Set in an altered United States, several unrelated people discover how far they will go to survive a night where all crime is legal for 12 hours.
Love it or hate it, “The Purge” franchise is one that has made itself a household name beyond that of horror movie fans. With its first film only dating back to 2013, it can be surprising to think about it already having four films, a television series, and grossing nearly half a billion dollars worldwide.
Set in a dystopian distant future, the United States is run by a new political party known as the New Founding Fathers of America. In an attempt to seemingly lower crime rates, the NFFA allows for the annual Purge. A 12-hour period once a year in which all crime, including murder, is legal. The track record for each film in this franchise is to follow a single family or small group of people as they try to make it through Purge night. For fans of this series, this allows for each new installment to add some new perspective to the world of “The Purge.” Questions of what would it be like to be caught outside, or what it would be like to run into someone purging you knew become addressed through the different characters and scenarios in each installment.
This model of discovering new stories and scenarios under a singular understood premise sets up this franchise to be able to constantly spit out new content. To then take this to the medium of a television show makes a lot of sense. With more installments, shorter run times, but longer durations for development, “The Purge: Season One” had a lot of opportunities to bring something fresh to the franchise.
While the whole season takes place on one singular Purge night, the model does change from the storytelling of the films by following completely separate groups of characters. Between the marine on leave looking for his sister, the cult that’s recruiting kids to sacrifice themselves during the event, the powerful businesswoman being harassed by her boss, the couple trying to steal from the rich and give to the poor, and the laid-off blue-collar worker looking to get back on his feet, there are plenty of different stories to follow. This works really well for the 10 episode season to be able to fill the show with enough varying content. The tough part is that by constantly cutting between these stories it becomes difficult to get and stay invested in each character when the series starts with a constant bombardment of backstory. But once the characters are established, they are written as such honest depictions of people that they do become people the audience want to see succeed but also feel turmoil for in their times of weakness. The hard part about this is with each episode having a 50 minute run time, it’s tricky to stay on board with each character when every time the audience gets invested, we cut to credits.
To change up the format, about half of the series is done in flashback. As a character makes a choice in the Purge or runs into someone they know, the audience is sent back to when this was prompted or reflected in their lives earlier. This can be refreshing to those who are used to the constant push forward created by films but at the same time can be very frustrating to the viewer as it can feel as though nothing is actually progressing.
Beyond these couple of changes, “The Purge: Season One” offers up exactly what fans of “The Purge” already know and love. The series has wonderful fun dynamic set pieces, blunt and brutal kills, and plenty of disturbing looking masks and costumes that remind the viewer of “The Warriors” if all the gangs went to Party City. The show offers new hideouts, underground organizations, and plenty of non-subtle political subtext. All of this does continue to build and add to the canon established by the four films. The franchise has essentially a system where as long as the audience does not become bored with the premise, there is always the potential to tell more stories. So for fans of “The Purge,” there will be more of the same to love. And for those who don’t care for it, there will be more of the same to disregard.
The show has officially finished airing its first season as of November 2018 but is now available on Blu-ray. As discussed, some of the problems with the series stem from the episodic format while other elements thrive in this medium. The release of this to disc creates a good format to watch the series. Being able to binge each episode back to back without commercial breaks keeps the series progressing. It allows the viewer to stay invested in the characters and catch some of the more nuanced details of how each story ties together. This blended with the cinematic shooting style in high definition quality creates the illusion of just watching a longer movie as opposed to an offshoot TV series.
“The Purge” was renewed for a 2nd season the day of the season one finale.
Now available on Blu-ray & DVD
