'SoZ: Soldiers or Zombies' (Season 1)


We've known each other for a little while now so you know only too well that if there's zombies in a TV show, or movie, then I'm watching it. I don't even care if it's a bad show, sometimes that's the main reason you'll find me watching it ;o) I love a bit of zombie gore and I also love seeing how regular humans react to zombies in their neighbourhood (something that 'The Walking Dead' used to be very good at). It's all good.

So when I saw 'Soldiers or Zombies' (hereafter known as 'SoZ') being advertised on Prime... Well, I had a couple of other things that I wanted to watch first but it was right up there in the queue. This first season is only eight episodes long, and each episode is between 25-30 minutes long (ish), so I ended up watching it all last night. Let me tell you all about it...

Drug Lord Alonso Marroquin escapes from a Mexican prison and goes into hiding. A secret military experiment goes wrong and the SWAT team chasing Marroquin dies... and then returns from the dead to finish their mission.With the US Army looking to contain the outbreak, everything is set for a showdown at Marroquin's lair...

With only eight short episodes to play with, 'SoZ' doesn't hang about in getting things going. We're all about establishing how zombies can exist and then laying on a series of small, plausible events that lead to it. As a small aside, I've never seen zombie piglets before (has anyone?) and the way they were handled here was great, including the CGI which was very well done.

And then it's onto the rest of the plot which doesn't have room to really breathe in key moments; the relationship between Marroquin and his son, for example, could really have done with more exploration but there just wasn't time between zombie encounters. I wouldn't have minded seeing more Contreras as well, there's nothing like a corrupt prison governor to spice things up and talking of which, what happened to the Apostles...?

But all of that is kind of besides the point as far as this show goes. It's called 'Soldiers or Zombies' for a reason and it stays true to its name by delivering short sharp bursts of just that. We get loads of this by the way, a tiny bit light on the gore (although there are a couple of decent zombie 'kills') but absolutely brimming over with actions. We're not just dealing with fast zombies either, they're a little bit more than 'just the undead' and that keeps things interesting and worth following, just to see what happens next. There's scope for another season here (things are left open ended) and I wouldn't mind seeing that season tackle what lies at the end of the tunnel... I wouldn't be surprised though if this is all we get.

'SoZ' is a little bit on the slight side but doesn't outstay its welcome either, giving us several short bursts of intense zombie action. If you fancy a watch, the whole of Season 1 is streaming on Prime.

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