Like many other streaming services out there, Netflix isn’t shy when it comes to filling its library with television shows and movies focusing on the undead. On the tv front, the platform holds the likes of The Walking Dead, All Of Us Are Dead, Santa Clarita Diet, and Resident Evil to name a few, while zombie films like Army of The Dead, Cargo, and Zom 100: Bucket List of The Dead are sure to wrangle up some scares. When it comes to zombie shows, there is one that was able to convey a brutality and fast-paced story that makes it one of the best undead series on Netflix.
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Black Summer was first released in 2019, focusing on a rotating cast of survivors attempting to navigate their way through a zombie apocalypse. What makes this series surprising is how deathly serious it can be even though it is part of a universe that is anything but. Acting as a spin-off to Z Nation, the series decides to be far more serious than its predecessor and gains its strength in doing so. While the series only received two seasons, the second season finale works well enough as a series finale, especially considering the harshness of the zombie world presented.
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The Blackest of Summers
What is it that makes Black Summer excel over shows like The Walking Dead and All of Us Are Dead? Well, the zombie series manages to walk a fine line between presenting characters you care about while also presenting scenarios that are ingenious in their simplicity. For example, there is one episode entirely dedicated to the character named Lance who finds himself on his own, attempting to dodge the advances of zombies he comes across. While being chased by one zombie might not seem all that terrifying in the face of a sea of the undead, Black Summer makes the interesting story choice of portraying Lance’s chase in quiet terror. The simplicity of running from a zombie around, and eventually on top of, a school bus makes for a heart-pounding display.
Black Summer truly excels in setting up realistic scenarios that you could find yourself in and relate to, with two primary examples being the first season’s “diner episode” and the first season finale’s assembly at a sports stadium. The former focuses almost entirely on a group of survivors trapped within a diner by two zombies, slowly realizing that they need to be on the move before a wave of the undead crashes upon them. While taking down a zombie duo might seem easy to some, defeating the undead here is easier said than done. On the flip side, the first season finale shows how fast everything can go wrong facing down hordes of the undead, even with a mass of armed humans by your side. Black Summer has a frantic, unrelenting pace that does well at hammering home the true terror of the zombie apocalypse.
A Dire Zombie Series
No character is safe in Black Summer, a trait that it very much has in common with The Walking Dead, though the characters in the former feel far more real. The main stars are never lucky enough to find themselves inside of a prison or forging their own community, instead, they are in a perpetual state of motion as they attempt to not only find food and supplies, but a reason to live. Melancholy and depression go hand-in-hand with a zombie apocalypse and it’s a fact that Black Summer never really forgets during its two seasons.
While many zombie properties will attempt to make the parallel of how man can be far scarier than the undead, Black Summer manages to do this with relative ease. Whenever the characters form a “group” with one another, there’s always a level of unease and lack of trust amongst the survivors, especially when supplies are running low and the collective needs to think of who will be the next to find food for everyone else. The zombie series presents relatively simple scenarios but does so in an effective way that often can put The Walking Dead to shame. It’s a tragic, sometimes life-affirming series that is well worth your attention and in a perfect world, it would make a return for season three and beyond.
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