Episode Guide
The Murphy White Light Zombie Road Batch 47 Zombaby! Zombie Baby Daddy Down The Mississipi The Collector Rozwell We Were Nowhere Near the Grand Canyon Corporate Retreat Party with the Zeros Adiós, Muchachos Day One All Good Things Must Come To An End Following on from its surprisingly original and charming first season, Z Nation returns for another season of zombie action with much more focus on the absurd, incredulous situations the group find themselves in. From alien encounters in New Mexico to plant hybrid zombies, Z Nation amps up its ludicrousness to varying degrees of success. This newfound lighthearted approach helps Z Nation carve its own place in a largely saturated and tired genre but the overwhelming silliness and over the top set pieces do detract somewhat from the more surprising or tense moments this year. The second season picks up right where it left off after last year’s cliffhanger ending. After an opening few episodes used to resolve this plot line, Z Nation reverts to a more episodic format that sees the group trying to track down a rogue Murphy (Keith Allan) who now has a massive bounty on his head following an announcement from Citizen Z. The first half of the season sees the group finding and apprehending Murphy before travelling to California to collect the bounty. Moving into the latter half of the season, Z Nation focuses much more heavily on a growing feud between the survivors and a rival group called the Zeroes and it’s here that the series takes a much more serious tone. Nestled between these two story lines is a decent amount of characterisation for Murphy in particular as he begins to grow and develop a unique power of potentially controlling zombies. The blend of episodic and serialised episodes work well here and during the middle portion of the series in particular, Z Nation produces some of the most off the wall, crazy ideas seen in a zombie-based show. Some of the absurdity presented this season certainly won’t be for everyone, especially those expecting a new rival to combat The Walking Dead, but what Z Nation does this season is keep the core structure of the show the same whilst accentuating the craziness. After all, where else would you see a giant cheese wheel rolling down a hill and wiping out hundreds of zombies? If you enjoyed the first season then you’re sure to enjoy Z Nation’s second even if this year the show can’t quite settle into a consistent rhythm as it jumps between comedic and serious episodes. At times this works well, especially during the middle portion of largely stand alone episodes, but there’s some pretty shocking reveals this year that should be hard hitting but lose some of their effectiveness because of the humour. Z Nation is silly, insanely imaginative and overall just a good fun show. If you go into this one expecting the next Walking Dead you’re likely to be left very disappointed but as an original, comedic and clever take on the zombie apocalypse, Z Nation is a charming option even if it doesn’t quite hit the same heights as the first season.
