5. Survivors
Four years before The Walking Dead presented a rag tag group of Survivors in a dystopia against insurmountable odds (read: Zombies), the BBC showed us a rag tag group of Survivors in a dystopia against insurmountable odds (read: an extinction level plague). Survivors focuses on the lives of people from various walks of life in the aftermath of the European Flu which has apparently killed 99% of the human population. The story focuses on the matriarch of the group, Abby Grant, and her struggle to find her son Peter. Her determination to find her child is the fuel for her need to maintain her morality and find a new way of life in the dystopia for Peter. What makes Survivors work is the dichotomy of Abbys morality and welcoming nature against the lives of other survivors and their secrets. What was truly compelling, however, was the fact that Survivors, unlike The Walking Dead, shows that the real threat to the remainder of humanity is themselves---this darker side may also be what made the show harder to watch. The idea that good people would turn into savages, murderers and lose all sense of right and wrong---regardless of the realism of such events, this idea is challenging to process for some. For the rest of us it was compelling and when combined the season 2 cliffhanger and unresolved plot threads the news of Survivors cancellation prior to a third season was quite disappointing indeed.