The year was 2015. Mad Max Fury Road was blowing minds everywhere and with The Hunger Games and Maze Runner and Divergent inexplicably making money, a SyFy executive turned to his assistant,and demanded they get the head of development on the line.
“Bill? What do we have in the post-apoc pipeline?”
“We have a few scripts. It’s more of a pond than a pipeline.”
“Bill, remember when I told you we needed to do more space shows while the new Star Wars movie was hot?”
“Yes. We got Killjoys and Dark Matter and The Expanse. We only had to build four sets and rent that abandoned quarry.”
“Bill, it’s time to do the apocalypse.”
“Well, there’s a lot of different ways the world can die…what were you thinking?”
“I don’t know, Bill. Zombies? Vampires?”
“Vampires are kind of their own thing, usually…”
“Bill, you’re splitting hairs. MAKE IT HAPPEN. ALL OF THE APOCALYPSE SHOWS. And keep it cheap. That show about sexy college magicians is killing our effects budget.”
“Oh…okay…I’ll….Okay.”
And so SyFy’s entire fall 2016 premiere season was born.
Set in rural Eastern Washington State, Aftermath follows the adventures of a mythology/archeology/history professor, his tough as nails ex-Air Force wife, (real life couple and TV veterans James Tupper and Anne Heche) and their three teenage children as they encounter all the apocalypses (apocali?) at once. Massive earthquakes, insane super weather events, a pandemic of violent psychosis, an outbreak of demon posession, and obliterating metorites, are all on the table, along with their accompanying loss of core services like power and communication services. By next week I legitimately expect zombies and/or aliens to show up for earth’s last dance.
Unlike most shows or movies of this nature, Aftermath never takes the time to show us all the families petty dysfunction or idyllic pre-nightmare bliss. Within the first five minutes we get hairy redneck maniacs in dresses and the kind of hurricane which negates the continued existence of the Space Needle. In another ten minutes the family has encountered and killed a demon possesed hiker and the “cool” teen has been kidnapped by some kind of flying demon thing. The first actual post-apocalypse trope we encounter comes when the family decides a road trip in the family RV is the only way to save their daughter and sets off for Yakima.
The result is a refreshingly breakneck story which derives actual terror from the lack of predictable, recognizable rules. By the end of the forty minute premiere, the family itself feels like the only safe place in America. Their ability to function as a cohesive survival unit, despite the natural tensions of family is likewise a welcome change of pace from the usual dysfunction and uncharacteristically stupid behavior which fuels so many survival/post-apocalypse stories we’ve seen before.
Whether or not Aftermath can maintain it’s breakneck pace and avoid the tired tropes of the genre remains to be seen. A great first episode does not always mean a great show but if family chemistry at the end of the world sounds like your thing, you might give Aftermath a shot.
