You know you were thinking it, if you didn’t actually shout it while watching the series premiere, “Puppies and Kittens,” of Z Nation on Syfy this weekend.
By the way, spoilers abound ahead, so you’ve been warned.
First off, color me surprised that they killed off Hammond in the end of the first episode? And method of death? Zombie baby and mom? Nice.
I was quite skeptical of Z Nation. Trailers didn’t impress me much, and I’m a huge fan of The Walking Dead (TV show and graphic novels, though I’m woefully behind in the latter). But I enjoy zombie entertainment, so I figured all I had to lose was less than an hour of my life (if you DVR it and fast-forward through the commercials, it’s pretty speedy).
They went a little heavy on the humor, I thought, and that’s not such a bad thing. The Walking Dead is relentless. A fantastic show, but the mood is rarely lifted during an episode. They also sped through some major plot points, and I appreciated that.
In one episode, we got the backstory to how these folks got together, the military background of those with a military background, a glance at everyone’s fighting abilities, confirmation that it’s a virus and there are parts of the U.S. government and military still at work, though they’re kind of just going through the motions, because they don’t really know what else to do.
We know the zombies are of the speedy variety – but they also seem rather intelligent. I mean, for undead, mindless flesh-eaters. When they pretended to be floating in the river to get into the Blue Sky compound? Color me surprised. That showed planning, cooperation and tactics. The zombies in The Walking Dead do not have that. That’s about all Rick and Co. have going for them.
It also appeared that the zombies purposely used the school bus to trick the crew who’d been outside the compound. The baby hid under the car to draw Hammond’s attention down there while his mommy zombie jumped from above.
This is not normal zombie behavior. Whatever “normal” zombie behavior is, of course.
So the guy we expected to lead us into the zombie nation gets eaten by a baby in the first episode, and we’re left with this ragtag bunch:
That’s a pretty ragtag bunch, though they look pretty clean for three years past the zombie apocalypse. I also had to wonder how on earth Hammond had never gotten off the East Coast. They actually expect to make it to California?
Anyway, we still have some mysteries: What Cassandra’s story is, and how and why she got locked in a cage (I’m not sure I quite believe her story about locking herself in there). What 10K’s story is (he’s the quiet guy who blew the hole in the head of the zombie attacking Doc (our resident old guy). I mean …
I was kind of hoping for Roberta to take over the mantle of leadership rather than having Charles in Charge. I mean, Charles is no Ricktator. And meanwhile, we have Citizen Z going all Christian Slater up at the North Pole, broadcasting whatever his equipment sees to whomever might be receiving his signal.
Speaking of – who else wanted to punch Charles when he threw the radio down at the ground just because the battery was out. I mean, this is the only person in the world who can help him on the other end of the signal, and he just tosses the radio away while still deciding to go on with the mission? SMH.
Addy and Mack are our Maggie and Glenn – the cute young couple who take on zombies together. And if they’re not actually already a couple, they’re gonna be by the next episode, I’d imagine. I liked Addy and her bat-swinging abilities.
So, I really didn’t expect Z Nation to be worth much of anything. And it was more than halfway decent. Whether it manages to remain so, remains to be seen. But I’ll stick around for a while longer.
All photos via SyFy’s Z Nation.