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Episode Twenty Four "VERSUS! S1 E2 - Uncontrolled S1 vs. Survival Instincts S1"

“Welcome to US History, I will be your teacher, Ms. Elaine Johnson. Before we start, there are to be no food, drinks, or toys-” She glanced at Kota. “-is that clear?”

 

[Quote From: Evergreen Valley High  (2022) {Multiverse: Collection} ]

 

 

Hello All!

 

Welcome to VERSUS! This second match will follow two older properties of mine being Uncontrolled: Season One (2019) {Uncontrolled S1} and Survival Instincts: Season One (2019) {Survival Instincts S1}. The connection here is that they were released roughly around the time and were part of the First Generation of Jayhawk Television [the others on this roster are Legend: Season One - The Legend of the Bodyguard (2019), Terror Hell: Season One (2019), and Creation: Season One (2019) ] and are of similar quality, a more even match than the first match. 

 

SYNOPSIS:

 

Uncontrolled S1 follows Samantha and Jake as they take up a quest to kill Satan’s Riders, meeting with three adventurers that they follow to reach the hideout. Throughout the season, the adventurers grow more and more concerned as Jake rarely speaks and whenever he seems to be saying something important, he is then shushed by Samantha. Though this concern is left on the backburner as they face off with Satan’s Riders, ending the season.

Survival Instincts S1 follows Lindsay Harper and Garfield Alvarez in an apocalyptic world where they are recruited by their saviors into their military and then sent out to reclaim a nearby town for its housing and resources. However, when things go wrong, Lindsay, Garfield, and her ‘The Warriors’ comrades are forced to take matters into their own hands and carve out a path for themselves separate from their saviors. 

 

QUALITY?

 

Quality-wise, both series rank about the same, however, here comes one issue. Where Uncontrolled S1 has remained the same, even though there was a remaster attempt in 2020 (which was pretty pointless), Survival Instincts S1 received a remaster that was a bit better. Since these are older properties, both series have really short episodes and, as a result, a decision was made to combine these short episodes into one long episode. Survival Instincts S1 was released in 2019 with ten episodes but the 2020/2021 remaster shorten it to seven episodes. This decision was made after seeing that one of the episodes was only about 300 words, which is a disappointment. Both series were also unplanned and written without a clue about how the story would end. Overall, both series suffer from poor quality and are nothing spectacular or even decent. 

 

FIRST EPISODE:

Uncontrolled S1’s first episode… how do I describe it? The first episode suffers from a lot of issues. One of them is that it feels rushed as if it had a story to tell but could only do it in less than 400 words (the episode’s word count is 366 words). No worldbuilding or foundation is set up. Instead, the main characters and the main antagonist are revealed then suddenly it's off to the races. There’s no “Hey, this is the world of Uncontrolled, here are some important elements for the future.” Well, to be fair, this series was unplanned so I had no clue what was going to happen.

The conversation between Samantha and Jake and the adventurers is bland and awful. It’s literally “Hey, I’m [insert name]. What’s your name? Okay, let’s go.” There are no personalities for these characters and the readers aren’t really given a reason to like them. If anything, all of these characters could’ve been given different names and nobody would bat an eyelid. They could be called by any name and it would make no difference. This first episode is just a bad foundation for this story overall.

Now let’s look at Survival Instincts S1. Well, firstly, this series gets some brownie points for its use of first-person point-of-view. Not many stories in my catalog use any point-of-view aside from third-person point-of-view. This series gets even more brownie points as the writing isn’t as choppy and distracting as Uncontrolled S1 and the plot is more interesting. Though, at the end of the day, it's a zombie story through and through. 

However, I can’t give this series all praise and no complaints. The first episode seems very rushed as if the speaker is running out of time to recount her nearly two decades on Earth. There is also no emotional connection to the speaker’s parents. Their deaths are glossed over and literally don’t mean anything to the readers. We don’t even get their names, just that they sacrificed themselves for her. Scenes following the speaker and her family would’ve built up that emotional connection for the readers better. Overall, an okay foundation for this story. 

 

FINAL EPISODE:

Uncontrolled S1’s final episode is average in terms of quality and suffers from many of the same issues as the first episode. The story is rushed and the battle between the antagonist and the main characters is over faster than you could say “Hey, why did you drag this series on for ten episodes with such a boring plot and weak characters? Couldn’t you have done better and not made this series suck so much?” Okay, well the main villain was dealt with before you could get to the second question. And, moving on, another prevalent issue in this final episode is another repeat offender in bad and messy writing. The writing is very choppy and there are certain points where, as I was reading it, I asked myself why I didn’t start a new paragraph, instead of mixing them into one. 

The only positive thing about this finale, aside from the fact that the season ends, is that there is a twist ending which sees, spoiler alert, Samantha being struck by the main antagonist, leaving on a cliffhanger. I didn’t expect that I would end the story like that. 

As for Survival Instincts S1, the pacing is done well and the writing fares a lot better than its opponent. However, this is due to the remaster as the original ending was as much of a mess as Uncontrolled S1’s ending was. Even so, this finale isn’t perfect as the writing can be, at times, shaky and the decision to have the characters separate from the home that took them in is sudden. If more scenes followed them resenting the government of Fort Alpha Fox, which they call home, as it would’ve made their decision more believable and be a good pay-off. Though, this ends up being a plot-twist ending that sees the government turn evil on the main characters and even go as far as to capture two of the side characters, ending the series on a cliffhanger. Wow! I never realized how similar these two series are, at least with their finales. 

 

PLANNED?

As you can already guess, neither series were planned. This was during a time when no series was ever planned in full. Black Hood S1 wouldn’t release until almost a year later so this revolution in terms of quality hadn’t occurred yet. At most, I would plan out the first few episodes but anything after that was up to luck. However, these series got pretty unlucky as they were both a mess. No storyline existed in Uncontrolled S1 aside from everything concerning Jake and his mysterious powers. Survival Instincts S1, meanwhile, contained a streamlined storyline and didn’t have much in terms of developing its side characters. Though, both series have very underdeveloped side characters as well as main characters. Yeah… I have no excuse here. 

 

FUN FACTS?

Uncontrolled S1’s fourth episode is 692 words long and it’s the longest episode in the entire season, passing out the finale episode’s word count of 520 words. In comparison, the fourth episode of Survival Instincts S1 is 278 words, which is the lowest word count for the series and the main reason behind the decision to clump the episodes together, shortening the series. The finale episode of Survival Instincts S1 is also 1255 words, though this is a collection of a couple of episodes written as one. This episode is also the only episode between either series to pass 1000 words.

Survival Instinct S1’s fun fact is that this series is one of the few zombie stories released after The Zombie Infection 3: The Final Chapter (2019) {TZI 3}. TZI 3 effectively saw my motivation and excitement for writing zombie stories at its lowest point ever. I even thought about never doing any more zombie stories after TZI 3, though this mindset was quickly changed after a few months with more zombie stories with the now-defunct The Zombie Infection 4: Connections (2019) [TZI 4] and still living The UNDEAD: Season One (2019) {The Undead S1}. TZI 4 and The UNDEAD S1 saw my interest being revived and I swiftly moved to continue making more zombie stories and that interest hasn’t died down since, even in 2021. 

 

CONCLUSION:

Now here comes the hard part. Which series is better? Uncontrolled S1 or Survival Instincts S1? Well, if we’re talking about plot-wise, then it would be Survival Instincts as more goes on and it isn’t just resting on the side of the road during a never-ending carriage trip. But if we’re talking about characters, then Uncontrolled S1’s mysterious Jake and his guardian Samantha serving to protect his secrets are better than military soldier #578 (also known as Lindsay). Obviously, that’s a joke but Lindsay isn’t anything exciting and neither are her side characters. They are all common soldiers and there isn’t much depth to them anyways. Samantha and Jake are not developed characters and neither are their side characters but at least the main characters are somewhat interesting, even if slightly

Now looking at writing, both sides are at a disadvantage, though the 2020/2021 remaster of Survival Instincts S1 edges it forward. And looking at pacing, Uncontrolled suffers another blow. But where Survival Instincts S1 reigns king, it lacks an interesting cliffhanger. The decision to have the main antagonist cut into Samantha and possibly kill her on the spot is interesting. 

Okay, now that I summarized the main strengths and weaknesses of the series, which deserves the title of the VERSUS! CHAMPION… it’s Survival Instincts S1! This series has better writing, pacing, and is well-structured as a story than Uncontrolled S1. Though, it is nowhere near perfect as it lacks developed and interesting characters and could use more exciting elements. Even so, it’s superior to Uncontrolled S1, becoming the second VERSUS! CHAMPION!

Thank you all for reading episode two of this new series. If you enjoy VERSUS! Then make sure to have your voice heard in the comments below. There are still two more episodes of the first season and I can’t wait to show them all to you later this year!

Until next time, I bid you all a good day!