My Review of "All of Us Are Dead: Season One"

All of Us Are Dead: Season One is yet another Korean zombie show out on Netflix. It just recently came out and I'm actually shocked this is the first time I've ever seen a zombie series based around high school kids. You'd think this concept would have been done by now but I can't really recall one ever being done in a high school. Although there are some refreshing twists there are a lot of the same tropes you see in other zombie shows.

This show starts off innocently enough. We get introduced to all of these high school kids and learn what their dynamics are with one another. Then we notice there's some bullying going on at this school. I guess this is to be expected since it's a story based in a high school.

This bullying is going to the next level. You see this kid basically being beaten to death and then things get crazier. Eventually these bullies throw this kid off the roof of a building and somehow he survives.

His father we later find out is the school science teacher and he was doing something to his son in order to help him out with his bullies. Little did we know this solution that he was testing out on his son turns out to be some sort of zombie virus. I know, the story sounds really far fetched but you have to go with it to enjoy this show.

Pretty soon the whole school starts to get infected and everyone is running for their lives. Fortunately some of the kids were able to help one another to escape these deranged zombies. The whole season is about how they're going to escape the clutches from their zombified colleagues.

What this show does well is establish the relationships with each of the characters. All of the characters are quite different from one another so there's actually a pretty good balance when they partner up in each of the scenes.

Of course with this being a Korean drama there are a lot of overly dramatic moments where you kind of question the show for a bit. Then again there is an air of believability of these dramatic scenes because the ones involved are adolescent kids from high school.

It's an interesting take on this genre. I think as adults they would have been able to have more of a detachment from their loved ones when they become zombies. In this show we are reminded that the kids are still young and naïve. Their parents and friends are the only things that they know. When these are taken away from them they're absolutely mortified.

There's an interesting concept that they mentioned in this show. One of the characters mentioned that when a child passes away it represents a loss of hope and when an adult passes away it represents a loss of wisdom. Going with this model we see that a lot of the kids are dying. With each death these kids lose hope in their survival or even a reason for survival.

Of course we also have to deal with a ton of egos with this show. Having the little twist closer to the end of the season was a nice little touch that made it almost feel like the show became a terminator show. It's sort of the same way the zombie video game Resident Evil worked.

Overall, I enjoyed this season. It was a little over the top in melodrama but I've been told that is the case with a lot of Korean dramas. Once you get over this you have a pretty enjoyable watch. The show is quite long at one hour per episode and 12 episodes for this season. I have to give this season a 7 out of 10. It is something worthy of watching if you're into teen dramas or zombie shows.