Freakish

I was sick recently and spent 2 days in bed. In my stationary wanderings I discovered a show on Hulu called Freakish. Being a fan of Zombie and Apocalypse films I put the show on and… Accidentally blew through the entire available 2 seasons in the 2 days I was sick.

Obligatory Premise
Freakish is a Hulu original series about a group of high school delinquents stuck in Saturday detention when the town’s local chemical plant explodes. The explosion spreads a toxic yellow cloud across the entire city that turns people into violent cannibal ‘Zombies’ of the speedier variety.

This show isn’t going to win any awards, but it kept me entertained and interested enough to sit through 2 seasons in as many days. I’m a sucker for all things zombie, and this one drew me in because… Well, honestly, because I was bored, had nothing else to watch… and it had zombies.

The characters are fairly stereotypical, with the sweet, lovable goody two shoes, the rough and tumble troubled delinquent with a heart of gold, the emotionless computer genius acting entirely upon logic, and so forth. The writing jumps from one cliche to the next and seems to run at an accelerated pace to build relationships so they can have troubles with them… That is to say “I met you yesterday but we’re in love now and I’m mad you did something.”

The horror aspect falls more into the suspense horror category than into the ‘blood and gore’ or ‘jump scares’ section, making it low on the terrors and nightmares scale, but the show IS brave enough to kill off characters you expect to live; a few of the deaths actually surprised me. There are times I felt like the characters were being stupid just for the sake of advancing the plot, and times I thought things didn’t make sense but the plot required it. In short, the plot overpowers intelligence and logic.

In all, this show feels like it’s half high school drama, half zombie suspense… And I can’t wait to see the next season. I would recommend it to any fan of the Zombie genre.