Review Guide:
Episode 1.01 Pilot -
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Episode 1.02 Fracking Zombies -
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Episode 1.03 Philly Feast -
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Episode 1.04 Full Metal Zombie -
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Episode 1.05 Home Sweet Zombie -
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Episode 1.06 Resurrection Z -
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Episode 1.07 Welcome to the FU-Bar -
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Episode 1.08 Zunami -
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Episode 1.09 Die Zombie Die...Again -
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Episode 1.10 Going Nuclear
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Episode 1.11 Sisters of Mercy
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Episode 1.12 Murphy's Law -
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Episode 1.13 Doctor of the Dead (Season Finale) -
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Z Nation - Die Zombie Die...Again - Review
It's another week, and yet again the episode takes place within someone's mind. Last week we had Citizen Z hallucinating his experience with Yuri. This week we had the same dream that kept repeating over and over, where Mack would have to find a distraught Addy who had gone from their campsite. I have to admit, I actually didn't know that where they were staying (the tent) wasn't real at the time. It seemed so real. Obviously what followed when they were dreaming wasn't real, but I wasn't expecting the whole thing to be in their minds. We do later find out that Addy has been placing Mack in the dream instead of herself; we find this out when they both finally wake up by the river. Anastatisa Baranov delivers a good emotional response to the situation when she comes out of her dream state and finally comes to terms with what happened in her past.
It was an interesting premise, but the constant repetitiveness of it was growing tiring quickly. I realize that was their intentions to replay the same dream over, and over until Addy came to terms that it was her who killed her zombie mother, but they could have changed it around a bit more. The main purpose of the dream was for Mack to get beyond the door in which the zombie was guarding. Once he did that, it unlocked a memory about Addy's past. Once Mack goes beyond the door into the basement we see what Addy's flashbacks were about, and where the necklace she holds onto came from. I was very pleased that they finally answered what her flashback meant, as I have been wondering for weeks now. The encounters with the giant zombie were fun at times, but I found myself skipping parts of the episode, as I didn't care to watch the same thing half a dozen times over. What would've been a good idea is to have Addy and Mack know that they are in a dream state. They could off had a lot of fun doing that, it would've been much more interesting seeing them knowing their in a dream where they could have messed around with the zombie, or there could have been some humorous dialogue between them. Instead, we got treated to a poorly executed episode, with 30 minutes spent watching the same events occur.
The only thing that I can take away from the episode as being good was the opening scene when they were on the bike remembering some recent events in their life's. It was a fitting song to bring us into the episode. I like that the show is using flashbacks at the appropriate time, and that they are using them frequently. I liked when they used it with Warren and Garnett as well as these two.
Unfortunately, there was nothing else that happened during the 40 minute episode. I really hope next week the group can reunite and it can get back to being an enjoyable show, with different disasters happening each episode. I do understand why they included the last two episodes, as I imagine we will get to the CDC in the finale, so they need episodes like this so that they don't get to California before the end of the season. (As they are very close). No promo has been shown so we don't know what is in store next week; I just hope it gets back to its roots. This is an episode, that I want to forget about.
Summary
A 40 minute episode lacking content. The constant repetition of the events that were occurring in the dream state grew tiring quickly. It was a failed attempt at a Groundhog Day premise as it never really went beyond the main concept of repetition. Where if it did, the episode would have been a lot better.
Z Nation - Episode 1.10 - Promo (Thanks to Justin009) I personally wont be watching the promo myself, as I want to be surprised next episode.
As always , thank you for reading! Let me know in the comments what you thought of the episode!
About the Author - Robert Fruin
Robert is a sixth form student from the United Kingdom, who is currently studying IT, Media and Business Studies. Robert is a huge fan of the ended ABC series LOST, he has seen it many times over and has even visited some of the filming locations for it. Robert mainly watches drama series such as Game Of Thrones and Person of Interest, but has a soft spot for the comedy The Middle. Some other shows he watches are The Walking Dead, Arrow and The 100. Some other interests include cycling, photography and kayaking. Robert will be reviewing Z Nation,The Librarians, Sons Of Anarchy, Intruders, The Fosters and Aquarius. Feel free to connect with him on any of these social media sites.
What did you think of the episode?
ReplyDelete2nd worst episode of the season and in a row too. It's like they forgot what they were doing and wrote something off track. Although saying that the only parts of last weeks episode that were annoying were the Northern Lights parts, everything else was fine. And yes this repetitive thing was not cool, I got bored after the 3rd time...not a patch on Supernatural's groundhog day episode.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree, I wasn't a fan of the last episode, which I thought was one of the worst for the series. This episode was not an improvement. I disliked the citizen Z part last episode thought it was a complete mess.
ReplyDeleteThis is really now two episodes in a row where we haven't spent much time with the whole group, which is when I think the show is at its best. I am just hoping now next week, everyone will be back together,and the show can get back to being enjoyable like the Z Nado episode or Resurrection Z.
worst till date. i dont know whether the char or the actors who played doesnt have the power to hold a full ep only on them or its just bad writing.
ReplyDeletei wanna skip this one
You could say that, but the last one for me wasn't great either. I seems to me like they have switched writers as the last two have been poor compared to the rest of the season. For most of the actors on the show there first time actors, so we can't expect amazing performances, but even saying that the acting again wasn't up to scratch.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the recap. This episode was awful. I don't care about Addy. Max can be sent into the twilight. It's ashame. I wanted to like Addy, considering I'd never seen this actress in anything, she is just not smooth in her delivery at all. MW, I was surprised to see in this series. He should not need be isolated with the character Addy ever again. I missed Doc, and the rest of the cast. They work better as a full ensemble.
ReplyDeleteCompletely agree with everything you said. It was one of the worst ones this season. I don't think many of the actors on the show deliver good enough performances to carry an episode. Last week we saw the episode centered on Citizen Z, and for me his performance was very weak. Same thing happened this week, they just couldn't carry the episode.
ReplyDeleteZ Nation is at its best when the group is a whole, and personally when Citizen Z isn't in it. When they are all together its not focused on one or two people so I tend to overlook the acting, as they often provide us with humorous dialogue.
worst episode ever..
ReplyDeleteSo many people have said that, including myself. I thought the last one was bad, then we get a whole episode dedicated to a dream. We were pretty much watching the same thing over and over the entire episode.
ReplyDeleteMost people hated this ep. I didn't totally hate it, but the same repetitive scenes really got to be too much after awhile. I don't think they should have built an entire ep with just a repeating dream sequence. Even the payoff at the end fell flat. And it was very confusing with who was doing the dreaming until Addy said she was thinking it had been Mack in her vision/memories, but it turned out it was her all along.
ReplyDeleteOnce again, we had failed writing. And another wasted ep. And after all that, I really don't feel that much more attached to these characters at all. It didn't really flesh them out. We still really don't know much about either of them.
I didn't think the episode was completely horrible, but it was a really big let-down. Not only because once again they've overdone something that shouldn't have taken up an entire 42 minutes to get where they were trying to go with it, but also because just prior to watching this ep, I watched Edge of Tomorrow. While Edge of Tomorrow repeated a lot, it still had progression, some humor (okay, yeah, maybe I shouldn't have laughed so much pretty much every time he died... and/or screamed like a little girl), and kept you interested and wondering what was going to happen next. They did it right.
ReplyDeleteWith this ep of Z Nation, you already pretty much knew exactly what was going to happen next and could skip through large chunks of the episode without really missing anything. They should have either came to the point of Addy coming to terms with killing her zombie mother halfway through the episode and then moved on to them continuing to try to find the group or switched between Mack and Addy and the main group, continuing both story lines on at the same time.
I really hope next weeks ep is better, and doesn't continue this pattern of much ado about (pretty much) nothing. They were doing so well and then they regressed. We know the show has the potential to be good, they just have to realize what works, what doesn't and make better decisions with that knowledge.
Looks like everyone except me hated it, but I really liked it, which is another big surprise after last week.
ReplyDeleteI'm in the minority, I did like the episode and was probably a better take than last week's very underwhelming installment. It would probably turned out really bad if it really was Mack getting those dreams for no apparent reason and the repetitiveness would have been sillier (aka blatant unnecessary plothole) but the twist in the fifth/sixth act really made sense of everything we saw.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I did get a laugh seeing the many times imaginary Mack was trying to land away from an exposed debris.
I think its split down the middle 50% liked it 50% didn't. I didn't like it that much, I think what I really didn't like was the repetition, I know that it had to happen, its just I felt they could have changed each one around a little more. Some parts of it were good like the different ways Mack died or the different ending to the dream each time.
ReplyDeletePeople on the fb group for this/twitter are all complaining about it with "worst episode ever" a lot of people have even said they are never watching it again. I did want to find out what Addy's flashbacks meant, I just didn't want to see the same thing for 6 or so consecutive times. Next weeks looks good though.
ReplyDeleteI didn't like it, it was probably an improvement from last week, but I really enjoy the show when we are with our main group (Warren etc). For me the repetition of the dream sequence is what made it not great. We really spent 40 minutes watching the same thing happen, they should have changed each dream sequence around a lot more.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about not knowing about them. You would think in an Addy and Mack centric episode, we would get to know them a bit better, but we learnt nothing. The only thing we really found out was she killed her mum. I also think these two couldn't carry the episode, I lost interest quite a few times during it.
I know, I actually skipped parts as I felt it would be a waste of my time watching the same thing repeat. They should have made each of them different and really unique instead of the same thing. I am wondering when Addy and Mack will meet with the rest, but I agree they could have used the rest of the episode to be on the road, trying to find them. At least then we could have gotten some interesting conversation from them, which was lacking this episode.
ReplyDeleteMaybe that's the last of the weird eps for now. At least we will have the main group for the next ep.
ReplyDeleteHopefully, I think Addy and Mack will rejoin by episode 11.
ReplyDeleteLike last week's episode, science experiment, or whatever that was, I saw nuggets of a really interesting concept totally blown to hell this week by substandard, repetitive writing. Like others on this thread, I'm actually wondering if ZN has switched writers recently -- or if, like the The Strain, they just don't know how to properly pace themselves for a 13-episode order, so they're stalling (badly) for time. Both this week's and last week's installments play (to me) like bottle episodes designed to save budget and stretch out the plot so ZN can stick the landing in the final two episodes. Unfortunately, viewers are much savvier these days, and don't appreciate having their time blatantly wasted.
ReplyDeleteThe reason I continue to root for ZN is that I'm a sci-fi/horror fanatic who feels that SyFy has repeatedly self-sabotaged its chances to own this niche. Okay, I get that you guys changed your name in 2009 because "you can't brand the term Sci-Fi" -- but then, for crying out loud, why don't you stop treating the genre like it's some kind of a cheap inside joke? It must be infuriating to watch shows like TWD eat your lunch for you, but that's what happens when you show up late to your own party.
So I continue to hope that ZN can get itself back on track as the fun, cheesy, not-taking-this-stuff-too-seriously original it started out to be. Yes, I miss my dear departed Tom Everett Scott. But I still feel like there's plenty of room for this show, IF it can shake off this bizarre identity crisis and maintain some respect for its viewers.
Worst that I have seen!!
ReplyDeleteYou are not alone, a lot of people are saying that. Personally its a tie between this, and the last one.
ReplyDeleteI too am wonder if they have switched writers, as the show the past two episodes have been not good. They probably don't know how to pace themselves, as on the Syfy website there is a map of the Z Nation route to California (all places they have stopped at) and they are very close, probably an episode or two away.
ReplyDeleteThey were both filler episodes, probably I imagine saving for something big in the finale or the next episode. I just hope it hasn't lost a lot of viewers, as many people on the internet have said they are done with the show. The last two episodes will turn a lot of people off the show, as the show is known for its fun, witty dialogue, and cheesiness not episodes dreams or hallucinations. If it hasn't improved by next episode then I think the show is completely gone. I don't see viewers coming back a fourth week after 3 bad episodes.
That's my concern too, Robert. Plus, if a viewer who heard any sort of buzz about this show happened to tune in last week and/or this week, they were treated to one episode-long hallucination and one episode-long dream sequence. Not the best impression.
ReplyDeleteAgain, I think quirk factor and cheesiness are actually points that distinguish this show in a good way. But plot cohesiveness, dialog, and acting (with the exception of one or two principals) aren't consistently strong enough that the writers can mine a strong dramatic punch from stuff like this. It just comes across as lazy and silly (in a bad way).
Could the writers have received an unexpected Season 2 pickup that caused everybody to think $#!!@% and then scramble for material? I'd figured that Season 1 filming had wrapped long before that decision was announced. I haven't given up on ZN yet, but hoping it can redeem itself with a pretty unique season-ender.
I read somewhere that the writers have 5 seasons planned for the show, so i don't think they were running out of ideas, they just thought it would be good to address issues that have come up such as Addy's flashbacks, and Citizen Z's loneliness. They were executed extremely poorly though.
ReplyDeleteThe acting could be a lot better, but most of the ones on the show are first time actors with this being their first major part. The only one to have really stood out with her acting is Kellita Smith, she is probably there strongest performer.
I imagine they have something special planned for the finale. I am not sure where they are planning to take the story in season 2, but I really doubt they manage to get a cure. As for the viewers tuning it, there isn't anything anyone can do, the show should be consistent each week delivering unique episodes for what Z Nation is known for, not diverting away from all that is good about the show.
Well, congratulations to them. They're true fans.
ReplyDeleteI normally stick with a show through bad episodes, there is one thing I hate which is getting invested into a show, then dropping it after a few bad episodes.
ReplyDeleteWOW ... five. I guess they like a challenge. :)
ReplyDeleteTotally with you that Kellita Smith is a huge asset, and its great to see such a kick-a$$ female leader (maybe I'm a little biased there). But as you point out, in an effort to stay edgy ZN killed off two of its more experienced actors -- Harol Perrineau and the always-awesome TES -- right out of the gate. It almost strikes me that by giving background players some meatier plot emphasis, the showrunners don't seem to understand where the show's strengths and weaknesses lie. It feels like they're already falling into a TWD storytelling rhythm, yet they don't have the secondary acting talent (or writing chops, for that matter) to really pull that off. They need to find a separate tone of their own -- which might mean letting their more seasoned actor(s) take the lead more often, or keeping it a solid ensemble show with Citizen Z on-hand for occasional narration/navigation.
Completely agree with you. I still think getting rid of Tom Everett was a very bold move by them, and I personally think it was the wrong one. Whilst it will give the newbie actors more time to shine, they need some actors who can perform at a top level, so when an emotional scene or something comes around which requires strong acting, it will feel natural to the viewer.
ReplyDeleteOver time the actors on the show, will become more fluent in their roles, and hopefully with that give better performances. They probably just need time to settle into their roles.
I almost wonder if they'll pull an "American Horror Story" -- just wipe out, like, 80% of the cast and start with a brand new group next season, on a different road trip. If they followed a formula like that, they could be a lot bolder and more random with characters who make an exit.
ReplyDeleteWorst episode
ReplyDeleteThat actually doesn't sound that bad, I love American Horror Story (except season 3) so wouldn't mind if it followed what they do.
ReplyDeleteworst episode ever!
ReplyDeleteThis is the worst episode of anything I've ever seen. I wanted to shoot myself in the face just to make it stop. It was a like a nightmarish version of Groundhog Day but without ...you know....funny lines, good acting, or anything good whatsoever. Excuse me while I go stick my finger down my throat to purge myself of it's residue.
ReplyDelete