It probably goes without saying that Netflix's "Stranger Things" was the show of the summer. However, while everyone has spent the last few months obsessing over Barb and enjoying the rebirth of Winona Ryder's career, “BrainDead,” one of this year's other great sci-fi/horror shows were airing in relative obscurity over on CBS. While a large part of what makes "Stranger Things" enjoyable is the way it expertly exploits our current mania for nostalgia porn, "BrainDead" is a sharp satire that couldn't feel more current.
That said, the concept is weird and may have turned some people away. After failing to complete her latest project, aspiring documentarian Laurel Healy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) agrees to work as an aide to her Democratic Senator brother, Luke (Danny Pino). When people's heads start exploding, she realizes something odd(er than usual) is going on in the Capitol and with the help of Rochelle (Nikki M. James), a medical technician, and Gustav (Johnny Ray Gill), a paranoid conspiracy theorist, she soon discovers that bugs from outer space are eating politicians' brains. Add on Laurel's possible romance with Gareth (Aaron Tveit), the aide to a rival Republican senator, Red (Tony Shaloub), and it can be hard to keep track of it all.
Truth be told, even creators Michelle and Robert King–who just wrapped up the 7th and final season of "The Good Wife"–seem to have trouble juggling the various storylines during the first few episodes. Luckily, they have Winstead. Many will likely know her from pseudo-sequel "10 Cloverfield Lane" from earlier this year, but it's equally likely they'll only find her vaguely familiar. Winstead has been toiling away in mostly genre fare for the last decade and perhaps all that experience with horror and weirdness is what allows her to sell even the show’s silliest moments (like the fact that the bugs are obsessed with The Cars' "You Might Think"). Whatever the reason, her portrayal of Laurel as a smart, sexy and capable woman grounds the entire show.
Granted, just because Winstead is doing a lot of the heavy lifting doesn't mean she's the only one doing good work. While Pino is equally skilled at conveying Luke's flaws as his inherent goodness and his scenes with Winstead are top notch, she and the show are often at their best when she's paired with Tveit. Watching their adversarial relationship slowly shift into something more sexual and then even romantic is one of the series' great thrills. Their first kiss, which starts as a joke and quickly sparks real heat, is a study in chemistry. It’s not all longing stares and banter, though, they also happen to provide some of the series' funniest moments. In one episode, Gareth discovers that Laurel may have slept with filmmaker Michael Moore (who actually cameos) and he can't stop imagining them together in blue-tinted flashes à la "Eyes Wide Shut."
Still, Tony Shaloub is the show's comedy MVP and it's his performance that really brings the show’s message home.
Red is as southern and conservative as his name suggests and part of the brilliance of Shaloub's work is that it's often hard to tell what Red does because of the alien bugs in his head and what he does simply because he actually believes what he's saying. Take the time he tells Gareth, "There aren't a hundred different ways to get what we want, there's only one way: our way." Maybe he's talking about the Republican agenda and maybe he's talking about the bug agenda. You just can't know. And in any other year, that kind of talk would seem just a little too crazy to be real, but this is no ordinary election year. As the bugs make each side more partisan and expose the ugliest parts of both, it's hard not to notice how familiar it all seems. Hell, compared to what we’re actually getting, brain-eating bugs even feel a little quaint.
Still, sharp as the show is, not everything works.
Gustav is clearly meant to be comic relief, but he can occasionally be so goofy and affected that he almost becomes obnoxious. Usually, this wouldn't be such a problem, but there is an 11th-hour reveal about the character that makes many of his actions throughout the season seem ridiculous at best and completely unbelievable at worst. The Kings are clearly trying to surprise us, but there is almost nothing in the preceding episodes to justify the twist and the moment feels unearned. Frankly, the season finale is not necessarily the show's best episode. Each episode begins with a silly song to recap and the finale ends with yet another song, this one meant to wrap up everything that’s happened and give us a peek at the future. While it's understandable that the Kings wanted to give us a satisfying ending in case the show was cancelled, the song feels pedantic and clumsy in its delivery in a way the rest of the show simply doesn't. Even so, it is nice to get some level of closure.
Though "BrainDead" hasn't officially been cancelled yet, there's no way a ratings juggernaut CBS will keep a show that's pulling CW-level numbers. No, "BrainDead" is destined to join the likes of "Firefly," shows that people discover way after the fact and wonder how in hell they ever got cancelled. There is, of course, a chance the show's specificity to this presidential election will quickly date it, but that's a long way off. Until then, you can decide for yourself—the whole season is streaming for free on Amazon Prime. This election is only going to get crazier before we all vote on November 8, but you can take comfort in knowing that no amount of scandals or inflammatory rhetoric could be as bad as an alien invasion. At least, let's hope.
