Gosh, and I didn't even know that they were turning George A. Romero's masterpiece into a spin-off series. I happened to stumble upon this 2021 SyFy Channel series "Day of the Dead" by random luck. And being a huge zombie fan, of course I needed no persuasion to sit down and watch it.
But everything is not swell and dandy here, and it certainly is not up to par with the 1985 classic masterpiece from Romero himself. Sure, this 2021 series "Day of the Dead" is watchable, but don't go expecting too much from creators Jed Elinoff and Scott Thomas.
Now, the problem with the "Day of the Dead" series is the construction of the episodes. The creators try to weave together multiple storylines into one combined narrative, but it is not always with great success. Most of the time, the narrative and the flow of the series feels irratic and chaotic, with not much coherency to it. One moment you are here and when something interesting is about to happen you are moved to another story arch. So there is a lot of build up situations that leads to frustration rather than excitement and fulfillment.
The series also suffers from being 'just another generic zombie series'. We have had the likes of "The Walking Dead", "Fear the Walking Dead", "The Walking Dead: World Beyond", "Z Nation", "S. O. Z. Soldados o Zombies" and "The Bite", and probably others that I can't remember as well. So as "Day of the Dead" fails to make itself stand out from any of these series, it just becomes another one in the heap.
Visually then "Day of the Dead" is a mixed bag of nuts. Some of the special effects and zombie make-up is good, while others is just obviously rubber and latex masks. And those makes makes it cringeworthy to watch.
Now, they have an interesting and diverse ensemble of casted actors and actresses in the series, which definitely helps lift up the series with its other shortcomings.
Sure, I will keep watching it, as I am a huge zombie fan, but this just wasn't as great as I had hoped it would be.
"Day of the Dead" is not something I would recommend you rush out to get a chance to watch, because it certainly is nowhere near the levels of entertainment as seen in the original 1985 movie, nor does it really match or rival most of the other zombie series out there.
My rating of "Day of the Dead", sadly, lands on a bland five out of ten stars. I will keep watching this of course, and hope the series will lift itself up and become better with time.
