- Avoid Zombies. Stay Alive.
Produced by BBC Three in early 2015, I Survived A Zombie Apocalypse is a seven-part reality-TV show presented by BBC Radio 1 DJ Greg James and is set six months after a mysterious 'zombie virus' created by a new 5G network that mutates the people of Britain into flesh-eating monsters. The main focus of the show are the survivors that have sealed themselves in the abandoned Monroe Shopping Village, where they must survive an entire week until the military picks the survivors up to a 'tropical quarantine zone'. However, things aren't that easy as things begin to malfunction, supplies run low and also the ever-present threat of being devoured by the zombie horde surrounding them, where the slightest touch means death.
Taking elements from Big Brother, The Crystal Maze, Dead Set and surprisingly enough The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy (in the form of cheerily morbid zombie-orientated public information broadcasts), ISAZA is a tongue-in-cheek reality show that exchanges phone-in evictions with the threat of being eaten alive.
I Survived A Zombie Apocalypse contains examples of:
- Action Survivor: All of the contestants in the context of the show. They have lasted six months in the zombie apocalypse and have no weapons to defend themselves with.
- After the End: In the show's universe, it has been six months since the zombie outbreak ravaged Britain.
- Air-Vent Passageway: Two of the contestants, Thom and Amena, have to crawl through air vents to get to the power generators and reboot them.
- Anyone Can Die: Survivors 'leave' the show when they are caught by zombies and eaten alive. All of them could survive the week or none of them can.
- Artistic License – Biology: The infection that turns people into zombies is mentioned throughout the show as a virus but when someone is infected, they need antibiotics to stop the virus before it mutates them. However, antibiotics can not kill viral infections.
- Character as Himself: Greg James, whose now a jittery, half-insane narrator and Greek Chorus of the show.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Greg does an array of odd things to kill time, like a tuning a broken piano or mopping the floor with more blood.
- Death by Irony: Jordan's introduction mentions him as liking to run, and he dies by running right into a zombie's reach.
- Dwindling Party: By the end of the third day, the original ten survivors have been reduced to seven. Though three late arrivals bring their numbers back up to ten, this doesn't last long. Tasha, one of the newcomers, turns into a zombie (fortunately while outside the base) and Jonas and Sara both fall to zombies later the same day. By the time the army arrives to evacuate the survivors, only four of them are left.
- Eaten Alive: Well, the zombies are hardly going to tickle anyone to death, are they?
- Eye Scream:
- The virus' effect on the zombies' eyes eventually causes the infection in them to get worse and eventually explode in their sockets, rendering them blind.
- The Abomination tears Jordan's eye out while attacking him.
- Face–Monster Turn: Tasha arrives midway through the series, having already been infected by the virus. She succumbs to it soon after.
- Facial Horror: The Abomination tears off a large portion of Jackie's face.
- Gorn:
- All over the place. The survivors have to roll around in blood and gristle, fish through corpse guts and the zombies themselves are hardly that pretty either.
- The death scenes can be quite brutal. Special mention goes to Luke and Kavon's respective deaths - as both their stomachs are torn open by a zombie's teeth.
- Handicapped Badass: Jonas is a single amputee athlete and fitness instructor who also competed to be in the London Paralympics, while Nic is a deaf mixed martial artist.
- Karmic Death: The main instigator of Jordan's death, Jackie is later left at the mercy of the Abomination.
- New Media Are Evil: The zombie virus originated when a "new Wi-Fi grid" called 5G caused odd side effects in certain parts of the population, which then mutated into the brain and transformed the original infected into zombies.
- Our Zombies Are Different: The zombies were originally mutated (and still can be) humans due to a mutation caused by close proximity to 5G, then spread due to regular zombie infection. Their motor skills vary due to the virus' effect on the zombie's brain.
- Ping Pong Naïveté: Amena Trains as a runner yet doesn't know what 'agility' means.
- Pretend We're Dead: Aston has to cover himself in zombie guts to smell like a zombie and pretend to be one as he carefully passes through an entire horde of them to get back to camp, with the horde barely even noticing him.
- Public Service Announcement: Directed towards the audience itself, the show is peppered with short, Douglas Adams-esque survival tips provided by PANTZ (Prevention Agency for Neurological Transformations and Zombification).
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: As the mutation initially develops within the eyes, many of the zombies are shown with deep blood-red irises
- Sanity Slippage: The zombie apocalypse seems to have had some... 'adverse' effects on Greg James' psyche.
- Shout-Out: Several zombie-related references can be found throughout the show.
- The chemist in the shopping village is named Mikami's.
- Aston covering himself in zombie guts and walking undetected through the zombies is a clear reference to The Walking Dead.
- The zombie virus originating from smartphones is similar to Stephen King's novel, Cell.
- Survivors trapped in a shopping complex with Monroe in its name.
- Non-zombie example: Jonas had to reach the water valve, unable to see anything and his movements guided by someone else... sound familiar?
- Non-zombie example: The Abomination is defeated by being led into a freezer and freezes in a pose similar to how Jack dies in The Shining.
- The Virus: 5G
- Uriah Gambit: Some of the other survivors, led by Jackie, send Jordan into the air vents to get killed by the Abomination.
- Zombie Apocalypse: Well... yeah...
