History Series / BrainDead2016

* RedShirt: [[Wheatus keeps killing and disappearing his interns when they Know Too Much. In Episode 11 he makes this a joke, remarking that Gary-the-latest-Intern surely doesn't believe the rumor about his interns all dying horribly.]]

* EarWorm: "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dOx510kyOs You Might Think]]" by Creator/TheCars. Anyone who has bugs crawl inside their ear becomes obsessed with the song as it sounds like the frequency of the bugs' home planet.

Sadly, it was canceled after one season.

* BelligerentSexualTension: Gareth and Laurel are on opposite sides of Capitol politics and are not above using each other. Doesn't stop them from flirting all the time.

* BlackComedy: The humor on the show relies some gags that are pretty dark.

* BloodSplatteredInnocents: Laurel when the lead scientist who discovered the space bugs [[spoiler:gets his brain blown up by them.]]

** Laurel and Gareth bear striking similarities to Alicia and Will (minus the two decades of emotional baggage). Laurel is the heroine with a dry sense of humor and a soft spot for the voiceless who hates politics but is actually not half bad at them when her family sucks her in. Gareth is the vaguely amoral power player with a streak of romantic idealism that clashes with his ambition and pragmatism- but with a good heart underneath it all.

* FakeOutMakeOut: When Laurel comments that they were "seen together" at the Tax Prom and are probably still being watched, Gareth suggests they give everyone something to really talk about. A "fake" kiss ensues- with a few giggles- and promptly becomes a little too real.

* HauledBeforeASenateSubcommittee: Luke hauls the FBI director before an impromptu Intelligence committee to stop Laurel from being subjected to EnhancedInterrogationTechniques for information on alleged terrorism.

* JanitorImpersonationInfiltration: To get into Red's top secret war room S.R.B. 54, Gareth has an IT friend knock out the [=WiFi=] for that room, then is able to go into the room on the pretense of resetting the system.

* PreviouslyOn: In a unique variant, a [[SoundtrackDissonance disturbingly upbeat]] song recaps the events of the previous episode. What's more, these songs are written and sung by Music/JonathanCoulton, better known to video gamers as the man behind [[VideoGame/Portal1 "Still Alive"]] and [[VideoGame/Portal2 "Want You Gone"]].
** In episode 11, Coulton starts to do the recap song, but gets stressed out trying to sum up the events of ''Braindead'' and instead does a recap for ''Series/{{Gunsmoke}}''.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: [[spoiler:Turns out that shaming a person is another method of getting the bugs out of their head.]]

** There's plenty of references made to ''Film/InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers1978'' whose story is a major influence on this show and writers. Most notably, in that movie, there's a scene where Matthew Bennell is having dinner with Elizabeth Driscoll (played by Brooke Adams) and says "Do that thing with your eyes. If you do that thing with your eyes I'll know you're still you." In ''[=BrainDead=]'', Adams plays Senator Vaynerchuk, who does "that thing," where she vibrates/rotates her eyes.

* TrademarkFavoriteFood: The bugs reside within the cherry blossoms that are very common around Washington DC.

* TruthInTelevision: At one point, Red Wheatus brings up the fact that the CDC published a comic about how to handle a zombie apocalypse as an indicator of how the CDC is wasting its money. The comic [[https://www.cdc.gov/phpr/zombies/ actually exists]] and is allegorical for preparing for a disaster such as a tropical storm.
** At the end of the series, [[spoiler: Red]] survives with only half of a brain, the bugs having eaten the other half. It is completely possible for a human being to survive with only one hemisphere of their brain, and in fact, it's a necessary surgery at times to treat extreme forms of epilepsy. However, the procedure, called a hemispherectomy, is almost exclusively performed in children, because their brains are more easily able to adapt as they're still growing, taking up functions from the missing half.

* WhamShot: The end of Episode 5. [[spoiler: The bugs, having been hiding in the bouquet of cherry blossoms Anthony gave Laurel, crawl out of it, onto her bed, and into her ear. The last shot of the episode is Laurel waking up suddenly...]]

Has absolutely '''NOTHING''' to do with the Creator/PeterJackson [[Film/{{Braindead}} movie]] of [[NamesTheSame the same name.]] Sadly, it was canceled after one season.

Has absolutely '''NOTHING''' to do with the Creator/PeterJackson [[Film/{{Braindead}} movie]] of [[NamesTheSame the same name.]]

** [[spoiler: [[SequelHook Luke resigns from the Senate and is hired at a Wall Street firm with "slightly fewer principals and higher pay." He invites Laurel to help him in New York right before a stock market crash, which is implied by the final shot to be caused by another infestation.]]]]

* UndercoverCopReveal: Only in the finale is it revealed that Gustav is a Senior Intelligence Officer at the NSA.

* BrandX: Laurel's anti-war video is posted to a website called "Viewers At Home," which is clearly a YouTube page with a different logo.

** Misty Alise is clearly meant to be the equivalent of [[Main/BlondeRepublicanSexKitten Megyn Kelly]].

But things get bizarre when a meteor is discovered in UsefulNotes/{{Russia}} and is sent to the United States, because this meteor actually houses a large colony of ant-like aliens who seem to have a penchant for both relieving important people like Senator Red Wheatus (Tony Shalhoub) of their brains and taking control and setting the brains of others to explode, lest they get too suspicious of the Space Bugs' plot.

* BlackDudeDiesFirst: Gustav mentions this to Rochelle when [[spoiler: Laurel gets infected by the bugs.]]

* AsHimself: Creator/JonathanCoulton and Creator/MichaelMoore have both made cameo appearances, with Moore's appearance actually being a minor plot point.

** Old-Fashioneds are apparently the drink of choice in D.C., especially with Gareth and Laurel

** At the end of the series, [[spoiler: Red]] survives with only half of a brain, the bugs having eaten the other half. It is completely possible for a human being to survive with only one hemisphere of their brain, and in fact, it's a necessary surgery at times to treat extreme forms of epilepsy. However, the procedure, called a hemispherectomy, is almost exclusively performed in children.

** Old-Fashioneds are apparently the drink of choice in D.C., especially with Gareth and Laurel

* INeverSaidItWasPoison: [[spoiler:Luke is able to confirm the CIA director is a bug host in this way. Laurel finds out that the bugs are conspiring to build hothouses for cherry blossoms, which they use to reproduce. Luke goes to the CIA director, asks about the hothouses, and the director says that they're looking into it. Then Luke asks the director if he's aware that the bugs are infiltrating water supplies, and the director says yes, when that's a complete lie.]]

** [[spoiler: Eating Ella's brain after shooting her is also what restores Red to fighting trim after spending much of "Talking Points" deathly ill.]]

** [[spoiler: Laurel moves out of D.C. for good, and she and Gareth [TheyDo buy a place to live together.]]

* INeverSaidItWasPoison: [[spoiler:Luke is able to confirm the CIA director is a bug host in this way. Laurel finds out that the bugs are conspiring to build hothouses for cherry blossoms, which they use to reproduce. Luke goes to the CIA director, asks about the hothouses, and the director says that they're looking into it. Then Luke asks the director if he's aware that the bugs are infiltrating water supplies, and the director says yes, when that's a complete lie.

* VillainBSOD: [[spoiler:After the bug queen is wounded during Laurel's first attempt to kill it, Red Wheatus finds himself going through one, spending long periods of time in pain on his office couch, and unable to think straight when in committee hearings.]]

* LockedOutOfTheLoop: Luke spends most of the first season blissfully unaware that his sister is fighting an AlienInvasion.

* JanitorImpersonationInfiltration: To get into Red's top secret war room S.R.B. 54, Gareth has an IT friend knock out the WiFi for that room, then is able to go into the room on the pretense of resetting the system.

* AlienInvasion

* BlackComedy

** Red plants bugs in the head of one of his interns, then gets his head to explode during a workout session (with Red and a Senator friend in the splash zone) in order to force a hearing on bioterrorism and cover up the bugs' plot.

* JanitorImpersonationInfiltration: To get into Red's top secret war room S.R.B. 54, Gareth has an IT friend knock out the wifi for that room, then is able to go into the room on the pretense of resetting the system.

* NighInvulnerability: The space bugs are so far shown to be immune towards bug sprays and while squishing them may render them immobilized, they seem to have a surprisingly good knowledge of bug CPR...

** 1x11 "Six Points on the New Congressional Budget" has a subplot in which Luke is vetted to become the new director of the CIA. At the end of the episode, [[spoiler: he receives a briefing that indicates the CIA is aware of the space bug invasion, and is told to tell Laurel and her friends to stand down. He leaves the briefing...and the CIA director and Red watch him from a balcony, indicating that it was another plot by the bugs.]]
* YourCheatingHeart: Luke is engaged in a long-term affair with Scarlett-while his wife is ''pregnant.''