Daybreak (2019)

“Daybreak” wears its influences while marrying them to something distinct and of the present moment. ... “Daybreak” may telegraph a few of its biggest surprises, but the path getting to those revelations includes some wild left-field swings that its cast pulls off with glee.

Daybreak glosses over the realities of such a catastrophic event with a thick coat of knowing humor, breakneck shifts from flashbacks to the present, and POV shifts. Often, that approach works pretty well. But at times, the series cops an attitude so aggressively that it becomes exhausting. ... Just when Daybreak stretches your patience, it has a way of rebounding with a clever touch or a strong performance that makes you give it more chances.

Throughout the series, Josh often breaks the fourth wall by introducing flashbacks, cuing montages, and contextualizing the apocalypse for the audience. These meta moments are less charming than lazy, rejecting subtle world-building in favor of information dumps. Much of the Daybreak’s comedy is similarly uninspired. ... Insipid comedy aside, Daybreak offers evocative reflections on the premature death of a generation’s childhood.

It is, by any measure, a pretty tepid addition to an already saturated genre.

It’s the show’s action and social commentary that falls short. The latter is represented in part by Angelica, too forcefully written by half, and in part by a burned-out-hellscape-as-social-scene metaphor that feels overdetermined. The show’s rules don’t really make sense: Most adults were vaporized, but some became zombies, and some were actually fine-ish. It was in flashbacks and in moments where Josh and Wesley were figuring out how to carry on that I saw the show “Daybreak” wants to be, one of fine and granular understanding of the roiling emotions of teen life filtered through the lens of popular art.

Every meta trick available is deployed to mask the show’s empty emotional core. What Daybreak does have is an excellent cast.

“Daybreak” is a show I wanted to like—I would accept the “Ferris” meets Romero pitch in a heartbeat—but I found myself alternately frustrated and bored way too often. It hits so many of the same beats over and over again, and often has the pretentious air of something that thinks it’s much smarter than it actually is.

I love this show 100 of 100points,,, I love this show 100 of 100points,,, I love this show 100 of 100points,,, I love this show 100 of 100points,,,

It started well but it gets lost very fast, especially because the characters are not so interesting. Its conclusion is quite anticlimatic and lacks solidity. I reached the end but my interest was definitely null. If there's a second season, I will weigh the idea of seeing it a lot.

Stylish but pointless with a hastily written conclusion that doesn't satisfy

There are small slivers of comedy but the story makes no sense. People behave in arbitrary ways and basically follow a story that's made up on the fly. It also contains an insane amount of wokeness that detracts from the story at every turn. Only Netflix would throw money away on something this ridiculous. So suprise suprise, there's also no season 2. It's just a waste of time and money.

Decent production value, and the acting is not terrible. The writing; however, is garbage. I'm in my early 20s and I understand maybe 1/20th of the references in this show. It plays very much like what it is, a tv show written by 40+ year olds trying to talk like 17 year olds. It had a ton of potential but all the slang that is forced down your throat in an effort to make the show appeal to a younger audience but in the end all it does is alienate older generations and confuse younger ones. This show would be like a 50 year old cop dressing up like a 14 year old pretending to go to college to catch kids buying weed.