Journalist and broadcaster Charlie Brooker’s brilliant new E4 series Dead Set could easily usher in a new era of TV horror. For all the Mail’s moaning about violence on the small screen, there’s precious little in the way of proper gore slopping about, a sad state of affairs Dead Set corrects with gusto. Fans of Brooker’s journalism are unlikely to be disappointed. Classic Brookerian phraseology is present and correct, revelling in its warped new context, with one character describing the experience of picking shards of a friend’s skull out of her jumper like “cats teeth.” And that gorgeously macabre imagination gets a chance to come to life visually too, with guts galore and a messy second episode sequence involving a fire extinguisher that wouldn’t necessarily look out of place in a Gaspar Noé film. Viewers tuning in expecting a Shaun Of The Dead-style rom-zom-com will be in for a shock: the romantic entanglements of the first five minutes are something of a red herring. Equally, don’t listen to Brooker when he claims in interviews that it’s not a funny show. I was cackling throughout with delight that someone had dared to dream all this up – but it’s true enough to say that it’s not a knockabout romp. The challenge for Dead Set will be maintaining the requisite tension over five episodes. But with Brooker admitting that his inspiration was the marathon white-knuckle rides of 24, this suddenly seems not only plausible, but probable. Bring on the next helping. Also, check out our interview with Charlie Brooker, talking about Dead Set, here.
