Netflix canceled Daybreak in December 2019, less than two months after the show premiered on October 24. Ten episodes, one season. Creators Brad Peyton and Aron Eli Coleite built it very loosely from Brian Ralph’s comic. Colin Ford plays Josh Wheeler, a 17-year-old Canadian high school outcast searching post-apocalyptic Glendale, California, for his missing British girlfriend, Sam Dean.
Trailer, via Rotten Tomatoes TV.
Josh Wheeler Wants His Girlfriend Back
Josh is a slacker living his best life in post-apocalyptic LA. He wants to find the girl of his dreams while outwitting mindless ghouls and cliquish gangs.
Sophie Simnett plays Sam Dean, the girlfriend Josh is looking for. Alyvia Alyn Lind plays Angelica Green, a 10-year-old pyromaniac who tags along. Austin Crute plays Wesley Fists, Josh’s former high school bully, now a pacifist would-be samurai. Those three are the ragtag group of misfits at the center.
Turbo Bro Jock Runs the Jocks
Josh survives among hordes of Mad Max-style gangs. Evil jocks. Cheerleaders turned Amazonian warriors. People who have turned into zombie-like creatures called Ghoulies. Somewhere out there is the mysterious Baron Triumph. Cody Kearsley plays Turbo Bro Jock, the jock leader, and his terrible leadership and sadism threaten the remaining survivors.
Turbo is the show’s most-used joke and its least-developed idea. A bully with a throne is not a character. He is a speed bump. The cheerleaders turned Amazonian warriors get the same treatment: a costume and a punchline.
Matthew Broderick Gets Little to Do
Matthew Broderick plays Michael Burr. Broderick joined the cast in October 2018, the same month the show announced Colin Ford, Alyvia Alyn Lind, Sophie Simnett, Austin Crute, Gregory Kasyan, Krysta Rodriguez, Cody Kearsley, and Jeanté Godlock. That is a real cast. Broderick is the name that gets a show like this attention, and the show does not give him enough.
Krysta Rodriguez plays Ms. Crumble. Gregory Kasyan plays Eli Cardashyan. Jeanté Godlock plays Mona Lisa. Chelsea Zhang plays Karen jane. Jon LeVert plays Barry. The cast list is long and the season is short, and Daybreak spreads its people thin.
The Comic Was Very Loosely Used
The show is very loosely based on Brian Ralph’s comic series. That word, loosely, is doing heavy lifting. The show has a jock with a throne and a samurai who is a pacifist. Those are not the same thing as the comic, and the source does not describe the comic’s tone or content beyond the fact that the adaptation is loose.
The genres listed are Sci-Fi & Fantasy and Action & Adventure. The action is weightless, the fantasy is a shrug, and what is left is a group of kids walking through a ruined California trading quips.
The Ghoulies Are the Least Interesting Thing
The Ghoulies are the show’s monsters, and they are the least interesting thing in it. Zombie-like creatures are the default setting of the genre, and Daybreak does nothing new with them. They shuffle, they threaten, they get dispatched.
Baron Triumph is the mystery the show dangles. A mysterious figure in a post-apocalyptic Glendale is a fine hook.
Colin Ford Carries the First Few Episodes
Colin Ford is the right kind of wrong for Josh. He plays the slacker with a straight face, and the show needs that. When Josh talks about Sam, Ford sells the longing. When Josh cracks a joke, Ford sells the deflection. He is the reason the first few episodes work at all.
Alyvia Alyn Lind is the show’s best weapon. Angelica is 10, a pyromaniac, and the only character who seems to enjoy the apocalypse. Lind plays her with a flat, unsettling calm that makes the jokes land harder. She is the one person on screen who seems to know what show she is in.
Austin Crute has the hardest job. Wesley is a former bully who has become a pacifist would-be samurai, a contradiction the show does not resolve. Crute plays him as earnest and a little lost, and it mostly works.
Sophie Simnett has the worst job. Sam is the girl Josh is looking for, and the source does not give her more than that. A show that asks the audience to care about a search has to make the searched-for person real.
Ten Episodes and a December Cancellation
All ten episodes aired on October 24, 2019. The cancellation came in December 2019.
The published critical score is 5.4 out of 10, with a Metacritic score of 54 out of 100. That is the number the show earned from critics, not this paper’s own rating. It is a middling score for a show with a strong cast and a workable premise.
The cast is the part worth watching. Ford, Lind, and Crute carry the ten episodes that exist. Broderick is the name the show does not use enough. If the show had been built around Angelica instead of Josh, it might have worked differently. Lind’s character is the one with a clear point of view, and the show keeps her on the edges.
The rest is setting. The jock gang, the cheerleader warriors, the Ghoulies, Baron Triumph, Turbo’s sadism: these are pieces of a world, not a story. A post-apocalyptic Glendale is a fine place to put a show. The source does not say what Daybreak does once it is there.
The show’s central weakness is its romance. Josh is looking for Sam, and the source gives the audience little of the relationship itself. A missing girlfriend is a premise. Daybreak leans on that premise for ten episodes.
The published score is 5.4 out of 10. Daybreak is a show with a good cast and an unclear sense of itself. The apocalypse is a setting, the gangs are types, and the romance is a search.
The cancellation was a business decision. Netflix ordered ten episodes, aired them all on one day, and passed on a second season two months later.
What is left is a cast that got one season. Colin Ford, Alyvia Alyn Lind, and Austin Crute are the reason to watch the ten episodes that exist. Matthew Broderick is the reason to wonder what a longer run might have looked like. The rest is a post-apocalyptic Glendale with a mystery it never opens.
KEY FACTS BOX
– Title: Daybreak
– Premiere date: October 24, 2019
– Network: Netflix
– Creators: Brad Peyton and Aron Eli Coleite
– Based on: the comic series by Brian Ralph (very loosely)
– Seasons: 1
– Episodes: 10
– Canceled: December 2019
– Genre: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Action & Adventure
– Published critical score: 5.4/10
– Metacritic: 54/100
– Cast: Colin Ford, Alyvia Alyn Lind, Sophie Simnett, Austin Crute, Cody Kearsley, Jeanté Godlock, Gregory Kasyan, Krysta Rodriguez, Matthew Broderick
The cast, ranked by how much the show uses them
1. Colin Ford as Josh Wheeler
2. Alyvia Alyn Lind as Angelica Green
3. Austin Crute as Wesley Fists
4. Matthew Broderick as Michael Burr
5. Sophie Simnett as Sam Dean
6. Cody Kearsley as Turbo Bro Jock
7. Krysta Rodriguez as Ms. Crumble
8. Gregory Kasyan as Eli Cardashyan
Daybreak ran ten episodes and ended. The published score is 5.4 out of 10.
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