In this article
The titles and descriptions below form a historical cultural selection. Platforms, seasons and availability vary over time and by country: check the broadcaster or publisher. Outdated season counts and release-year ranges have been removed.
This historical selection brings together disaster fictions and broadcasts around survival. It makes it possible to question the decisions of the characters, without constituting a classification or a current distribution catalogue.
What do you think should (or shouldn’t) be here? Feel free to leave us a comment in the section below!
As with the Tour d’horizon of the best survival films TV shows are designed to be interesting to watch, which means they often show silly situations, extreme personalities, etc.
Editing, production rules and filming constraints change what is shown. A sequence does not replace any training or procedure applicable to your situation.
Z Nation
The plot takes place in a world Post-apocalyptic invaded by zombies and where the few human survivors try to stay alive. Humanity’s only hope is Murphy, a former prisoner. A prototype vaccine was injected against his will in order to counter the Viruses zombie" and he became the only living person known to have survived undead bites. It is therefore imperative to keep him alive in order to produce other antidotes from his blood. With the help of several companions such as Garret, former member of the United States National Guard, Warren, "Doc", "10 Thousand", "Addy" and Mack or the mysterious Cassandra, he made his way to a laboratory in California. But time is running out and many questions remain unanswered. Not to mention that the antidote makes Murphy undergo a very strange evolution...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v equal to 7ZFIS2AqAz8
Survivorman
Bear Grylls may know his craft, but his show is staged. Survivorman’s Strouds, meanwhile, find themselves alone in the wild for days – even managing their own camera. Excellent display of wilderness skills in environments around the world. In English but available on the web in French language.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v equal to TirkwEsrj_4
Fear the Walking Dead
Horror and drama are the perfect terms to describe this American series by Robert Kirkman and Dave Erickson. In the United States, it has been released and broadcast on AMC since 2015. This is a spin-off of The Walking Dead. In this case, the scenario is presented with less violence and zombies.
This series highlights the beginning of the epidemic that turned humans into zombies. The story revolves around one Family broken and reconstituted.
Madison has lost her husband and is raising her two children, Nick and Alicia. A high school counselor, she meets a divorced teacher who has a son named Chris. Apart from this, the epidemic begins, the first patients appear, cities are quarantined.
Jericho
A small town in Kansas is literally left in the dark after seeing a fungus on Denver, Colorado. City dwellers are struggling to find answers to the explosion and solutions to survive.
The Handmaid’s Tale
After an extremist religious group takes control of the United States and the world order changes, women are forced to lead subordinate lives. The main character is kept as a pregnancy replacement for elite families who cannot produce their own children.
The Walking Dead
Popular series that opens with the collapse of society due to a massive outbreak of zombies. Follows a small group of people over the years as they deal with everything from practical survival issues like food and water to silly stuff like zombie defense.
Falling Skies
In the immediate wake of Earth-invading aliens, small groups of survivors (led by a former history teacher played by Noah Wyle) struggle to organize and live. They eventually retaliated against the occupants.
Jeremiah
Based on a successful comic book, the series takes place in a future post-apocalyptic world. Jeremy is one of the oldest survivors of a deadly virus that wiped out the adult population, sparing only those at puberty or younger.
Colony
In the very near future, “Colony” focuses on a family’s struggle to survive and bring freedom back to the people of an occupied Los Angeles.
The Rain
The world as we know it ended because of a rain-borne virus that wiped out almost everyone in Scandinavia. Six years after this event, a Danish brother and sister leave the house. Security from the bunker where they stayed.
Confinement
When a deadly epidemic breaks out in Atlanta, a vast urban quarantine is quickly enforced, leaving those trapped inside to fight for their lives while local and federal officials rush to find a cure. The quarantine represented is fiction; it does not constitute a sanitary instruction.
The 100
When nuclear Armageddon destroys civilization on Earth, the only survivors are those of the 12 international space stations in orbit at the time. Three generations later, they sent 100 prisoners to the surface to test its habitability.
Survivors
An unknown virus pandemic kills more than 90% of the world’s population. The immunized must strive to survive and overcome the difficulties of this new world order, hoping that the virus does not mutate.
12 Monkeys
The 12 Monkeys series was launched in 2015, in the United States and Canada. It was first broadcast on Syfy and Showcase.
It’s an adaptation of Terry Gilliam’s The Army of the Twelve Monkeys. In 2043, an epidemic ravaged 93.6% of the population on Earth. Professor Katarina and her team of scientists resolve to send James Cole into the past in hopes of discovering the origins of the virus.
In this context, he met Dr. Cassandra in 2013. This character holds important information about their fate. Over the course of the episodes, they meet again in 2015 to prevent at all costs the group called 12 Monkeys, the responsible for the spread of the virus.
Snowpiercer
Seven years after the world became a vast icy expanse, survivors have found refuge in an ever-changing train. Composed of 1001 cars, the machine goes around the globe at full speed. On board, the class war, social injustice and internal politics sow trouble.
The Strain
The story of the CDC’s Canarian team investigating an outbreak in New York with signs of vampirism. As the tension spreads, the team makes war on humanity. Fantastic setting, realistic survival methods (if you rule out silver swords and vampire stuff), bartering and fighting for resources, and a super cool hidden room.
Under The Dome
Adapted from a Stephen King novel, a mysterious force field surrounds a small Maine town, trapping residents inside. It can be cheesy at times, but it’s interesting to watch the character’s personal development as he struggles to survive.
The Stand
Another adaptation of Stephen King. After a deadly plague killed most of the world’s population, the remaining survivors split into two groups – one led by a benevolent elder and the other by an evil being – to compete in a final battle between good and evil.
Naked and Afraid
An interesting interpretation of the kind of survival reality TV “most of the time”: two competitors are stranded in the desert, naked, with only one personal object each.
Alone
Alone presents an experience of isolation and survival framed by a production. The rules, equipment and conditions of the program depend on the edition; do not transfer them to a family evacuation.
Survivalistes
Survivalists follows the daily lives of larger-than-life characters who live their lives preparing for the worst. Patrice Godin makes a foray into the reality of these survivalists in order to understand what drives them to adopt this way of life: is it the fear of an imminent war? Climate change? The need to reclaim ancestral knowledge? That is what he is trying to find out. He questions and comments without judgment by demonstrating similarities and differences in their perception of the world. As a viewer, we also see the impact of these choices on the environment, the work and the universe of our protagonists.
Looking with a practical question
After an episode, choose a decision: verified or assumed information, equipment used, help requested, need for care or possibility of departure. Ask what depends on fiction, production and resources that would not be available at home. Avoid reproducing dangerous gestures to check if the scene is plausible.
With children, adapt the choice of the program and the discussion to their sensitivity. It is possible to talk about mutual aid, preparation and uncertainty without making a fictitious catastrophe a prediction. A useful idea must then be confronted with the appropriate prevention instructions and training.