This week I was mulling over which movie I wanted to review. JASON BOURNE was the first pick, but almost everything I’ve heard about it was pretty bad. Then I thought about BAD MOMS or NERVE... then I realized I have to do laundry and I think that’s more important. So what’s something I can review from home that’s fairly new? Oh yeah, DAY 5 is approaching its season finale this Sunday, why not that?
I may be a bit biased as I’ve been a fan of Rooster Teeth for well over a decade. Almost right after moving to Hawaii a friend showed me an episode of Red Vs Blue and I became immediately hooked. I’ve seen the company grow from just a few guys making a little Halo series to a full blown multi-million dollar company with their own expo. It’s been a wild ride. So, of course I’m always excited about everything they do and most of their content is at least really good. So when I saw they were doing a post-apocalyptic web series, I was on board.
DAY 5 was conceived mostly as a way to make an apocalypse film on a low budget. The premise is that one day, sleep became fatal. If you fall asleep, you die. If you’ve ever tried staying away for more than a day, you know not only how hard it is but what it does to you. So to make sleep fatal is pretty scary.
As the title suggests, the show takes place 5 days after this event occurred. So all the characters in the show have been awake for a while. Each person has their own reason why. The lead character, Jake was on a drug bender, Sam, the first person Jake meets, is a young kid who we never really get a reason why. Ally was working a graveyard shift at a hospital, and Ellis was a pilot for a red eye flight. They all come together by chance, but Ellis thinks he may know how they can find the origin of what caused the event.
Each episode is a lot bigger than Rooster Teeth has done before. Typically going with 5-15 minute episode web series, DAY 5 clocks each episode at around 45 minutes. It’s quite a task, and it does show that they are fairly new to this format. Not all the seams are ironed out and there are some pacing issues with each episode. But the guys at Rooster Teeth are competent filmmakers. They know how to get some really nice shots, set up scenes, and write really good, dynamic characters.
Comedy has always been RT’s strongest attribute. The majority of RT’s content is comedy and DAY 5 is a full on drama. There is a lot of comedy in the show to keep it grounded and the characters relatable, but it’s focused more on making you care about what’s happening rather than making you laugh. And, for the most part, I do. I want to see what’s causing the phenomena. I want to see these characters make it through this. I’m worried when things get difficult.
While DAY 5 does some pretty cool things with its concept I don’t think it did enough with it. If you’ve ever stayed away for an entire day or even tried to go for 2 you know how crazy you feel. The physical exhaustion is one thing, but you start to get delirious. Visual and audible hallucinating is very common for people with sleep deprivation. Knowing that even if you lay down you may close your eyes and die might drive you to do crazy things. And there’s episodes that touch on these things, but it feels more like an episode gimmick than an ongoing thing. And for people who’ve been awake for 5 days they’re pretty well focused for the most part. I just wish it did a bit more with the side effects rather than just flash them for an episode then leave it at that.
DAY 5 is a short series. 5 episodes (plus one side story short) are out right now and the 6th and final episode releases Sunday. The show’s far from perfect. But it’s fresh take on the apocalypse and does some pretty fun things for a low budget show. It’s also short enough to where it doesn’t outstay its welcome or the idea well dries up.
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