I honestly thought those words would never come out of my mouth " Z Nation is better than The Walking Dead", but here I am saying just that and have been for a little over a year. It didn't start out that way, quite the opposite, it was more of a gradual shift in both shows that has brought me two this opinion.
The Walking Dead was very good and really filled a hole in the television market, but as the seasons progressed it moved away from entertaining to just a cluster of drama on top of drama. No real development for the characters and pointless buildup to characters who may or may not die. And while it does work in a dramatic sense a person can only take so much before they get burnt out... Which is exactly what happened with me (and clearly a lot of other people).
When a show just keeps hammering on drama it can become very draining and, as a result, cause those really emotional dramatic scenes to lose all their power and makes the viewer no longer invested in the characters. This is where Z Nation has managed to find a perfect balance of zombie comedy with heartbreaking emotion.
Z Nation knows what it is, a comedy about a zombie apocalypse that kills zombies in fun, creative ways all while showing a core group's misadventures through a wasteland of shenanigans. There should not be any drama because it is a fun show... But wait, there is drama and because they don't hammer it to death it catches you out of nowhere and hits you like a ton of brick.
The arc of the characters of Z Nation has been far better than those of The Walking Dead. While TWD has chosen to give no real growth to their characters, just breaks in sanity, Z Nation has taken unlikable cowards and turned them into heroes, fathers and badass leaders. Keith Allan, DJ Qualls and Kellita Smith have turned in some of the best performances I have ever seen on television. They played their characters straight and it paid off huge to the point where theses three are the backbone of the show.
While Z Nation may have set out to be a goofy take on a zombie apocalypse it has quickly evolved into more than that. It is a show about growth, family, friendship and never giving up even when the odds are against you. The bonus is that every episode has a unique story with awesome zombies and, most likely, a guest star that will be used for more than just zombie food (Walking Dead had Ethan Embry and killed him for no reason and no contribution to the plot.)
Rich Stile @TheDevilsEyes1