Sam Hoover
Photography editor
Daybreak is just one of the latest shows in a line of Netflix’s series that focuses on teens doing whatever they want. Whether it’s the outcasts in “End of the F***ing World” or teens trying to govern themselves in “The Society,” the streaming service likes to ask the question “What if there were no adults?”
The show is loosely based on the comic series by Brian Ralph. It takes concepts from Mad Max, Enter the Dragon, as well as Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and mashes them all together. This makes the heroes we follow not act or feel like normal teenagers. The series tries to throw in a lot of pop-culture references, which pulls the viewer out of the story.
Collin Ford, from “Under the Dome”, plays “Just” Josh, a former nobody at Glendale High school who is now enjoying his newfound freedoms in the post-apocalyptic nuclear holocaust. His goal? To find his love Sam Dean, played by Sophie Simnett. Were they actually in a relationship or was it all an “it’s complicated” situation? We find out as the drama unfolds, but Josh’s mission to locate Sam never wavers.
Through Josh, we learn about the different cliques that have formed in these new teenaged warlord zones. From the Jocks to the STEM Punks to the Cheermazons as well as several other divisions, we see that even in the apocalypse, cliques are still a thing.
As Josh begins to form his own crew of other survivors who don’t belong to cliques, we are introduced to a pyromaniac child genius, a “samurai looking to repent,” a schemer, as well as the crews former teacher, Mrs. Crumble (Krysta Rodriguez) who seems to be one of the last remaining adults on the planet.
The missiles that destroyed the world are never fully explained as to why they were launched, besides the statement “adults ruined everything,” contained a neurological agent that spared kids and turned everyone over the age of 18 into “ghoulies”. Ghoulies are pretty much zombies that will “rip your face off while repeating the last words they said when the bombs fell”. Since Mrs. Crumble is still around means that there is more than meets the eye, which is revealed in the later half of the season. There are several bad guys roaming around the San Gabriel Valley. There is Turbo Bro Jock, played by “Riverdale”’s Cody Kearsley. Then, there is the cannibalistic Baron Triumph.
Overall, Day Break presents us with a very fun game board, filled with a colorful array of characters, most of whom have a dramatic backstory. With all of Day Break’s insanity, the show is most effective when it sits its actual emotion. It even uses some of its heavier themes to help carry us through the scruff of the season. Episodes seven, “Canta Tu Vida,” and eight, “Post Mates,” nicely diverging from the ongoing carnage to give us peaks back into the lives of Crumble, Josh, and Sam. Both episodes are extremely different, but both also work extremely well.
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