The second episode was a lot better than I expected. The A-Story at the refinery was well done, and I got a kick out of the fountain of oil-slick zombies. They also threw in some legitimate characterization among the shenanigans, especially the PTSD of the immune guy. The B-Story was even better. Last week, I got the impression that Citizen Z would be a whacked-out Radio Free Zombie DJ, cheerleading the group on from his little base in the Arctic. But his desperation at losing touch with the lab and other points of contact, increasing isolation, and bonding with the dog was pretty touching. You're missing the point. It's camp. It doesn't "jibe." It's supposed to be "jive." Yes.
Eh, he looks like he was in a bad crash and was put back together by aliens who weren't sure what a human body is supposed to look like. No, "camp" has a different quality to it. Camp doesn't take itself quite so seriously. Nor am I sure what is supposed to campy about clean-looking, well-fed, humans in a years-old zombie apocalypse. Camp is supposed to be funny, on purpose, to more-or-less make fun of something. "Zombieland" is closer to being "camp" on a ZA scenario. Yes... of course.
Yeah I'm not buying that this is meant to be purely camp (and if it is, then a lot of the jokes are falling really flat). I only got halfway through the second episode before giving up, but there were plenty of moments that were clearly trying to be scary and intense (like when DJ Qualls hunts down the zombie dog), and the show just failed completely at it. Instead of camp it just comes across as lazy and uninspired.
Some comic relief will be welcome after lasts weeks episode with cannibals stripping and eating the flesh off live victims.
Have I acclimatized to this bolloks, or is it getting better? This is the moment it turned around for me. [yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sUdFVafvbk[/yt]
Actually, the show has surprised me-- it veers wildly between high camp and character drama, but it keeps my attention. The stuff with Doc in the air duct and Ten Thousand's flashbacks was pretty good. And Citizen Z's long-distance crush and imaginary conversation as he slowly comes apart from the isolation was kind of touching. Even the crazy general merited some sympathy after all he had seen and been through. But, man, the washed-out palette is driving me crazy. I know blandness is kewl these days, but tone it down a bit-- or, rather, tone it up.
It's definitely watchable and entertaining in it's own way, especially considering there isn't anything else on Friday night.
SyFy must be hard up because they just gave Z Nation a second season: http://www.google.com/url?url=http://www.spoilertv.com/2014/10/z-nation-renewed-for-2nd-season.html
Any body else still watching this? I've been pleasantly surprised by the quality of the show. It's not The Walking Dead as far as the writing goes, but they still manage to do a decent job. The zombie effects have held up quiet well too. If I didn't know (and hadn't seen the Znado episode) I would never guess this was an Asylum production at this point.
I caught the zombie tsunami episode and thought it was OK. It was let down by a couple of really really really cheap doors but wasn't too bad, kept me watching until the end which is actually a decent compliment these days.
Yep, still watching. ^Expensive, strong, heavy doors, in a morgue? I thought "Zunami" was one of it's best so far. Not the biggest budget for gore-FX they've ever had, and I once found myself wondering why all zombies have a limp lol, but the drama was very taught. Probably the most dramatic episode yet. It was good to finally get a bit more story with Citizen Z than usual. I knew the device he struck with the bat was a smoke/carbon monoxide detector when I saw it, but the Cosmonaut mystery became so engaging that it still managed to distract me from realizing he was hallucinating. Watching Murphy walk that tightrope between remaining human / possibly becoming a full blown zombie is pretty kick ass.
When the zombies broke through, the wood looked about as substantial as the wings on the little balsa wood airplanes my dad bought me as a kid.
I'm still watching and enjoying. I agree, the only thing Asylum about the show is the drab color palette. It's too bad they can't do this well with their movies. The plight of Citizen Z in his isolation is really the strong point of the show. I knew the cosmonaut was a hallucination as soon as I saw the CCCP on his helmet-- I really doubt if they're still wearing those. But his emotional breakdown when he thought the cosmonaut had poisoned his dog was heartbreaking. The loneliness is going to drive him bonkers for real eventually. The morgue storyline was very tense, although the sequences where we heard the thoughts of the group was amusing. I loved Doc's reminiscing. And 10k just fell asleep. But Murphy really proved to be total scum in this episode, stealing from that family and then letting the dead father in to kill them. And then soaking up the accolades. I'm really hoping that family survives and he is confronted with what he did. Wow.
This show might allow some concepts we will never see on The Walking Dead--like maybe Rick and The Group in Antonio bay right as THE FOG rolls in. I can see intelligent zombies, supernatural zombies fighting plague zombies--maybe a send up of Spanish horror (The Blind Dead) This series could allow for more off kilter takes.