I love a media depiction of an epidemic and an apocalypse by virus sounded like a great idea for a tv show, but Containment was not the show for me and thankfully Containment only lasted for one season. Containment was about an epidemic outbreak in Atlanta, and the government quarantines the infected area to prevent a larger outbreak.
Containment has Robert Altman/Traffic ambitions to connect all the characters to each other, but it becomes more soap opera unrealistic as the story progresses. Unfortunately the characters were really unsympathetic, annoying and stupid. A child screeched “Ms. Katie!” every time he did something stupid that ended up inadvertently killing people. At least he had an excuse because he is a child. Honestly no one should have survived considering all the stupid decisions made.
I loved the idea of having a diverse cast, a plethora of interracial relationships and a depiction of a gay character, Sam, who was my favorite character, but it almost felt heavy-handed to make up for the multiple ugly stereotypes in the story. The storylines were kind of racist though it seems like the show did it purposely to create tension so later on Containment could say, “See your assumptions are wrong.” Um, thanks for that…NOT. Then some racist tropes never got subverted so I could not help but wonder how the actors felt about getting paid to sell their soul. To be fair, Containment may not be racist, but just completely incapable of depicting a character that you don’t end up hating, including the children.
The best part of Containment was when the show finally killed off a major character and depicted how it feels to die from the infection. It was gruesome, awful and merciless. It was a welcome tonic to all the relationship blather that transpired before this character’s death.
I’m not going to lie. Despite being underwhelmed by Containment, I heard that Containment is based on a Belgium series called Cordon, and I kind of want to see it! I have not learned my lesson. I’m still a sucker for an outbreak. Don’t be like me. Don’t watch Containment!