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Z Nation is a show that has a lot of inconsistencies as I have noted in one of my Chills and Thrills blogs. This is a production from SyFy and, as you may know, they are not famous for the most highend productions. Even so, it is really enjoyable and the quality seems to fluctuate through the seasons and which of the characters they are focusing on. But if you are looking for something more toned down than The Walking Dead, with lots of hilarious absurdity then this is possibly it.
The twist with Z Nation is that unlike other shows, you do not witness the outrageous story of the start of the zombie outbreak. Instead, Z Nation picks up three years after the outbreak. A group of survivors makes their way to Murphy the only person to have survived a zombie bite. In a bid to save the remains of humanity, he and the members of their group have to travel from New York to California to upgrade the viral lab. Murphy is their best hope for a cure, and it’s the only working lab left. However, Murphy has secrets he has been hiding that will set them all up for disaster.
There are plenty of enjoyable characters in the show, even though they do tend to stick to clichés, but Z Nation is not intended to be sophisticated or unique, so it is not a problem. Roberta Warren is one of the other primary characters in this series and apart from Murphy, she has the most screen time. I found it funny how Roberta’s character was overly trying to be a badass and how a lot of her lines were, at times, cringe-worthy. She did end up growing on me a bit, but it was that character that made it hard to slog through the earlier stuff.
The main highlight for me was Murphy, who is their last glimmer of hope, and is absolutely captivating yet incredibly self-serving. I must give credit to Keith Allan as I believe few would be able to pull off his paradoxical character. In certain ways he is extremely lucky, seeing as he was a prison whom underwent harsh experimentation. That being said, Murphy poses one of the main problems alongside the zombies. This issue transforms into one of the foremost problems for the main gang; are they actually able to make Murphy care for something that isn’t just himself? While the possibility of salvation walks him in a semi constant state of sarcasm, and he is a slippery fish trying to avoid the last human’s Herculean task. At least he does manage to remain somewhat of a decent person, although it does make him forever unlikable, because he is always making those morally questionable decisions.
I find that other characters, like Doc, 10K, and Citizen Z, are equally interesting. They are able to display a similar kind of dark humor as Murphy. The remaining regulars like Addy and Mack are rather tiresome, shallow, and in the end, a little too bland. These are the episodes that focus on the “normal” characters that tend to slow down the pacing of Z Nation, which is often fast. But, there are plenty of supporting characters throughout Z Nation that help break the tedium, and within moments the chaos resumes.
For me, the series was strongest in the first three seasons, after which it felt like the writers weren’t really sure what the direction of the show was. The somewhat silly humor was far less present. As with most zombie heavy TV shows, it becomes less and less about the apocalypse and the zombies, and focuses more on all the terrible things that humanity does. But that happens in the last two seasons, and there is still a lot of fun and violent zombie action pretty much throughout. Thankfully, zombies, although less focused on in the later seasons, never become less of a threat to humans.
However, Z Nation does take a unique approach towards the zombies, as there is a lot of debate if they are truly undead, or if they exist in between the living and dying. And that subsequently leads to a lot of conflict with Murphy and the gang. They also touch on a lot of post-apocalyptic themes like nuclear armageddon, cannibalism, food scarcity, zombie children and animals and much more.
The central attraction is still the unfortunate comedy which is absurd, corrupted, and often simply foolish. Z Nation never really takes itself seriously, which is a good thing and much needed relief in a TV landscape that is more pessimistic. And if one can overlook its poor budget and some rough graphics, Z Nation is a total beating the undead whack-a-mole bloodbath.
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