“Generation Z has its flaws, but stick with it and you’ll have a bloody good time”
Generation Z, Channel 4
“How much you enjoy all of this will depend on your enthusiasm for zombie films in general, as the young arm themselves and make a stand against the hordes. The parallels with the pandemic are clear – conspiracy theories proliferate about the source of the virus – and we’re also in Brexit territory. “That lot had the best this country had to offer and they f–ked it,” someone says of the old. It’s laid on way too thick. But Wheatley doesn’t throw in his lot with one side or the other. You suspect that his sympathies really lie with his fellow Gen X-ers – he’s 52 – such as Jason and Lorraine (Johnny Vegas and Suzanne Ahmet), who have to deal with the cost of living crisis, a teenage daughter, and a septuagenarian mother whose passive-aggressive behaviour might be even more annoying than her antics as a flesh-eating zombie.”
Anita Singh, Telegraph
“Ultimately, it’s the humanity of the story that proves Generation Z as a show worth sticking with. The layers and lines around what is right and just blur just as much within the humans of Dambury as the zombies and Wheatley captures the uncertainty of a teenage life on the cusp of adulthood in a way that feels authentic, nuanced and painfully accurate. Generation Z has its flaws, but stick with it and you’ll have a bloody good time.”
Tilly Pearce, The i
“We do get the elderly POV. Johnston’s character, Cecily, says of an ageist society: “They see us as monsters and lock us away out of sight … Maybe it’s time for us to be monsters.” A dog-walker is attacked by an old man who sticks his hand up the dog’s backside for its innards, and asks two teens: “Why are you filming me?” satirising youth’s first instinct often being to film not help. It is interesting stuff (and improves in the second half of the series, FYI) but it does meander with too many strands. If you like gore, though, feast away.”
Carol Midgley, The Times
“It begins and ends well and earns enough goodwill to carry you through the sluggish parts. You need time to recover from the dog thing, anyway. The satire and the message aren’t subtle (at one point, things literally become splenetic) and become even less so when Cecily and Janine start fracturing the leave – I mean zombie – contingent, arguing about whether they should get their way at all costs and almost turning the show into Generation Agitprop. But it’s fun. At least, more fun than Brexit.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian
Ottoman Empire By Train, Channel 4
“The history of the mosques was mildly interesting - we visited one in Adana that was originally a Christian church, and another with six towering minarets, built just 25 years ago. But details were sparse, and there wasn’t much more said about the cluster of neolithic houses at the world heritage site of Catalhoyuk, an early farming community.
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail
Kingdom Uncovered: Inside Saudi Arabia, ITV1
“A hugely courageous piece of journalism from an undercover reporter with a hidden camera who would have been jailed if caught.”
Carol Midgley, The Times
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