Black Summer Archives - Page 2 of 2

Black Summer, Season 1, Episode 6

November 8, 2020April 30, 2023 1 Comment

Heist opens on two soldiers, passing the time on a roof with a game of chess. Oddly, there are hand drawn maps strewn about, and the soldiers appear to be watching a specific building.

The soldiers watch as Rose and William’s small band of survivors approach. They are then admitted into what looks like some kind of survivors stronghold. Or maybe a gang’s stronghold? It looks like they are making drugs, and the more we get to see, the worse it looks.

Rose is separated from the main group and put into a dingy community room with a lot of other survivors. This includes Lance, who is in rough shape. He sees Rose, but can barely get a few words out. Whatever Rose is in for, it does not sound good.

Guns

The other survivors are taken to an empty hall. The survivors from the truck have apparently brought William, Rose, and Spears back to their base of operations in order to steal weapons and supplies.

The group is able to get to the weapons stockpile and load up, thanks to the help from their new member with working knowledge of the site. Our team of survivors regroups, save for Rose, and begins to make their way out of the gang stronghold.

In order to make their escape William turns off the main power. This immediately results in a bit of gunplay, which releases biters into the mix. The plan just want to sh*t.

While all this is going on Rose is in trouble. The bald guy who let the group in goes back to Rose and tries to force himself on her. He only stops because Lance screams at him, distracting him until the lights go out. The big bald guy leaves to find out what is happening.

Let’s just say the big guy is quickly swarmed.

Swarmed

This was one of my favorite scenes from Heist. One man, a bunch of zombies, and some snacking.

Rose and Lance use the chaos to flee, but there are biters everywhere, and Lance appears to be drugged, wounded, or a bit of both. They make it out a side door, but William, Spears, and the others are still inside.

The Vent Crawl

Sun has it the worst. She’s crawling through the vents with their inside man when he catches a burst of gunfire from below. Now Sun has to crawl for her life. Lucky for her, Spears is there to put a few bullets into the biters head to save her.

We then get to see exactly what started the biting. The young woman from the truck who joined the team at the Diner goes into one of the dance halls and puts her knife through someone’s neck, and it definitely looked like she knew him, and it was personal.

Heist Scoring

Heist was another rock solid episode and scores an 90/100 for intensity, first rate acting, and atmosphere. It lost just a couple of points for not quite explaining what was going on. They mention it in the last episode, but a single sentence of dialogue at the begging of this one to reinforce the plan would have been nice.

Season	Episode	Episode Name	Score
1	1	Human Flow	85
1	2	Drive	80
1	3	Summer School	70
1	4	Alone	82
1	5	Diner	86
1	6	Heist	90
1	7	The Tunnel	83
1	8	The Stadium	91
2	1	The Cold	95
2	2	Prelude	80
2	3	Card Game	91
2	4	Cold War	83
2	5	White Horse	88
2	6	Currency	69
2	7	The Lodge	75
2	8	The Plane	99

See how all Zombie Series rank here!

Black Summer, Season 1, Episode 5

November 7, 2020April 30, 2023 Leave a comment

Diner is another intense episode.

William and Sun are trapped inside the Diner. The biters circle around the outside of the building, slamming into the windows whenever the biters sees a survivor inside.

The Diner has become a pressure cooker. William and Sun are inside with the same people who just ran them off the road. Tensions are high and William is ready to throw down.

William has a horrible decision to make. Do you sacrifice the person who saved you or do you stand up for the people who have helped you survive?

Diner is also the convergence episode. Team William and Team Rose meet at the Diner.

Diner Scoring

The episode is psychologically and emotionally intense. There isn’t a lot of actual violence or zombie hordes, but we do hear that the biters can cross rivers, “like ants” and we learn that a horde is coming, but it is still an episode Worth Your Time that scores an 86/100.

The points are in large part due to how well the tension builds, but it is also in good part due to Sal Velez Jr.’s acting as William. He is just a powerhouse in terms of emotional and physical believability.

Black Summer is everything I’m looking for in a Zombie Series. Fight me if you disagree.

If you are looking for another intense, gritty series, I highly recommend The Last of Us!

Season	Episode	Episode Name	Score
1	1	Human Flow	85
1	2	Drive	80
1	3	Summer School	70
1	4	Alone	82
1	5	Diner	86
1	6	Heist	90
1	7	The Tunnel	83
1	8	The Stadium	91
2	1	The Cold	95
2	2	Prelude	80
2	3	Card Game	91
2	4	Cold War	83
2	5	White Horse	88
2	6	Currency	69
2	7	The Lodge	75
2	8	The Plane	99

See how all Zombie Series rank here!

Black Summer, Season 1, Episode 4

November 6, 2020April 30, 2023 Leave a comment

Alone picks up right were Summer School left off. Sun and William are stuck in the diner, and surprisingly, Beard is alive!!!

As a tribute to him not being dead, I looked up Beard’s name. His name is Lance, played by Kelsey Flower. He wakes up on the floor of the school and panics when he hears the kids running amuck around him. The noise drives him to the roof, where we see there are at least a few planes in the air. It’s hard to tell, but I think the one fighter was actually on a bombing run.

I guess that means some organized force is still in play right?

Lance decides that going back into the school is a bad idea, and climbs down just in time for the Lost Boys to drop his body whom they shot down to chase him.

Bonus points for using the biters as self tracking weapons.

Time to Scream

Lance makes it free, but he’s bleeding, and it looks like he may have hurt his leg in the final jump off the first floor roof of the school. After wandering around the deserted town a little, Lance decides that screaming would be a good idea? Come on, that is just stupid. He only just escaped one biter, and if there aren’t people around, there have to be infected, right?

We then get introduced to Dog, who promptly ignores Lance. Lucky for him, there is grocery store around the corner. This seems like another very unpleasable find? Rose said its been weeks since she fled her house, so the Apocalypse has been raging for a while. Are there so few survivors that no one raided the shelves? Because the store is fully stocked.

Lance is leisurely strolling when he hears one of the infected, and low and behold, its his heat seeking zombie attacker, possibly following him from the blood trail Lance has left behind.

Poor Lance, all he had to do was lock the doors behind him. Instead he gets chased away from his food haul only to be forced to climb on top of a bus in order not to get caught.

Lance finally does something smart and lies down so the biter can’t see him. It seems to calm down the creature and Lance is able to wait a little while until the biter goes dormant. In the end it doesn’t work out so well though. Lance thinks he’s got a chance to run, but instead shows the biter how to get from the engine up onto the roof, and the chase is back on.

The Fire Station

At least until Lance finds the door to the local fire station and is able to et inside. The respite doesn’t last long, the biter slips under a partially open garage door.

Lucky for Lance, its a fire station, and that means there’s an axe…

Fire Axe

Bad news for Lance is that he’s scared sh*tless and instead of using that axe to take out the biter, he gets it stuck in a locker and forced to run again.

As he’s running down the street, he sees another survivor, and screams for help as he runs into the town library. Just when we think Lance is going to get caught, he’s saved by a stranger.

No good deed goes unpunished though. Alone ends with Lance picking up a stone bowl, coming up behind his savior, who it appears has been bitten. There is no mercy for the infected.

Alone Scoring

Alone was an intense episode and deserves every one of the 82/100 points it earned. What cost it some points? Lance screaming when there are biters around, and the fully stocked grocery store cost it a few, and then the simple fact that this episode was really a Lance versus a single biter. It was good, but I do like a good horde thrown in for good measure.

Season	Episode	Episode Name	Score
1	1	Human Flow	85
1	2	Drive	80
1	3	Summer School	70
1	4	Alone	82
1	5	Diner	86
1	6	Heist	90
1	7	The Tunnel	83
1	8	The Stadium	91
2	1	The Cold	95
2	2	Prelude	80
2	3	Card Game	91
2	4	Cold War	83
2	5	White Horse	88
2	6	Currency	69
2	7	The Lodge	75
2	8	The Plane	99

See how all Zombie Series rank here!

Black Summer, Season 1, Episode 3

November 5, 2020April 30, 2023 1 Comment

Summer School finds Team Rose hiding inside a school, lead inside by a creepy figure wearing a hoodie.

The school looks empty, but they don’t take any risks. They grab some supplies and hole up in the band room. Spears clears the space, but is stressed and anxious.

The team tries to rest, but its not long before they are woken by someone or something on the roof. For some reason, they think going to find the cause of the noise is a good idea, but are just lead on a chase after seeing a little kid at the end of the hall.

After a brief chase they stop and we get a dose of sanity from Spears.

Spears: “Enough of this sh*t. Let’s get out of here.”

Bearded Guy: “What about the kid?”

Spears: “F*ck the kid. We’re not alone. We should go.

This is the part that drives me crazy in shows and movies. Its an apocalypse, and weird little kids are running around, taunting you. Why would you chase after them? Wait, how could Team Rose make the decision to look for the kid even worse? They could split up!

Nobody but Spears has a weapon? Why would you split up? The moment Rose and her mute friend find the bodies in the shower, they should have backtracked to Spears and bolted.

What could be worse after splitting into two groups? Brian, the mute, runs from Rose, so now there are three groups. Spears and Beard explore the basement until Beard walks through a door and sets off at trap. I’m guessing he’s dead.

Spears and Rose group back up just in time to be introduced to the kids who have taken over the school.

The kids have taken Brian, but don’t realize he’s deaf, so when they take his hood off and he starts to walk, one of the kids shoots him, which turns him into a biter. Apparently this is a world similar to The Walking Dead and if you die, you turn. This leads to an interesting lunchroom table fight while the kids cheer on the violence.

Four survivors entered. Two made it back out.

I’m giving Summer School a 70/100 because I hate it when characters do the worst possible thing when it comes to survival. They should have called the episode “Lord of the Flies” because that is what all the kids with spears reminded me of.

Season	Episode	Episode Name	Score
1	1	Human Flow	85
1	2	Drive	80
1	3	Summer School	70
1	4	Alone	82
1	5	Diner	86
1	6	Heist	90
1	7	The Tunnel	83
1	8	The Stadium	91
2	1	The Cold	95
2	2	Prelude	80
2	3	Card Game	91
2	4	Cold War	83
2	5	White Horse	88
2	6	Currency	69
2	7	The Lodge	75
2	8	The Plane	99

See how all Zombie Series rank here!

Black Summer, Season 1, Episode 2

November 4, 2020April 30, 2023 Leave a comment

Drive picks up, you guessed it, in the minivan with William, Sun, and Barbara. They are trying to make it to the stadium, which is supposed to be a rally point for the evacuation.

William is the leader of the group. Barbara is scared and insecure, and Sun is a determined, but hampered by her inability to communicate well. They are trying to navigate through streets full of abandoned cars and peoples belongings. As they drive they spot a black pickup, which appears to be pacing them.

William thinks he’s lost them but in the process drives down an alley. Several survivors try to hijack their minivan, or maybe just take their supplies. This gets a kids bike stuck under the minivan and leads to the Best Zombie Kill of the episode.

Car Kill

Unfortunately for Team William, the success isn’t long lived. They barely get a little further down the road when the Black Truck finds them again. We then get to see a minivan drift around some corners in a post apocalyptic car chase.

Bad Drivers

Team William thinks they’ve gotten away, but you know that’s not quite how it works. There is a final car chase, and I do mean final, because Barbara bites it when William get’s distracted and drives head long into a truck carrying concrete barriers. The vehicles are wrecked, but William, Sun, and the other survivors make it into a diner before the infected can chase them down.

Rose and Spears, and their two companions aren’t as lucky as William, they are forced to walk. They don’t get far before they see a man and a woman trying to run from one of the infected. It’s an intense scene that shows us just how dangerous the infected are. Within seconds of being bitten, the woman becomes a starving monster.

Bitten & Turned

Team Rose makes it around the attack site and continue on their stroll. We get more evidence of just how bad things have gotten as they pass by a car that appears to have been hijacked.

Thus ends Driven.

Drive Scoring

Drive was an intense episode and scores 80/100, making it Worth Your Time.

Season	Episode	Episode Name	Score
1	1	Human Flow	85
1	2	Drive	80
1	3	Summer School	70
1	4	Alone	82
1	5	Diner	86
1	6	Heist	90
1	7	The Tunnel	83
1	8	The Stadium	91
2	1	The Cold	95
2	2	Prelude	80
2	3	Card Game	91
2	4	Cold War	83
2	5	White Horse	88
2	6	Currency	69
2	7	The Lodge	75
2	8	The Plane	99

See how all Zombie Series rank here!

Black Summer, Season 1, Episode 1

November 3, 2020April 30, 2023 Leave a comment

Black Summer is a Netflix show, and the Episode 1, Human Flow, starts strong.

Human Flow picks up as an evacuation is in progress. Rose and her family are trying to get out as the final military vehicles are rolling out.

I really like the look and feel of Black Summer. There is urgency, but its also clear that everyone hasn’t seen just how bad its going to be, yet. The soldiers aren’t taking any chances, they are checking every survivor for signs of illness. This turns out poorly for Rose and her family when their little girl gets on a truck, but the soldiers stop her husband. He’s sweating, and when they search him they find he’s got a wound on his side. The reaction from the soldier tells us everything we need to do know about whatever is infecting people.

Losing Anna

Rose’s daughter rides away in the back of the truck full of evacuees. The military appears to be running just ahead of the undead. Rose and her Husband flee into a local house to hide. Rose goes into the kitchen to look for supplies. When she comes back her husband has turned. Rose runs. Her husband chases her. At least until his path brings him in front of a solider.

Rose’s Husband Being Put Down

After Rose is saved, we jump over to one of the other multitude of stories being woven together. Thus weare introduced to Sun and Barbara.

Barbara is an older woman who is scared and anxious. She almost loses her car and her life in the first chaotic hours of the apocalypse. Luckily for her she gets saved by William.

Spears is the final character we are introduced to. He’s being escorted by soldiers. We don’t know why, but it’s clear that he has something, or knows something. He escapes after using a bathroom break to create an opportunity to run. Spears ends up bumping into Rose as the episode is coming to an end.

Yes, there is a lot going on in Episode 1, and I only commented on the big stuff. Human Flow reminds me of the first chapter of Stephen King’s, The Stand. After the infection has killed off the majority of the survivors we get to see how random life can be. There are a series of vignettes where survivors die in a multitude of ways as they are struggling to cope with their new reality. Episode 1 of Black Summer has a similar feel. There are lots of characters suffering and dying as they learn the reality of their new world.

Human Flow Scoring

Overall, I’m giving Human Flow an 85/100. It gets big points for the feel and anxiety that it captures so well. The producers do tension well. I was sitting on the edge of my seat for most of the episode. So why didn’t the episode score higher? Because it is possible to squeeze too much goodness into a single episode.

Black Summer is awesome. I honestly would have enjoyed each journey getting a bit more time.

Season	Episode	Episode Name	Score
1	1	Human Flow	85
1	2	Drive	80
1	3	Summer School	70
1	4	Alone	82
1	5	Diner	86
1	6	Heist	90
1	7	The Tunnel	83
1	8	The Stadium	91
2	1	The Cold	95
2	2	Prelude	80
2	3	Card Game	91
2	4	Cold War	83
2	5	White Horse	88
2	6	Currency	69
2	7	The Lodge	75
2	8	The Plane	99