Watchable, Not Award Winning

rustgold

There are several things that save this series from a meh rating. Rose McIver is likable. I don't know who she is, but she apparently has a fan club that heavily backs the show. She's likable on screen, and can put a little bit of extra life into an otherwise mediocre setting. The zombie angle is clearly there because the original premise or written material was mediocre on its own. OK, I don't know that it was added after, but it definitely has that "put a little herbs & spice into a meal to stop it from tasting bland" kind of feel.

Apparently, this series is made by the creators of Veronica Mars (I don't know this until went to write this review – btw I also have a VM review here). Well, it's no VM version2 (despite fanboys claiming otherwise). This series is somebody attempting to play it a little safe, like a cricketer hitting a single instead of hitting a boundary, or a baseballer hitting to left field to get to first base. It does succeed here, but possibly only because of McIver's likability.

They could have done more with McIver's zombiism, such as maybe make it more of a struggle not to eat a living person or something. Zombiism here is no more serious than being a vegetarian. But this is the work of creators seeking to keep things at the shallow end of the pool (without going into the children's section); perhaps too timid for another VM, or maybe incapable of reproducing their premier work.

At the end of season 2, I thought they were about to decimate all watchability from the show in season 3, but so far they've managed not to explode their internal organs onto the floor. We'll see how long they can continue with this safe, almost camp, but watchable series, but for now it's still worthy of viewing pleasure, as long as you're not expecting award winning writing from it.

Btw: It's really worth 6.5 to 6.8, but I'm not going to bump it up to 7 (because that's VM's rating - why VM only has a 7 is explained in that review).

score 6/10

rustgold 25 July 2017

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3763389/