Aug 2022
This is available for free on Pluto TV right now. It appears to have six episodes. So far I have watched the first two.
It's pretty scary! It's from 1981, and was filmed in and around London. Anyway, they did a pretty respectable job on it. I think most of us have seen the 1962 film by the same title, at some point in our lives, but just in case not: the idea is that a meteor storm affiliated with a comet has put on a light show that blinded everyone who watched it, which was over 99% of the population. That's bad enough, but then a second problem is that there are these giant venus-flytrap-like plants called Triffids, that have the ability to sort of crawl around, and which have these whip-like appendages that they can snap out at people and poison/kill them with. There is some discussion implying that they even have a sort of crude, rudimentary intelligence, too... there might be more about that in the episodes I have not seen yet. Anyway, there are millions of these Triffids, and they are crawling all over London killing all the helpless blind people. It's pretty scary!
In this miniseries, the Triffids are supposed to be a previously rare species, native to Earth (Ecuador specifically). At some point prior to the action of the miniseries, investors started cultivating Triffids in huge numbers, on "Triffid farms," because they secrete some kind of oil that the investors plan to market as a biofuel. It sounds like a perfectly reasonable, maybe even profitable idea. But, of course, when everybody gets blinded by the meteors, the Triffids start to escape, and just generally run amok, killing everybody they can.
I think there is another version of this story, either in the book, the 1962 film or maybe just some fanfiction I read once, in which the Triffids are supposed to be an alien species that came to Earth as spores, during the meteor shower. Does this sound familiar to anyone? I might be thinking of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, obviously, but I don't think I am.
Anyway, if you watch this, you will be reminded of various scenes from 28 Days Later, Night of the Comet, and maybe even the very first episode of The Walking Dead. And Invasion of the Body Snatchers, of course. It also makes me think of the 1984 BBC TV movie Threads, which I have talked about here before. Threads was directed by Barry Hines, and is about a cataclysmic nuclear war... I am just reminded of it because it is from roughly the same time period, and is also a British production.
Back to DotT.... I just find it creepy and eerie, to see all the blind people staggering around, calling out for help. That alone is scary. At the pont I'm at, the Triffids are just starting to become a problem, and they are scary, but so far they haven't completely taken over the city yet.
Anyway, as far as I can tell, it's a pretty respectable miniseries, and worth a watch. Had to share.
It's pretty scary! It's from 1981, and was filmed in and around London. Anyway, they did a pretty respectable job on it. I think most of us have seen the 1962 film by the same title, at some point in our lives, but just in case not: the idea is that a meteor storm affiliated with a comet has put on a light show that blinded everyone who watched it, which was over 99% of the population. That's bad enough, but then a second problem is that there are these giant venus-flytrap-like plants called Triffids, that have the ability to sort of crawl around, and which have these whip-like appendages that they can snap out at people and poison/kill them with. There is some discussion implying that they even have a sort of crude, rudimentary intelligence, too... there might be more about that in the episodes I have not seen yet. Anyway, there are millions of these Triffids, and they are crawling all over London killing all the helpless blind people. It's pretty scary!
In this miniseries, the Triffids are supposed to be a previously rare species, native to Earth (Ecuador specifically). At some point prior to the action of the miniseries, investors started cultivating Triffids in huge numbers, on "Triffid farms," because they secrete some kind of oil that the investors plan to market as a biofuel. It sounds like a perfectly reasonable, maybe even profitable idea. But, of course, when everybody gets blinded by the meteors, the Triffids start to escape, and just generally run amok, killing everybody they can.
I think there is another version of this story, either in the book, the 1962 film or maybe just some fanfiction I read once, in which the Triffids are supposed to be an alien species that came to Earth as spores, during the meteor shower. Does this sound familiar to anyone? I might be thinking of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, obviously, but I don't think I am.
Anyway, if you watch this, you will be reminded of various scenes from 28 Days Later, Night of the Comet, and maybe even the very first episode of The Walking Dead. And Invasion of the Body Snatchers, of course. It also makes me think of the 1984 BBC TV movie Threads, which I have talked about here before. Threads was directed by Barry Hines, and is about a cataclysmic nuclear war... I am just reminded of it because it is from roughly the same time period, and is also a British production.
Back to DotT.... I just find it creepy and eerie, to see all the blind people staggering around, calling out for help. That alone is scary. At the pont I'm at, the Triffids are just starting to become a problem, and they are scary, but so far they haven't completely taken over the city yet.
Anyway, as far as I can tell, it's a pretty respectable miniseries, and worth a watch. Had to share.
