The Whispers Airs 6/1

The Whispers, ABC TV’s new series based on Ray Bradbury’s story “Zero Hour,” launches on June 1.

Phil Nichols says in his analysis of the original tale on Bradbury Media

Bradbury’s story is about an alien invasion with a difference. The alien – Drill – finds a way of communicating with Earth children.The children incorporate Drill’s ideas into their play, and eventually enable Drill to take over the Earth. Like John Wyndham in The Midwich Cuckoos, Bradbury manages to tap into something inherently frightening about children. Perhaps they are too innocent, so that they just have to be up to something.

But what Bradbury’s story is really about is… bad parenting. As with another of his classic short stories, “The Veldt”, the parents just don’t pay enough attention to the kids. They’ve got enough adult things to pre-occupy them, and would rather just send the kids off to play, or to sit in front of the TV. Their lack of interest in what their kids are up to, and specifically their lack of interest in the children’s play, becomes the parents’ downfall.

Watch the first five minutes of the initial episodes on YouTube:

4 thoughts on “The Whispers Airs 6/1

  1. I will be staying up past my bedtime to watch the premiere episode.

  2. So, I’m red-faced to say, I spent a few minutes trying to work out the puppy related pun in this headline.

    I like the setup aesthetics, it looks like one of those happy family paint commercials.

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