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I reserve a special kind of anger for anyone who hides a zombie bite. Seriously. I’ll forgive stealing supplies, abandoning a terrible leader, even making a spectacularly stupid decision under pressure. But the moment somebody pulls a sleeve over a suspicious wound and says they’re fine, I start arguing with the television like the character can hear me. Unless it’s The Last of Us and it’s Ellie who has a bite but is immune to it.
I’ve watched enough zombie stories to know how the traditional zombie film ends. Apparently, knowing doesn’t make me any calmer. What makes the addiction worse is how attached I become to people who may not survive another hour. So trust me when I say what are the most essential zombie shows. Not the finest ones — the most essential ones. The ones that create an unconventional balance.
10
‘Z Nation’ (2014–2018)
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Image via SYFY</figure>
Three years into a zombie apocalypse, a group of survivors must transport Alvin Murphy (Keith Allan), the only known person to survive a zombie bite following an experimental vaccine, across America in the hope of developing a cure. Z Nation takes that mission and proceeds to throw practically every ridiculous possibility imaginable at its characters. Murphy himself becomes increasingly strange as his infection develops, complicating the group’s efforts to save humanity.
I have tremendous affection for Z Nation because it is a zombie show brave enough to unleash an enormous rolling wheel of cheese upon the undead. The creators clearly understood that surviving the apocalypse could be hilarious without making the danger meaningless. Murphy’s increasingly questionable behavior provides an especially entertaining problem because humanity’s potential savior is hardly a model citizen. The series is messy, occasionally outrageous, and wonderfully enthusiastic about its own absurdity. Sometimes that’s exactly the apocalypse I want.
9
‘Black Summer’ (2019–2021)
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Image via Netflix</figure>
Rose (Jaime King) becomes separated from her daughter Anna during the early days of a zombie outbreak and desperately searches for a way to reunite with her. Black Summer follows her and other survivors through an America where social order has collapsed almost overnight. Nobody has time to establish comfortable communities or deliver inspirational speeches. A stranger approaching from the wrong direction can be enough to send everybody running.
I love how mercilessly this show treats ordinary movement. Crossing a street becomes dangerous. Entering a building requires a calculation nobody has enough information to make. John Hyams, who directed multiple episodes, gives the action a frightening immediacy, particularly when the camera follows somebody fleeing through unfamiliar surroundings. The second season’s snow-covered wilderness makes the isolation worse. And Rose’s determination to protect Anna becomes increasingly complicated as survival demands decisions neither mother nor daughter should have to contemplate. The panic feels horribly genuine.
8
‘Santa Clarita Diet’ (2017–2019)
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Image via Netflix</figure>
Sheila Hammond (Drew Barrymore) is a suburban real estate agent whose ordinary marriage to Joel (Timothy Olyphant) takes an unexpected turn when she dies, comes back to life, and develops an appetite for human flesh. Santa Clarita Diet follows the couple as they desperately attempt to accommodate Sheila’s condition without destroying their family or attracting police attention. Their teenage daughter Abby (Liv Hewson) also becomes involved, making the whole situation even more magnificently inappropriate.
Barrymore and Olyphant have the chemistry of two people who genuinely adore being married, which makes the increasingly disgusting developments so funny. Joel is understandably horrified by his wife’s dietary requirements but approaches the problem with almost touching dedication. Creator Victor Fresco understands that their marriage is the real attraction. Murderous complications arise, neighborhood secrets accumulate, and these two still find time to argue like ordinary spouses. I remain personally offended that Netflix canceled it after three seasons. I wanted considerably more time with this wonderfully deranged family.
7
‘iZombie’ (2015–2019)
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Image via the CW</figure>
Medical resident Olivia Moore (Rose McIver) becomes a zombie after attending a disastrous boat party and takes a job at a Seattle morgue to access the brains she needs to survive. iZombie gives Liv an unusual complication. Eating someone’s brain temporarily grants her aspects of their personality and memories, allowing her to help detective Clive Babineaux (Malcolm Goodwin) solve murders while concealing her condition.
The changing personalities are an absolute delight. One week, Liv adopts the mannerisms of an eccentric artist. Another brain gives her entirely different habits and emotional responses. McIver throws herself into every transformation, making a familiar crime procedural unexpectedly unpredictable. But her relationship with medical examiner Ravi (Rahul Kohli) is what I love most. He knows her secret, helps search for a cure, and gradually becomes one of her most dependable friends. Rob Thomas and Diane Ruggiero-Wright created a show with a wonderfully silly premise and enough affection for its characters to make the larger mythology worth following.
6
‘In the Flesh’ (2013–2014)
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Image via BBC</figure>
Kieren Walker (Luke Newberry) returns to his Lancashire hometown after receiving treatment for Partially Deceased Syndrome, a medical condition affecting people who died and subsequently returned as zombies. In the Flesh imagines a society attempting to reintegrate the undead, although Kieren’s neighbors are considerably less enthusiastic about welcoming somebody who previously attacked living people.
The makeup and contact lenses Kieren wears to appear human are heartbreaking. He is already struggling with his death, his past actions, and the family relationships disrupted by his return. Now he must disguise his appearance to make other people comfortable. The show makes the hostility toward the rehabilitated undead feel painfully recognizable, especially through the town’s militant anti-zombie residents. Kieren’s complicated relationships with his sister Jem (Harriet Cains) and childhood friend Rick (David Walmsley) give the story enormous emotional force. Two seasons were nowhere near enough. This one deserved a much longer life. Dominic Mitchell created In the Flesh.
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‘Fear the Walking Dead’ (2015–2023)
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Image via AMC</figure>
Fear the Walking Dead begins in Los Angeles, where guidance counselor Madison Clark (Kim Dickens), her partner Travis (Cliff Curtis), and their children struggle to understand reports of inexplicable violence and people returning from death. The series initially follows civilization’s deterioration before eventually expanding into a much larger survival story across different regions and communities.
I still think those opening episodes contain some of the franchise’s most fascinating material. Nick (Frank Dillane) witnesses something horrific while recovering from drug use, but his family has every reason to question his account. That is such a clever starting point. The apocalypse has begun, and one of the first people to recognize it is somebody nobody knows whether to believe. Later seasons take wildly different directions, with uneven results, but Madison’s capacity for morally uncomfortable decisions remains compelling. Watching an ordinary parent gradually develop the instincts necessary to survive this world is fascinating, especially when those instincts begin frightening the people she wants to protect.
4
‘Dead Set’ (2008)
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Image via E4</figure>
A zombie outbreak devastates Britain while contestants inside the Big Brother house remain completely unaware that civilization is collapsing outside. Dead Set follows production assistant Kelly (Jaime Winstone) as she escapes the massacre at the television studio and attempts to find safety among the isolated housemates. Unfortunately, surviving the undead proves difficult when the people beside you have become accustomed to treating practically everything as a television performance.
What an absolutely vicious idea from Charlie Brooker, who wrote the miniseries. People are literally dying beyond the walls while the contestants continue behaving as though public attention remains the most important thing in existence. The satire is wonderfully nasty, but Brooker never forgets that the zombies need to be genuinely frightening. Even presenter Davina McCall participates in the carnage in spectacular fashion. My favorite irony is that the house designed to keep ordinary life out becomes one of the few remaining places where ordinary life still exists. Five episodes, no unnecessary detours, and a premise that only gets uglier the longer you think about it.
3
‘All of Us Are Dead’ (2022–)
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Image via Netflix</figure>
A zombie virus spreads through Hyosan High School, trapping students inside classrooms and corridors while their teachers, classmates, and eventually much of the surrounding city succumb to infection. All of Us Are Dead follows teenagers including Nam On-jo (Park Ji-hu) and Lee Cheong-san (Yoon Chan-young) as they improvise escape routes and struggle to protect friends who might become dangerous within minutes.
The classroom confrontations are magnificent because these kids have practically nothing useful for fighting zombies. They improvise barricades with desks, climb between floors using fire hoses, and make desperate decisions while wearing school uniforms. Yet the relationships give the violence its emotional sting. Cheong-san’s feelings for On-jo, the developing affection between Su-hyeok (Lomon) and Nam-ra (Cho Yi-hyun), and old resentments among classmates keep becoming complicated by the outbreak. I particularly love how friendships formed before the disaster influence who gets trusted afterward. These teenagers have barely begun figuring out who they are, and suddenly survival is demanding adult decisions from every one of them.
2
‘Kingdom’ (2019–2020)
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Image via Netflix</figure>
In Joseon-era Korea, Crown Prince Lee Chang (Ju Ji-hoon) investigates disturbing rumors surrounding his father’s mysterious illness while political rivals threaten his position. Kingdom gradually connects the royal succession crisis to a terrifying disease that causes the dead to rise and attack the living. Alongside physician Seo-bi (Bae Doona), Chang must investigate the outbreak while confronting a ruling establishment more concerned with retaining power than protecting ordinary people.
I genuinely wish more zombie productions possessed this much confidence in their setting. The royal costumes, political maneuvering, crowded villages, and extraordinary nighttime attacks create a world that feels completely distinctive. Kim Eun-hee, who wrote the series, understands that a plague becomes even more frightening when powerful people control who receives protection. Chang’s growing responsibility toward common citizens gives the story a compelling moral center. And watching hordes of infected rush across palace courtyards beneath those beautiful traditional rooftops is spectacular. Historical political intrigue and apocalyptic horror should probably not fit together this perfectly. Somehow, they absolutely do.
1
‘The Walking Dead’ (2010–2022)
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Image via AMC</figure>
Sheriff’s deputy Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) awakens from a coma to discover that civilization has collapsed and the dead are walking. The Walking Dead follows his search for his family and his eventual leadership of a group of survivors attempting to build something resembling a life amid constant danger. Their journey takes them through farms, prisons, fortified communities, and conflicts with living people whose behavior frequently becomes more frightening than the zombies themselves.
I’ll never forget Rick riding into Atlanta on horseback, only to find the streets overrun and his first hopeful plan collapsing almost immediately. But the characters are why I’ve returned for years. Carol (Melissa McBride) grows from an abused woman afraid to speak for herself into somebody capable of terrifying decisions. Daryl (Norman Reedus) gradually discovers the family he never truly had. Glenn (Steven Yeun) somehow preserves his decency in a world constantly punishing it. The show’s long run has its uneven periods, but when it understands these relationships, the emotional investment is enormous. I can watch thousands of walkers swarm a community and still find myself worrying most about whether one exhausted survivor gets another chance to be happy.
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