Walking Dead Competition Z Nation Premiered Last Night
By Adam Carlson
The Walking Dead is facing some serious competition in the zombie situation these days. With shows like SyFy’s Z Nation premiering this week, AMC’s monopoly on undead survival horror dramas are no more.
However, if the initial reviews of the premiere episode of Z Nation prove to be accurate portrayals of how this show will play out, it doesn’t seem as though The Walking Dead should be worried at all.
Here are a few of the reviews from notable publications:
"Z Nation is the ColecoVision to The Walking Dead’s Atari. Watch The Walking Dead instead. It returns on Sunday 12 October on AMC."
"The best thing that could ever happen to The Walking Dead is the arrival of Z Nation on Syfy on Friday. The super-popular but critically underappreciated Walking Dead may be seen more favorably for its writing, acting, visual acumen and storytelling capabilities now that Z Nation proves you can’t just put hungry zombies on the screen and have something worth writing home about."
"Dear Z Nation: You are not The Walking Dead. You’re a joke! Act like it, already."
"The Walking Dead is the show you watch if you want to see how people survive in a post-apocalyptic world. The Strain is the show you watch if you want to see how people allow the apocalypse to happen. Z Nation is the show you watch if you want to see zombie guts splattered across the screen—and there’s nothing wrong with that."
"The question to ask about the SyFy Channel’s new series “Z Nation” isn’t whether it’s human or zombie, but rather, why does SyFy Channel waste so much time and money making junk like this?"
"If you’ve ever wondered whether or not a man could successfully utter the line “I’m not the one who told him to go get eaten by a baby,” Z Nation, the new zombie adventure drama from SyFy is for you."
While not all of the reviews of Z Nation are negative, there is enough gloom on this series to make me feel that imitators and competition of The Walking Dead are in for a big challenge if they attempt to take a chunk of the viewership that they face a mighty big hurdle.
The bar has been raised very high by The Walking Dead, and if not for the success of AMC’s show, fans might be hungry for a show like this. However, we’ve been spoiled too long with the great characters, drama and visuals on The Walking Dead for so long that anything else almost seems inferior by now.