An interesting reworking of Charlie Brooker’s series Dead Set (2008).
Transposed to Rio de Janeiro the original Big Brother backdrop is turned into something more Brazilian, a gameshow called Olympus.
The first five episode run close to the original storyline. Then it runs off in a new and interesting direction. These additional episodes blends perfectly with the original, opening out the story, and bringing all kinds of new drama.
As you’d expect from the genre the blood and gore is viscous and sticky. But while Brooker’s original is a swipe at unreality of reality television, and a critique of that kind of celebrity. This deals with a more authoritarian world, plagued by corruption and criminality.
There’s a bleakness to the way this all plays out perfectly in keeping with the genre, and more importantly with the series.
Definitely worth watching.
