Death Squad

This is a budget series that makes an acceptable stab at the genre. But, I get it. If you came looking for a serious addition to the zombie universe, then you'd probably want to pass this one by.

The sets/locations were fine, the zombies were inconsistent, but good enough and the effects mostly worked. But outside of the action, it was too slow-paced, a little clunky in places, and some of the foreign talent obviously struggled on occasion with their parts.

I got the feeling that some actors had been told to play it tongue-in-cheek, whilst others were told to play it straight, which made it a little confusing, performance-wise: Two of the 'Squad' got it spot on, playing (and enjoying) their roles to the hilt, whilst the others were a little more one-dimensional in their performances.

The two bad guys 'up top' were a strange couple. Whilst both did a decent job with what they were given (whilst also coming across as being 'in on the joke'), their physical separation across more than half the series, created a difficult disconnect that they struggled with once working together. I also felt their back story could have been looked at in more depth, replacing some of the endless trudging through the underground labs.

All in all, it felt like a decent 8-10 episode show stretched to 13, and it suffered for that. It could have been a lot punchier.

There were a few good performances (Brooks, Thompson, Anna Jones, and the suited guys - Sambuco and Livanov). I'd waste the time on a 2nd season, but they'd really need to pick up the pace or shorten the season.

I happened to catch some of it after starting my yearly rewatch of Nikita on Seed. Even without sound I could tell it was terrible. But the second I unmuted the stream it became abundantly that this show is terrible. The dialogue is horribly stilted and wordy. The acting is comically bad. The show is shot like a sitcom with some weird edm/rock music in the background to try to raise tension. I caught snippets of episode 9 and a conversation about a ventilation shaft that was apparently supposed to be tense and dramatic but had zero actual tension. The camera crews don't understand the importance of movement in camera shots to create tension, the cuts are not quick, everything is a still shot, the dialogue is banal and horribly delivered with zero emphasis, and any emphasis is put in is in the exact wrong spot. Easily the worst television show I have ever watched. Mystery Science Theatre would have field day with one scene.

To see the best critique of this POS pls go to ngiykviim Mar 3, 2021

i had the same feelings.... how could the CW 'dare' to put something is terrible on their line up....

i glad the actors had a change to act and hopefully get some money.... but they all could benefit from more experience...

07.22.21.

The title says it all, really.

I didn't want to pull my hair out in rage, like some of the reviewers, but then, I'm not as wedded to the genre as perhaps some of the others are, so there's no rage from me. Haha!

It was decent enough and had (just about) enough highlights to keep me watching through to the end. That said, it WAS too long. Either the show should have been like 10 episodes, or each episode should have been half as long, bc I DID find that sometimes it was an effort to persevere to the end of a 45 min episode. Breaking it down a little more, might have helped.

Not terrible. A LOT more then 'meh', but definitely less than 'great'!

Wow. I can kind of understand how a total stinker of a movie gets made... Not that fun B movie, the total schlock waste of time... An enthusiastic but talentless amateur either fronts their own money or coaxes mom and dad and a few friends to front the money, and you get one of those Written-Directed-Produced (and sometimes even Acted) by one poor schmo, and everybody loses their shirt, and we all either run screaming or have a good laugh at its expense. But how does an entire TV series get made with this level of lameness in writing, direction, acting, everything? This show has absolutely nothing to recommend it. I watched the entire first episode, to see if it ever had a special moment. It didn't. Won't waste time on anymore episodes.

About the only thing that was so bad it was funny (enough to evoke actual laughter) was the music. Or perhaps it was really the direction and editing. I wonder if the music might have been okay if the dramatic moments in the music were actually matched by dramatic moments in the show, but inevitably the director and/or editor would queue up these dramatic flourishes in the music with utterly banal moments in the show. The meeting is over, cut to wide shot of the group... BOMMMM. The group of bad actors, excuse me, mercenaries turn a corner... DUNN, DUNN, DUNN. These unintentionally funny musical moments became the highlight of the show for me.

If they'd played it for intentional laughs, they might have had something. But that would have a taken a level of intelligence that was sorely lacking in the production of this series. Yow, this was bad.