Review Guide:
Episode 1.01 Pilot - Review & Advanced Preview
Episode 1.02 Fracking Zombies - Review
Episode 1.03 Philly Feast - Review
Episode 1.04 Full Metal Zombie - Review
Episode 1.05 Home Sweet Zombie - Review
Episode 1.06 Resurrection Z - Review
Episode 1.07 Welcome to the FU-Bar - Review
Episode 1.08 Zunami - Review
Episode 1.09 Die Zombie Die...Again - Review
Episode 1.10 Going Nuclear Review
Episode 1.11 Sisters of Mercy Review
Episode 1.12 Murphy's Law - Review
Episode 1.13 Doctor of the Dead (Season Finale) - Review
Z Nation - Fracking Zombies - Review
This episode was spent mainly on a detour to a refinery filling up on gas that will get them all the way to California. Nothing much really happened in the episode besides them killing loads of Zombies as per usual, which isn't a bad thing as there were some sweet kills such as when they ran down some with the truck.
We spend some more time with Citizen Z in this episode, who at this point in my opinion is kind of getting on my nerves. When he is trying to contact people he starts shouting and it gets a little irritating, especially when he keeps saying things like "delta x-ray do you copy" over and over. Also, DJ Qualls acting is terrible; he delivers one of the weakest performances on the show. I am hoping over time it improves. Anyway, the first scene we see of him he is trying to contact Mount Wilson in regards to operation bite-mark. He does eventually get in touch with them, but by this point their facility is being overrun by zombies. He manages to access their mainframe and shut off power to their fences so they can get out. If this is the CDC where Murphy is meant to be going, what is the point if when they get there it will likely be overrun; it just seems like a waste of gas. I am willing to bet when they get to California that the CDC will be abandoned.
When they do get to the refinery they split off in teams to try and get the gas pumping. Mack and Addy head off to turn of the loud noise being broadcast which was attracting the zombies. Cassandra and the biker, who she later kills, went to create a distraction using a pendant type thing. Doc and Murphy waited at a distance from the refinery as obviously they can't risk Murphy for some gas.
There were some individual scenes I liked from the episode such as the scene with Murphy and Doc in the car before he drove off that is. They were playing go fish and we got to see a flashback to when Murphy got bit.
He had been bitten 8 times; he did create story up, which he told Doc. It was him volunteering for the vaccine to make him out to be a hero of sorts, which we know isn't true. I do like Murphy; he is probably my favorite character out of the bunch, followed by Doc. They both add a bit of comedic value to the show which is needed for me continue watching. I also liked the scene when 10k saves Doc's life again; he uses his slingshot to help Doc take out the zombies surrounding the car. We do find out that his name he has given himself is a goal he has set for how many zombies he wants to kill. His kill count currently sits at 1062; I reckon he will make it to 10k as he seems to be a very strong survivor. The last we see of the team is when they receive a phone call from Citizen Z. I get how electronics work where Citizen Z is, but can someone please explain how a telephone works in the middle of nowhere?
It looked just as bad as the Zombie baby we saw in the previous episode. The dog by the way also didn't get bit, it just turned. So in Z Nation anything and everything can turn. I am waiting for next week to see a zombie cat or perhaps a zombie horse. Citizen Z is trying to kill the zombie dog. This sequence played out nearly the same like with Hammond and the baby. Citizen Z walked around searching for the dog, and then it suddenly showed up. Only this time the character didn't die. The whole thing felt a bit like deja vu and felt unnecessary and just a way to pass the time.
Summary
Episode 2 was an improvement from the last one, we see more creative ways to kill zombies and get a bit of character development as well. However, I wonder if they will be spending the whole episode in one place as the slow pacing of things can sometimes be a little boring to watch, especially if there is no real interesting conversation between our characters or a lot of character development happening. I can see what the show is trying to create, and I think given time it could prove to be a decent show.
As always , thank you for reading! Let me know in the comments what you thought of the episode!
I actually liked this episode. I gave it a 6.0, up from the 3.5 i gave the pilot. I not sure if that was because, my whole Friday night lineup was campy this week, or that it was a better episode? But i'll stick around for at least 2 more episodes.
ReplyDeleteIt was much better than the pilot , which was a mess. I didn't mind the episode , but I don't like how they spend so much time in one place especially if nothing really happens.
ReplyDeleteWhat other "campy shows" were you watching?
Doctor Who and Utopia (UK) are a little campy. A much better tone than Invasion and The Leftovers, which i watched with the pilot.
ReplyDeleteNext week i'll be up to 28 weekly series, so i'll move Haven to Fridays, and Grimm will be back in a few weeks, that will fit well as a lead in for it.
Yeah Doctor who is. I haven't watched this series really only the first episode. Don't really enjoy it anymore. I only watch 15 shows in fall (including brand new ones) , and they will probably take up a lot of time , but 28? is that including new ones (shows not aired yet)?
ReplyDeleteYes 28 including new ones. Next week my count is up, because of a few summer shows are still on, with a lot of fall premieres. But then they end, and i get a several in October to replace them. Funny thing, just a couple of years ago, i was watching about 10 a week. Now i follow around 80 a year. I going to have to trim that number. ; )
ReplyDeletedamn 80 shows , I don't think I could keep track of all of them. lol.
ReplyDeleteI have a follow, episodes watched, and current lineup lists on tv.com. Over half are short season series (8-13 eps). About twenty of the series, start this fall or mid-season though. And half a dozen are old series, i didn't have time to watch, when they were on. Plus i watch a season of Lost and Battlestar Galactica every summer.
ReplyDeleteI watch LOST nearly every summer as well. Its my favorite series. I don't have a problem dropping something. I dropped Bates Motel , Vikings and Under The Dome this year after each of there second seasons made me bored to death.
ReplyDeleteYes, it improved a bit with some development on a couple of characters compared to the pilot. I hope there is some movement over the course of the season, in terms of being able to make it as far west as they can before the season finale with some hard-earned gains and multiple creative ways of killing zombies and making them (tiyanaks and chompy dogs) for me to enjoy. :D
ReplyDeleteI just hope they make it to California before the finale ,as I would hate for them to drag that out till next season (if there will be a next season). The show is getting more creative with killing zombies , which is a great thing as it makes it different from other zombie shows out there.
ReplyDeleteI didn't like it. I thought it was worse than the pilot. Too much time was spent on Cassandra's story. And she spent the whole ep throwing zombies at the guy who was after her. I just don't care about these characters at all.
ReplyDeleteToo much stupidity from other characters. Citizen Z, how I hate these character names. He didn't bug me as much once he found the dog. But if they are going to spend the entire season with him sitting there repeating stupid code names, that is going to wear real thin, real fast.
Murphy did seem like the only likeable character of the bunch. Or at least the smartest one, who knows they shouldn't be sitting around with all the zombies.
I don't know if I'm going to stick with this show. I love the zombie makeup, and the fast moving zombies. I do agree some of the kills were good. But this show needs so much improvement.
I liked this episode a lot more than the pilot; the quality of the show improved some, thank god! They still have a long way to go before the show can be considered good, an even longer way to being a quality show, but at least it's some progress. The show does have potential, it's just going to be a matter of the writers and actors (at least some of them) stepping up their game... especially if they want a second season. I know SYFY is still capable of creating an excellent, quality show because Helix was awesome last year... so either this is purposely bad because of their success with Sharknado made them think horrible campy was the way to go or someone legitimately thought this would turn out good and it fell way short somehow. I'll probably keep watching though if only for 10K, who IMO, is the most interesting character right now; he's a mystery and I want to know more about him.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of 10K... he didn't give himself that name because he'd already killed ten-thousand zombies, his goal is to kill ten-thousand zombies. Once he reaches that goal, he said he's going to change his name to Jeff because he likes the name Jeff. Last count heard in the episode, he's at 1,062 zombies killed.
I think the biggest problem I has with this episode was the tanker truck. I know it was part of the plot to have the tanker explode so that it would be picked up by the satellite, but realistically, they would have had PLENTY of time for one of them to back it up and drive it out of there. Also, the tanker explodes, but despite the smell of gas in the air, the rest of the refinery doesn't explode? Yeah right. Gas fumes are highly flammable and the first thing to ignite, which is why you aren't supposed to smoke or use your cell phone and turn off your car when filling up at the gas station. I know realistic was obviously thrown out the window early on with this show, and most of it I can just go along with, but that whole scene just bothers me with how selective they are on the realism.
I too liked Helix , it definitely surprised how good it was. I have just changed that thing I mentioned about 10k , Thanks for spotting that out. I watch the episode early and then write the review much later on so things tend to slip my mind a bit even after I write notes.
ReplyDeleteI have come to accept that the show isn't realistic whatsoever , it can be at times , but for the most part its not. So I can enjoy it more I now look beyond realism now. Your right the refinery should have exploded , I was kind of expecting it , but it didn't. The whole episode felt like a waste of time especially after they didn't get a lot of gas only a few cans.
I will probably only be giving it a few more episodes myself. I thought it was better than the pilot , sure there wasn't much going on , but it looked much better than the pilot which was all over the place. I want them to spend time on Cassandras story , they need to have some character development on the show. Citizen Z feels like a pointless character , sure he is "guiding them" ,but I wish to spend my time watching the zombies and the groups fight for survival instead of him sitting in his chair talking rubbish.
ReplyDeleteI was blown away by just how great Helix was. I really hope they can at least maintain that level of quality, if not exceed it, in season two. After they cancelled Eureka, I'd pretty much given up on SyFy shows but Helix made me give them another chance. That's mainly why I started watching Z Nation... unfortunately it didn't follow in Helix's footsteps where quality is concerned.
ReplyDeleteI figured maybe that was the case with the details about 10K's name. I do that too if I've only watched an episode once or it wasn't an important detail or if my memory is just especially bad that day. lol I probably wouldn't have remembered it either, except that it stuck out in my mind because 10K is one of the weirdest things you could possibly pick for a name, especially since it's a goal. Jeff doesn't really fit him either.
Yeah... I'm just gonna have to get better at expecting and accepting little to no realism. The tanker thing was pretty much the only non-realistic thing that really bothered me. I think the reason that it did bother me so much was because it did make the whole episode pretty much just a big waste of time. And the two cans of gas that they did get just felt too easy. I don't know much about refineries, but they probably don't have gas cans laying around, nor the equipment to fill something that small unless they have a dedicated tank to fill the work trucks and such with. It was like that was supposed to be the thing that made the rest of it okay or something, like 'oh, it wasn't all for nothing after all' even though it mostly was because 10 gallons of gas isn't going to get gas guzzling vehicles like they're driving very far.
I was mad when they cancelled Stargate Universe yet alone Eureka. I hope Hiroshi and Balleseros (excuse the spelling of names) are in Season 2 ,as currently they are not listed in the cast for it. They were my favorites.
ReplyDeleteJeff is his name , wow. Yep he should definitely keep 10k then. I would hate for them to start calling him Jeff, as it just seems like a dull name for the character. In the Pilot everything that was unrealistic bothered me like the non reloading of the weapons , the unlimited ammo , now not as much.
When 10k walked over with 2 cans of gas it just felt as if they did that just so the pit stop wasn't a waste of time. I agree with you about the gas cans laying around. There may be cans lying around , but certainly not ones that are filled up. I mean where did he even get them from , and why did no one else notice them.
Oh yeah, I wasn't happy about them cancelling SGU either... especially leaving it with that huge cliffhanger. I heard they're trying to startup a new Stargate series that's back at the SGC, but with all new characters... I wish they'd just bring back SGU. I don't want to get emotionally invested in another Stargate show, which I would, just to have them cancel it. Better yet, bring back Eureka! It had great ratings when they cancelled it, they just didn't like that it cost so much to make. I really hope Hiroshi and Sergio come back too... Sergio was my favorite.
ReplyDeleteJeff is the name 10K said he wanted to be called after he killed ten-thousand zombies; at least as of yet, we don't know his real name. He said he liked the name Jeff though. I think they did that for the unexpected humor of it. I don't want him to be called Jeff either... I've never heard of a BAMF named Jeff and there's probably a reason for that. LOL
Exactly! Even in the extremely unlikely event that there were gas cans just laying around, they probably weren't just laying out in the open. How did he find them when it seemed to me that 10K spent all of his time at the refinery killing zombies and keeping a watch on the others in the group. The plot holes in this show are so big you could drive a tank through them.
I'm all for character development, when it's characters I care about. But I really just don't like this whole bunch. It's a weak cast.
ReplyDeletehmm a new Stargate Series, I would watch but it wouldn't be the same. I didn't like Stargate SG1 much when Mitchell and Vala joined I much proffered the core 4 team members. You wouldn't expect a show on the Syfy channel to cost so much that they had to cancel it , as like you said it had some good ratings well compared to half the stuff Syfy dish out now.
ReplyDeleteIt is a very weak cast , I have never heard of any of the actors/actresses and some of the performances are really bad where you would expect them to be a lot better.
ReplyDeleteI thought this episode was a lot better than last weeks and anyone who didn't enjoy last weeks should watch this weeks
ReplyDeleteTotally agree with you, although most people after seeing the pilot will probably not watch the second episode, even though they should as it is slowly improving.
ReplyDeleteYeah after O'Neil got that promotion he kind of took a back seat role in things , missions etc. Which kind of sucked as what made it so great was Jackson/Carter/O'Neil/Tealk working as a team on missions.
ReplyDeleteI remember when they cancelled it , it was like one bombshell after another with me as the year before they cancelled SGU, and in the same year they cancelled Alphas which I really liked as well.