Division Street: America is a wartime thriller that takes place in an alternate 1971 where President Dick Nixon has been battling a zombie rising for over two years and now resides in the Western White House.
Main characters are Ben, an African-American National Guardsman, and Barbara, a Mary Tyler Moore type, alongside their respective families, all living in the Denver Safe Zone. Ben and his family are refugees from Pittsburgh, living initially in a tent city, and in suburban housing by the end of the first season. Barbara, the daughter of a ranching family in Greeley, CO, is drafted into Civil Defense.
Five projected seasons: The first focuses on clearing and holding Denver and the surrounding suburbs, reflecting Spielbergian fears from Poltergeist, Close Encounters, as well as Norman Lear comedies from the era. Like The Wire, The series expands organically to get a broader view of the response to the zombie threat, to include government/military response from the local, state, and federal level.
The fifth season focuses on Ben and Barbara’s participation in the campaign to retake America. In Army Group North, Ben ultimately becomes a company commander in the liberation of New York City. Barbara joins the Reconstruction and Reconciliation Corps, following her niece, a Marine NCO, in Army Group South, putting traitors, war profiteers, and others on trial, and reuniting communities with the federal government.
What makes Division Street: America compelling is its rich, complex characters whose arcs explore race, sex, and society in the face of the apocalypse. Pairs well with Man in the High Castle.
My reaction to this is "why does it have to be zombies?" Apart from being in dialogue with other zombie shows, which I realize is the point.
Posted by: Matt McIrvin | May 11, 2016 at 08:21 PM
But how would it work without the zombies?
It seems very similar to the book version of "World War Z," rather than the mediocre Brad Pitt adaptation. And as the book is now dated, zombie historical fiction seems like the thematic next step, which has already been highlighted in things like "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies."
Posted by: McDevite | May 12, 2016 at 08:36 PM