We humans have so much opportunities in our hands to take advantage of, yet, instead of looking for a cure for cancer, we search for a weapon that can control the world. All what we do is bring harm, hatred and nothing that can help future generations be proud of its predecessors. With TV shows like “The Rain”, it’s disturbing even to allow the thought of how bad we are to cross our mind, but when we come to that profoundly sad realization, what else can we do other than asking the earth to stop, so that we all can collectively get off?
“The Rain” from Denmark, made for Netflix, follows the world we know no longer exits. The brutal rain suddenly has started spreading a contagious disease that kills people instantly. All humans in Scandinavia have already passed away. Two siblings locked up in a bunker for six years leave their safe zone to join a young group of survivors – Martin, Lea, Beatrice, Jean, Patrick who wonder around to find a zone where they can finally live as normal people. However, as they travel one mile after another, their journey becomes increasingly difficult and sometimes dangerous, because the rain is still falling out there and it has no intention to stop claiming human lives…
It starts with Simone who is at the school getting ready for her final exam when her father Frederik comes after her in a rush, asking everyone else to go into hiding and he himself grabs his daughter and rushes right into his car. Simone and her little brother, Rasmus have no idea what’s going on, as they look around and see nothing but chaos and continuos deaths of people because of rain. As they’re still to digest everything through their innocent minds, their father seems to know the reason for all of it and asks Simone to look after her brother as, according to him, that is the only key to save people’s lives. With that words, the patriarch of the family leaves the bunker and disappears for six years.
When six years passes, Rasmus becomes a young man who does not understand why he can’t leave the bunker or why he needs to wait for his father’s return, who might have already died. But both Rasmus and Simone join Martin’s group to explore the world when they find, obviously, the life they knew no longer exists. However, they find friendship, love, all other essential feelings they thought they have left behind. However, soon they will realize that their biggest problem is not lack of experience in life, but what that life has to offer, and more importantly what did the virus did to people’s dignity and how having power for some people is more important that the death of a few million people.
“The Rain” created by Jannik Tai Mosholt, Christian Potalivo and Esben Toft Jacobsen is an excellent sci-fi series made for Netflix which seems to have an outstanding collection of TV series about the end of the world that can exceed any viewer’s expectation. An impressive cast, writing, direction, and photography gives that dark look into the apocalyptic world in which people die quicker than the blink of an eye. But what is more interesting though is that “The Rain”, like many other shows about the end of the world, never shies away from having a target to blame – and it’s always us – humans.
We know, for instance, that Rasmus can be a savior. But why he’s never meant to be used as a source of vaccine or why people were let to die in such a vicious way is mind-blowing, but when you see the real world, there will be no surprises about one thing – we humans love only three things – control, power and money. And when someone has all three together, there will be more events like the one which occurred in “The Rain” but this time it will happen outside of the silver screen, which is way scarier, isn’t it?