Animation
Good Times
Netflix takes a classic sitcom, Good Times, and turns it into a vulgar, violent, sexually-charged TV-MA show.
You there! Yes, you with the beef jerky! Put the snack down, tough guy, slowly. Sllloooowly. That’s right. Now, get yourself some bean sprouts. Your jerky days are a thing of the past, mister. You’re making the animals angry.
Well, actually the regular ol’ animals are doing just fine now. But it wasn’t always so: When CBS’s silly summer show Zoo began in 2015, the world’s fauna had collectively decided that we humans had had our run, and it was high time to give some furrier fellows a shot at world domination. Polly didn’t want a cracker anymore: She wanted blood.
(Cue nefarious parrot laughter.)
All that Darwinian overkill ended when a team of do-gooders, led by the scruffily intrepid zoologist Jackson Oz, discovered that it wasn’t the animals’ fault, precisely, but a scheming group of people: A wicked little gas infected all those animals, turning them into voracious predators and killing their taste for regular kibble completely.
It’s 10 years later now, and humanity is still on the brink. Though a cure was apparently found for the animals, it had a rather unfortunate side effect: It’s made humanity completely sterile.
I’d forgive you if you thought that maybe the beasts, given their mixed success with direct assaults, had simply adopted a more subtle strategy for outlasting humanity for world dominion. But no: They’re in pretty grave danger, too. See, the same folks behind the gas also created mutant animals—naturally vicious critters that’d like nothing more than to devour man and beast alike. Indeed, they’ve taken over most of the West Coast, and they’d be in control of the whole North American continent had it not been for a gigantic wall.
And yeah, given the circumstances, I’d build a fence, too. Do pit bulls make you nervous? How about massive dogs with saber-tooth fangs and spikes down their backs! Think a rhinoceros is a scary thing to see walking down your neighborhood street? Try a gigantic, furry rhinoceros! With poisonous fangs! And wings!
OK, the rhinoceros doesn’t have fangs or wings just yet. But give CBS time.
So the old team’s getting back together to save humanity once again. They may lie, cheat, steal or kill to rescue the world’s future, but one thing’s for sure: They won’t be watching Bambi anytime soon.
Based on a book by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge, Zoo is a lightweight sci-fi thriller. It’s a little silly. Nah, let’s just say it’s ridiculous. The sort of show where you’ll hear people shout, “Jackson! The ants are right behind you!” with deep sincerity.
It’s also a little rough around the content edges. Let me say again that these Zoo mutants have murder on their relatively small brains. And we do see some of them kill with their claws, fangs, beaks, tentacles, etc.
On the human side of things, Jackson and his pals (safari guide Abraham Kenyatta, veterinary pathologist Mitch Morgan and blogger Jamie Bell, along with a few others) sometimes discuss strategy in the closest bar, downing liquor as they do so. We see some man-on-man violence as well. And while we don’t have to worry about angry mutant wolves lobbing profanities, people let loose a few.
Zoo is not completely bestial, of course. The team valiantly pursues its leads and works toward its grand goals often in the midst of great danger. They sometimes make a few ethical missteps, but they’ve shown themselves to be reasonably concerned about saving the world without destroying their own souls. And they certainly do want to save humanity, something no one can argue with.
Well, no one human, at any rate. The gerbils may quibble.
As the episode opens, the team’s still splintered: Jackson’s in Portland (and calling himself Dillon these days). Abraham, the one-time safari guide, is raising a son somewhere in suburbia (and experimenting on a bit of strangely growing mutant tissue). Meanwhile, Mitch has apparently been rescued from suspended animation in Siberia by his daughter, Clementine. But when another woman claiming to be Clementine also decides to rescue her father, things get a little complicated.
Mitch and the two Clementines point guns at each other, with Mitch eventually shooting one of the women in the arm. Jamie, a former blogger and part of the original team, fires several bullets into the other. People are threatened by guns, get pushed around and are thrown to the ground. A little boy is abducted—along with scores of other children—by men in military uniforms to take part in anti-sterilization experiments. We hear about an explosion (in the previous episode) that killed nearly 100 people and injured 100 more.
Abraham’s bit of mutant tissue mutates into a fully formed embryo (a bloody, gross-looking thing), which somehow emits a signal that attracts other mutants to the area. Soon, Abraham’s house gets attacked by “razorback” dogs: One bites Abraham’s arm (necessitating a bandage), and another tries to smash through a window.
One of the Clementines wears a tight top that reveals some cleavage. Characters drink beer and say “b–ch,” “b–tard,” “h—” and “pr–k.”
Many animals have crested into stage two of the human-hating virus they’ve contracted, and that includes scads of electricity-generating ants.
The ants kill Eleanor, a high-level ally of the team, by crawling into her food and electrocuting her internally. (We see blue electricity dance in her open mouth.) Somehow, that grim event also causes the lower part of her jaw to be ripped away, and we see her injuries in grotesque detail. Mitch stabs Eleanor’s body in the back, then sucks out some spinal fluid with a straw (in order to examine it). A man gets shot in the head. We see the body of another human/animal hybrid lying dead, killed by a well-meaning but trigger-happy soldier. (The creature had killed six of her men previously, we’re told.) One character cuts off another’s gangrenous foot with an ax. (We don’t see the blow fall.) A victim of an ant attack is placed in a makeshift electric chair and shocked repeatedly (to kill the ant she swallowed). She nearly dies. We learn that someone’s girlfriend was killed by wolves. We’re also told that more than a million people have died so far during the “animal apocalypse.” Solutions to the problem involve the death of millions more. Elsewhere, guns are pointed. Angry beavers growl.
Abraham and new team member Dariela apparently have carnal relations: We see Dariela kiss Abraham and corral him with her legs before the camera beats a hasty retreat. (Jackson later jokes with Abraham about his encounter.) A couple of guys drink whiskey. Characters say “h—” about half a dozen or so times, along with “b–tard,” “d–n” and “crap.” God’s name is misused twice.
Mitch nearly trades the “mother cell,” a critical clue into why the animals are going nuts, back to Reiden (the company he thinks might be behind the furry apocalypse) in exchange for some medicine for his daughter. He thinks better of it and escapes with both the cell and the medicine.
Of course that means he’s actually stolen the medicine, a little detail he and the team gloss over a bit. Running away with the stash, Mitch crashes through an office window. Jackson lunges at an FBI agent who appears ready to fire on his friends, knocking the guy down. Gunfire is exchanged.
Crows attack people in a park, killing the mother of a young child. (We see her get increasingly bloody and eventually fall under a swarm of birds.) One big black bird hops on the stroller carrying the baby, letting blood from its (menacing) beak drop on the baby’s blanket. Mitch’s ex-wife and daughter run to save the infant and are also attacked.
Chloe mentions that she had no idea her sister was sleeping with her boyfriend. Team members meet at a bar and drink beer, and they use a shot glass to trace around the areas where animals have gone crazy due to Reiden chemicals. Folks say “b–tard,” “d–n” and “a–” once or twice each, along with three or four misuses of God’s name.
Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.
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