WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the first episode of All of Us Are Dead, streaming now on Netflix.
All of Us Are Dead, Netflix‘s newest Korean zombie series, has quickly hit #1 in the U.S. on the streaming platform within the first week of its release. Based on a webtoon from 2009, the series follows up on the incredible recent success of Squid Game. With another international series rising the ranks to #1 in the United States, Netflix has been nailing it in recent months when it comes to bringing Korean television to an international stage.
All of Us Are Dead chooses to have its focal point set on a group of high school students from Hyosan High School that struggle to survive in a zombie apocalypse. As the zombie drama genre is already overcrowded with the likes of iZombie, Z Nation, and The Walking Dead, All of Us Are Dead has managed to rise above and differentiate itself in several unique ways; one of which is immediately seen in the pilot episode of the series. Within its first scene, the first zombified human, Lee Jin-su, is immediately shown after being caught in a fight between a group of fellow high school students on a rooftop. The fight ends in Lee Jin-su throwing himself off the roof after attempting to lunge for one of his enemies in a zombie-like state, solidifying his demise. Even more interesting is that the first character shown to be infected is also a student of the high school that the main characters attend. By localizing the first zombie infection to Hyosan High, the show gets to explore the literal location where everything started, and capture the shock that the characters experience as they realize their world’s impending doom.
Lee Jin-su is subsequently taken to the hospital for his critical injuries, but it’s shown to be too late. His father, Lee Byeong-chan (who is later revealed to be a science teacher at Hyosan High), makes the difficult decision to beat his son to further death in order to prevent a potential outbreak. Within these first minutes, the first zombie of the show is established, as well as the mystery behind Lee Byeong-chan seemingly knowing about the zombie virus. Could Lee Byeong-chan be responsible for causing the zombie mutation to occur in the first place in his son? It would seem that the possibility of this turning into a full-spread pandemic has been thwarted, but this doesn’t last.
The character that could be considered responsible for starting the zombie apocalypse is Hyeon-Ju, a high school student that got too curious while exploring a science laboratory that is later revealed to belong to Lee Byeong-chan. As she rummages through the lab, she spots a covered rat in a cage, and she is accidentally bitten. The rat is, of course, infected with the virus that mutates humans into bloodthirsty zombies, and this virus is transferred to a human host via biting. Lee Byeong-chan is able to intercept the curious student before she leaves with her new bite injury, and he makes the decision to quarantine Hyeon-Ju, confining her to a room with restraints. Of course, things turn sour when she breaks free of her restraints with her mutated zombie power, wandering into a nearby classroom. This causes her classmates and staff to immediately seek medical care for the student, which will likely prove to be disastrous as Lee Byeong-chan points out to his supervisors.
The establishment of patient zero being found in Hyosan High School makes everything seem much more real quickly for the main cast of the series. In comparison to Fear The Walking Dead, which also explores the beginning phases of the zombie apocalypse, All of Us Are Dead highlights the zombie apocalypse happening right within one specific location before it even reaches a global scale. It also reveals the critical information of how the zombie apocalypse started in its universe, which is something that the popular AMC series The Walking Dead and its two companion series have intentionally kept shrouded in mystery.
By revealing the first infected human of the zombie virus, the show also redirects its focus and questions on the main cast of the series. It erases the speculation portion of how the apocalypse began and instead chooses to focus on how its group of protagonists survives in a new world overrun by the undead.
Watch the entire series of All of Us Are Dead, streaming now on Netflix.
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