Containment

2.5 episodes of over the top bloody spit splashing & fatal sneezes wore me out. I didn't think it was necessary to keep showing these kind of scenes to tell this "lethal human virus" story. Soooo Gross. I usually love gross Zombie apocalypse, End of the world plagues, Deadly Viruses, and all of that good infectious stuff filmmaking - but NO, not in Containment...... (hold up! initially I gave this series one star) __________________________ .......BRAKES ON!! I put the brakes on right here!!! I actually wrote a long - bad review and left one star - but I deleted it. I'm back to give credit where credit is due. I removed most of what I wrote and have returned to give this series a 3.5 stars for being a pretty good show. My initial bias toward most of the overly gorgeous woody, melodramatic actors caused me to feel that this series was a waste of my time. But I'm in quarantine (due to COVID-19) instructions for my city - and I decided to go ahead and give episode 3 a shot by completing it. What did I have to lose? So many hours have been giving back to me through this pandemic I chose to keep watching. I'm glad I did because the characters started to grow on me. Things started to come together in the plot and character development. Similar to FWD & Power, this show started off bad but slowly began to come together - and a strong story began revealing itself. Don't get me wrong, it's not without its plot holes and ridiculous Hollywood race politics tossed into the character lines - but if you can forgive these senseless intrusions - an emotional and adrenalin filled ride will ensue. The lead actor, a major (cop) named Lex does a good job of playing this highly moral, love struck protector of his city. He's clearly up against the red tape of "the man" - ie, big pharma, big science, Government, and the Head of this or that - and so on. I can tell he's not American and working hard to keep his true accent from seeping through on screen. Forgiven. Katie, her son and the cop who's stuck at the hospital with the only doctor who can probably find a cure for this virus really gives us a show. There's an older couple (I don't want to spoil it for you) in this storyline who add a heart-wrenching narrative about love, commitment, and what we'll do to uphold those things during a crisis. Keep the kleenex close by. Now, aside from some of the over the top acting and strange circumstances going on in this series, if you can just pretend these things could really happen, you'll have some fun. You may even begin liking the characters, rooting for them, and yelling at the screen for them to stop making ridiculous choices. The chemistry is slow to manifest between these actors but eventually they DO get it right. Do I recommend watching this series? Yes, I do. Just don't try to compare it to our most popular deadly virus/Zombie apocalyptic series like TWD, FTWD, or Rain, The Strain, and any others you can think of. Go in with a clean slate. There is a place for this show. The actors are pretty good once you get to know them. And even though a significant portion of the script makes little sense, for example, "the loads of people rummaging, pillaging, looting, panicking, fighting, robbing stealing, and living in the streets near the main hospital during ALL 13 episodes - when they could easily be at home (like the senior couple I mentioned earlier) since this quarantine has been controlled by separating this one town from the rest of Atlanta." Honestly, that part made no sense. It's clearly done for effect. Similar to the main cast, realistically, should something like this happen, people would only come out for food. They would seek shelter to keep themselves safe by limiting exposure to this virus that kills its hosts in 48 short hours once contracted. But not in Containment! The series is very overplayed and theatrical so you'll be confronted with a lot of " huh?" moments. There's also this simple minded gang who manages to get away with robbing the police and national guard of thousands of boxes of food rations. They basically jacked the officials for everything and took control of food sent to help the public. These vagabonds basically snatched the town's limited resources with zero pushback from law enforcement or the starving community. Unrealistic! There are only about 6 or 7 gang members so this makes zero sense in real life. Still, there's enough happening to keep you locked into this series. There's non-stop action and cliff hangers all the way through so like I said, if you can make out of episode 3, you should be good to go.