The Fades (2012)
The Fades is a British supernatural drama TV series that came out in 2012.
(Please read my update at the end of this post)
The Fades is about a young teenager named Paul who is tortured by visions of the apocalypse in pretty graphic imagery. It's tough enough as he is kind of a misfit as it is ya know?
He also has a twin sister who is the bane of her existence.
Paul then meets a man named Neil who becomes his foul mouthed mentor after he finds out Paul possesses an ability that can perceive deceased spirits stuck on earth. These spirits are known as the Fades and their ascension points to cross over have mysteriously closed so they have become embittered with hatred towards humanity. Neil and his small group of followers are what they call themselves Angelics and an alarming number of them are being killed off. The Fades have something brewing beyond just killing off Angelics...
ignore the fact they kinda look like zombies
The writing of this show is fucking excellent. Mini spoilers but things aren't black and white and that's what makes this show top tier. The story gets complex but NOT too complex because even a dummy with short term attention like myself found this show so compelling to never just watch one episode upon each watch session. All the characters, from the goofball bestie to the angsty teenage twin sister have layers to their character development. It never ceases to blow my mind how great the character's dynamic with each other that doesn't seem too rushed. That's why I am glad this is a show and NOT a movie because everything from the plot to the background story flows so effortlessly smooth. There's no 1-2 parts plot. There's like notches in the subplot but it all comes together and makes sense in the end.
There's also a rather hunky antagonist too ðŸ¤
Fucking brilliant casting I must say. We have some huge names in here who were not as well known at the time of this show's airing but absolutely have landed iconic roles since this show.
Tom Ellis from Lucifer? ✅
Daniel Kaluuya from Black Mirror and Get Out? ✅
Natalie Dormer from Games of Thrones and The Hunger Games? ✅
Joe Dempsie from (also) Games of Thrones? ✅
Sophie Wu from Kickass 1 & 2? ✅
AND WHO CAN FORGET OUR MAIN LEAD:
Iain De Caestecker from Agents of Shield? ✅✅✅
I do have a make a disclaimer though. Even though this show won a BAFTA award for Best Drama Series in 2012, THIS SHOW DID NOT GET RENEWED FOR A SECOND SEASON!! Wtf is this fuckery, right? Joe Dempsie gave us a teaser of what second season would have entailed. Unfortunately, we'll never see that come to fruition as it's been over 10 years since the show got axed. Many of the actors have moved on to bigger more notable roles and franchises since then. A real shame this show didn't get successfully shopped to other networks to give us a real conclusion to the cliffhanger of the finale.
There's only 6 episodes in this series about an hour each. Think of it like watching just under a 6 hour movie if you'd like.
Teen appropriate for the most part. There is some brief nudity and one sex scene (which was so sweet, btw) edited to add: there's more than 1 sex scene actually. But other than that, feel free to watch with the fam. Not for the littles. Because you see Natalie Dormer's boobs in more than one scene.
I mean, never say never but here's to me hoping this amazing award winning show will get revitalized one day.
Just watch this show, guys.
UPDATE!!!!
I migrated my tv show related posts to my new side blog Horrortized TV! It's not for reviews just recaps of episodes of horror related show both new and old! Bookmark, follow, whateva.
