Z Nation Season 2

 

First shown in 2015, the second season finds a surprisingly varied amount of things to do with its premise across fifteen episodes. Setting itself up as an epic journey across the country it  doesn’t fudge on the cliffhanger of the first season despite some unlikely escapes (how far is that blast zone?). Fact is the bomb does obliterate the centre sending a wintery shockwave for many a mile adding to the perils our heroes have to face. Having literally shed his skin at the end of season one the now zombie tinged Murphy has also had a change of heart. This may be because he is a wanted man, thanks to Citizen Z’s unwitting broadcasts a lot of armed people are eager to catch “The Murphy” as he has become known and which is also the title of the opening episode but he has other ideas. Raiding clothes stores he and the now feral Cassandra are determined to avoid any fellow travellers. The first episode certainly knows how to pile peril on peril but somehow our friends are reunited by its conclusion though then they are propelled into the second episode.

 

`White Light` is something else; a real rollercoaster of a thriller using Wild West iconography to mount a modern shoot out that bounces around a mostly deserted small town. It culminates in a thrilling chase inside an abandoned luxury hotel whose stripped walls and lack of lighting provides plenty of atmospheric places for the pursuit. Having convinced us of everyone’s survival last episode it is a genuine surprise when one main character gets no further, a visceral moment in a taut, bloody episode. To be honest Mack was probably the most likely to go though this is never certain and the season will miss Michael Welch’s everyman character. Citizen Z is not having it any better either, chased by his own zombie invaders from a nearby crashed plane, he is far less equipped to deal with the incursion and his situation becomes just as desperate. Normally cutting back to this character allows for a little levity but not this time! 

It’s quite a feat that the production manages to keep us gripped by what is essentially a lengthy chase sequence with multiple aspects but it does so with panache. The series’ direction style which favours a video game like manner of using the cameras close to the characters to give us primarily POV footage rather than wider angles really pays off especially in the confined indoor spaces. This must definitely be the best episode yet. The homages are not done with though, as the third episode takes us into Mad Max territory. This probably played better back in 2015 as it is very similar to some parts of the movie Mad Max Fury Road; its even titled `Zombie Road`. From this distance though the convoy of souped up armoured vehicles fending off fast moving zees called Blasters still holds appeal. The direction and make up are again top notch, these zombies are the most terrifying ones since Baby Z, caked in white and still wearing suits they are as grotesque as they are dangerous. `Batch 47` which follows is a bit more of a mess, all over the place in tone and pace yet contains a truly scarier monster in the form of a half zombie / half tree. How does that happen? Even by this series’ logic its best not to ask!

The next two episodes deal with Murphy and Serena’s baby, who is born in `Zombaby` in a stable when the gang stop off at an Amish community. This adds a different flavour as the pacifist locals offer help and, later, little resistance when the group decide they need antibiotics for the anthrax affecting both Addy and 10K. Its odd because you keep expecting the community to have some dark secret but really they don’t. There’s also a little humour to be add in the pre birth scenes as Murphy fares rather poorly as a new father and to add to the fun we see three zombie  shepherds turn up complete with undead sheep in time to witness the birth. I wonder if this was sort of the Xmas episode!

The following episode reaches a little too far to try and be imaginative as the group have to travel with the zombie baby whose cries attract other zees. There’s some humour to be wrung out of this scenario though matters turn more serious when Cassandra is left to guard Addy, Doc and 10K to stop them following Murphy. Murphy ends up giving the baby away which for the sake of the series is probably a good thing. The visual effects close ups of it’s devilish face and fangs are very effective but whenever it cuts to someone – usually Murphy- holding the baby it doesn’t convince. Even less effective are the attempts to depict zombie woodland creatures sing puppets. Luckily they are shown fleetingly but given the series’ attempts to be as realistic as possible with its visuals this is a rare fail.

Cassandra appears to leave at this point though her character has seemed somewhat superfluous from the start of the season. Sort of halfway between a human and zombie after Murphy saved her in the climactic end to the first season she has been used varyingly by the different episodes. It’s never really clear how she survives either. Given her previous with 10K it is inevitable that the showdown is between the two of them with the latter stepping up to be more proactive this episode. It’s hard to recall a regular character in a series who has been given so little variation as this one especially as we saw early on that Nat Zang is a strong actor. Finally he gets something more this week and the fight is as brutal as you’d expect.

The show’s comedy chops are on display for `Down the Mississippi` in which the gang bump into Docs old friends Sketchy and Skeezy, conmen extraordinaire. When the duo and 10K are separated from everyone else they end up in a town where zombies have been tamed and used as labour. Posing as the team who obtain the zombies, the trio are doing alright till the real duo turn up. From the opening scene which would definitely be unnerving if you had an impending dental appointment, the episode is played more for fun which is probably what the season needs at this point.

Played by Mark Carr and Doug Dawson, Sketchy and Skeezy will say anything to bamboozle the simple locals even when gang kingpin Escorpion puts them on trial. Sketchy’s lengthy defence at the trial is a hoot as he simply uses a lot of long legal terms he clearly does not know the meaning off combined with compliments about the locals. In other words he’s like many real life politicians. While he’s speaking a local plays a fiddle with a chainsaw!

Meanwhile Doc does not want to leave 10K adrift even if it means splitting from the mission. With issues of loyalty and duty this is perhaps not given quite the heft it should have though Russell Hodgkinson shows his versatility in a story that gives the Doc a different angle. Perhaps in a knowing gag because he never gets many lines, 10K is presented as a mute to the townsfolk! The story ends with an homage to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid topping off what’s been an episode with the feel of a Western caper, banjo music and all! They even have that instrument featured in the opening titles.

This is followed by the equally amusing `The Collector` which sees Murphy caught by the titular character  a somewhat unhinged scientist who is collating a museum of zombies. This gives the narrative a chance to be wittily self aware, as he and Murphy discuss old zombie films and their cultural influence and meaning. There’s a bizarre interview he records with Murphy. There are references to Comic Con but the coupe de theatre is when that amongst his exhibits is a celebrity zombie, the remains of George RR Martin who is played by the actual real George RR Martin! As celebrity cameos go, it’s the most unusual you’re likely to see and comes complete with some funny comments about the length of the author’s books! T

Tom Beyer is great as the Collector, nerdy and desperate, yet clever and dangerous. Once again the show adeptly takes jeopardy to the closest possible moment before engineering an escape. In this case it is 10K who finds Murphy yet could be about to be bitten by him as one of the Collector’s tests. The episode is a riot as well as referencing the series’ past and providing just enough danger to keep momentum. There is a frisson of confidence about the series at his point and for all the talk in this episode of zombie cliches, Z Nation continues to find new and different ways to present the scenario.

This is further illustrated in episode 10 `Rozwell` which is set in the enigmatic town of Roswell where many conspiracy theories are centred. The episode does a good job in making us believe there were aliens here who perhaps turned into zombies while there are plenty of references to the myths that have built up about the place.  There are some neat cultural references and the resolution is quite a spectacle with what seems to be a real flying saucer zapping out heroes and trying to take Murphy. The explanation though is a little unlikely – I think I’d have been more convinced had the aliens been real! And they never explain guest character Bernadette who we’ve seen has an ability to move unseen into the distance. Perhaps she’s just light on her feet?!

`We Were Nowhere Near The Grand Canyon` is an uneven episode in which our heroes, attempting to avoid the oncoming Zu-nami become entangled with a Native American tribe whose divisions have split them into two. Some remain inside a casino city that seems to have ample power and provisions, others live at the top of a mountain in a way that better respects their ancestors. Why they have fallen out seems unlikely and, in the circumstances, impractical and when it comes to it, the divide is weakly explained. There is also another delve into Doc’s -and it seems the writing team’s - favourite subject of hallucinogenic drugs. These scenes probably seemed funnier in the writer’s room than they come over on screen. The results aren’t sure whether this is supposed to be taken seriously or not and at the end when one of the tribe makes a `noble` sacrifice it seems silly.

Citizen Z’s travails are more interesting this week as he is still battling zombies from the crash and also manages to res-establish communications with the group. The need to hop back to the over crowded main plot though means this doesn’t seem as tense as it should. There is spectacle though, with the thousands and thousands of zombies tricked into running over a cliff when the team draw inspiration from, of all things, old cave drawings. I wonder if all these count towards 10K’s 10K? One aspect I like is the way Murphy is constantly feeling divided loyalties due to his connection to the zombies. The fact he can sometimes control them also gives him an empathy so being complicit in sending thousands of them over a cliff weighs heavily on him.

Episode 11, wittily titled `Corporate Retreat` sees the group holed up in a hotel with some survivors of one of those endless courses people seem to create just so that they can get together in hotels. This one was interrupted four years ago by the outbreak yet the remaining participants continue to utilise discussion methods to make decisions. They’re led by conflict resolution expert Gideon Gould who has a large wooden pole that people can grasp in turn to peak. He’s played by 80s veteran Anthony Michael Hall who is very convincing in the role even if the scenario is a tad unlikely even by this show’s standards. For one thing how have these people managed to keep their smart business clothes clean all this time?

Despite all this talk about, well, talk, it doesn’t take long for there to be an incident in which Murphy is shot. It’s not always clear from what we see but his disturbed nightmares while unconscious draw a lot of zombies to the building and the episode has a backdrop of them trying to get in. The main story though is about discovering who the killer is which doesn’t work as well as it might. The idea of a whodunnit while zombies mass outside is a good one but the possibilities are missed and the script isn’t sure whether this is meant to be funny or not. I don’t buy the idea that given the extreme situation these people would have been able to survive by staying put nor that they would continue to follow the teachings of the seminar they’d been at. The one key development seems to be that because the other man was shot in the heart by a bullet coated with Murphy’s blood he doesn’t turn Z, he just starts to turn blue which suggests as someone puts it “this Murphy shit is real.”

`Party with the Zeros` and `Adios Muchasos` come as a pair with a cliffhanger in the middle as the group take shelter just over the border in Mexico at the hideout of the notorious Zeros cartel who’ve popped up in several previous episodes. Turns out that Doctor Kurian is here pretending he can come up with an antidote. The dressing is packed with Mexican imagery, sometimes to the point of cliché (would a drugs gang in the middle of an apocalypse really have parties with dancers?) but there’s also some tense moments as Vasquez finds himself in a very difficult spot when he realises Escorpion is the man who killed his family. It turns out he’s killed so many people he doesn’t even remember though that’s not too surprising as he doesn’t even recognise the group from five episodes ago!

Gina Gershon guests as the melodramatic La Reina, the `queen` who holds sway over all these tough guys. The episode is yet another that hints at Murphy’s strange powers- the blood sample he provides, added to Kurian’s formula allows him to control half zombies. The writers seems to be giving him more and more powers to get everyone out of a jam. There’s not quite enough story to fill two whole episodes so matters are not as tense as they might be and you can see the points where the writers are stalling but there’s some fun moments and the whole thing opens with a particularly dynamic battle. It’s a shame the ending can’t match that style though the second episode concludes with a shot of a California sign meaning their epic journey is at and end though there’s still two more episodes to go!

These final two - `Day One` and `All Good Things Must Come to an End` are also really one story, the former has the group wandering around the ruins of California. We get to see some flashbacks of what was happening to each of them on the first day of the outbreak which is fun to see them in different surroundings. The best of these sequences happens at an ice hockey match showing how Addy first met Mack and featuring some mass panic. The others are smaller scale and Vazquez’s is quite harrowing. It takes till the end to reach the meat of the story as they arrive at the supposed location which seems to be a café rather than the high tech lab everyone was expecting. Turns out the lab is actually on a submarine. Citizen Z is also back, this season has been so frantic, I’d almost forgotten how we used to have his interludes most episodes. Now he’s forced to abandon his chilly base after learning he’s been hacked and that’s presumably what led the CDC to them.

The last episode offers a dramatic siege as La Reina comes for her revenge in demented fashion while Murphy and the injured 10K (yes, he is injured again solely to get him on the sub) are underwater in the vessel whose sailors all seems to have weird eyes. How this resolves itself is not entirely clear because before you know it the sub is burning and Murphy has taken control of those sailors. Meanwhile La Reina is defeated by the least likely person you could imagine; Escorpion who has somehow escaped the clutches of the dozens of zombies we saw sprawled over him two episodes ago. It sounds odd to say it in a series about a zombie apocalypse but not all of this makes sense and it feels like a crucial sequence on the sub has been left out. This just leaves time for the arrival of a load of Chinese soldiers and a mysterious woman Citizen Z encounters at the moment it seems as if he has resigned himself to freezing to death.

All told though it’s a suitably dramatic end to a season that has proved inventive in creating scenarios that don’t look like different versions of the same thing. The characters have been more rounded, the situations more interesting, the action more incredible.