Generation Z: We've finally reached Peak Zombie

Ben Wheatley has many virtues and is an original talent, but the living dead is an all too familiar a subject. Channel 4 needs something more interesting to rescue its reputation

'The Walking Dead' (AMC)

This week’s news that Channel 4 has commissioned Generation Z, a six-part Brexit-inspired zombie series about the clash of generations in a care home, begs the question – why?

Creator Ben Wheatley – who previously made hits including Sightseers, Free Fire and Kill List – is fully capable of putting a subversive spin on the tired genre, but viewers will still yawn at the prospect of yet another zombie drama. We are being rendered insensible by a never-ending stream of living dead invading our screens and mobile devices.

Channel 4 itself has already played the numbers game when it comes to shows in the popular genre, including Charlie Brooker’s well-received Big Brother vs zombies mini-series Dead Set (2008), and acquiring France’s The Returned (2013-15), which just about scrapes into the category.

To outsiders, this latest commission could look like a crisis in creativity for Channel 4; it is falling back on a subject already more than well catered for by others, hardly in keeping with its stated remit to “be innovative and distinctive”. Zombies are also a curious choice for the channel, as audiences for AMC’s flagship show The Walking Dead have been in steep decline for some years; critics have also warned that the show is now past its best.

This, however, hasn’t stopped AMC milking its highest ever rating show with a spin-off, Fear the Walking Dead, and another series in the works, as well as three TV movies revolving around Andrew Lincoln’s character Rick Grimes.

Throw in countless other films and series, spoofs such The Walking Deceased, Cockneys vs Zombies and Shaun of the Dead, the birth of the Nazi zombie sub-genre, and a swathe of “serious” zombie productions including Martin Freeman’s film Cargo, set in the dust-swept Australian outback, and the market looks fully saturated.

Have we finally reached Peak Zombie?

Channel 4 needed a mainstream production this year to rescue its reputation from a months-long torrent of tacky sex-themed shows (Mums Make Porn, A Very British Sex Shop) and low rating dramas, such as the recent Chimerica. It needed to prove it still stands by its mission statement.

Ben Wheatley has many virtues and is an original talent, but the living dead is an all too familiar a subject, even if he may still surprise us with a singular vision. He could write the strongest series in the genre yet and we’d still be stifling the yawns.

What’s worse, there’s no longer an element of horror to these thrillers either. It’s the same across all supernatural subject matters. With BBC1’s upcoming Moffatt/Gatiss iteration of Dracula coming down the pike, we could also be perilously close to the boredom threshold with vampires and their furry werewolf frenemies. Overuse appears to have has diminished their effectiveness at inducing fear.

So if zombies and werewolves are out, is there any future in the horror mini series at all? There’s hope for writers and producers who take their inspiration from lesser-known supernatural beings, and bring them into the spotlight.

After all, The Babadook, The Terror’s monstrous Tuunbaq and the evil presence from Lights Out have all managed to generate chills over recent years without relying on old cliches and standbys – or the prospect of the arrival of the undead.