In the upcoming weeks minions, I will be exploring the end of world via movies, articles, books, and documentaries featuring; Zombies, alien invasion, vampires, demons, prophecies, weird happenings, etc. and why we find these topics not only interesting, but for some obsessive and life altering.
The first post darklings is the review of the Discovery + Tvl channel's Nostradamus: End of Days which gets a two zombie claw rating. Read till the end to find out why.
The series claims to decode new prophecies and causes of the world's demise via some of Nostradamus's quatrains (prophecies). It combines these quatrains with a supposed "mysterious, lost book" bearing his name, but that his son painted. The reason I'm saying supposed is because there is no "real" proof one way or another so you can decide to believe it or not.
This episode series, in my opinion doesn't build upon each of the other episodes, which to me is good because if there is a specific type of world ending event you aren't interested in you can just skip it. I ended up watching the first two - just to be sure this was the case, and then I skipped to the seventh episode, and yes, you definitely CAN watch them as self contained episodes. Personally, I wish I could have been sure about this format after only watching the first episode so I wouldn't have had to waste time with the second episode. After all, the only reason I was watching this series was because it promised zombies! (I'll get to the zombies in a bit)
Speaking of format, lets talk about it.. Each episode begins with a dire warning and a clock that is counting down the days, hours, min, and seconds till the END OF THE WORLD ! (cue doomsday music) The episodes then switch between the narrator and the "experts" spewing info bites, dire warnings, and speculation about whatever scenario the world is going to end in within the particular episode. Dispersed throughout are the Quatraines - AKA Nostradamus's predictions, as well as the "long lost book of Nostradamus". Which is just basically full of paintings by his son.
Of course one can't have a Discovery/Travel channel end of the world series without their fear mongering videos of mass destruction, people screaming and running, and of course the deep voiced super serious narration.
Now that we have that covered malcontents let me get back to the zombies. After all that is WHY I decided to watch the show. So where the frack were said promised zombies? Certainly not in episode one or two. I was forced to have to guess based on titles and settled on episode number seven. "The Smiting Of Humanity". It seemed like a good guess so I went with it.
I was getting excited, and so looking forward to a major prophecy on the dead returning to life, eating the flesh and brains of the living. OR... Humans turning into crazed, wild, insane beasts due to a bio weapon thrust upon the world by the third anti-christ. I know what you're thinking minions "third anti-christ"? Apparently, according to Nostradamus there would be three, and apparently according to "experts" we have already had two. This is ironic considering Nostradamus was catholic , and the last time I checked, the book of Revelation only contains ONE antichrist. No wonder he was afraid of being arrested and burned at the stake for hearsay. Anyway, I digress, back to the topic at hand.
In episode seven instead of getting the usual seven day countdown we get 30, and the zombies? Well, the episode starts off with an anthrax attack that spreads all over the USA, then moves on to Africa where the worst Ebola outbreak EVER has erupted. This has caused "Zombie Like" Ebola victims walking around, dazed, confused, lashing out, attacking and infecting others. YES, seriously, this is the crap being spewed at me on my 65 inch tele. Ready for this, they "could" be zombies due to the fact that sometimes when an Ebola victim dies, they come back to life because ? Well, maybe because they weren't really dead and your doctors suck. Makes sense to me.
SERIOUSLY THOUGH! Ebola zombies? Come on. What a bait and switch. If I wanted that I would be watching Youtube .
My conclusion miscreants is this : If you are looking for yet another end of the world series ala Discovery /Travel Channel give it watch. The Nostradamus prophecies give it a nice twist as does the countdown clock. The "in your face" videos of destruction were well put together. The experts were interesting, and overall I'd say it's a well done series from what I watched. IF however you're looking for something new, or clever, or zombies. You will be disappointed. You will have to decide for yourselves if the prophecies and paintings from the "lost book" hold any merit, or if the show is just really reaching for something that just isn't there. The lack of actual promised zombies, and the tired same old same old end of the world scenarios, and this trying to "fit" these paintings into the prophecies is why I only gave it 2 zombie claws. I'll leave it up to you as always minions to decide for yourselves.
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