Rick Grimes arises from his hospital bed,
The flowers brought to him by Shane, are dead.
He walks out of the room, there's blood on the floor,
"Don't Open, Dead Inside," is sprayed on a door.
There's fingers clawing between a slight crack,
What's going on? What's that? Rick's taken aback.
He stumbles out into the daylight and sees,
The bodies of people, do they have a disease?
He gets on a bike and rides back to his home,
But it's empty, his wife and his son have flown.
He meets up with Morgan, who tells him all,
About the demise of the world and its fall.
Morgan
They go to the police station to find some guns,
Their strategy for killing zombies has just begun,
He hands Morgan a radio, to keep in touch,
Rick wants to find his wife and son he loves so much.
Rick is going to Atlanta, he's driving of course,
He runs out of petrol, so rides a tame horse.
On reaching Atlanta there's a lot of undead,
The horse spooks, Rick falls, he has to use his head.
Iconic scene from The Walking Dead
As the walkers devour the horse of its flesh and its bones,
Rick spies a tank, he can hear the walkers and their moans,
They're getting closer and Rick holds the gun to his head,
Maybe in this world, he'd be better off dead.
He suddenly spies a hatch underneath the tank,
And makes his way quickly, he has the Lord to thank.
He climbs in the tank, an undead soldier is inside,
Rick shoots him, there was nowhere to hide.
As Rick decides what on earth he should do,
A voice crackles through the radio, a young dude,
"Hey you, dumbass. Yeah, you in the tank, you cosy in there?"
It's the voice of salvation, something quite rare.
Warning: This may contain spoilers for The Walking Dead and Z Nation!!
These are two of the best Zombie Apocalypse TV series, in my opinion, with Fear the Walking Dead coming a steady third and although they both tackle the Zombie Apocalypse, they approach it from completely different directions…
The Walking Dead is well known for its grittiness, the plotlines are sometimes dark and TWD invests a lot of time in developing its characters, so that when they meet their demise, it’s far more impactful to the viewer.
Z Nation, on the other hand, has outrageous plotlines and insane zombie deaths, including those killed by the Cheese Wheel as shown in this video.
Zombies
Talking about zombies, both shows have the same zombie “Bite of Death” but if you had to give an award to the best zombies, that would go to ZN for their many different types of zombie: the Blasters (nuclear and which could run really fast), Phytos, (half zombie, half plant), Radioactive zombies. Another difference is that the Z Nation zombies can run, which speeds up the action, but personally I’d prefer the Walking Dead zombies as I can’t run that fast!!
Warren versus Rick
My heart will forever be with Rick, he was the leader in The Walking Dead, everything he did was for the group, everyone looked up to him. His job was to keep everyone safe, lead them into battle and ultimately create a safe world for them all to grow old in.
But then there’s Warren in Z Nation, if ever you needed a model for Girl Power, then she was it. Tough, dependable and always there when needed. She was tasked with getting Murphy, the only human with an antidote for the zombie virus to the CDC Lab, and boy, she was never gonna give up on that!
Murphy vesus Eugene
Murphy with his daughter
This may be a bit of a tenuous link, but both had either the means to save the entire human race or said that they knew the cure to save the human race.
Murphy had undeniable proof, having been bitten several times, with the bitemarks to prove it and had lived to tell the tale; Eugene said that he had to get to Washington DC as he had the cure for the zombie virus, but unfortunately for him, he was found out to only be saying this so he could get safe passage to Washington DC.
Murphy, on the other hand, grew from strength to strength and could even control the zombies with his mind.
Story
Neegan and Lucille
Where The Walking Dead’s storyline was sometimes a long drawn out affair, remember series two on the farm where they seemed to spend the whole time searching for Sophia, the story goes from initially having to battle zombies to later on the main enemy was other humans and the zombies were an unwelcome distration. But saying that, I loved Neegan with Lucille, the Governor and Alpha and her Wisperers, so villians aren’t necessarily a bad thing !
Z Nation had an overarching storyline, it did sometimes have ‘filler’ episodes which were much more tongue-in-cheek than normal, but the group’s main objective was to use Murphy to find a cure for the zombie virus.
The Walking Dead had more of an apocalypse feel to it – they ran out of bullets and petrol and grew their own vegetables.
In Z Nation there was Z-Weed, apocalypse weed and the last season included zombies that could talk, eating Z-Bizkuits to keep them happy. There was also a neverending supply of bullets and most abandoned cars had petrol in them!
Conclusion
Whilst The Walking Dead will always be my first love, Z Nation was a fun-filled ride with lots of giggles and imaginative zombie deaths. Z Nation has finished with its fifth series and I will miss it, TWD goes marching on into its 10th series and I will be there rooting for the characters that we know and love!!
Times when The Walking Dead was referenced in Z Nation:
Puppies and kittens: This phrase has been used by the characters in Z Nation a lot, they use it to describe zombies, it was also said by Rick to Glenn in the opening episode of The Walking Dead.
Neagan and Lucielle: In an episode entitled “Heart of Darkness” Hector makes the comment, “I’ve heard of someone wrapping barbed wire around a baseball bat….. but never a whole zombie,” an obvious allusion to Neegan.
Glenn and the dumpster: In one scene in Season 3, the Trump spinoff looks under a dumpster for somebody and says, “Nobody could have survived that!” Maybe a nod to the Glenn “death”.
Please note: If you have not watched The Walking Dead (first of all, why haven’t you?) or are halfway through a box set, there may be information in this blog that contains spoilers. You have been warned!
The Walking Dead
One day I was sat at work discussing the fact that I had binge watched Game of Thrones with my husband for the last three weeks, we had now caught up and needed something to fill in that void in our life. Someone in my office suggested I gave The Walking Dead a try, “What’s it about?” I joked, “People walking around who are dead?” “That’s about the sum of it,” was the reply and I dismissed this programme out of hand.
Fast forward about a week and hubby has gone to a meeting and I’m sitting on the sofa aimlessly flicking through channel after channel in the desperate search for something to watch. I suddenly thought back to my conversation at work, “Maybe I will give this programme a go,” I found the box set and settled down to watch the first episode, Days Gone Bye.
I watched a couple of episodes that night and I was hooked, so whenever my husband was out for a meeting or had to work on a weekend, I would try and watch as many episodes as I could. “Why,” I can hear you ask, “Didn’t you watch it with your hubby?” Well, after 33 years of marriage I knew that he didn’t like horror movies or blood and gore, so I naturally assumed he wouldn’t be interested in it.
It got to the stage where I couldn’t wait for hubby to go out, as soon as the front door closed, I hit the play button and escaped into the apocalyptic world of The Walking Dead.
Rick Grimes
Rick, of course, was my favourite, but it wasn’t easy being a Rick fan, as much as I thought to myself, “They would never kill him off,” there were some close shaves.
You would have thought that after the world is infected with a virus which renders somebody ‘undead’, that that was the fight for survival, but no, as the series progresses you learn that once the survivors have learnt how to fight the walkers (zombies) then the next war is raged against fellow human survivors.
Cue the villains:
Terminus
The Governor
Negan
Alpha
Terminus itself wasn’t a good place, where the Dish of the Day was Flambé Human Flesh! The Governor, whose leadership style was a lot to be desired! Negan, who managed to kill two of my favourite characters and whose best friend is a baseball bat called Lucille and last but not least, Alpha, the leader of the new enemy, The Whisperers. I have only seen a couple of episodes with her in it, but already I think she’s shaping up to the worst of a very bad lot!
I never thought I would see the day when Rick left the show, I really thought he would be Old Rick, sitting in a rocking chair on the porch, dishing out his wise knowledge to his grandchildren, but no, Rick has gone! Not dead (thankfully), but gone away in a helicopter to heavens know where, to do heavens knows what. It was strange watching the new series without him, it felt leaderless, especially as Maggie did a vanishing trick as well! But we soon had some new characters introduced,
Luke
it usually takes me a while to get used to new people, but one of them has caught my attention, Luke. I hope he lasts a long time in the series, but you never know with The Walking Dead, no-one is safe, just ask Glenn, Abraham, Jesus, Shane, Lori………
As a footnote, I persuaded a reluctant husband to watch the opening episode with me, he watched it and then proceeded to watch four series in the space of three days! So now we watch it together, discuss it together and enjoy it together!!
A journey through the meaning of life and anything else that grabs my attention!
Making My Home A Haven is important to me. Sharing homemaking skills. Recipes and food. Bible Studies. This is a treasure chest of goodies. So take a seat. Have a glass of tea and enjoy. You will learn all about who I am and Our Neck Of The Woods.
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