Video – Top 10 Post Apocalyptic TV Series

An interesting lineup.

I’ve only seen a few of these, but I have a soft spot in my heart for Jericho…not the least of which was because of Lennie James portrayal of the one person who takes it all in stride (although, to be fair, he had inside information.)

I wish Jericho could have been on one of the non-networks like Walking Dead was. The ability to have a bit more violence, gore, and harsh language would have been a more accurate foretelling of what the apocalypse would be like.

I’m not sure what I would look for in a show these days. My interest is less the typical ‘survivors vs bad guys’ shootouts that seem to be a staple of things. I’m far more interested in stories involving the coping with failed infrastructure, supply shortages, medical emergencies, and that sort of thing.

Hmmm… a multi-part documentary on Haiti would probably be the same thing.

18 thoughts on “Video – Top 10 Post Apocalyptic TV Series

  1. CNN, MSNBC, The View, Hannity, C-SPAN, ABC, NBC, CBS, and others are the pre-APOCALYPTIC shows…right?

  2. The apocalypse we are currently seeing in America is pretty interesting and very entertaining. Too bad more folks aren’t aware of it.

  3. I’m going to check out several of these I was unaware of. Thanks for posting. I always thought the movie The Way Back should have been stretched into a series. It’s about a group that escaped a Russian gulag in Siberia and their long journey around Lake Baikal, then through Mongolia, eventually across the Himalayas and into India to freedom. It’s the best survival movie that most people have never heard of.

  4. Commander:
    It is going back a bit, but the British show “Survivors”, set after a terrible plague, is well worth a look.
    It is similar to the John Christopher/Wyndham-esque “Cosy Catastrophe” mindset, but still thought-provoking.

    Ceejay

    • There is the original Terry Nations version from the 1970s and the remake from the early 2000s. I liked both!

  5. I enjoyed Jericho as well, most especially Season 1. Small townships suddenly cut-off from any government help. Local government needed to keep order and take care of priorities.

  6. Yes. Some of the television styled series can be useful with expanded character and plot developments that allow viewers to gain post apocalypse insights and Intel. They are however confined to rating systems and modern corporatist marketing and group think limitations. I can generally gain more from old last century movies that aren’t larded up with gun fag visuals and romance plots to appease the women’s feelz audiences. Homework assignment for readers would be: Panic in year zero. Last man on earth, and Omega man. Make popcorn with excessive butter and enjoy.
    Stay frosty.

    • I always liked “Panic in the Year Zero” because it was at a Time when the Suburban Neighborhood I lived in had more than a few Basement Fallout Shelters, and a fair number of what would now be called “preppers’. (Dog, I HATE that term..) I still have the set of Victoreen Radiac Meters that my Father (in the Air Force at the Time) managed to obtain.

  7. “…a multi-part documentary on Haiti would probably be the same thing.”

    This!

    Except…no First World riding to your aid. And people coming to take what stuff you DO have.

  8. If I may add an European perspective, aside the already mentioned British “Survivors”, one series worth noting is the Danish “The Rain”.
    Thanks from Italy,
    Davide

    • I thought the “Rain” was pretty good. Hoping for a 4th season.

  9. I gave up on Jericho when someone used the barrel of a scoped hunting rifle to lift a manhole cover, then used it as a sniper rifle.

    I do Sci-fi, not fantasy

  10. Non-fiction is more telling and perhaps gives more insight into real solutions to logistical problems. Watching YT vids of the Ukraine war with people running out of medical supplies, food, water, fuel and ammo is not only educational, it’s entertaining, especially the part when homemade drones drop IED’s on the bad guys.

  11. No Z Nation? No Last Man on Earth? There will be comedy in the post-apocalyptic world. Z Nation was filmed here in Spokane. I was truly bummed out when production was shut down without a conclusion. Same thing happened to Last Man on Earth. Doubly tragic due to not seeing January Jones on a weekly schedule.

    • I was equally bummed when Netflix dumped Z Nation last year. So many shows start off good then fall apart (see Falling Skies and Jerhico) but Z Nation came into its own in Season 2 and never looked back. Such fun and IMHO better than Walking Dead.

  12. I thought Jericho was really good. Families took care of one another. Neighbors protected their own. I could see firefights over supplies between neighbouring towns like that too.

    The Jake Green character reminds me of a young Big Country.

  13. Jericho died early, due to the effects of the writer’s strike that hit at the end of the first season. Lasted a long time, so the second season was short and late, and rushed. Good show, understated, instead of being the typically overblown garbage that was common on tv by then. The scene of the kids using cell phones to bat around in place of a baseball was a nice touch.

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