By Sevanny Campos

If anyone ever wanted to see the start of the zombie apocalypse, Black Summer is definitely the show to cure that curiosity.

In the first five minutes of the show, we are introduced to panic and chaos as we follow Rose (Jaime King), a young mother who is separated from her daughter and whose husband turned into a zombie. The scene around Rose is ominous and chaotic. There is panic and judging from the expressions of the residents of that universe, they are absolutely overwhelmed.

The camerawork really sets the tone of the series, when we are introduced to this world. The camera is almost a character watching the series unfold and is unsteady like in many horror movies.

This show is completely different than the Walking Dead, in the sense that we do not really get to know these characters, in fact viewers are only given snippets of a person’s life and their struggle to survive.

The only character we are really given any information on are Spears, Rose and Lance. However episodes drift from these character and following others as well, in the second  episode we follow someone completely different whose friends turn into zombies, 20 minutes into the episode.

Because the zombie apocalypse is new to the residence of this world, there is a fascination by some character to turn people into the undead. In one episode a gang of school kids booby traps an entire school in hopes to lure victims into the trap, and they become undead. It is a really messed up thought and truly the only part of the series that was disturbing.

It is unclear of what caused the apocalypse in Black Summer but it seems to be an airborne virus. I think every times there is exposed wounds, it infects the person and they become zombies. In some instance, like the booby trapped school, the victims are not bitten, after falling into the trap, they become zombies. In another instance a member of Rose’s group is grazed by bullet, she quickly turns into a zombie after.

Maybe it will be explained in season 2, for now viewers have an eight episode series covering the sheer panic of a community that is unprepared for the impending doom that is around them. I really enjoyed the first season of Black summer and hope they go into an explanation of how the zombie apocalypse occurred. Black summer is available for streaming on Netflix.