Z-Nation - Walking Dead version 2k14

[SUPERECWFAN1]

I know some will defend Z Nation on CBR and I know the creator of the show swung by here to thank people for watching. But after being bored I saw the shows on netflix. And well folks....its just basically something the creators cribbed from the Walking Dead , changed some things yet your still laughing at this.


The premise of Z Nation is that the Zombies (hey the show calls Zombies....Zombies or Z's) have basically been going for 3 years. The last remaining Delta Force member Hammond survives long enough to convince others he has the cure of the zombie plague with him. That is a man named Murphy who was injected with zombie blood and seemingly survives.





The characters -

Sgt. Charles Garnett - Basically Garnett is Rick Grimes from season 1. A brave man with a sense of loyalty and duty to others , Garnett even has a beard like Grimes...carries a weapon like Grimes and acts like the leader of the group....like Grimes. If anything he seems to be Rick Grimes more or less. Sadly where Andrew Lincoln adds a sense of tortured soul over his loss of Lori , Garnett lost his family as he details in one episode 2-3 years ago. Yet the man acts like its no big real deal anymore.

I can't blame Tom Everett Scott for this. He sadly gets handed what he has to do in this series . But the writers sadly set him up in a Grimes like role. (I won't reveal season spoilers....folks regarding his characters future).


Roberta Warren - Warren as a character basically is black and acts real angry and rarely smiles. Its revealed later she was deployed out while her husband a fire fighter stayed in the small town. She carries a small sword in the front and gun. I jokingly called Warren , Michonne's little sister. Which seems to fit here.

Steven "Doc" Beck - The character is basically a pot smoking hippie version of Hershel. Like a Hershel , Beck isn't a doctor ...even though he acts like a defacto one due to the group needing it. He carries a supply of pills and does medical things like Hershel. But here is where things depart ....Scott Wilson made Hershel so beloved on Walking Dead ...his character is one people hated to see go. His sense of right and becoming the voice of reason to Rick Grimes made him someone you can't forget. Beck as a character doesn't have that.

Addy Carver & Mack Thompson - Basically Maggie and Glen of the group. A young couple in love who decide to have sex early in an episode to show you they are a couple. Unlike Maggie and Glen , both could die tomorrow and you'd give less than a shit. In fact Mack Thompson is pretty cowardly at one point . Its weird a pizza delivery driver would be braver in a zombie apocalypse.

Tommy 10K - Tommy is a young teenage version of Daryl Dixon. He carries a sling shot (his version of Dixon's bows and arrows) and kills zombies that way. Where as Reedus has made Daryl Dixon an iconic character , 10K comes across as a silly joke. He acts all angry at 1st and counts his kills ...10K is someone you laugh at for his not knowing what porn is . Or what TV is . (This from a near adult and its only been 3 years since Zombies took over)

Alvin Bernard Murphy - Murphy is basically Shane . A resentful douche bag character who has one difference from the Walking Dead....he was injected with zombie blood due to being a prisoner. The possible future cure to the zombie plague , he has to go to California. Murphy does bad things at times and has the whole Shane dynamic running through the show.

Citizen Z - Z serves as the narrator and guiding light for the characters to get to California. Z is stuck in the safest place in a zombie plague ...in the North Pole where he has a supply of food and more. But the characters get so fucking annoying that Qualls plays.


The characters in a nutshell . Now mission wise the show has the characters on a mission to get to California (sound familiar to a shows recent mission to Washington ?)

Now I don't know if Karl Schaefer set out to do a show parody , but in watching the show seems less like a parody and more like....well we wanna try and ape the Walking Dead's success. Yet sadly the episodes at times seems to echo what that show has done very well.

Maybe trying to do original characters would be the best way to go. To not make them seem like versions of the hit zombie show would be best.

[maczero]

I don't see them as trying to copy Walking Dead's formula. If anything, I'd say this show is the anti-Walking Dead. Less human drama, more focus on laughs, willing to address the source of the apocalypse and it strives to be over the top nearly every episode.

[Arundel Armor Hunter]

Walking Dead has an original premise?

[Daryl]

That scene with the Liberty Bell justifies the entire existence of this property.

It's from The Asylum. This is what they do.

[DennisTheMenace]

Yes, and we've seen all of these characters and situations in countless zombie movies that predate either of these shows. Who cares? It's enjoyable enough and apparently enough people are watching it to have a second season so whatever they're doing, they should keep doing it.

[CraigE]

First of all, thanks for trying the show! Sorry it's not to your taste, but all we can ask is that you give it a shot. We know not everyone will like it and that's okay. But we're glad you took the time to give it a watch to see if you'd like it or not.

Second, there is a thing that happens when you boil any scenario or character down to a few traits, and that's they all start to seem similar. On one level I can say, yes, Charlie Garnett is like Rick Grimes. They are both white males with beards and guns leading a group in a Zpocalypse. Rick was a sheriff, Charlie is military. Hm...similar.

On the other hand, Rick is married with a son when the show starts. Also his wife is having an affair with his best friend and becomes pregnant by one of them, and that drives his story. Charlie is a widower with no children and his best friend is Warren, who he may or may not be attracted too. And none of that drives his story, the mission he's on (to find a cure...something else TWD is not doing other than as an obvious red herring for a few episodes). Hm...wait, now they're not at all similar.

And I'm not sure how far you are into the season, but the storylines for Rick and Charlie are pretty different. In fact, I would say at one point the only thing they have in common is they're white, male, bearded and carries a gun

All of that's just a way of saying that a few surface similarities don't mean that things are a copy of one another. Sometimes they're just a little similar and that's all there is to it .

Regardless, I understand you don't like the show and that's cool. Like I said, all we can ask is that you give it a try. So, thanks!

Best,

c

[MagSeven]

Yeah some characters are similar between the shows, but it's more about personality traits that are going to be somewhat universal in any show with an ensemble cast. This show is very fun and far better than I thought anything from the Asylum could be. No idea how they are going to get out of that cliffhanger last season though....well one idea, but I won't speculate on behalf of those who aren't caught up.

[a. non]

I saw it when Syfy had a marathon over New Year's. Holy crap was it fun! I tried to get into Walking Dead several times, but failed to do so. This however was both light-hearted and dramatic.

[simbob4000]

Started watching this on Netflix after I found out John Hyams directed some episodes. Wasn't really sure about it before, I remember the trailer not being all that impressive, (looked like it was filmed with bad digital cameras, had some really bad CG with things that could have just been models, [even if the models were bad, at least bad models can still be charming] and CG blood always looks bad) but I watched it and dammit if this show isn't really good...and much better than The Walking Dead. Unlike The Walking Dead, Z-Nation is interesting in that things actually happen. Having things happen is a mind blowing concept I'm not sure the Walking Dead people have heard about before. Although maybe stuff happens on The Walking Dead now, I don't know, I stopped after seeing the "good" season.

I said "F this show" about The Walking Dead when after a lot of nothing they ran into this gang, and I was like "Finally, some conflict, something is finally going to happen"...but then it turned out the gang was this nice group of guys that were watching over old people. What the hell Walking Dead? You've lead me to believe something would happen again, and then given me nothing. The first season of The Walk Dead was a constant series of introducing what could be conflict, and then defusing that idea with nothing. There was that gang, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer running off to not be seen the rest of that season, the main characters wife. I thought there was going to be something interesting with the wife, was she cheating on her husband before the outbreak, I mean she couldn't have just moved on that fast, (how long had the hospital been abandoned when the husband awoke, a week, two days?) could there be...conflict? Nope. Never mind, she loves her husband, moved on really fast, and thought he was dead because this guy lied to her: conflict defused.

[Arundel Armor Hunter]

Started watching this on Netflix after I found out John Hyams directed some episodes. Wasn't really sure about it before, I remember the trailer not being all that impressive, (looked like it was filmed with bad digital cameras, had some really bad CG with things that could have just been models, [even if the models were bad, at least bad models can still be charming] and CG blood always looks bad) but I watched it and dammit if this show isn't really good...and much better than The Walking Dead. Unlike The Walking Dead, Z-Nation is interesting in that things actually happen. Having things happen is a mind blowing concept I'm not sure the Walking Dead people have heard about before. Although maybe stuff happens on The Walking Dead now, I don't know, I stopped after seeing the "good" season.

Maybe it's just not for you. Treme is great show about nothing happening.

[inagalaxyfarfarawry]

I found it as comparable to TWD as George Romero's stuff is. I mean...it's all from the same source. Like comparing any romantic comedy: essentially they all have the same three or four elements, so why say one is copying the other.

Having said that, I found TWD way more entertaining. I watched a bit of Z-Nation, and aside from the guy from The Matrix and Lost, the show was just...bland. I couldn't really care less about what happened and I quit after maybe 3/4 of an episode.

[simbob4000]

Maybe it's just not for you. Treme is great show about nothing happening.

Well, I did say I stopped watching Walking Dead after the first season. Treme did seem interesting from the little I saw of it, but I never got to see the rest of it.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

First of all, thanks for trying the show! Sorry it's not to your taste, but all we can ask is that you give it a shot. We know not everyone will like it and that's okay. But we're glad you took the time to give it a watch to see if you'd like it or not.

Second, there is a thing that happens when you boil any scenario or character down to a few traits, and that's they all start to seem similar. On one level I can say, yes, Charlie Garnett is like Rick Grimes. They are both white males with beards and guns leading a group in a Zpocalypse. Rick was a sheriff, Charlie is military. Hm...similar.

On the other hand, Rick is married with a son when the show starts. Also his wife is having an affair with his best friend and becomes pregnant by one of them, and that drives his story. Charlie is a widower with no children and his best friend is Warren, who he may or may not be attracted too. And none of that drives his story, the mission he's on (to find a cure...something else TWD is not doing other than as an obvious red herring for a few episodes). Hm...wait, now they're not at all similar.

And I'm not sure how far you are into the season, but the storylines for Rick and Charlie are pretty different. In fact, I would say at one point the only thing they have in common is they're white, male, bearded and carries a gun

All of that's just a way of saying that a few surface similarities don't mean that things are a copy of one another. Sometimes they're just a little similar and that's all there is to it .

Regardless, I understand you don't like the show and that's cool. Like I said, all we can ask is that you give it a try. So, thanks!

Best,

c

Oh I watched the season ...I just don't wanna spoil for people who may not have watched it all.

I think the problem was , you set these people in a group like we see and each one seems to fill a role. But its roles we have seen from a bigger show right now which hurts yours in a way.

There was a lot of ways you could have went character wise. Why was an old hippie man suddenly made a doctor ? Why was there an angry black woman who carries a sword at times ? Why is there a man who could be called Rick Grimes little brother ?


I know your getting a 2nd season and Its just my opinion here ...maybe you shouldn't lock these characters into roles as we see. You can have a woman be a doctor for the group. You can have an angry white woman with an attitude. You can have a confident black man as leader. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has done this comparison and said...damn these characters are like ...close comparisons to the others on Walking Dead.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Well, I did say I stopped watching Walking Dead after the first season. Treme did seem interesting from the little I saw of it, but I never got to see the rest of it.

Damn ...you missed out on 2 of the best seasons (3 and 4) the show did.

[MagSeven]

Oh I watched the season ...I just don't wanna spoil for people who may not have watched it all.

I think the problem was , you set these people in a group like we see and each one seems to fill a role. But its roles we have seen from a bigger show right now which hurts yours in a way.

There was a lot of ways you could have went character wise. Why was an old hippie man suddenly made a doctor ? Why was there an angry black woman who carries a sword at times ? Why is there a man who could be called Rick Grimes little brother ?


I know your getting a 2nd season and Its just my opinion here ...maybe you shouldn't lock these characters into roles as we see. You can have a woman be a doctor for the group. You can have an angry white woman with an attitude. You can have a confident black man as leader. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has done this comparison and said...damn these characters are like ...close comparisons to the others on Walking Dead.

Old hippy isn't a real doctor. They just call him Doc because of his near infinite supply of pharmaceuticals.