A few weeks ago I posted about the British show Dead Set — a British zombie mini-series with the gimmick being that the zombie outbreak takes place at the set of the UK Big Brother. Well, I just finished watching it, and I must say it was a much more satisfying experience than anything I’ve seen debut on American TV this year.

One of the things I liked most about Dead Set is that it didn’t aspire to make a broad social commentary, which would inevitably be some sort of snooty commentary on the sloth and mindlessness inspired by television (or, perhaps, the vapid and unfulfilling nature of fame). At heart, this is just a well made thriller that is both engaging and gut-wrenching (and gut-devouring, for that matter).

I really like the idea of zombie movies as a distinct subgenre, with each movie having identifiable moments and stock characters. There’s the plucky hero/heroine, the loudmouth with bad ideas, the loveable character who we know has been infected and must be killed,  etc. Finding different ways to watch these play out is fun (for me, at least) to watch.

But — back to the point — I’d definitely recommend getting your hands on Dead Set. If you’re on the fence about wondering whether or not you can handle zombie movie, then don’t. It’s gruesome affair, with things reaching insane levels of bloody in the penultimate episode onward.

Side note: I’ve been watching Dead Set primarily on my iPod and primarily on public transportation. This is a mistake — but one I acknowledged and continued to make on a regular basis. While I usually tried to hide my screen from my fellow train passengers, I’m pretty sure a few people gave me weird looks because they heard screaming coming from my headphones.

You may have heard from various news outlets last week that Saturday Night Live recently hired two new, female cast members. If you hadn’t, you might not have noticed during Saturday’s Paul Rudd-hosted episode, unless you were paying close attention to the opening credits: that was one of the only moments where you could catch a glimpse of Abby Elliott (daughter of former cast member Chris) or Michaela Watkins. They had a few other walk-on parts throughout the show, but Rudd’s go-round was a boys-club affair, with tons of face-time for Bill Hader (five sketches plus a short film) as well as plenty of Andy Samberg (three sketches plus his Digital Short), Jason Sudeikis and Will Forte (three apiece). Even the established women were on the backburner; Kristen Wiig was more or less gone after the first half-hour, and perpetually underused Casey Wilson was barely visible at all.

This isn’t an inherently bad thing; Hader, Sudeikis, Forte, and Samberg are all hilarious. But despite the wonderful Rudd, most of the sketches were thin and silly, and not in a good way. The episode started out well enough, with an amusing Joe Biden opening and Rudd’s subsequent monologue about a post-election comedy vacuum, and how it will be filled by exciting new impressions like Wiig’s Janet Napolitano. I was even willing to give the benefit of the doubt to the excessive-kissing-family, even though “people do something to weird out a guest” is a tired sketch format, because committed performance triumphed over the lazy writing.

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