Not having heard about "The Z Virus" before it had apparently reached episode 6 of season 1, I must admit that my interest was immediately lured in, especially because I am a huge fan of everything zombie.
From the very first image of the intro the whole thing just screams rip off of "The Walking Dead". Same type of imagery, some type of gritty feel to it, same type of construction of presentation and same kind of lighting and switch between focus and being out of focus. And actually, already from that very first moment a seed of concern was planted that this was going to be a stinker. The intro even shows a house with the words "dead inside" written on it, very much like the famous hospital doors from "The Walking Dead". The intro was actually so much similar to "The Walking Dead" that the word plagiarism comes to mind.
"The Z Virus" does start off in a pretty decent pace, and throws the audience right into the action. That was a good thing, so that you don't have to sit through a heap of trivial story arc Building and character development.
It cannot be denied that the budget for "The Z Virus" hasn't been mind boggling high, because the effects when guns were being shot was just questionable. But I will say that the blood and gore was actually satisfactory - sounds morbid, I know, but if you are a zombie aficionado you know what I mean here.
The writer or writers of the show opted for the approach based on a meteor striking Earth and the infection that causes the dead to rise as zombies is based on something from outer space. And while it does serve as a background story and does add some explanation to the infection, it is just a generic option because it has been used so many times before in other zombie settings. So no points for originality.
It should be said that the episodes are short, running at just about 10 minutes, so don't expect this to be a thing that will have you entertained for hours and hours.
The special effects in "The Z Virus" are sparse and quite often the scenes are filmed so that they didn't have to use special effects; such as scenes with people being shot. You know what is going on, for sure, but many of the scenes just weren't accompanied with visual effects, be it CGI or practical effects, to enhance the scenes.
While "The Z Virus" is not a major Hollywood production in terms of budget and acting talents, it is actually still an enjoyable endeavor, especially so if you enjoy the zombie genre. It is quite clear that the commitment and enthusiasm put into this project is done by people with a love and affinity for the zombie genre. So look past the initial concern about the obvious "The Walking Dead" rip off in the intro segment for "The Z Virus", and you will actually have a decent show here.
Now, for an apocalyptic show that revolves around a zombie outbreak or infection, then the episodes were sort of frightfully devoid of zombies. Sure, there were a shambling zombie here and there, but it was nowhere near enough to satisfy the needs of a true zombie aficionado. And when you actually do see a zombie, then it becomes difficult to take it seriously, because it sounds like a predatory feline or something like that.
"The Z Virus" is by no means a contender or competition for series such as "The Walking Dead", "Fear the Walking Dead" or even "Z Nation". If you have no expectations then you might get some kind of enjoyment from "The Z Virus". I can't really claim to be personally much impressed or overly entertained. I managed to sit through 5 episodes, then I had essentially seen enough, and I will not be returning to "The Z Virus" to watch more episodes.
