Television series

In the Flesh

Name: In the Flesh
Genre: Drama, Horror, Supernatural
Released: 2013
Cast: Luke Newberry, Marie Critchley, Steve Cooper, Harriet Cains, Emily Bevan

In the Flesh inverts the zombie premise with surgical precision. After the dead return and are medicated back to consciousness, a young man reintegrates into his small Yorkshire town, where old prejudices resurface in new shapes. It's small-scale, character-driven horror that treats the undead as a minority group facing systematic suspicion. Funny and genuinely devastating.

TVMaze rating

3.5

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you want zombie drama that treats the undead as a stigmatised minority, with the quiet, awkward domestic scenes doing most of the heavy lifting.

Skip it if you need gore and jump scares, since the horror is mostly restrained and the pace is patient, with long stretches of talk about prejudice and bureaucracy.

What it asks of you: Nine episodes of an hour each, unhurried and sober, so it rewards staying with the characters' grief rather than waiting for the next set piece.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Orphan Black2013

A show about bodies treated as aberrations by authority, where marginalised people weaponise intelligence to survive. Tatiana Maslany's restless energy and the unpredictable plotting will grip you the same way In the Flesh does.

But Shifts genre and tone wildly across seasons. Some arcs outstay their welcome, and the science gets sillier as it goes on.

The Walking Dead2010

The obvious comparison, but it earned it: the gold standard of zombie television. Character development across seasons, genuine stakes, and a community learning to survive rather than just flee. Enormous scope where In the Flesh is intimate.

But By season five it's running on fumes. The show outstays its premise by several years, and the pacing becomes glacial in stretches.

Penny Dreadful2014

Gothic horror that cares about why monsters exist and what it costs them. Josh Hartnett and Eva Green are magnetic, the writing is genuinely literary, and it shares In the Flesh's interest in horror as metaphor for displacement.

But Aggressively bleak and sometimes overwrought. The second season loses focus, chasing spectacle instead of character depth.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from In the Flesh

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Suspiria2018

Both weaponise the specific constraints of their setting—a small Yorkshire town, an elite dance academy—to trap their characters and us with them. Both understand that horror is architectural.

A contemporary reimagining of the 1977 dance-horror classic, set in 1977 Berlin. Slow-burn supernatural horror that uses bodies and physicality to express psychological terror. Formally audacious and deeply unsettling, with a final hour that operates on pure dread.

But Glacial pacing and heavy atmosphere will exhaust viewers looking for conventional scares. The narrative is sometimes obscured by style, and it demands active engagement rather than passive watching.

Being Human2009

A vampire, a werewolf and a ghost flat-share and navigate the supernatural underworld while trying to pass as ordinary. Darkly funny, emotionally precise, and it understands how isolation warps people. The UK version is sharper than the US remake.

But Starts strong but runs out of story ideas by series four. Relies heavily on the chemistry of three actors who eventually feel trapped by their roles.

The OA2016

Experimental and strange in ways that feel honest rather than contrived. A woman returns from a mysterious disappearance with unexplained abilities, and nobody knows what to believe. Shares In the Flesh's interest in how communities respond to the impossible.

But Cancelled after two seasons on a cliffhanger. The mythology becomes baroque and sometimes impenetrable, which thrills some viewers and bores others.

The Fall2013

A slow-burn crime drama where the real horror is psychological. Stella Gibson pursues a serial killer across Belfast with meticulous focus. Shares the regional British specificity and the understanding that the most terrifying things are human.

But Deliberate pacing that some find glacial. The final season lost momentum, and you're watching a procedural with very little procedural satisfaction.

Yellowjackets2021

Teen girls survive a plane crash and return to their lives fundamentally altered. Oscillates between past and present, asking what survival costs you and whether you can ever integrate back. Tense, surprising, genuinely moving.

But The mythology balloons faster than the writing can contain it. Season two felt scattered and the central mystery became harder to invest in.

The Haunting of Hill House2018

Family horror that's genuinely interested in how trauma echoes across decades. Beautifully shot, impeccably acted, with scares that land because you care about the people experiencing them. Mike Flanagan at his best.

But Some viewers find the jump-scares derivative. The backstory reveal is elegant but takes a while, and patience is required.

Manifest2018

A plane lands five years late and passengers must reintegrate into a world that's moved on without them. The premise is closer to In the Flesh than you'd expect—displacement, suspicion, and the question of whether returning is actually safe.

But The mystery framework collapses under its own weight by season three. It becomes increasingly incoherent and was cancelled mid-plot, leaving everything unresolved.

News of the World2020

Both treat their central conflict as fundamentally about rehabilitation and reintegration into a community that doesn't want to change its mind. Both suggest that sometimes you can't go home because home never wanted you to leave in the first place.

Tom Hanks as a man who reads news to frontier towns, tasked with returning a girl raised by Natives to her white family. It's a Western that interrogates assimilation and belonging with quiet moral precision. Shares In the Flesh's interest in how communities respond to the 'other' moving through their space.

But Deliberately paced and meditative rather than driven by plot. Hanks' quietness reads as austere rather than moving for some. The film trusts you to find the emotion in silence.