YMMV / In the Flesh

• Awesome Music: All of Keaton Henson’s songs perfectly express the tone of each scene in which they play, and really make the emotional content of the show hit home.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?:
  • PDS Sufferers= Muslims.
  • ULA=Islamist terrorist groups.
  • Victus, HVP, and other zombie haters= right wing parties, anti-immigrants, islamophobs
    • PDS Sufferers also seem to be a metaphor for people suffering from chronic illnesses, with the most obvious references being to HIV and PTSD.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Maxine Martin.
• Fridge Logic:
  • If PDS sufferers don’t eat while medicated, how do they get energy? Especially considering that it was stated that they needed to eat people in their untreated state.
  • Simon has no qualms entering a homosexual relationship with Kieren openly despite being a devout religious follower.
  • In the series finale, why are the villagers, who until very recently were so enthusiastic about the Vicar’s message about the Second Rising, so antagonistic towards Maxine Martin when she basically conveys the exact same message?
• Funny Moments:
  • Jem’s ‘party and shooter’ monologue from the pilot:
    Jem: (Holds up her hands, wiggling her fingers) There’s a party going on! All the people are dancing. (Gestures a gun with her other hand, aiming the ‘barrel’—her index and middle finger—at the ‘people’) A psycho killer bursts in and starts shooting everyone. (Gestures ‘shooting’) Ptshoo, ptshoo, ptshoo! Oh, no! Only one survives—(Flipping the Bird) Mr Fuck Off Right Now!
  • Some of Kieren’s quips about his condition:
    Steve: Breakfast the most important meal of the day.
    Sue: Mm. That’s something.
    Steve: You got to have something to set you on,
    Kieren: Yeah, it’s true. I ate breakfast five years ago, still full.
  • The inn owner's mother-in-law getting sweet revenge for her mistreatment by spoiling the end of her favorite show just before she watches the finale.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • Sue and Kieren talking in the first season finale.
    Sue: Kieren, I’d love you with all me heart if you came back as... a goldfish!
  • Jem finally accepting Kieren in season 2.
  • Philip and Amy finally getting together.
• Narm:
  • The untreated PDS sufferers growling often sounds like something out of a B-movie.
  • The Undead Prophet speaking with an intonation that resembles that of Yoda.
  • Some of the protesters outside the PDS brothel are fairly unconvincing.
  • Simon being told to kill the First Risen and refusing to go through with it is way too reminiscent of the first season ending—a young man being told to kill his gay lover based on the words of a Well-Intentioned Extremist (in a sense) villain and refusing to go through with it might have been moving the first time, but then it just feels like the writers ran out of ideas. Especially since Neon Genesis Evangelion did the exact same thing 18 years beforehand.
• Padding: At times in series 2, it's clear that they didn't have enough story for 6 episodes rather than the original 3. In fact, much of episodes 3 and 5 could be lost with little to no consequence since nothing happens that impacts the actual plot (save for Amy's transformation in episode 5.
• Special Effects Failure: The PDS makeup, particularly of those in untreated condition, ranges anywhere from very realistic to unconvincing to the point of Narm.
• Strangled by the Red String: Simon and Kieren. Simon is established to be in a relationship with Amy and Kieren is shown being mostly disapproving of Simon's philosophies... all of a sudden, as of episode 3, they're a couple!!! With zero buildup and only thrown in there to give Kieren anther love interest to boot. And the relationship between them doesn't make a whole lot of sense either...
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The series had an excellent chance to discuss mental illness, both of mentally ill people whose condition could cause them to harm others, and specifically PTSD. Instead, the second season went for an anthology-like structure and compared PDS sufferers to oppressed groups in general (a comparison that mostly fails because of many differences between real-life oppressed groups and PDS sufferers), and explored only in occasional scenes the effect Jem’s traumas have on her.
• Too Good to Last: Two series, nine episodes. Granted, the show was praised for cramming half a season's worth of character development into every episode, but we're still definitely left wanting a lot more.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Whenever you see a zombie wiping off their makeup, keep in mind that what's actually happening is the actor putting on gray makeup, and marvel at how real it looks.
• The Woobie:
  • Kieren. His boyfriend’s father never approved of him, and he sank into depression and killed himself after he died in Afghanistan. He comes home and his family struggles to accept him back. Then he has to see him dead, and he sinks into the same depression again. Then he has to endure the humiliation of the Give Back Scheme and the false accusation of releasing two untreated PDS sufferers, and to see his best friend die in front of him. And all throughout, people are very eager to kill him again, and Gary comes alarmingly close to doing it.
  • Jem. After her family basically fell apart after Kieren’s death by suicide, he comes back, bringing a huge load of stigmas along with him. To make matters worse, she suffers from awful traumas from her days as a HVF fighter, and especially from the time she saw Kieren eating her comrade in arms and was unable to kill him.
  • Rick. Not only does his father not approve of him being gay, he disapproves of him as a PDS sufferer, and ultimately kills him.
  • Ken Brown, the widower who lives across the street from the Walkers. He becomes a widower twice from the same woman when Bill and his gang bring her out to the street, and Bill forces her to take off her contacts before shooting her in the head. In the season 2 premiere, he and his son, whom he was just trying to educate about treating people with PDS with respect, are killed in a ULA terrorist attack.
  • Simon. He killed his mother in his untreated state and was thrown out of the house unceremoniously by his grieving father.
  • By the end of the series, Philip, who has to watch his girlfriend Amy die, just as soon as she was recovering from her PDS.
  • Vicar Oddie, who’s consumed with grief over his late wife, and Maxine Martin, who feels the same way about her little brother. Both of them are still awful people, though.

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