Season 1 Review
(Episodes 1 - 8)
February 13, 2014
[Originally requested by the Surfing Aliens podcast. The Surfing Aliens interview with STILL creator Jonathan Holbrook can be found here.]
[Originally requested by the Surfing Aliens podcast. The Surfing Aliens interview with STILL creator Jonathan Holbrook can be found here.]
STILL is a zombie web series set over eight episodes. In general, my first impressions jump to the production value – the visual FX, the make up, the sound, and the fantastic score.
Now when I first read on their website that STILL is a zombie web series I thought, ‘Oh great, more zombies.’ As a genre nut, zombies almost scream cliché, and along with AMC’s incredibly successful The Walking Dead (2010) this concept prompts groaning. The drained colour of STILL even reminds me of The Walking Dead, but thankfully we’re spared from the horrible Southern accents.
STILL takes place in Sloughtown, a beautiful and isolated small town in Washington State. It serves as the perfect backdrop to our intriguing story. The big strength of this series is that whole season serves as an extended pilot. The whole thing takes the time to set up good characters, and give ample backstory that interconnects. With this in mind, the creator didn’t hesitate to kill off characters when necessary.
Before I go on, I have to mention the zombies, or the ‘infected.’ Here the creator, Jonathan Holbrook, knows that he has to take a different approach to set his series apart. Without giving too much away, the infected leave much to the viewer’s imagination until the later episodes. We’re not explicitly shown how people get infected. Those who love zombie narratives will make their own assumptions when the camera cuts away. This is an editing choice, and it bodes well in building up suspense.
For me the best thing about the zombies is their screeching. It’s something they only do when in the presence of our surviving characters. This, for me, totally referenced moaning zombies in Max Brooks’ World War Z (the book not the movie). Brooks fictionally surmised that if a zombie sensed a human he would moan, signaling other zombies to their location. In comparison, the infected in STILL exhibit more of a bone-chilling screech.
The eight episodes play out over the span of about 24 hours. Each episode focuses on a different character. We follow up on those we meet in Episode 1, and a couple more along the way. For me this format works very well, especially in the episodes pushing 10 minutes. Longer episodes never work in web series, but like I said Holbrook knows how to negotiate suspense for the audience. This puts the show in the true spirit of horror.
One last thing to mention is the Levi sub-plot. The viewers first see him in Episode 2, where we see some well-executed violence. Levi is the other conflict pushing this story along, and he doesn’t disappoint near the end.
Now when I first read on their website that STILL is a zombie web series I thought, ‘Oh great, more zombies.’ As a genre nut, zombies almost scream cliché, and along with AMC’s incredibly successful The Walking Dead (2010) this concept prompts groaning. The drained colour of STILL even reminds me of The Walking Dead, but thankfully we’re spared from the horrible Southern accents.
STILL takes place in Sloughtown, a beautiful and isolated small town in Washington State. It serves as the perfect backdrop to our intriguing story. The big strength of this series is that whole season serves as an extended pilot. The whole thing takes the time to set up good characters, and give ample backstory that interconnects. With this in mind, the creator didn’t hesitate to kill off characters when necessary.
Before I go on, I have to mention the zombies, or the ‘infected.’ Here the creator, Jonathan Holbrook, knows that he has to take a different approach to set his series apart. Without giving too much away, the infected leave much to the viewer’s imagination until the later episodes. We’re not explicitly shown how people get infected. Those who love zombie narratives will make their own assumptions when the camera cuts away. This is an editing choice, and it bodes well in building up suspense.
For me the best thing about the zombies is their screeching. It’s something they only do when in the presence of our surviving characters. This, for me, totally referenced moaning zombies in Max Brooks’ World War Z (the book not the movie). Brooks fictionally surmised that if a zombie sensed a human he would moan, signaling other zombies to their location. In comparison, the infected in STILL exhibit more of a bone-chilling screech.
The eight episodes play out over the span of about 24 hours. Each episode focuses on a different character. We follow up on those we meet in Episode 1, and a couple more along the way. For me this format works very well, especially in the episodes pushing 10 minutes. Longer episodes never work in web series, but like I said Holbrook knows how to negotiate suspense for the audience. This puts the show in the true spirit of horror.
One last thing to mention is the Levi sub-plot. The viewers first see him in Episode 2, where we see some well-executed violence. Levi is the other conflict pushing this story along, and he doesn’t disappoint near the end.
This review is of the first eight episodes, Season 1 is slated for 15 episodes. Production for STILL will continue in March 2014.
The Surfing Aliens podcast is interview and review show about web series based out Seattle. The podcast and website is run by Tim Keaty.
