The Rain

[Dave]

Netflix have a new Danish Scifi series called The Rain in eight episodes. My son told me to watch it, but I watched the first episode and I found the acting really bad, and I also had to try hard to suspend my disbelief. However, I watched a few more episodes, and found that I want to watch the rest. In the first episode, there is a virus present in the rain and in contact with others that causes almost immediate and violent death. Two children see their mother die, and their father leaves them to do important work (he's a virologist and part of a program that has built a network of underground bunkers.) Their father drives like a maniac, causes a multiple pile up accident, but by some unexplained coincidence they are right next to one of the bunkers. They live in one bunker for six years until the food runs out, seemingly perfectly unaffected by the end of the world and the loss of their parents!

So, it has many similarities to The Walking Dead and various other apocalyptic TV shows, but one difference is the naivety of the kids which gives it some charm. The mechanics of the virus propagation just don't make a great deal of sense - It doesn't affect animals, except that it is carried by dogs. It is active in rain, and in puddles of rainwater, but not on wet leaves or wet clothes.

I don't wish to spoil, but once they leave the bunker it does get more interesting. There is more travelling and we see more of the world. Food and uncontaminated water is in short supply, and gangs of "strangers" rule the streets. There is more character development of them, and especially of the others they meet and travel with (who are much more interesting characters.) Hints are regularly dropped about the secret programme that was the cause of the disaster, and their father's direct involvement. I have only seen the first 5 episodes, but they aren't afraid to kill main characters off either. And the episode with the cult they stay with for a while went in a direction I wasn't expecting.

 

[Dave]

The ending is a little poor. The father is bonkers and...

Spoiler: final episodes

the aim of the programme was "obviously" to create a weapon. They get to the HQ of Apollonos and they drink the drink you're clearly not meant to drink (why not just add it to the water?) Then they escape back into the quarantined zoned for another Season, but they can never escape until a vaccine is found.

I just wonder how they built a wall so quickly across Sweden. Even Trump can't build a wall that quickly.

 

[svalbard]

I am finding the acting truly awful. Simone's character is really grating. Somehow I have reached Episode 6 so I imagine I will stay in till the bitter end.

 

[svalbard]

It got renewed for a second season

 

[awesomesauce]

I just wonder how they built a wall so quickly across Sweden. Even Trump can't build a wall that quickly.

Given that we have a maritime border with Denmark, it shouldn't really need a wall. Unless they built it north of Skåne.

 

[Dave]

Given that we have a maritime border with Denmark, it shouldn't really need a wall. Unless they built it north of Skåne.

I assumed that they crossed the ‎Øresund Bridge into Sweden (though that wasn't clear, they did escape from Copehagen in the direction of Amager.) Then there was a map shown several times that was projected out of an electronic ball with a thick solid line which someone said was a "wall".

It got renewed for a second season

It didn't deserve it; the acting was terrible, and the plot unbelievable, but I did find some of the scenes more realistic of an apocalypse than the US fayre we get. That is why I would watch it. However, a second season with characters confined to live within a "walled"* zone without much hope of escape would be a very different story to the first season.

Spoiler: *

walled or not, with those explosive nanobots inside them, a wall is not required.

 

[svalbard]

Did you watch it Dubbed or with subtitles. It was only until episode 7 that I realised I could change the settings on Netflix. As soon as the show was in Danish with subtitles the acting became less grating. Still plenty of problems with plotting. A ratings success for Netflix though.

 

[Dave]

Did you watch it Dubbed or with subtitles. It was only until episode 7 that I realised I could change the settings on Netflix. As soon as the show was in Danish with subtitles the acting became less grating.

I didn't realise it was dubbed. Yes, that would explain it in large part.

 

[ctg]

I didn't realise it was dubbed. Yes, that would explain it in large part.

I started watching it, because Netflix keeps reminding me about it with the trailers. I found out that it sounded strange that scandinavian actors were doing a full english speak and not in their native tongue, which would be natural as we don't dub.

Personally I don't watch YA because the story is always coming-of-age type. As a survival genre piece, listening it through native tongue the acting isn't bad, but the aspects of the actual survival story is somewhat unbelievable. I would have thought that six years of hell-on-earth would have though the other kids more survival trades. Instead most of them are more and less glueless about things,

I know I'm hard on these things, because for the young adults this could be their version of The Tripods. We got to read it and see the cancelled series before anything like this came on the small screen. I don't know how this compare against The 100 as it's another YA I haven't checked out.

 

[ctg]

I finished this series last night and to me, personally it was a failure. They journey into some horrible places and found at the end that the humanity hasn't learned anything. We are all bad, including the young ones. I don't think it's the right message, but it's what I got from this show. I wish to be younger so that I would know if this really works.