Black Summer (netflix series): I couldn't get through 2 episodes

Black Summer is Netflix's brand new zombie series. It should come as no surprise that this borrows from a lot of other zombie films and series and I am not going to fault them on that because there really isn't much we can do with this genre since it has been done in any way imaginable already.

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It starts our in a very different fashion as various characters and situations are introduced by simply placing a word or words on the screen and then carrying on without any sort of narration. Many scenes are seen again and again through the eyes of different people involved in it and I can applaud this sort of art direction for sure. If you were to watch the scenes again you will definitely notice the continuity that they meticulously films to ensure that the action was the same from all participant's angles. This is actually very well done.

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As is expected, anyone who dies from any injury emerges moments later as a zombie themselves - I suppose the only difference from this and Walking Dead is that the injury doesn't need to be inflicted by an existing zombie in order for the newly deceased to become one of them (maybe this happens in WD as well, I lost interest in that series a while ago.)

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The zombies don't appear to have any sort of supernatural powers or strength, they are merely a lot harder to kill than a regular human and this is something I actually enjoy about the show as well.

Now onto what I don't like. The character development is fast and furious. I found myself not really understanding who anyone was except for what I think is the main character "Rose," who loses her daughter and husband very early on in the series. The rest of the people, thus far, are very forgettable and perhaps later they play a larger role.

The main issue for me is the absurd situations that people find themselves in by making dumb decisions like deviating from a safe path because someone in the car knows a shortcut because they used to live / work/ travel around here and if there was ever a more effective method of telegraphing upcoming tension, this is it.

Also, the military, once again, are shockingly useless in their defense against their zombatious attackers and this is something that has irritated me about pretty much any zombie movie or series. It just doesn't make sense and I am still waiting for an accurate representation of exactly how incredibly effective an M-1 Abrams or AH-64D Apache Long Bow with minigun attachments actually would be against a relatively slow-moving and easily lured opponent like bloodthirsty zombies.

use these guys, come on!

Yet the only military involvement we see at the start of this is supersonic jets (which are never used against infantry) and foot soldiers with very small arms that are revealed to be quite ineffective against the zombies from the get go. At one point (and you can actually see this in the trailer) that the military has set up barbed wire fences around an area ONLY at the street entrances... the rest of the perimeter is wide open because I guess zombies (and the humans fleeing them) can't walk on grass.

I might be the wrong person to critique this series because I am dead tired (pun intended) of zombie-related shows and films. I don't really even pay them much mind but I am sticking with my "I will watch everything Netflix recommends to me" mantra. I found the art direction ideas about showing multiple perspectives of the same event to be inventive, but other than that, this is just a re-hash of stuff I've already seen and am quite bored of. However, i suppose there is some entertainment value here especially for people who love the zombie stuff.

on a scale of "urgh!" to "wowsers!" I give Black Summer the rating of.....