# Z Nation (2014)

> Three years after a zombie plague has gutted the country, a ragtag team must carry the sole known survivor across America to a lab that may hold a cure.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/54700

## Facts

- Seasons: 5
- Episodes: 68
- Episode runtime: 43 min
- Status: Canceled
- Genres: science fiction, action, horror, adventure
- Created by: Karl Schaefer, Craig Engler
- Network: Syfy
- Cast: Keith Allan, Kellita Smith, Anastasia Baranova, Tom Everett Scott, Nat Zang, Russell Hodgkinson, Michael Welch, Pisay Pao
- TMDB rating: 6.7/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3843168/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: propulsive, pulpy, irreverent, breathless, earnest

## What critics say

Viewers broadly regard Z Nation as a loose, action-packed zombie road trip with a fun cast, though its rating dips in the final season.

## Synopsis

Z Nation (2014-2018) is an American science fiction zombie series created by Karl Schaefer and Craig Engler for Syfy. Three years after a zombie virus has gutted the country, a team of everyday heroes led by Murphy (Keith Allan) and Roberta Warren (Kellita Smith) must escort the only known survivor of the plague from New York to California, where the last functioning viral lab waits for his blood. Addy Carver (Anastasia Baranova) and Doc (Russell Hodgkinson) round out the core group, while Charles Garnett (Tom Everett Scott) appears in a smaller arc. The engine is simple and relentless: every stretch of highway, abandoned town and military outpost brings new threats, from shambling hordes to human raiders, and each episode is built around a salvage run, a rescue or a forced detour that tests the convoy. The show spans five seasons and sixty-eight episodes, a serialized journey that keeps moving westward while its story stays tethered to one mission. Produced with the pulpy energy of a genre B-movie, it mixes gory set pieces, deadpan banter and buddy-team camaraderie in a bright, hard-driving register. Fans of The Walking Dead, The Last of Us and Helix will find resonance in its survival grit and its road-trip structure across a broken America.

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