Review: 8 Days
DVD & Digital: 8 Days (2019 – )
It\’s present day and a huge asteroid is hurtling towards Earth on a collision course with Europe. American rockets have failed to stop its now inevitable impact, and the residents from inside the \’kill zone\’ of the asteroids projected impact area are all desperately trying to get as far away as possible.
8 Days is an 8 part German television series which concentrates on the plight of a series of individuals whose stories all intertwine as the narrative progresses. This could either be through family ties or just through the actions (both positive and negative) that they take to try and survive.
Each episode brings the day of reckoning ever closer, while at the same time fraying the emotions of all of the characters. Seemingly close families are torn apart by the actions they take, while at the same time, other relationships are bonded together even stronger.
Eschewing huge special effects and a story on a worldwide scale, 8 Days concentrates on the effects such a catastrophe would have on a small amount of connected people in Germany. Just what would people do to survive when they knew that they only had 8 days to try and escape to a seemingly safer place?
The inevitable breakdown of society is shown where people go and loot shops and banks (what good are possessions and money when you\’re going to be vaporised in a matter of days?), but the main focus of the narrative is showing the basic human instinct of survival and just how far people are willing to go to stay alive and to protect their family.
8 Days is a slow burner, taking its time to introduce all of the main characters and to flesh out who they are, before ramping up the tension as the asteroid gets ever closer to hitting Earth.
Brief flashes of sex and gore show the base instincts that people will revert to and are especially shocking when held up to a mirror against the other side of society who are trying not only to keep themselves alive, but others too.
If you enjoy a tense dramatic storyline where you genuinely feel empathy for all involved, then 8 Days is well worth sitting through the 480 minutes of its running time. Then have a think of what you would do in that situation.
Review by DaveΒ from a disc kindly supplied by Aim Publicity.
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