Aftermath

I'm a sucker for post-apocalyptic film/television; if I don't like your post-apoc thriller it must really be bad. I mean just epic awfulness. Aftermath fits that bill and more.

There is no plot to this thing, literally no plot. The characters have all been arranged at a starting line and then just randomly amble through to point A, B, C, and so forth as stuff happens, all the time displaying the emotional intensity of a plastic bag.

/mild spoiler follows/

The weirdest point was when the wife matter-of-factly says "the world is falling apart but at least we're all together" and then curls up in her chair like she's about to break-out the bon-bons and watch Oprah. Or, less than 12 hours after their son just gunned down a dude in the living room, the whole family has neatly moved on to trying to troubleshoot the text messaging on their cell phones. Or, after the gas station attendant waves a severed head at the family, they're "wow, that was - like - crazy!" as though they'd just seen a really good juggler.

I understand ScyFy has $25 to put these s*$#storms together but semi-decent writing and passable acting don't require a blockbuster budget.

This show is a bad combination of the worst you can find in supernatural, walking dead and any movie of Roland Emmerich about the end of the world. The plot is awful, The characters are very poorly made, and you can't take seriously almost anything in the history. Although the special effects are reasonable and the soundtrack is good, there is a lack of credibility and the absence of any sense of ridiculous. Hardly anyone, even a fan of apocalyptic series, will be able to endure the parade of nonsense that is presented to each chapter. The series is getting worse chapter after chapter I think it won't have a second season because the poor reception of the audience.

The Copeland family finds themselves struggling to survive the end of the world. The world faces a seemingly endless number of calamities. The father Joshua Copeland (James Tupper) is a cultural history professor. The mother Karen Copeland (Anne Heche) is ex-military. With their three teen kids, Matt (Levi Meaden), Brianna (Taylor Hickson), and Dana (Julia Sarah Stone), they try to stay together and escape various dangers in their RV.

This show is a mess of sci-fi monsters of the week. The characters are simply there and so is the apocalypse. After a few episodes, the show started losing me with the mounting mess. There seems to be no rules or stability. Everything is up for grabs. It takes until episode 9 when the characters come up with an explanation. The girls start wondering if time itself is screwed up. It's like an idea about the show suddenly lit up. The show is a mess because the world is suppose to exist in a mess. The mess itself makes perfect sense. This apocalypse is a world of chaos where it would be impossible to understand and survival is the only good outcome. The problem is that it needed almost the entire first season to get a hold of this show and by then, almost nobody is watching.

This has been a frustrating show to watch but I haven't given up yet. For every cringe inducing awkward character there has been an interesting idea or touching moment.

Some of the characters (Karen and Matt Copeland in particular) are a little hard to feel emotionally connected too as their reactions seem limited. The sisters (Brianna and Dana) give me whiplash as they alternate between caring and loathing seemingly with each sentence. Maybe I just don't understand how people living in that kind on stressful situation would react but I need a little more background on them to understand their relationship if you want to whip me around that fast.

Some of the single episode characters are also hard to accept. I'm sure it is hard to continually do the 'find someone who seems okay but is really horribly damaged'.

The characters are sometimes hard to watch but I keep coming back to see if the show can tie all of the pieces together and explain what is going on. Hopefully it can find the time and pacing to give me the details of a interesting premise but also smooth out some of the characters.

Currently a flawed show but with some potential. I'll probably give to the end of the first season to see if it is worth continuing to watch (assuming it continues).

EDIT: based on the first 3 episodes

This seems to be more of a religious gun fetish wet dream than any kind of serious story. Mostly interesting to watch to see how some part of humanity might think - after all this is no Harry Potter and some folks actually believe this to be reality, which adds a fun twist. Those folks just need to learn how things in reality work - for example that you can not talk back on the announcing system of a supermarket in the parking lot.

And damn - the righteous in the series certainly turn into killers in no time and are able to predict the future.

EDIT: below old review based on first episode

Is it all unbelievable non-sense ... yeah, it is based on the bible so what do people expect? Scientific reasoning?

But it makes for an interesting setup to tell more survival stories with a lot of diversity. And the bible does have plenty of different angles to explore to make for interesting fantasy.

This is based on just the first episode and so no idea where they will take it, but the setup is solid. If you are okay with slow-ass zombies in the Walking Dead somehow beating the militaries of the world, then this is easy to swallow too.

Will keep watching! Hope the stories will match the whole setup.