Peel the Onion | The Best (and Worst) Pandemic TV Shows and Movies on Netflix Right Now (Part I)

By J.B.Browne

As some of us still have the relative luxury to choose or deny taking a COVID vaccine before the whole shitshow goes up in flames, we'll look back at this period fondly. Not because the world is ending just yet, but because some of the apocalyptic shows and movies streaming on Netflix foretell a future where kicking back to watch such things is impossible due to viruses, zombies made from said virus, or a fundamental lack of internet because of viral zombies pulling the plug.

There's no doubt that Netflix has gone gaga over the post-apocalyptic genre, which was popular before but is in overdrive now. We browse the digital river of great TV, hoping to snag a gem that'll keep us occupied for days. Our theory is that we're not compelled to do this for entertainment but to pick up tips for our own existence on the precipice of extinction. Be it nuclear winter, zombie piranhas, 5G trees, or lolwut a deadly virus(!?), our favorites often speak to personal projections of how it all ends and, most importantly, which characters we identify should we become them. Some shows get it right, some are wildly creative, and others are downright bad. So here are our picks for the ten best and worst pandemic-related tv shows and movies streaming on Netflix right now.

Sweet Tooth (2021)

1 Season

Sweet Tooth just dropped on Netflix and is weird. But it's also highly imaginative and isn't afraid to clash hardcore realities with a cartoonish comic book flare. And that's because the Robert Downy Jr. produced show is an adaptation of the comic book of the same name. Set in the aftermath of a cataclysmic global virus, the Jim Henson narration-styled series follows the story of an "extraordinary boy" named Gus, who is a human-deer hybrid thrust on a journey throughout the American West. The show's themes deal with pandemics, prejudice, and a coming together of a ragtag group of friends who, no matter the odds, stick together in a hostile world dominated by "the last men." There's also a whiff of the seminal Naughty Dog video game The Last of Us throughout, especially the older father figure Tommy Jepperd who chaperones Gus on their adventures. Dark, strange, intriguing, and visually stunning, Sweet Tooth feels as relevant as ever in these times of COVID.

Verdict: Stream

Army of the Dead (2021)

Zack Snyder's zombie-heist hybrid Army of the Dead languished in development hell until Netflix picked it up. Now it's a lamebrained zombie-heist splatterfest languishing in Netflix hell. This is the kind of inelegant end-of-the-world media we've come to expect from countless experiences. From predictable grunting zombies to alpha leaders, comic relief characters, nameless infections, gore, splat, pow, wow, video-game max kill counts, horror-thriller — Snyder's pandemic scenario is all brawn over brains as a jacked-up crew of rando mercenaries tries to infiltrate a Las Vegas casino one last time to retrieve a large sum of money. It's meant to be fun, but it's like watching the first Transformers movie again when you emerge from your seat with a migraine. So it's not funny. It's Snyder. Stream it if you're drunk and want to pass out to loud noises. Skip it if you yearn to get those two-and-a-half hours of base splurge back before you lose them.

Verdict: Skip

Trailer:

 

The Rain (2018)

3 Seasons

"The Rain" is referred to in this Danish-Swedish series where the world as we know it is destroyed by a deadly rainfall-carrying virus in Scandanavia. Six years after the event, two siblings, Simone and Rasmus, emerge from a bunker. Their mysterious father left them there for protection, who later had a hand in what went down. The two leads soon join a mishmash band of young survivor misfits. Together, they journey across the landscape, searching for answers, signs of life, and, most importantly, food. The Rain puts a lot of work into each character's back story and the circumstances leading up to how they survived that day's fateful rainfall.

Themes of forgetting the past, moving on, and starting anew flood the dialogue throughout—all the survivors think previous rules of society are long gone but struggle with the same pitfalls of love, jealousy, and all the coming of age dilemmas we go through. Set against the backdrop of a great big quarantine zone, The Rain does more to expand on the teen-apocalypse sub-genre of well-trodden postapocalyptic-dystopian narratives. Confident storytelling with a little bit of hope on top. Watch the dub and not the subtitles for a fuller, more immersive experience.

Verdict: Stream

The Rain Season 3 Trailer:

 

The Happening (2008)

Oh man, M Night Shyamalan has had a very intriguing career. Once the golden boy of Hollywood in the late 90s and early 2000s, The Sixth Sense and The Village director was quickly sussed out by audiences, who had gotten used to his bizarre scripts with predictable left-turn reveal stylings. But does 2008's The Happening fare any better, at least with some of the old imagination magic he mustered in his heyday? Let's see.

Audiences hoping for some M Night magic of yore – perhaps a slow-burn thriller? – instead got something highly confused and a little deranged: a climate crisis parable in which plants exact revenge by secreting neurotoxins that make people suicidal. I mean, that's totally believable, right? Questions remain. Is this a comedy or drama? Or both? In M Night, a misunderstood genius or laughing stock hack? You decide. Or don't because, you know, skip it.

Verdict: Skip

Trailer:

As he would refer himself, J.B. Browne is a half "foreign devil" living with anxiety relieved by purchase. HK-born Writer/Musician/Tinkerer.

 

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