PremiumZombieverse review: A misguided fusion of zombie reality
Park Jin-Kyung and Moon Sang-don created eight-part series stars Lee Si-young, rapper DinDin, Yoo Hee-kwan, Jonathan Yiombi and Ro Hong-chul.
Zombieverse review (PC: Netflix)
Last Updated: 10.54 PM, Aug 08, 2023
Story: A few real-life celebrities, including actress Lee Si-young, social media influencer Jonathan Yiombi, famous rapper DinDin, Yoo Hee-kwan, and television actor Ro Hong-chul, posing as themselves, come together to judge a dating reality show, but a sudden turn of events leads them to run for their lives and escape the city of Seoul after a zombie breakout.
Review: Zombieverse begins with a few celebrity guests appearing on the set of a dating reality show to judge. The shoot begins in a packed studio, and the couples are asked to kiss each other. Everything goes great, but suddenly a contestant starts gorging her partner instead of giving her a kiss. Soon after that, the zombie breakout occurs, and the five guests somehow get out of the place only to find a car that ends up in a gas station and get caught around a huge number of moving dead.
The show follows the pattern of a reality show, where the whole fiasco gets caught on cameras wherever the survivors move; however, it doesn't add up when you realise that there is no one to watch.
In most of the parts, it appears that the makers are trying to make an impromptu Squid Game and trying to carve a niche out of the ordinary by showcasing it as a reality show, completely failing.
The show further witnesses the five survivors meeting other people who are still alive. From a gas station to a grocery mart to a village that seems immune to the virus until they discover a heinous truth, all the spared ones work together to shift from one place to another to attempt an escape from the city of Seoul.
Creators Park Jin-Kyung and Moon Sang-don try to incorporate reality into the show, which can take place only theoretically or maybe centuries later. Although, Let's hope it doesn't! Anyhow, it is an idea that doesn't connect with viewers in the name of a reality show.
The majority of the show appears unevenly executed, as the contestants can be seen making jokes out of a serious situation that generally happens in a reality show, but it doesn't fit into this one at all.
In the world of Squid Game and All of Us Are Dead, Zombieverse is a failed attempt to make a zombie series in the name of a reality show. It's confusing and bizarre.
Verdict: As a viewer, you might want to finish the pilot to understand the plot and connect with the concept. However, the rest of the show will certainly feel like an unbearable watch and a waste of over eight hours in eight sluggish and longer episodes. Zombieverse is definitely not worth your time.