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Black Summer

You know that feeling you get when you've had a long day, or even a long week, and you just want to sit down and be entertained without having to think about it. Your brain is barely functional, and you simply want Netflix to know what you want to watch before you're even aware that it exists, because everything is a struggle right now. Frankly, after watching countless days worth of shows and movies, Netflix really should just be psychic at this point.

I had one of those moments the other day, and Netflix did not fail me. I love zombies. I will watch pretty much anything zombie-related. I wouldn't mind turning into a zombie one day. Zombies! Black Summer has zombies. I guess I'm watching Black Summer now.



Black Summer is a modestly short series that runs 8 very digestible episodes, which eventually shrink into shorter, bite-sized episodes. My boyfriend and I ran through this whole show in one night (a work night, but it was worth staying up a little late to finish). The first episode introduces us to all of our main characters in short segments, quickly intertwining their lives (I don't think anyone will accuse this show of dawdling). It's been a few weeks since the apocalypse began, but today is when their fates ultimately start to turn.



Rose (Jaime King) loses track of her daughter, who is on a truck headed to the stadium, which is everyone's ultimate destination. The stadium is meant to epitomize sanctuary, but we all know better. She's traveling with the man who saved her life, Spears (Justin Chu Cary), as well as a deaf man, Ryan (Mustafa Alabssi) and Lance (Kelsey Flower), who annoyed the hell of me at first, but now I want to fist-bump him.

We have a second group of survivors, mainly comprising of Barbara (Gwynyth Walsh), Kyungsun (Christine Lee), and William (Sal Velez Jr.). One of William's first assurances to his aforementioned travel mates is that he's not going to rape them. As a woman, whenever I think about apocalypses, my first thought is: everyone is going to try and rape me. So...I like Will. He knows what we're thinking.

Black Summer isn't a great show, and I don't think it will leave a huge mark in its genre, at least not in its first season. In fact, it frustrated me in more moments than I can remember, but then I realized something: it's being realistic. Not everyone is a natural born fighter, not everyone has good instincts (or they just don't listen to them), and some people are just truly idiotic. Sometimes you have a good plan and it goes wrong. That being said, the one lesson everyone needs to learn from this: if your instincts are telling you one thing, and Spears is telling you another, listen to Spears. He knows what's up. I don't want to hear any of that, Oh, it's not a trap, we must save the-

NO! It's a trap. Every time.

Overall, this is an enjoyable, binge-worthy show. While it didn't knock it out of the stadium park, I would recommend this to anyone who loves a decent zombie thriller.

My Grade: B

P.S. It's always interesting to see what kind of zombies a show/movie will go with. These zombies run, baby! 

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