Survival of the fittest
A promising new series pits a disgruntled animal kingdom against the humans
A promising new series pits a disgruntled animal kingdom against the humans.
Based on the novel of the same name by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge, Zoo is fun and almost believable. Directed by Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec, Jeff Pinkner and Scott Rosenberg, the TV show brings us the story of the rise of the animal world, and a revolt against the ruling race, which just so happens to be us. As Jackson Oz (James Wolk), a zoologist running a successful safari business in Botswana, Africa, finds the only survivor of a lion attack (a DGSC operative on vacation, played by Nora Arnezeder) with the help of his native friend Abraham (Nonso Anonzie), he wonders if there may be more to the attack than meets the eye.
Incidentally, Jackson’s retreat into the wild is an effort to distract himself from the grief caused by the loss of his father, a zoologist who took his own life when the mainstream scientific community dismissed his theories, focusing on — that’s right — an animal uprising.
In a parallel story, journalist Jamie (Kristen Connolly) is seeking to link the incident of a lion escape to a multinational, Reiden Global. In her efforts, she meets Mitch Morgan (Billy Burke), a brooding doctor/scientist/veterinary specialist and forces him to help her in exposing Reiden, a task that is obviously more difficult than it seems to her at the time.
As fate has it, when these attacks are linked with various other incidents involving abnormal animal behavior, these five people are called upon by a ‘concerned party’ to form a covert team to investigate the shift in animal behavior, discern a cause and then find a solution. Unlikely as the bunch is, they find a way to make do with their limited skill set and successfully tackle the problems they face.
The series brings us face to face with an array of angry animals displaying unusual behaviour — there are lions that kill for sport, bats that swarm over an island in broad daylight, rats that hunt humans and birds that communicate interspecies and crash into airplanes on purpose. Unbelievable as all of this may sound, the directors have found a way to keep it all as close to reality as possible. Almost every episode in the season ends on a cliffhanger that leaves viewers on the edge of their seats with their mouths hanging open.
The chemistry between the team members builds quite naturally as the season progresses. Both Jamie and Mitch, and Jackson and Chloe seem destined for romance, even though that aspect of the chemistry is a little off, seeing that there are sudden — and not always appropriately placed — fleeting moments of intimacy that mark their conversations. But then can normal flirtation be expected in such abnormal circumstances?
It is true that there are scenarios in the drama that seem farfetched, such as the fact that a zoo reopened the day after two lions escaped and killed two men on the street or that two characters survived a fall from a cliff with nothing more than a few superficial bruises. Additionally, despite the show’s global scope, Zoo feels awfully insular, almost like the ensemble cast of a summer catastrophe blockbuster had half its population wiped out. That, however, may change if there is a second season in the works, what with the eye-popping cliffhanger that the finale leaves us at. All in all, even with these blind spots, the series provides enough drama and thrill to leave us waiting for the next season.
Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, September 27th, 2015.
Incidentally, Jackson’s retreat into the wild is an effort to distract himself from the grief caused by the loss of his father, a zoologist who took his own life when the mainstream scientific community dismissed his theories, focusing on — that’s right — an animal uprising.
In a parallel story, journalist Jamie (Kristen Connolly) is seeking to link the incident of a lion escape to a multinational, Reiden Global. In her efforts, she meets Mitch Morgan (Billy Burke), a brooding doctor/scientist/veterinary specialist and forces him to help her in exposing Reiden, a task that is obviously more difficult than it seems to her at the time.
As fate has it, when these attacks are linked with various other incidents involving abnormal animal behavior, these five people are called upon by a ‘concerned party’ to form a covert team to investigate the shift in animal behavior, discern a cause and then find a solution. Unlikely as the bunch is, they find a way to make do with their limited skill set and successfully tackle the problems they face.
The series brings us face to face with an array of angry animals displaying unusual behaviour — there are lions that kill for sport, bats that swarm over an island in broad daylight, rats that hunt humans and birds that communicate interspecies and crash into airplanes on purpose. Unbelievable as all of this may sound, the directors have found a way to keep it all as close to reality as possible. Almost every episode in the season ends on a cliffhanger that leaves viewers on the edge of their seats with their mouths hanging open.
The chemistry between the team members builds quite naturally as the season progresses. Both Jamie and Mitch, and Jackson and Chloe seem destined for romance, even though that aspect of the chemistry is a little off, seeing that there are sudden — and not always appropriately placed — fleeting moments of intimacy that mark their conversations. But then can normal flirtation be expected in such abnormal circumstances?
It is true that there are scenarios in the drama that seem farfetched, such as the fact that a zoo reopened the day after two lions escaped and killed two men on the street or that two characters survived a fall from a cliff with nothing more than a few superficial bruises. Additionally, despite the show’s global scope, Zoo feels awfully insular, almost like the ensemble cast of a summer catastrophe blockbuster had half its population wiped out. That, however, may change if there is a second season in the works, what with the eye-popping cliffhanger that the finale leaves us at. All in all, even with these blind spots, the series provides enough drama and thrill to leave us waiting for the next season.
Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, September 27th, 2015.