The Tribe: Series 1 DVD – Michael Wesley-Smith, Antonia Prebble

Let’s admit it right away, The Tribe may just be the best kids’ TV show ever. To be precise, it’s for older children and teenagers (and their parents will find it insightful too), the very age group that occupies all the roles in this post-apocalyptic tale. Mixing the scenario of Lord of the Flies (except there are, y’know, girls in it as well) with the visual imagery of Mad Max and the angst-ridden psychodrama of Sweet Valley High, The Tribe tells of a near-future in which the world’s adult population has been wiped out by a virus. Of course, society’s infrastructure has gone too, so the youthful survivors not only have to deal with all the usual trials and tribulations of childhood and adolescence but must also develop some form of functioning society of their own, without any form of adult intervention and with only the barest amount of technology. What happens, of course, is that all the social ills of the old world, from bullying to teenage pregnancy, are ten times larger in the new. The ways in which the characters cope (or fail to cope) with these issues are both exasperating and deeply moving. –Roger Thomas