Review of the Netflix series Zoo

Zoo, 13 forty-minute episodes CBS/Netflix, based on the novel by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge

I'm posting this now because a second season of Zoo is due the summer of 2016

Confession one: I tend to harbor ill will towards what I perceive to be false advertisement. Even when the false perception was primarily my fault. I was hoping to see humans living hiding out from marauding wild-eyed vengeful lions. Therefore I had to shake off my annoyance that this book turned out to be more spy-medical-thriller than sci-fi.

Confession two: One of the effects of watching Korean dramas is that whenever I return to American storytelling tropes, I feel just a might underwhelmed.  So, yes: I had to get my mind sorted out.

The first thing I noticed was that Zoo presents viewers with a cosmopolitan multicultural world. I never know what to do with this sort of thing. Should I praise the writers for doing the quota thing? Or should I cringe because it’s so dang aggressive and yet --no matter how hard it tries-- it is so rooted in ya know...whiteness?

But -- my qualms and uneasiness aside-- let us move on: Meet Jackson Oz a (white) zoologist who lives in Botswana and is pretty chill. His best friend is a happy, philosophical, stocky (aren’t we all happy and philosophical, though?) African safari guide named Abraham. Not that we see a lot of friendshippy moments between these two but hey, the friendship is established. So the plot can move along. Jackson’s dad went mad while developing a radical-enough-to-knock-him-out-of-responsible-academia theory of animal uprising. “A manifesto, of sorts.” But, yeah, you know how it is with prophets -- or the prophetic trope: no one paid attention to him.

Then there is Jamie, a blogger with a passionate axe to grind against Big Food/Big Corporation Reiden Global. You know this kind of axe; if the sun doesn’t set, Jamie would find a way to blame Reiden Global. Then there are the mysterious Chloe and animal pathologist, Mitch. And a whole bunch of other people.

The plot begins when some lions escape from the Los Angeles zoo and go on a murder spree. Wouldn’t you know? Some African lions are doing the same thing. Then there are missing cats in LA, dogs, rats, and birds. Ah, yes, birds. See, this brings me back to where this drama lost me. I was hoping something more was going on. Ya know...like a natural “reset.” Heck, I’ll say it. I was hoping for a kind of Walking Dead with zombies replaced by animals. But no, this epidemic is man-made and greed-caused. Which is cool, I guess. After all, that’s how many zombie apocalypses begin. But my heart sank when the hordes of terrified fleeing humans didn’t really materialize and the story took a detour into medical investigation.

Something else bothered me. The tropes. Tropes galore. The story felt like screenwriting by the American cultural book. There are gun-toting rednecks, Black men who will say wise insightful philosophical paternal stuff one minute then make piropos at non-Black women the next, a young scientific-minded African boy, a possibly-shifty FBI operative, a sick dying little girl who speaks like no real sick girl but like all the sick dying kids ever in Hollywood movies, a gang, a Charles Manson type (complete with southern accent and Bible), a rich Asian safari-hunter and many others. The drama had a kitchen sink feel and if the writers hadn’t aimed to shoehorn all these tropes/beats into one story, I would’ve been more interested. But in their rush to hit all the templates, none of these sub-plots touched the heart.  

Okay, so did I like it? Once you accept the tropes, the rushing about from country to country, the convenient-to-the-point-of-ridiculousness-plot, the iffy CGI, and the dang slow mystery, it’s really an okay show. Writers will be ticked off by the stereotypical beats, even more stereotypical people, and cringey dialog but kids and non-writers might like it. It’s pretty safe. No major sex scenes. I will also say that James Wolk, who plays Jackson Oz is seriously hot and boy-next-door hotness does wonders to keep this female viewer watching even after she realizes a story isn’t going the way she wants it. So yeah, good for teens who like medical thrillers. And hey --a multicultural cast and a Black person helping to save the world. Aggressive multiculturalism covers a multitude of bad plotting.

Review: Shatterworld by Lelia Rose Foreman

This is the first Christian fiction book I’ve read in ages; the first I’ve really actually liked, and the first where I’m actually tempted to read the sequels to. This surprises the heck out of me, because usually I find reading contemporary Christian fiction (and non-fiction for that matter) a hard row to hoe. Christian though I am, whenever I read Christian books, I usually peeve, complain, and quarrel with every other sentence.

That’s not to say I didn’t find myself groaning a few times, because seriously, reading Christian fiction requires a certain mindset, especially because the rules for Christian fiction are a little different than the rules for general fiction. But even then, Lelia Rose Foreman plays with those rules quite well and also quite humourously.

Shatterworld is primarily a young adult book. Therefore it has all the required tropes such as teenaged rebellion, generational gap issues, preachy parents who –because they don’t want to upset their kids-- aren’t telling their kids the “entire” family story.

But Shatterworld is also speculative fiction, and this is where it excels an even surpasses most Christian speculative fiction. The novel recounts the voyage of the Star Flower and its settling of New Earth by spiritual pilgrims who fled their oppressive country. The comparisons between the settling of the Americas and the settling of New Earth goes even further. But, there are subtle differences. For instance, the star-traveling pilgrims are very respectful of the aboriginal sea-dwelling hexacrab natives of New Earth. They struggle to understand each other’s phyla/species/order/kingdom and grow to understand each other’s linguistics, culture, history, and fears. Our Pilgrims are very careful about bringing theology into their conversation and so far – the book is part of a trilogy—have not set about attempt to save any hexacrab souls. The settlers are respectful and as curious about hexacrab history as the hexacrab are. There is no notion that the hexacrabs are the Hivites/Perrizites/Jebusites etc who must be overthrown in order for God’s people to have their manifest destiny. There is sharing of resources and goodwill between the pioneers and the hexacrabs who are seen as perhaps members of The Creator’s Other Folds.

At least that’s what it seems like so far. The new settlers are of all races – a multicultural Christian community a bit like the Amish or Mennonites,  so they are respectful of sentient life wherever they find it and however it has evolved or been created by the Creator. It’s a rigid, (some might say over-disciplined) community. And perhaps they had to be all those years of warp travel, but some youngsters-- like Rejoice, our main protagonist—chafes under it. There is the basic truth that they have to farm and terraform the new world, but there is also the age-old rural vs urban /agrarian vs industry /utilitarian vs heart’s desire issues.    Rejoice wants to be an astronomer but, like every other Christian teen, has more than her share of rules to obey and has to endure parental spiritual speeches all meant to challenge what they believe is her selfishness.

So I liked this book a lot and I’m even interested in discovering more of this community, and learning more about hexacrab communities, and wondering how the two worlds will grow together. I also liked the “puritanical” names. Very funny.

As for what I don’t like: The book is a bit light on description. I would’ve loved to see the world better.  There are many characters and many times there are scenes where the author throws many characters at the reader so that we can get the communal overview. But still, there could’ve been a less crowded way of doing that. In the end, many secondary characters are reduced to their job description or their personality. It makes the book read faster because we know what each character is like. But still. Certain sections feel rushed: The growth of the friendship between the hexacrabs and the humans. The ending  of the book. But all in all, it was a fun quick read.

The book comes with a study guide at the end.

I received this book free of charge in exchange for a fair and honest review.