As a lover of all things zombie I leapt at the chance to review the first season of We're Alive: A Story of Survival, the first season for SFFaudio.com. Following is the text of that review.
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Uneven and slightly amateurish, but also fun, mildly
addictive and highly listenable, We’re
Alive: A Story of Survival, the first season (Modern Myth Productions, LLC)
should appeal to fans of the zombie/post-apocalyptic/survivalist genres.
Unlike most audio books, which typically feature a single
narrator reading text in unadorned style, We’re
Alive is an audio drama. It employs a large cast, incorporates a wide range
of sound effects, and is scripted in a way that caters to the ear, emphasizing
dialogue and interpersonal relationships over lengthy descriptive narrative.
Our minds are left to fill in the gory details, and it works. It’s
simultaneously fresh and retro, reminding me of what the old radio shows of
yesteryear must have been like. We’re
Alive was launched and remains an ongoing podcast (check it out here: http://www.zombiepodcast.com/The_Zombie_Podcast/Main.html)
but you can obtain the entire first two seasons from Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The storyline is about what you’d expect: A zombie
apocalypse strikes without warning, quickly overwhelming most of the
population. Three young Army reservists (Michael, Angel, and Saul) commandeer a
humvee and seek out survivors in downtown Los Angeles. After rescuing a couple
civilians they find an apartment building, clear it of zombies, and begin to fortify
it, rigging it up with a generator and stocking up on food, water, and ammunition.
More survivors eventually trickle in and/or are rescued by the group, including
Burt, an aging Vietnam
veteran who acts and sounds a lot like Clint Eastwood. Soon there’s a small but
thriving community holed up in the apartment building.
We’re Alive has a
few problems. I had a hard time distinguishing between some of the women as the
men are generally given more agency and are more fully developed characters.
There are some writing weaknesses, including characters that bicker and bitch
over trifles and at times seem more concerned with saving face than staying
alive. This creates plenty of distractions and gets the group in more trouble
than it should, at first with zombies and later with a greedy, nasty group of
human convicts (the “Mallers”). Also, a few of the characters’ skillsets seem a
bit too fortuitous (one of the women is a pro archer—rather convenient).
The story also uses zombies that break sharply with most
undead traditions. Some have a rudimentary intelligence, at least one can talk
and strategize, and at times they are directed by some unseen controlling force
to capture and carry away their victims rather than consume them. While I’m
not a strict zombie purist, these traits lessen their scare factor and weakened
them as a threat. Zombies are at their best when they’re relentless, merciless
eating machines; take away that characteristic and they become caricatures. There’s
even some species of large zombie monsters lurking in the background, though
they’re not described well and it’s impossible at least through season one to
determine if they’re a large zombified animal or a creature of pure fancy. In
short, if you’re a zombie purist, or expecting undead in the Romero mold or new
Dawn of the Dead style, be prepared for a lot of “rule breaking.”
But We’re Alive
also has plenty of good things going on, enough to give it my recommendation.
Most of the characters grow on you and the voice acting is reasonably good.
There are enough plot twists and turns to keep you guessing. There’s a hardly a
dull moment—when not fighting the undead or the Mallers, the survivors are
fighting amongst themselves, often chafing against Michael’s inflexible
never-question-my-orders military style of leadership. Ex lawyers and teachers
find themselves growing vegetables on the rooftop, serving as quartermasters,
or standing on guard duty, with inevitable grousing and dereliction of duties. As
the survivors’ supplies start to dwindle, they’re forced to take increasingly
dangerous runs for food and ammo into the “hot zone” of zombie and
looter-infested downtown L.A.
There’s also a larger backstory about the hows and whys of the zombie outbreak
that’s still unrevealed but will undoubtedly be a part of latter seasons.
While it lacks the moral/philosophical questions and
hardcore grittiness of The Walking Dead,
We’re Alive is nevertheless fun
stuff and I’m looking forward to listening to season two.
For more information on the making of We're Alive check out this neat mini documentary on Youtube.
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