''BrainDead'' is an American

political satire Political satire is a type of satire that specializes in gaining entertainment from politics. Political satire can also act as a tool for advancing political arguments in conditions where political speech and dissent are banned. Political satir ...

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

comedy-drama Comedy drama (also known by the portmanteau dramedy) is a hybrid genre of works that combine elements of comedy and Drama (film and television), drama. In film, as well as scripted television series, serious dramatic subjects (such as death, il ...

television series created by

Robert The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of ''Hrōþ, Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, prais ...

and Michelle King. The series stars

Mary Elizabeth Winstead Mary Elizabeth Winstead (born November 28, 1984) is an American actress and singer. Her first major role was that of Jessica Bennett (Passions), Jessica Bennett on the NBC soap opera ''Passions'' (1999–2000). She came to wider attention for h ...

as Laurel Healy, a documentary film-maker who takes a job working for her brother Luke ( Danny Pino), a U.S. Senator, when the funding for her latest film falls through. Assigned as his new constituency caseworker, she discovers that

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

has been invaded by extraterrestrial insects which are eating the brains and taking control of people, including members of

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

and their staffers. Much of the internal comedy of the series was that, in the altered reality of Washington, D.C. politics, only a few people noticed. CBS announced a 13-episode straight-to-series order on July 22, 2015. The show premiered on June 13, 2016. After four episodes, the show moved from its Monday timeslot to Sundays to make room for the network's coverage of the Republican and

Democratic National Convention The Democratic National Convention (DNC) is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1832 by the United States Democratic Party. They have been administered by the Democratic National Committee since the 18 ...

s. The show had a planned four-season arc, which would have seen the bugs then invade Wall Street, Silicon Valley and Hollywood, but on October 17, 2016, CBS canceled the series after one season.

Premise

The series centers on the Capitol in

, where alien bugs infect members of

. Documentary filmmaker Laurel Healy agrees to take a job working for her brother, Democratic Senator Luke Healy, in order to secure funding for her next film. However, she comes across a conspiracy in which alien bugs have partially replaced the brains of several people, including members of

. Sometimes, the bugs cause their victims' heads to explode. The song " You Might Think" by

The Cars The Cars were an American Rock music, rock band formed in Boston in 1976. Emerging from the New wave music, new wave Subculture, scene in the late 1970s, they consisted of Ric Ocasek (rhythm guitar), Benjamin Orr (bass guitar), Elliot Easton (l ...

is used frequently in the series as a

leitmotif A leitmotif or () is a "short, recurring musical phrase" associated with a particular person, place, or idea. It is closely related to the musical concepts of ''idée fixe'' or ''motto-theme''. The spelling ''leitmotif'' is a partial angliciz ...

for characters who are infected by the aliens.

Cast

Main

as Laurel Healy, a documentary filmmaker who takes a job as a constituency caseworker working for her brother, Senator Luke Healy, and stumbles across the bug conspiracy * Danny Pino as U.S. Senator Luke Healy (D-Md.), Laurel's brother, who is the Senate Majority Whip *

Tony Shalhoub Anthony Marc Shalhoub ( ; ; born October 9, 1953) is an American actor. He is known for a variety of roles ranging from comedic to dramatic on stage and screen. He has received several accolades including five Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, s ...

as U.S. Senator Raymond "Red" Wheatus (R-Md.), a Republican Senator who is one of the first people to have their brains eaten and replaced by the aliens *

Aaron Tveit Aaron Kyle Tveit (; born October 21, 1983) is an American actor and singer. Tveit originated the lead role of Christian in the stage adaptation of ''Moulin Rouge! (musical), Moulin Rouge!'' on Broadway theatre, Broadway, a performance for which ...

as Gareth Ritter, a staffer for Senator Wheatus who befriends Laurel, despite their extremely different political beliefs * Nikki M. James as Dr. Rochelle Daudier, a medical doctor who befriends Laurel and Gustav and helps them uncover the bug conspiracy * Jan Maxwell as U.S. Senator Ella Pollack (D-Ca) * Johnny Ray Gill as Gustav Triplett a.k.a. Dr. Bob, a pseudo-scientist and conspiracist who has discovered the existence of the aliens and how they communicate * Charlie Semine as FBI agent Anthony Onofrio

Recurring

* Paige Patterson as Scarlett Pierce, Senator Healy's Chief of Staff and one of his mistresses * Megan Hilty as Misty Alise, a conservative political television commentator * Beth Malone as Claudia Monarch, a liberal political television commentator * Zach Grenier as Dean Healy, former U.S. Senator and father of Laurel and Luke * Brooke Adams as U.S. Senator Diane Vaynerchuk * Wayne Duvall as U.S. Senator Andre Amarant, Republican Leader in the Senate * Glenn Fleshler as FBI Agent Aaron Blades, Onofrio's partner * Patrick Breen as Cole Stockwell, a budget analyst hired by Luke * Lily Cowles as Germaine Healy, Senator Luke Healy's pregnant wife

Guest

Margo Martindale Margo Martindale (born July 18, 1951) is an American character actress who has appeared on television, film, and stage. In 2011, she won a Primetime Emmy Award and a Critics' Choice Television Award for her recurring role as Mags Bennett on '' ...

as Dr. Joanne Alaimo *

Michael Moore Michael Francis Moore is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and author. Moore's work frequently addresses various Social issue, social, political, and economic topics. He first became publicly known for his award-winning debut ...

as himself * Kurt Fuller as J.K. Cornish, FBI torturer *

Michael Gaston Michael Gaston is an American film and television actor. He played agent List of Prison Break minor characters#Quinn, Quinn on the show ''Prison Break'', List of Jericho characters#Gray Anderson, Gray Anderson on the CBS drama series ''Jericho (20 ...

as Lawrence Boch, a special investigator * Santino Fontana as Kevin, an infected who gets captured by Rochelle * Michael Potts as Dr. Daudier, a doctor conducting a joint operation with the Russian Institute on the retrieval of a meteor

Production

Singer-songwriter

Jonathan Coulton Jonathan William Coulton (born December 1, 1970), often called "JoCo" by fans, is an American folk/comedy singer-songwriter, known for his songs about geek culture and his use of the Internet to draw fans. Among his most popular songs are "Cod ...

wrote and performed musical recap segments of previous episodes, shown during the cold opening of each episode. There were exceptions to this, however: one episode instead opened with a parody commercial for "Space Bugs" in the style of prescription drug commercials in the musical style of the other recaps, while in another recap the singer, after admitting that the previous episode was too overwhelming to recap, recapped an episode of the

western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

Gunsmoke ''Gunsmoke'' is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman Macdonnell and writer John Meston. It centered on Dodge City, Kansas, in the 1870s, during the settlement of the American West. The central charact ...

'' instead.

Episodes

Broadcast

The series premiered in Australia on Monday June 20, 2016, on Eleven, part of the Ten network.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the series holds a 65% approval rating based on 49 critics. The site's critical consensus reads: "While admittedly uneven, ''BrainDead'' remains a charmingly idealistic sign of the political times". On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the show holds a 61 out of 100 score based on 37 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". On its cancellation, Robert King, the show's creator said, "It was a show that was trying to be as weird and anti-network as could be, and it was probably a mistake to do that on a network. But I loved that show."

References

External links

* *
BrainDead
' at CBS {{Jonathan Coulton 2016 American television series debuts 2016 American television series endings 2010s American comedy-drama television series 2010s American horror comedy television series 2010s American political comedy television series 2010s American satirical television series 2010s American comic science fiction television series American English-language television shows Political satirical television series Television series by CBS Studios Television series by Scott Free Productions Television shows set in Washington, D.C. The Cars Television series created by Robert and Michelle King CBS comedy-dramas Horror drama television series