In the lull of the writer's strike, screenwriter John August wrote and directed this pilot for a web series that may or may not ever come to be. Hopefully we'll get more episodes in the future, but The Remnants' one episode run is good enough to watch as a stand-alone.
August sets this comedy in a science fiction, post-apocalyptic world after a mysterious nano-virus has killed off most of the population. But instead of focusing on the external, zombie-like opponents (whom we don't even meet in the pilot), August draws his opposition from a strong web of main characters whose day-to-day problems have only slightly changed after the apocalypse.
In lieu of making this a campy horror series with cheap special effects, August allows the last few humans left on earth to really act like humans. A debate rages over who had to open the worst fridge full of expired food. The group plays a practical joke on one character by telling him they need to use bags, not toilets. When a new survivor is found, two men argue over who gets to hit on her.
In fact, the main characters don't have a clue about what actually happened to the world and joke about the absence of the expositional scientist present in most post-apocalyptic stories. Turns out, in their world, he died too.
When a genre or sub-genre has been done to death, what is a writer to do? Deliver an unexpected genre-twist, proposing that perhaps the end of the world isn't really the end of the world -- if you keep on living.
August sets this comedy in a science fiction, post-apocalyptic world after a mysterious nano-virus has killed off most of the population. But instead of focusing on the external, zombie-like opponents (whom we don't even meet in the pilot), August draws his opposition from a strong web of main characters whose day-to-day problems have only slightly changed after the apocalypse.
In lieu of making this a campy horror series with cheap special effects, August allows the last few humans left on earth to really act like humans. A debate rages over who had to open the worst fridge full of expired food. The group plays a practical joke on one character by telling him they need to use bags, not toilets. When a new survivor is found, two men argue over who gets to hit on her.
In fact, the main characters don't have a clue about what actually happened to the world and joke about the absence of the expositional scientist present in most post-apocalyptic stories. Turns out, in their world, he died too.
When a genre or sub-genre has been done to death, what is a writer to do? Deliver an unexpected genre-twist, proposing that perhaps the end of the world isn't really the end of the world -- if you keep on living.