Wreck Season 1

Pride Month is here and has been here for quite some time. And sometimes this little chee wants to watch something both scary and queer. And that’s not something I have been able to do lately.

Well, thank goodness for BBC Three’s Wreck!

That’s right! What if I told you that there was a horror show — made by the BBC — that took place on a cruise ship, featured a duck mascot suit, and featured queer characters.

Enter Wreck Season One.

Wreck is a horror comedy series that was created and written by Ryan J. Brown. It was realeased on BBC Three back on October 9th, 2022, and currently has two series’. The series stars Oscar Kennedy, Thaddea Graham, Anthony Rickman, Louis Boyer, Alice Nokes, Peter Claffey, Miya Ocego, and Harriet Webb. If you would like to watch it for yourself, the series is available on Hulu.

No Spoilers Here.

The show was good. When I was first introduced to the trailers of the show, I was convinced it was more of a slasher aspect with a masked duck mascot killing off the ship’s inhabitants. That’s not what I got however, which… I am not too disappointed with.

The show follows Jamie Walsh (Oscar Kennedy) as he goes undercover as his friend Cormac Kelly (Peter Claffey) joins the crew of the Sacrementum to find out what happened to his missing sister Pippa Walsh. Pippa Walsh is a character we are introduced to in the cold open of the first episode of the show, as she is chased by an assailant dressed as the ship’s mascot and (after flipping off her persuer) throws herself off the side of the ship.

The show also follows Vivian Lim (Thaddea Graham) who is working the Sacramentum after fleeing from her homophobic family, who befriends Jamie and helps him try and figure out what happened to Pippa. All of this while trying to not fall for one of the rich guests.

This show was a good watch, but it hit a little too close to home in one very key aspect of our political climate. o.o The deaths are not as prevelant but when they do happen, it hit hard. Some of the twists very genuinely surprising and I can’t put into words how the main twist of the season made me feel without spoiling it.

My favorite parts of the show were obviously Jamie and Vivian. Their partnership and chemistry was amazing. The romantic side-plots for both main characters was also a treat as both the love interests have so much character in Olly and Lily (Ramanique Ahluwalia.) I thought both roles were really well acted and added so much (for better and for worse) to the story.

And of course, me and my supporting characters, I LOVED Rosie Preston (Miya Ocego) who is Cormac’s ex (Yeah. Cormac ended up still going on the ship) who works a Cher impersonator and a trans woman. As she shows up more and more, it gives you more reason to really like her. I thought she was absolutely amazing and a total badass.

And of course, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Danny Jones if only because he was played Jack Rowan (who was the main character in Boys From County Hell, the best vampire movie I have seen as of late! (Probably until I see Sinners.))

The inciting act of Pippa’s jump off the ship really does drive each bit of the plot forward, both with Jamie and Viv, and with other characters. And each following murder/disappearing crewmate unravels a thread to an even bigger mystery about the Sacrementum. The overarching mysteries and the revelations that accompany each new piece to the puzzle really did have me hooked. And it was so easy to root for Jamie and Viv the whole way through, as well as the other characters.

The most spoilery thing I will add to this post is that… This show really hits hard on the concept of “Rich people have way too much money and think they can do whatever they want.” with a side of “The working class deserves so much better than what they get.”

Overall, I think it’s a good watch. There were likeable characters, good twists, horrifying realizations, and quite a bit of queer moments and character work to satiate my desire for some gay in my horror. And there was enough to get me hooked enough to watch the second season in the coming weeks. It had its moments of good humor and made me chuckle a few times. I think this first series is a solid 7 out of 10 as far as horror shows go. It was a good show. I do wish that there was more of certain things. The marketing material shows off the killer duck mascot, and we didn’t get enough of the killer duck in the show. However, the show was still something I’d watch again despite the unfulfilled expectations I had. Who knows? Maybe I will move it up a number on the rewatch!

I will watch Wreck Series 2 sometime in the coming days or weeks, and I will try to review it. There will have to be a spoiler warning on that post, because it’s a second series. There will be a lot of spoilers from Series 1 in my description of the events in Series 2.

Till then! 😀