Daybreak

Here’s a quirky post apocalyptic Ferris Bueller Netflix series with inspired casting of Matthew Broderick (perhaps reminding many of “Election”, even) as the square principal of a Glendale high school and Colin Ford as the skateboarder loner, Josh (I know him from an episode of CSI: Miami, titled “Mommy Deadest”), who speaks directly into the camera, narrating what happened when a bomb dropped into the city, before and afterward. There’s the blond, blue-eyed, Sam (short for Samaira), who has the radiant smile and cool personality, that Josh crushes hard for, a tagalong ten-year old arsonist, Angelica (Alyvia Lynd) he babysat a few times (she was a nightmare, always trying to burn something asunder), and letterman jock bully, Wesley (Austin Crute), who turned away from his past of mistreating others, embracing a pacifist life (dressed as a Samurai, opting to follow a code of peace, without violence). Josh lost touch with Sam (who was attending a football game he was late for), making it his main goal to find her while Angelica, with blow torch in tow, and Wesley, for whom he was not friendly in high school, eventually convince him to form their own little pack. Meanwhile cliques have formed in the greater Glendale areas of the city, all teens and kids, while the adult populace has been reduced to flesh-eating “ghoulies” repeating their last lines prior to the great bomb drop. Although the bomb drop itself is depicted without any radioactive fallout, the first episode has an exciting, well-paced, ongoing plot featuring Josh and his rag-tag fellows trying to stay one step ahead of Mad Max inspired marauders, golf-shirt stooges, and a notorious, feared “gather of kids” named Baron Triump, known for caging those he locates, taking them back to the mall, a territory many will not dare tread. The Glendale after the bomb shows a decimated city where graffiti tagged buildings with broken windows and gutted structures spilling out their rubble, quite a setting for a Lord of the Flies backdrop, cleverly toned for comedy, mischief, and mayhem as the lack of parental or custodial guidance allows for the kids/teens to run amok and conduct themselves as they see fit. Josh always looking at us while the camera itself even becomes a character that must often follow him (funny moment has the camera looking for Josh, who is hiding behind a bush) is the main gimmick of this particular series. I LOVE this overhead shot of the city as Josh, Angelica, and Wesley try to escape the apartment of Josh’s while the large accompaniment of marauders in their steel-plated motorcycles and buggies follow after them, the very definition of bird’s eye view. And the show offers creative assistance to the viewer like magic marker identification when the camera is distanced overhead of Glendale or wittily designed flashbacks with Josh navigating us through his story, giving us witty asides and anecdotes. There is a fun scene where Josh must contend with this noisy, obtuse ringleader of a band of nerdy golf-shirts in way over their head within the city of rival gangs coordinating their own real estate within Glendale’s environs. The use of blood by Josh, Angelica, and Wesley in order to delay their surrounding adversaries is merrily shot in slow motion to great effect. Credit to those involved in the production for keeping the episode humming along, not bogging the viewer down in long passages of dialogue that aren’t necessary for a show such as this. This isn’t a character drama, all dark and verbose, where characters, forlorn and longing for the structures of the past before it all went to hell, talk at great length about the way things are, riddled with doom and gloom, wallowing in misery. The episode is practically all shot during the day, and those involved don’t spend all their time waxing nostalgic about the way things were, commenting extensively about a dire future with serious glum. There are assholes and feudal teen lords dictating rules and making demands (one lead singer is sentenced to death because his voice didn’t please the grunting Lord Humongous of the marauders), as Josh tries to remain independent despite the expectations to join one faction or another just in order to survive. Dog collars and steel cages aren’t what Josh has in mind for himself. The kitana sword stuck in a hand as Josh tries to cut the middle finger off an adversary is a highlight while a blow torch runs out of fuel at the most inopportune time. 3/5