Our ongoing series covering web-based productions in the Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror genres. If you have a recommendation for a web original that we should look at, contact us at mail@axiomsedge-scifi.com.
By John J. Joex
Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
The Black Dawn is a 24-part post-apocalyptic web series created by William Hellmuth and Abraham Sherman that focuses on a group of college students who survive after a virus has been unleashed and decimates most of the population of Los Angeles and apparently much of the world as well. Originally, thirteen students from the same college take refuge together after a watching a strange black cloud cover the city and unleash a virus that kills off all of the other students as well as most of the city. They find one more survivor, also a student, and they also see a news broadcast stating that these black clouds have appeared over most of the world’s major cities with tragic consequences (and the news announcer herself dies mid-broadcast). The students come together at first but then split into two camps, one lead by the maniacal Lee who believes they survived for a reason and the other lead by the more level-headed Adam who just wants answers. They eventually find that they are not the only survivors in the city, but the others who remain have more sinister designs.
I’m a sucker for post-apocalyptic stories, especially well-done examples of this sub-genre, and Black Dawn definitely falls into that camp. It delivers a riveting, tension-filled tale wrought with paranoia and anxiety and keeps the viewer coming back for more and looking for the same answers that the characters in the story seek. And it does a good job of delivering those answers without leaving too many dangling threads. In a sense, it is a scaled down mystery/sci fi series along the lines of Jericho or FlashFoward where a cataclysmic event occurs and the survivors try to piece together the facts and determine what exactly happened. However, since this series runs only 24 episodes of approximately 5 minutes each, it does not meander or pad its tale. Definitely an advantage that the web series format has over traditional network programming which insists on a twenty-plus episode season.
Of course Black Dawn must face many of the same hurdles that most web productions must contend with such as low production values and adequate at best acting. But it does rise to the challenge as it never really drops below the production quality of one of the lower budget cable shows and several of the actors deliver decent, if not exceptional, performances. It does have a few loose ends and leaps of logic that may bother you, though. Like why the heck didn’t these guys immediately start surfing the internet to find information on survivors in other parts of the world (this same thing drove me crazy in Jericho)? It’s not like they didn’t have internet connection or power (and how did the power keep working for the full time covered in the series?). And how was it that Lee got to be such a bad-ass that he could go in and take on all those Black Dawn guys? None of this acted as a deal breaker for me, though some viewers might take issue with these and a few other minor lapses.
And I assume the device of the back cloud over the city was a contrivance to give the producers an excuse to film at night, even though it’s supposed to be the middle of the day, when the areas they filmed in would be vacated. But this doesn’t feel contrived and actually lends to the atmosphere of the series. And this is a brilliant example of the creative team relying on ingenuity and making the most of their limited resources, something that we saw a lot more of back in the days of limited sfx technology. Nowadays, we tend to get great visuals with CGI effects which simply mask the vapid stories and lack of creativity television too often offers. Give me a good story like The Black Dawn over cool special effects any day.
The series delivers a mostly complete tale over 24 episodes, though it does not answer all of the questions raised and it leaves itself open to continue with a sequel series. And I hope they will deliver that, because there’s still plenty of story to tell here. According to the Wikipedia entry on the series, it has been edited into nine half hour episodes and syndicated as a television series in some parts of the world. They also plan to compile the full web series together as a single movie. And they did video-blog entries for several of the characters which take place before the disaster and fill in some additional details. I have not watched these yet, but from what I understand they do answer some questions like how Lee got to be such a bad-ass. You can watch all of this at the show’s website on WebSerials.com (you can also watch the full series on YouTube). And as an option, you can download the full 24 episode series for a very reasonable price of $4.99. There is also a comic book tie-in to the series which you can read online at this link or purchase the print edition at this link. In any case, if you just want to watch the 24 episode series, you will find it a satisfying experience and I would much rather spend my time watching this than some of the insipid television genre entries of late like V and No Ordinary Family.
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