Black Summer

:

Season 1
  • Network: Netflix
  • Series Premiere Date: Apr 11, 2019
Season #: 2, 1
User Score
5.0

Mixed or average reviews- based on 46 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 18 out of 46
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 46
  3. Negative: 20 out of 46
Watch Now

Where To Watch

Stream On

Review this tv show

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling

User Reviews

view
per page
  1. Winteg
    Apr 26, 2019
    0
    This show has infuriatingly poor plot lines. Character motivations make no sense or don't exist at all. Characters don't develop and lack depth. Can't believe I wasted hours of my life watching it and hoping it gets better.
  2. Gospam
    Apr 29, 2019
    0
    I'm going to repeat what has already been said, but wow, this is BAD

    It starts off with a huge potential. The chapters, the different subplots bumping into each others, the zombies running and representing quite a real danger. And we are introduced to a large panel of characters we want to follow and see evolve. That's until you realize everyone in this universe is STUPID. The    I'm going to repeat what has already been said, but wow, this is BAD

    It starts off with a huge potential. The chapters, the different subplots bumping into each others, the zombies running and representing quite a real danger. And we are introduced to a large panel of characters we want to follow and see evolve.

    That's until you realize everyone in this universe is STUPID.

    The military is evacuating the population but bombing the place at the same time.
    They are packing people in a stadium even though ANYONE who dies automatically turns into a zombie.
    The latino man saves some guys he was trying to kill literally 5 minutes before.
    The korean girl keeps speaking in korean, while nobody understands her and while it is shown that she knows some basic english vocabulary.
    While the characters are hiding, some imbecile starts PLAYING THE DRUM.

    But these moments of idiocy pale in comparison to the school episode.

    We are introduced to nothing more than a gang of kids who went rogue and transformed their school in a haunted house.
    There is a kid running in the corridor, who is more than obviously a bait.
    When the doors are locked, the characters go on a quest for a key to be able to get out, even though they're on the first floor and there are huge windows everywhere.
    The kids have an surprising thirst for blood and violence when you consider that they are just, well..., kids from a rather nice neighborhood and a well equipped school.

    Conclusion : I gave this series a chance but I quit when I spent more time pulling my hair at the lack of logic of every single scene rather than enjoying the story.
    Additionally, this does not bring anything new to the genre. It is packed with clichés, the characters are never developed and the story is nothing new.

    Go see 28 days later of the first seasons of TWD, and forget this.    … Expand
  3. Dodger
    Apr 11, 2019
    3
    Black summer feels like it was written by someone who took notes on every cliche zombie trope and then combined them into one series. Avoid unless you really need your zombie fix.

    Edit: was originally a 4/10 and i have brought it down to a 3/10. The show gets worse as it goes on and the last episode is actually dreadful.
  4. Fyil
    Apr 12, 2019
    2
    Can't people simple hire a actual screenwriter do write screenplays? This is horrible. A story starts and ends in less tem 20min, you simple have no time to give a F to any characters.
    If netflix ain't gonna put an effort to making these movies then it should do it at all. 2 for the photography.
  5. Ladyboughner
    Apr 12, 2019
    1
    A classic example of money (and time) well wasted. Poor screenwriting, non-comprehensible decisions of characters an plotholes as far as one can see. I seriously expected more of this.
  6. zangu
    Apr 12, 2019
    2
    This show is ass, scenes dont make any sense, zombies either act mentally retarded or sometimes gain at least 40 iq to act like a basic human being, plot points are generic and pointless and the acting wasnt bad but the camera work was horrible. Felt as if a really high budget Youtube show got onto Netflix.
  7. Gravewax
    Apr 14, 2019
    2
    Wow can't believe I watched all 8 episodes. The first half the season you are waiting for something interesting to happen, the second half you are just enduring this really badly scripted and poorly budgeted C grade zombie series as you are already half way there. It is like the walking dead but they could only afford one or 2 zombie makeups and could not afford a writer. plenty ofWow can't believe I watched all 8 episodes. The first half the season you are waiting for something interesting to happen, the second half you are just enduring this really badly scripted and poorly budgeted C grade zombie series as you are already half way there. It is like the walking dead but they could only afford one or 2 zombie makeups and could not afford a writer. plenty of swearing to make it for adults but can't show any sort of zombie damage or effects.

    The character building is non existent. made especially worse by having most of them doing stuff that suggests they have less intellect than the average zombie, pretty much could not have given a damn for any of them. Avoid this piece of garbage.    … Expand
  8. MetaBoBB
    Apr 16, 2019
    1
    Terrible, very low quality show. The acting is very bad and the way this show is filmed ugh..
  9. AngryShark92
    Apr 15, 2019
    1
    TLDR: Every single zombie trope ever combined with terrible writing, casting, acting, scripting, storyline, and the unnecessary demonization of white males all wrapped up in a big garbage bag with a half-scraped Netflix label on it. Oh, and its more of a comedy than anything else.

    I always tell myself I can watch through any zombie/infected based shows/movies, but wow, is this one    TLDR: Every single zombie trope ever combined with terrible writing, casting, acting, scripting, storyline, and the unnecessary demonization of white males all wrapped up in a big garbage bag with a half-scraped Netflix label on it. Oh, and its more of a comedy than anything else.

    I always tell myself I can watch through any zombie/infected based shows/movies, but wow, is this one absolutely horrible. Netflix must have allocated minimal funds to this and probably should have just scrapped the whole project entirely because this is like a D-Level zombie show.

    There is zero character development so you do not care about them, their are very few zombies in the actual show in the early episodes, which is surprising and kind of breaks immersion and world-building sometimes, the characters have no arcs or motivations for their actions, they are all stereotypes and bad ones at that, and the story is so incoherent and full of plotholes that I wonder who the hell gave this the green light.

    Also, I find it absolutely hilarious that, even in a zombie survival show, we have managed to inject some kind of weird political aim to make white males look like the worst thing to happen to humanity. I actually died laughing at some of these points. Evil characters - white males, useless and weak character - white male, rapists - white males, dishonest characters - white males, wait for it... evil children taking advantage of survivors - white male children... such a joke in entertainment nowadays.

    If the final episode of this show does not sum up this garbage perfectly, I don't know what will, because I was laughing the whole way through.

    + Excellent comedy for all the wrong reasons

    - Awful acting
    - Awful story
    - Awful characters
    - Terrible writing
    - Terrible casting
    - Terrible effects
    - Plot contrivances everywhere
    - Doesn't feel like an apocalypse at points
    - A billion chapter cuts that are woefully unnecessary
    - You can predict who all the bad people are by seeing if they are white males
    - Subtitles for sun would be nice?
    - No gore in a zombie production...
    - You should consider it an achievement if you make it all the way through.

    Overall, this show was able to make me laugh and had more action than TWD ever could, but there is absolutely no way in hell this should have even made it to production. I am always up for a zombie flick, and I figured Netflix would be able to piece together something decent, but boy was I wrong. A competent writer, bigger budget, and a fresh cast rotation would maybe get this up to a C or B level zombie story, but apparently they were more focused on demonizing white men than they were about putting together a coherent story. Do yourself a favour and skip this garbage, or grab some popcorn, inebriate yourself and try to find it funny like I did.    … Expand
  10. makerofstone
    Apr 23, 2019
    0
    Complete and total politically correct sjw nonsense. I like a diverse cast, but EVERY "white male" character is stupid, incompetent, a rapist, dishonest, useless, or a zombie. God, how can people like this junk? It's boring, predictable, low quality garbage. The PC stuff puts the nail in this coffin. Peace.
  11. Antares8001
    Apr 16, 2019
    3
    TLDR: "Random undefined characters doing random things in a seemingly randomly strung together plot that never goes anywhere."

    Contains minor spoilers: I have to say that I am in awe of this show. Unfortunately it is because of how much wasted potential there is. There are some genuinely scary and interesting set-pieces, scenes and premises (school and diner). Unfortunately the show    TLDR: "Random undefined characters doing random things in a seemingly randomly strung together plot that never goes anywhere."

    Contains minor spoilers:

    I have to say that I am in awe of this show. Unfortunately it is because of how much wasted potential there is. There are some genuinely scary and interesting set-pieces, scenes and premises (school and diner). Unfortunately the show never goes anywhere with them, and they are just kinda there.

    The show also does a remarkably bad job at establishing its characters. This is probably best exemplified by the episode "Alone", where we spend the better part of it following around someone who did not have a single line of relevant dialogue up to this point. Alright so you would expect that they are going to use this episode to flesh out his character, however the only thing we learn is that he is somewhat incompetent. That would be bad enough however the show tries to convey this extremely tense atmosphere throughout, while my only question was why in the world I should care about this generic dude man guy, who does not have a single character trait, which created a quite a bit of unintentional comedy. They could have simply cut out this entire part and nothing would have changed. Overall the show seems to be viewing its characters as plot devices rather than relatable individuals. Which is also exemplified by the other character's irrationality and incompetence.
    Weirdly enough the show keeps killing off characters in supposedly tense situations, however because we never really get any time to develop a bond with the characters this never has the desired impact and always feels random and once again unintentionally funny. I actually had to look up if this show wasn't a dark comedy.
    To its credit the show occasionally shows characters having to make morally ambiguous and difficult decisions, and you'd think that they would use that to create some depth, however we never get to see any kind of impact/payoff of those decisions, as the show once again takes next to no time to develop its characters. We sometimes get to see a shocked expression or a throw away comment, and then the characters simply go on as though nothing happened.
    Just as frustrating is that the characters are implied to have a backstory, however they are never really explored. An example would be one of the characters backstories creating potential for intrigue within the group of survivors, however this is discussed briefly and then never mentioned again.

    Also the show has some very weird pacing issues. The showrunners apparently though if "Show don't Tell" is better than "Show and Tell" then "Don't Show and Don't Tell" must be the best option. There is almost never any explanation of why the characters are doing what they are doing. It almost feels like the episodes were originally intended to be at least 1 hour long and then they decided to cut out all the relevant plot information and most of the dialogue to get them to 40 min. It also doesn't help that the show often leaves out the part of the characters moving from one location to another, so it more often than not it simply feels like the characters randomly appear in a location do some random things to then randomly appear in another location.

    Now for the overarching plot and story:
    I can honestly say that I was extremely surprised by this, however not because of some clever twist, but because of the lack thereof. We simply learn the about the main character's goal in the first episode and then we see her achieving it in the final episode. And we don't even see any kind of payoff for that, it just kinda happens and then they decided to roll credits. In the process they also manage to include just about every single zombie cliché there is, however they never play with them in an interesting manner and simply include for the sake of having them.
    A show like this baffles me, especially since it seems that all of its issues could have been solved by hiring a decent screenwriter. As it is it feels like they didn't have screenwriter at all and simply made things up as they went along. At times this felt like a really overbudgeted student project, except that the writing was even worse.    … Expand
  12. Darthly_Happy
    Apr 17, 2019
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Best way to describe the show
    "There's zombies and things happen"

    Things you will ask yourself while watching this-

    Why is no one talking?
    Why is nothing ever explained?
    Why do people suddenly show up in places?
    Where even are they?
    Why do people keep trying to communicate with the Korean character long after it is established she doesn't speak English?
    Why are there so many moments of unnecessary and illogical silence?
    How does this show manage to show so much and yet show nothing at the same time?
    Why are many people holding guns yet they are never used?
    Why does the screen cut to black every 4 minutes to show a pretentious chapter title?

    Good things.
    The actors are at least trying.
    Camera work is ok at times.    … Expand
  13. SentinelDaniel
    Apr 20, 2019
    2
    Black Summer is the worst zombie series i've ever seen. don't watch this horrible serie if you're a fan of The Walking Dead, cause your IQ will go DOWN!!!

    People can't even aim at zombies head. they'll just fire 5 bullets into their body or slap them with a frying pan and then hope they're dead. Stupid. At Episode 8 when they're all full geared. they see one fookin zombie running.    Black Summer is the worst zombie series i've ever seen. don't watch this horrible serie if you're a fan of The Walking Dead, cause your IQ will go DOWN!!!

    People can't even aim at zombies head. they'll just fire 5 bullets into their body or slap them with a frying pan and then hope they're dead. Stupid.

    At Episode 8 when they're all full geared. they see one fookin zombie running. What do they do. All of them shoot half of their clips to kill it. IT'S STUPID.

    That Chinese women keeps fookin taking while nobody understands her. StOOPID.
    guy with that **** jacked that goes reads a book for no goddamn reason, and doesn't fookin barricade the doors behind him. STOOOOPPIIDDD.

    2/10 "Get this **** out of Netflix and put it on Youtube"    … Expand
  14. mrmonster
    Apr 26, 2019
    2
    Black Summer is nothing more than a cheap attempt to reach out to Walking Dead fans while they wait for the next season. This show combines so-so acting with a terribly structured/terribly paced story to give us a just plain bland zombie show that's just not worth the watch. It really is that boring.
  15. papadrew7
    Apr 24, 2019
    1
    This is just a boring show. I only made it to episode two and even that felt like pulling teeth to get that far. The characters were created by some sjw freak that thinks every single ethnic group and disability has to be represented. There is the Asian that doesn’t speak a word of English, a deaf kid, a Mexican, black man, etc. What makes it worst is that I just did not care about theThis is just a boring show. I only made it to episode two and even that felt like pulling teeth to get that far. The characters were created by some sjw freak that thinks every single ethnic group and disability has to be represented. There is the Asian that doesn’t speak a word of English, a deaf kid, a Mexican, black man, etc. What makes it worst is that I just did not care about the characters at all. In fact by episode 2 I was rooting for the zombies just to make the show stop. This is a hard pass guys. Life is short don’t waste it watching this crap.… Expand

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
tbd

No score yet - based on 2 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 2
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 2
  3. Negative: 1 out of 2
  1. RogerEbert.com
    Reviewed by: Brian Tallerico
    Apr 10, 2019
    30
    Nothing is less terrifying than over-familiarity, and that’s only one of the many problems with Netflix’s Black Summer (premiering on April 11), a bleak, dull affair that mistakes camera movement for narrative energy and has about as much life as the walking dead.
    Read full review
  2. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Tim Surette
    Apr 5, 2019
    60
    In a sense, Black Summer is The Walking Dead without all the bloated melodrama, kooky villains, and pretentious blabbering.
    Read full review