Z Nation Season 1

Z Nation is a zombie show in an apocalypse situation. Although there are inevitable similarities to The Walking Dead, it treads very different territory with a completely different attitude. It starts in an outbreak situation with inmates being experimented on to create a vaccine for the Z1N1 virus. One actually works, but the recipient gets mauled by zombies right afterwards. Fast forward three years and society has collapsed. A hodgepodge group of survivors commits to transport the immune man, Murphy, to a CDC facility in California. The other part of the group is Citizen Z, a sole survivor in Arctic's Northern Lights NSA listening post. He uses his high-tech equipment to tap into cameras everywhere to help the group. They start in New York and slowly but surely making their way to California and encounter friends, depraved groups, and lots of zombies along the way.

The show is made by The Asylum production company, responsible for films like Sharknado, so the tone is sometimes cheesy and silly plus the effects at times are not good quality. The humor is nice because people aren't all serious all the time. The tone also sets it apart from other movies and shows that have similar situations. Some scenes are so ridiculous I can't help but laugh. A few of such scenes include a zunami (zombie tsunami), a zombie bear I could have photoshopped better, a horrible looking zombie baby, Viagra zombies, and a tornado that everyone improbably survives. Also, so many of the villains are over the top caricatures who should be tying a girl to some railroad tracks. I don't always like these parts, but it is nice to have a less than serious show in an apocalypse situation. I simply roll my eyes at the bad parts and keep enjoying the good parts. Another part of the cheesiness is the over the top gore of zombie killing, which meshes well with the horror-comedy vibe.

Z Nation has a lot going for it: an interesting premise and especially the intriguing, well developed characters. I didn't expect to even like any of the characters because movies like Sharknado are all about being really cheesy and fun with not much substance underneath it. These characters are all different and interesting in their own right. My favorite is Murphy, the zombie immune curmudgeon. His mental and physical state changes throughout the course of the season. He starts out as an asshole and that part doesn't really change. However, as the season goes on, he becomes more zombie like and does things that range from morally questionable to downright evil. About mid-season, zombies don't register him as human and near the end of the season, he discovers his zombie immune state comes with some interesting powers. I love that such a gray character who does some awful things might actually save the world. The season is one of self discovery for him and he has to decide what to do with his new found power. Roberta Warren was surprising. Her relationship with Tom first reminded me of Mal and Zoe from Firefly, but it organically evolved into a romantic relationship. After he died, she hurt and made some bad decisions, but she successfully took his place as badass, no-nonsense leader. Addy is my last favorite character, accomplished zombie slayer and tortured by suppressed memories of the first zombie day. She gets a different character arc from the others and works through her debilitating trauma.

The episodes get better as they go along. The first few episodes have absolutely painful dialog, but the writers get to know the characters and actors better as it goes along. Some of the episodes are typical zombie apocalypse fare (cannibals, weirdos, running out of supplies, etc.). Others are much different if a bit over the top. The group encounters radioactive zombies, nuclear bombs, zombie worshippers, a society of misandrist women, a Russian astronaut, and of course Murphy. Episode 8 is where I really needed to see the next episode. In the previous episodes, characters were a little uneven or the cheesiness was too great. In one particular episode, Doc somehow avoids being crushed by a giant flaming zombie and in the few minutes the group actually think he's dead, no one even seems to care. Moments like that made it hard to watch, but I'm glad I kept with it. I do like that unlike the Walking Dead, sometimes people just die with no buildup. It's just a split second decision or mistake that takes someone's life. The Walking Dead builds up the character more to make it hurt the audience more, but if the characters are competently written and not forgotten in the background for most of the seasons, this shouldn't be an issue.

Z Nation is a bit of a mess, but it's fun, different from the zombie shows out there, and has some of the most interesting characters. The second season has just started and it's literally explosive beginning had me on the edge of my seat. I hope the show continues to get better and better and amasses a faithful audience. I was first interested in it because Rhiannon Frater, author of the As the World Dies series, wrote about it every week and now is involved with a podcast that comments on each episode. Z Nation season 1 is available on Netflix and season 2 airs on Friday nights on SyFy channel.

My rating: 7/10

The Walking Dead: Season 5

Well, I couldn't wait and bingewatched season 5 as well so I could be all caught up for season 7 and Fear the Walking Dead. Here are my spoilerly thoughts on the season,.

The Good

* The Opening Scene of Episode 1

Fuck. No punches are pulled. It's crazy and gory. I have so many questions yet I'm so horrified by everything that's happening. Terminus is obviously a super fucked up place and what Woodbury really should have been two seasons ago. I'm glad they finally explored an organized place that is nefarious and uninterested in doing anything but survive at any cost.

* Carol

I didn't think I could like her any more than I already do. She singlehandedly saves Rick and the group from the Terminus psychos. She is smart and capable, but still has feelings, old wounds, and a caring side. She makes mistakes, gets exhausted, and always stays human, but her bravery despite her fear and against such odds is wonderful. I'm so glad of her existence after the abhorrent treatment of Andrea a few seasons ago. Her past confronts her when a wife beater is allowed to continue his abuse at the Community. It really highlights how much she's changed in addition to the deft way she manipulates people into finding her inconsequential and weak,

* What is moral?

At the time, Rick's drive to kill all the Terminus psychos seemed a little extreme. After Bob's leg is on the spit being eaten by those same people Rick wanted to kill, his fervor doesn't seem so misplaced. Carol wants to at least injure a man for stealing her and Daryl's weapons, but Daryl stops her. Is she right to do so? Should she just accept dying due to lack of resources instead of fighting for her livelihood back?

* Bob

I kind of hated him last season when he got people killed to get alcohol to fuel his addiction. He completely turned it around this season and became a productive member of the team. So then of course he dies. But before he did, his cackling at the cannibals eating his tainted meat was priceless.

* Beth

Beth used to just be there: not a horrible character, but not great either. Last season, she became someone interesting and now she's a badass. She may not be the most physically strong person, but she's clever and knows how to survive. Her quiet strength in the face of the idiots at the Grady Memorial Hospital earned her so many brownie points. So of course she's killed and I cried everywhere.

* Grady Memorial Hospital

Beth is essentially kidnapped and held hostage by a group of delusional people who think the world will just get better one day. It quickly becomes clear that there's something rotten there. The police officers are the ruling class and can do whatever they want: hit, rape, kill, and even enslave people. The worst is that they manipulate people into buying into their bullshit. The leader, Officer Dawn Lerner, seems earnest, but then doesn't hesitate to beat a man for something she knows he didn't do or force medical attention on someone who clearly doesn't want it. It's interesting to see how people with dubious morality cope and control others in this situation.

* The nonlinear plotlines

It's cool to see a little bit of what everyone is doing. I liked the variety and it was much better done than in past seasons. It jumps to each group pretty evenly without staying with anyone too long.

* The struggle to trust people

Lots of people along the way have been evil or cannibals or just batshit nuts. When a new opportunity at a community pops up, they aren't as eager as they were before. Terminus and Woodbury really burned them, so it's surprising to me that so many of them are eager to risk their lives.

* The first gay couple on the show

Eric and Aaron are just adorable together. Aaron fights to sleep next to his boyfriend during the night despite Rick's concern and his itchy trigger finger. I'm glad the show didn't change just because some homophobes went on Twitter to complain.

* The Alexandria Safe Zone

Deanna just exudes genuine niceness and I do believe she nice, but too nice.. She puts her idiot, privileged son in his place and seems to succeed at being fair and good at managing the community. Later in the series, she's shown to be just terrible. Her idiot son and her inept people cause deaths. Deanna allows corrupt people do what they want because of their usefulness to their community. She allows a woman to be beaten because her disgusting husband is a surgeon. Her solution to wrongdoers is to exile them instead of kill them. The whole thing is revealed to be horribly run, easy to circumvent their rules, and ripe for taking over. I hope Rick's group takes over and runs it competently. They know how things work and have tried being merciful before. It always bites them in the ass with people coming back for revenge.

It's so bizarre to see clean people, normal looking houses, and nice clothes. It broke my heart when Carl seemed lost when the other teens wanted to do normal teen things. It's also interesting to see if they really do have good intentions or not. So far, they've proven themselves to be inept and are just waiting around for someone to take them over. Sasha's reaction at the dinner party was perfect in showing the absurdity of these people's inane worries over life on the outside. That life that can quickly become their lives with only a few mistakes. These people have been insulated from reality. They simply haven't had to be brave or make hard decisions. When things go bad, these people are quick to let others die and save their own skins.

* Rick

Rick may sound crazy, but he's right. He's become broken a little (maybe a lot), but it's made him strong and he knows how to survive. How far is too far though?

* Wolves

New villain for next season!  W's on walkers' foreheads and mutilated corpses have been present in the last half of the season. They seem creepy as fuck and super bad news. Can't wait for next season!

The Bad

* Gabriel, the Idiot Priest

Father Gabriel hid in his church and allowed people to die outside of it before Rick's group even met him. The priest is icked out by everything that reminds him of reality: the hard decisions, the necessity of weapons, protecting themselves, etc. He treats Rick's group like they are monsters when he is in reality much more monstrous because he stood by and let his people die. There's way too much of him. He runs around scared outside and then expects the group he just escaped from to come and save him. He offers Maggie solace, but he doesn't know anything about her grief. Ugh. Just annoying. Then he tells Deanna that Rick and his group are literally Satan and they want to destroy the community. Really??? But wait, there's more. He lets walkers into the community and then goes all crazy on Sasha when she just wanted some reassurance.

* Tyrese's, Bob's, and Noah's Deaths

Tyrese's death seems unnecessary and anticlimactic after Beth's death plus the hallucinations of other dead characters just came off as gimmicky. All the others are just more contrived emotions and don't really give much to the story.

* Super fast character development right before their death

The Walking Dead writers seem to only care about character development for minor characters right before they die so it hurts more. It would be nice if they just organically developed instead of using something that should be an inherent part of the story to hamhandedly emotionally manipulate the audience.

Overall, The Walking Dead is the first season in a long time that I had so few complaints about. I'm glad I powered through season 4 and I can't wait to see what season 6 holds in store.

Antisocial

* spoilers *

Sam's New Year's Eve starts out horribly. Her boyfriend dumps her over text message and blasts it all over The Social Red Room, the social network everyone uses. To forget her problems for a little while, she decides to go to a party her friends are throwing. Then the world goes insane. Earlier, there were a few violent murders in the news, but nothing out of the ordinary. Now, people everywhere are becoming wildly violent. The group of friends is under attack and suspicious of each other. They surf social networks to connect with other survivors, but what is the catalyst for the uncontrolled rage? Can Sam and her group of hapless friends figure it out before it's too late?

I had no idea going in that Antisocial was a zombie film, so it was a nice surprise. The premise is essentially that Facebook (or Red Room) is turning people into zombies. The film is part convention film and part found footage. The beginning credits features a montage of two teenagers getting ready to do a video review of some clothes they bought. Then one of them attacks the other and a series of horrific images follows as they battle it out. I loved these little found footage moments illustrating what's going on outside of the main characters. I actually found the teenagers' story to be more compelling than the college age main characters. When each of the characters is introduced, their Social Red Room profile is flashed across the screen and we can see all the ridiculous and cliche stuff they post on there. Except for Sam and Jed, the other characters are fairly interchangeable and shallow. I don't really care when they start dying and making dumb decisions. Throughout the film, most of the characters are stuck on social networking still. It makes the situation more real for them and shows how many people are dying and losing their minds.

The zombie disease starts with bleeding from the ears and nose. Then the delusions come, typically shown with calls from unknown people, flashes of weirdness on their phones, people encouraging them to attack, and ropy tentacles bursting from various body parts. Then, the infected turns into a rage fueled machine that attacks anyone around it. The afflicted aren't dead and the disease is similar to the one in 28 Days Later. The disease is caused by the Social Red Room. A new update strengthened a subliminal pattern in their website. It was always there to fuel the addiction to the site, but this new one causes all these new symptoms in the form of a tumor. This development also critiques business practices that sell a product, but put their customer base at risk.

Every single person I talked to about this movie asked if it was a documentary, which I found hilarious. A lot of people let social networking negatively affect their real lives and focus way too much on their profiles and online friends rather than what happens in real life. Just look at people tied to their phones in every situation: out with friends, driving, at school, watching a movie, etc. No thought is given whether this use is rude or flat out dangerous. The dark side of social networking also includes cyberbullying and harassment. On the other hand, constant social networking is how the main characters quickly found out something was much worse than a few isolated attacks. They also connected with another survivor, figured out the initial symptoms, and eventually discovered the cause and cure. The message seems to be that social networking is much too prevalent in the typical person's life, but can be very useful in regard to communication and relaying information.

Overall, Antisocial is a decent film. The acting is tolerable. The story is unique and very relevant. The cinematography is on point, particularly the scene with ditzy Caitlin attacking her friends wrapped in Christmas lights. Jed was my favorite character because he was the most realistic. He didn't let his love for his friends get in the way of his survival. It sounds callous, but there was nothing he could do for them. My only problems with the film are the fairly bland and interchangeable characters and Sam's pregnancy. The pregnancy didn't really add anything to the story and seemed out of place. Other than that, Antisocial is a solid zombie film. The sequel comes out later this year and I'm eager to see if it's as good.

My rating: 8/10 fishmuffins

Dust

Jessie is a teenager who died in a car accident with her parents and rose up with them as a zombie. Instead of worrying about boys or school, she worries about enough food to eat and where she is on the pecking order in her zombie gang in Calumet County, Indiana. Despite the obvious negatives of being a zombie like losing limbs and rotting away, Jessie's existence is pretty normal. She has people she cares about who are like her and a place in the world. Unfortunately, some people don't understand this and that misunderstanding will put world-altering events into motion.

Dust is an odd book that I don't entirely like or dislike. It's more of an experience that I'm glad I had. I enjoyed many aspects of it. The zombies are quite different than a lot of other stories. Zombies have existed for hundreds of years at this point, but throughout history, their populations haven't been big enough for anything amounting to more than rumors. Now, zombie gangs roam around, eating people and animals along the way. The zombies have many physical differences from humans: elongated sharper teeth, larger brains, slower decomposition rate, and alternate ways of communication. Since zombies are largely too damaged to speak, they have brain radios that communicate through music. Each person has their own particular tune that changes with their mood or state of mind. Sometimes they all spontaneously dance together to their unique music. This sounds cheesy, but it's well written and beautiful in the book. Zombies have different classifications depending on their state of decomposition. 'Maldies are zombies who were embalmed and beautified. Feeders are infested with bugs. Bloaters are in the second stage of decomposition where gas is released from the intestines. Dusties are zombies in their last stage before death when they are mostly dried out. These new zombie aspects were the most enjoyable part of the book.

Jessie didn't get to live very long as a human, but she enjoys her zombie life. She has friends; she's good at fighting; she sort of has a boyfriend. She feels complete and has a place in the world. Her sister just assumed that because Jessie is a zombie that she is suffering and unhappy. With no way to communicate, this isn't an outlandish assumption, but it leads to the devastation of both human and zombiekind. A new disease makes their differences practically disappear. Humans start eating raw flesh until they're sick. Zombies regenerate and start to breathe again. Once the disease progresses, the vast majority of the infected die.

This is the part where the book loses its way. Instead of a coherent story, it goes off into an odd, existential direction where death speaks to Jessie. People are thought dead and then come back to die again and come back. The ending kind of just falls apart and I had to work to finish. It's supposed to be dream-like and surreal, but the plot just screeches to a halt. The first 3/4's of the book did a great job of building the world and developing it. The one problem I had with the beginning was that people still buried their dead. It's undeniable that zombies exist, so why isn't cremation or the removal of the head standard? Burying the dead just contributes to zombies that will eat people later. It just doesn't make sense in this world. Dust does some new and interesting things with zombies, but because of the last bit of the book, I have no interest in continuing with the series. I'm glad I experienced it, but I have no desire to return to that world.

My rating: 2/5 fishmuffins

Contracted: Phase II

Riley is having a horrible time: he finally had sex with his long-time crush Samantha who had some sort of weird disease. He immediately goes to the doctor to get checked out and then goes about his daily life. It's pretty clear that he does have the disease and is unwittingly spreading it around by bleeding everywhere. The disease is also spreading everywhere outside of his immediate circle, causing quarantines in local hospitals. Riley's search to find the creator of the disease BJ makes him a target and BJ starts stalking and harassing him. Can Riley find a cure for this zombie disease?

Contracted wasn't a perfect film, but it was enjoyable and unique. Contracted: Phase II doesn't really take anything from the first movie and is simply a generic zombie/body horror film with no subtley, good acting, or really anything interesting, The only good part about the movie is the gore and the practical effects: very squicky and realistic looking. Other than that, I pretty much hated everything. Phase II starts right where the first one left off: with zombified Samantha killing people. She dies in literally the first minute of the sequel, but not before killing her mother. Then the rest of the movie focuses on Riley, whiny guy with an unrequited crush on Samantha. I hated him in the last movie for prioritizing his own feelings (and his penis) over helping Samantha. She clearly needed help and he simply took advantage of her plus he saw her being raped and did nothing. I don't really want to watch a movie about him, but at least he's infected with a zombie STD. He pretty much goes through much of what Samantha did in the first film: discovering he is infected, trying to go about his daily life and failing, and infecting everyone around him. If it was covered in the last film, it really doesn't need to be done again.

Phase II is completely different from the first. The camera work goes shaky and out of focus at times without rhyme or reason. Even the zombie disease has different symptoms. Riley is prone to fits of ear pain with high pitched sounds, which never happened in the first film. The only symptoms that are the same are red eyes and the maggot/meal worms. Continuity errors are all over when Riley sometimes has red eyes and sometimes doesn't. Makeup and blood doesn't match from the scene prior super obviously. It's like there wasn't any effort to be consistent from scene to scene. One of the most infuriating scenes has Riley killing a zombie girl with a knife through the back of the mouth. How does that even remotely make sense? There's also a pointless scene were Riley cuts the worms out of him with a knife while very badly acting in pain. The bad acting is just everywhere. If I never see Riley's face twisted in over the top pain again, I will be truly happy. The only person who acted worse was Crystal, the police officer. Her affect is so flat she seems to have no emotions at all. Her first scene had her drinking tea about 20 times, but clearly faking it. Why would she even do this? So unnecessary and distracting. Plus every single thing out of her mouth is delivered ineptly and insincerely. Her character makes the worst decisions ever like going to BJ's house to investigate by herself with no backup.

Contracted: Phase II fails on pretty much every level. It's a little gross, but gore doesn't create suspense or compelling characters or an interesting story. The majority of the film just retreads what the last film did with a different, more unlikeable character. The whole film is pointless. Riley seems to be wanting to make BJ give him the cure, but I never believed for a second that he would be able to. The film is just him roaming around, infecting all of his loved ones with zombie disease and stumbling around like a moron. The ending is painfully obvious and there aren't any real surprises. If you liked the first Contracted, you'll be disappointed. If you're looking for a generic, formulaic zombie movie, you might enjoy it. I didn't and I wouldn't recommend it.

My rating: 2/10 fishmuffins

Zombie Tunes

More zombie songs! Got any favorites I haven't covered? Please comment!

1) The Spin Wires - Reckless



This super upbeat song hides the bleakness of the subject matter. I could totally dance to this song about a hopeless fight against the undead. The narrator will obviously fight against the horde as long as he can, but he's got no friends and no reason to live. This is the perfect song to play Kill All Zombies (for PS4) and a perfect theme song.

2) Pushing Pencils - Of Course Not



I'm a sucker for a cute zombie romance song. This song has it all: a slow romantic beginning, a rockin' middle, and a brain eating ending. Zombies can never resist the allure of brains, even for love. It's a very cute and catchy song with fun contrasting parts. I also love that the video is a mixture of a conventional performance video and a lyric video in one. The graphic words just add to the fun.

3) Levitika - Zombie Barbie



This song hooked me right from the distorted "Merrily Merrily..." right at the beginning. The lead singer's outfits are insane: there's the very first look with the crazy contacts and infected skin, then the glow in the dark sugar skull look, and lastly the perfect pink Barbie in a box look. This instance of zombie is about conformity: adhering to plastic, unrealistic beauty standards and losing yourself as a result. The look is on point. The song is relevant and enjoyable to listen to. The lead singer's vocals are the right balance of lyrical and raw.

More zombie fun to come!

Current Zombies Coming to Get You: Z Nation

Z Nation Season 2 is starting tonight! I bingewatched the first season about a week ago and it's a weird mix of cool characters, over the top cheesiness, humor, and cool characters. I recommend you give it a chance. Although comparisons to The Walking Dead are inevitable, it's simply a different show that diverts greatly after the initial similar premise. Here are some shots of the craziness this season with a guaranteed explosive beginning:

You can also play an awesome interactive game in a choose your adventure style that puts you right into the show and the quest to find Murphy. Try it here! It doesn't like Chrome, but I know it definitely works in Firefox. Enjoy!