and the doctors who first treated PDS are the newest heroes of science.  Some details are so subtle I’m not sure if they’re intentional or I’m just fanwanking. Despite being explicitly set in the present, the show’s technology is way outdated for 2013; Kieren’s family has a landline and one shared desktop in the living room, and I can’t recall anyone with a cell phone.  This seems wildly out-of-place, until you remember that this world has spent the past four years, not creating new tablets, apps, and phones, but clawing its way back from a zombie apocalypse.  Plenty of our advances wouldn’t exist for them, and while we’d progressed beyond desktops and landlines when the Rising started in 2009, I imagine there a lot of looting, along with trading expensive toys for food or weapons.  With society just getting back on its feet and everyone preoccupied with the PDS issue, there probably isn’t much 2009-or-later technology back on the market yet.  Plus, since the series is set in a small village, I suppose they have limited supply lines and, once again, essentials are the likely priority.  So, it makes sense to me that people would be using the old technology that was gathering dust in 2009 and didn’t catch looters’ eyes during the Rising.

I love that PDS folk, when they’re wearing their makeup, look like they’re wearing makeup.  It’s not a matter of looking “undead” or “normal” – it’s clearly “undead” or “undead but trying to look normal.”  Kieren’s made-up complexion doesn’t look the least bit natural, which highlights the societal importance of trying to “pass” and the psychological effect of its futility.  I’m sure it would have been easier for the makeup department not to make the distinction, but I really appreciate that they did.  And, on a last note of zombie realism, I love that Kieren totally runs like he’s dead, all stiff and unnatural.  I always notice it, and it’s always a terrific detail.