Blog #8 BrainDead TV Series Review

TV Series review originally on CBS 2016

Written by JM Strasser

1 season, 13 episodes

Political satire, Comedy, drama and SCIENCE FICTION

The description fits, but I most loved the science fiction part. Two people, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, playing Laurel, and Aaron Tveit, playing Gareth, portray the central drama of two people in the middle of the ridiculous world of Washington, DC. Danny Pino plays Elizabeth’s brother, Luke, and the fact they are in a dynasty family creates unwanted turmoil in her life. Add into this soup US Republican senator “Red” Wheatus, the sleazy politician, played perfectly by Tony Shalhoub.

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Our story starts with the invasion of ant-like creatures that crawl into people’s ears to take up residence in their brains, shoving out the left side to make the room. Red’s scene where he gets infected is over-the-top gross and hilarious. Laurel, the sister of a Democratic US senator, and Gareth, Red’s chief of staff, get caught up in this takeover of DC, and the story pokes fun at the whole environment.

The possibility of what is happening intensifies when Laurel witnesses what can occur if the aliens infect you. She tries to help someone her clues have led her to. The man is in pain, screaming about something in his head, then his head explodes. This incident allows Laurel to believe there is a problem. At first, Laurel works with two people outside the Beltway, and finally, poor Gareth gets dragged in.

Red has a creepy scene where the queen of the aliens crawls out of his ear to meet up with a king from another human woman’s ear. Red is on the opposite side of the aisle to his ‘friend’ with the king, which is fun. When things go badly, Red encourages the queen to “go for it,” and she does. She eats the king.

That scene with the king and queen alien bug and Laurel’s attempt to get the bugs out of her brain is excellent, but the voting scene is perfect for how this invasion works with politicians. We get to watch a group of senators in a committee meeting get fouled up.

Our intrepid heroes now have a way to intercept and broadcast the alien signal. They used that technology when our group of senators started a vote. The trio makes the senators vote both yea and nay by getting them to raise their hands for each vote. The double votes of all the senators upset the committee’s chairman. She chastises them, but it sounds ridiculous like she was a teacher of school children, not a leader of a room full of honorable senators.

This series is not serious or hard science fiction, but it is accurate enough to believe how these politicians would react. The alien ants increase the person’s natural tendencies to the extreme, which is a lot to play with. You might worry this would tilt to one side of the political spectrum, but I think they did a good job evening it out. Both political parties are idiots, to begin with, and they become even more so.

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Red is a Republican senator and a stereotype of a drunken lech before he even gets infected. I could see pointing to Red’s debauchery as tilting mostly because Mr. Shalhoub is terrific at going overboard. However, Luke plays around while having a pregnant wife, which Laurel gets after him for, and another senator is alluded to in extracurricular activities. The problem for Luke runs in the family from their father, who is played very well as the patriarch trying to exert control. Dad is a real problem when he gets infected.

At the time this TV series aired in 2016, it was during the presidential campaign of Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump. When the TV series failed to renew for a second season, I thought it had to do with Mr. Trump winning and there would be trouble writing the next phase of the invasion. Not that it couldn’t be even more hilarious, but politically, it could be more hazardous for the writers and the network since this election was contentious. However, the ratings may have been the reason. There was almost a 30% drop on the second episode (the only rating info I could find). Critic Reviews ranged from 100 (from the The Lincoln Journal Star) to 25 (by the San Francisco Chronicle). The plans for the 2nd and 3rd seasons were for Wall Street and Silicon Valley, so I don’t think the political trickiness of writing about Washington was a big issue in the decision to cancel.

I would recommend this series if you enjoyed Galaxy Quest and Mars Attacks. I would say BrainDead is at the same level of humor and craziness.