Z Nation – Series Pilot (2014) Review

Starring: Tom Everett Scott, Harold Perrineau, DJ Qualls, Michael Welch, Kellita Smith, Russell Hodgkinson, Anastasia Baranova, Keith Allan, Pisay Pao

Director: John Hyams

Writer: Jennifer Derwingson, Karl Schaefer

Running time: 47 minutes

Rated: Not rated (contains zombie violence and gore, language)

Reviewed by Michael Juvinall

The series premieres Friday, September 12th, at 10PM on Syfy!

The zombie television series arena is heating up with the addition of Syfy’s newest series order for Z Nation. This newest zombie series is from The Asylum, the people behind Sharknado and Sharknado 2. Syfy and The Asylum have been teaming up for a while now with their made-for-TV movies, but I believe this is their first series partnership. Frankly, with the success of AMC’s The Walking Dead, I’m surprised it has taken so long for another series about the zombie apocalypse to pop up. Zombies are the “it” monster right now, they’re everywhere you look and have become pop cultural icons in themselves. Syfy is striking while the iron’s hot with this new 12 episode first season series.

The pilot episode sets everything up for the series as we find out that sometime after a zombie virus has overrun the country, the government has been testing a vaccine on prison inmates. One of the inmates survives the vaccine after having been bitten by zombies. It is then up to a rag-tag group of survivors to insure this guy makes it from New Jersey to California to the last remaining working viral lab in the country in order to turn his blood into a cure for the zombie virus.

This band of survivors which includes Garnett (Tom Everett Scott), Warren (Kellita Smith), Mack (Michael Welch), Doc (Russell Hodgkinson), Addy (Anastasia Baranova), Murphy (Keith Allan), Citizen Z (DJ Qualls), and Hammond (Harold Perrineau) must traverse across the country trying to survive hordes of zombies as well as each other.

We already know The Walking Dead is the ultimate zombie series on TV, so how does Z Nation stack up? Syfy isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel here and they’re not trying to outdo TWD. The premise isn’t anything we haven’t already seen before. With that being said, what they do have is a pretty fun zombie show. Anyone who is familiar with The Asylum’s previous efforts already knows they never have much money to sink into their projects, but Z Nation seems to have a larger budget than many of their films, at least for the pilot. They do a great job of stretching what they do have to make a believable world that has been gutted by a zombie virus. The show is shot in Washington State to take advantage of many different locations the state has to offer including urban, mountain, desert, fields and so on.

The acting is actually quite good with the caliber of talent involved in the pilot. Tom Everett Scott, Harold Perrineau, Russell Hodgkinson and the rest of the cast all play their parts well.

The one thing I was most worried about before I saw the pilot was how the zombies were going to look and the amount of gore in the show. I mean, what would a zombie series be without decent gore and cool looking zombies, right. I was pleasantly surprised the zombies looked decent enough. The makeup quality is not on par with Greg Nicotero’s work in TWD, but it is better than a lot of the zombie films out there. As far as the gore, there happens to be a fair amount of the red stuff. Unfortunately, these zombies are runners not shamblers but they are smart and adaptive. There is a pretty cool scene in the pilot where a zombie horde tries to outsmart the humans that I really enjoyed. I’m looking forward to what these zombies are going to do in the future.

The pilot episode wasn’t without its problems though. There are some scenes that are pretty hokey and dumb, one including a zombie baby that defies logic, but overall there aren’t too many of those scenes. The pilot episode was a good one. The show is played straight and not for humor. It looks like it will be a fun ride throughout the season; I just hope they can deliver the goods on the remaining episodes. If you want a fun, serious, zombie romp with decent blood, then tune in to the premiere of Z Nation this Friday.