I am – Hercules!!


Like many another, I’m a sucker for a good end-of-the-world tale – “When Worlds Collide,” “Battlestar Galactica,” “On The Beach,” “Day of the Triffids,” “Day of the Dead,” “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” the “Mad Max” movies, “Twilight Zone” episodes like “Time Enough At Last” and “It’s A Good Life” and likely many more I’m not thinking of at the moment. They make it fun and easy to see the world transform as puny humans work to put it back together.

BBC America’s new series “Survivors,” which was a 1975-77 TV series and a 1976 novel by series creator Terry Nations before it became a BBC remake scripted by Adrian Hodges (“Primeval”), is likely to remind most Americans of Stephen King’s superb 1978 novel “The Stand” (itself once transformed into a solid-enough miniseries) because it deals with the decimation of the world’s population via some sort of superflu.

But this new “Survivors” is not an end-of-the-world tale that works, proving inferior – at least as judged by its first four hours – to “The Stand” in almost every regard. The characters are far less compelling, their motivations are too fuzzy, their bonds are unconvincing, their agendas don’t always make sense. Also, while “The Stand” realistically allowed that a nation’s cupboards and abandoned supermarkets have enough canned goods to sustain a 99% wiped-out population over quite a few hard winters, there’s a lot of to-do about resources in “Survivors” that does not remotely ring true.

Few American publications could be bothered to kick in a review:

Entertainment Weekly says:

… It's the end for the world as we know it, and I feel bored. …

The Los Angeles Times says:

… "Survivors" is torn between the desire to go big -- it's the literal end of civilization -- and small -- how would an ordinary person react to the death of everyone he knows? Regrettably "Survivors" succeeds at neither, getting stuck instead in a blurry bog of middle ground. …

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:

… The first episode runs two hours and sets up all the characters, their relationships and backgrounds. It presents a serialized show with a lot of potential for growth and interesting plot possibilities, especially considering a scene at the end of the premiere that raises a whole host of questions.

Variety says:

… isn't great or groundbreaking, but it's a whole lot more than nothing. …

8 p.m. Saturday. BBC America.