So, SyFy has cancelled Z Nation after five seasons. However, Netflix will be doing an eight episode prequel series called Black Summer, a point in time often referred to in Z Nation. The new mini series is from mostly the same production, direction and writing staff as Z Nation, but will not feature any of the existing characters.

I’m going to miss Lt. Warren, Murphy, Doc, 10K and the others, but maybe if Black Summer does well and gets a 2nd season, some of our favorite people can be brought on to it or, even better, Netflix pays for a 6th season of the original. That right there is why production companies need to be separate from the networks that broadcast the shows.

Wait… You have no idea what I’m talking about? You’ve never watched Z Nation? I can’t really say I’m surprised.

When I first saw the commercials for it on Space several years ago, it looked like a really cheap Walking Dead rip off to me. Despite Harold Perrineau being featured heavily in the trailers [spoiler] he doesn’t survive the first episode [/spoiler], I still had no interest in watching it. Until I was really bored one day, and the first four seasons just happened to become available on Netflix.

I will warn you, the first season is ROUGH. The acting is not very good, the dialog is… not great. Honestly, I was ready to stop watching after the first couple of episodes, but like I said, I was reeeeeally bored, so I kept going, and things got better. It’s like everyone was learning as they went, because the actors settled into their characters, the dialog got less cheesy and the story got more interesting.

First and foremost let me say Z Nation is not a Walking Dead clone. While TWD strives for real drama, ZN goes for high camp. Stories will involve government conspiracies, mind control, human/zombie hybrids, plant zombies, Frankenstein like monsters, UFOs, plus lots and lots of drugs. They go more for comedy and gore than tears. Walking Dead will have you on the edge of your seat, Z Nation will have you laughing your ass off. Z Nation does not take itself seriously at all.

I stopped watching The Walking Dead when [spoiler] they killed Glenn [/spoiler], but almost every season of Z Nation is different and I keep wanting to see where they go next.

The show is not for everyone, and while the overall production values improved dramatically, because it is more like a long B-movie and it often ignores common sense and it’s own internal rules, it can have you laughing at the show instead of with it. Also, you need to really like bad movies and wild/crazy death scenes with blood spewing everywhere.

The fifth and final season was just put up on Netflix and is a great takedown on the current anti immigrant policies and fear based politics on the rise in the world. Bet you didn’t expect me to finish the article with that.