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What is it about?The Tribe is a post-apocalyptic TV series primarily aimed at teenagers. It is set in a hypothetical near-future in which all adults have been wiped out by a deadly virus, leaving the children of the world to fend for themselves. The show's focus is on an unnamed city inhabited by tribes of children and teenagers. It was primarily filmed in and around Wellington, New Zealand.
The series was created by Raymond Thompson and Harry Duffin (from an original idea by Raymond Thompson) and was developed and produced by the Cloud 9 Screen Entertainment Group in conjunction with England's Channel Five. It has aired on broadcast networks around the world, including Five in the United Kingdom, WAM! in the United States and TV4 in New Zealand. Despite the show's international popularity, particularly in Europe, it gained little recognition in its native New Zealand.
It debuted on 24 April, 1999 and quickly gained a large fan base. From 1999 to 2003, five series and 260 half-hour episodes were produced. Series 6 was scheduled to begin filming in 2003, but Nick Wilson, of Channel 5, and Raymond Thompson felt that "although the show was still performing well, the cast was getting too old and the series was beginning to stretch the core proposition." The characters weren’t kids fending for themselves without adults anymore. As a result, the show was cancelled. Five aired the final two episodes on 6 September, 2003.
Basically, it's like the love child of "Mad Max" and "Degrassi".The Tribe was targeted primarily at an audience age of 11 to 18, though it has fans of all ages. Five series of The Tribe have been created, with 52 episodes per series, amounting to 260 episodes in the entire run.
The TV series starts about six to nine months after all the adults have been killed by an unknown Virus. The story is about the survival of the children and teenagers who are left on their own in and around an unnamed City. The world has become a primitive hell of anarchy, confusion, danger and fear. With no adults to guide, rule or protect them, the children of the world are on their own and need to build a New World they can live in.
The show mainly focuses on the Tribe of the Mall Rats. Its members are confronted with problems of technology (how to get clean water and some form of power) and problems of morality. The children deal with teenage issues (loves, fears, betrayals, ambitions, friendships) as well as bigger issues that threaten peace in their New World (finding an antidote to the Virus, bringing peace to the City, defeating the Locos, Chosen and Technos).
Personally, I'm mostly familiar with Series 5 (the last one), cuz that's the one that aired on WAM! when I got into it. They also aired Series 1 (in part) on SKY4 (a local independent station), but they have long since ceased airing it. Many local stations in the country air The Tribe.
The show is also on DVD in Europe. It's Region-2, but you can find it on Amazon UK. The cost roughly 18GBP, which is roughly US$30. But to get all 5 box sets, it'll cost close to $150-180.
Personally, I wish they'd do spin-offs in different countries, like how would the post-virus world be like in other major parts of the world. I've actually started coming up with an idea for a spin-off that takes place in post-virus New York City. I'd do it as a feature film, TV series, and expand it past that with character blogs and so on.