"Z Nation" aired their season 3 opener on Friday night and the 2-hour episode titled "No Mercy"was pure genius when it comes to creating a story line. From the opening scene that pulled you in to the action and comedy that kept your attention for the duration of the show - this season has kicked off on an amazing note.

Not the 'Walking Dead'

When "Z Nation" hit the screen with their first season it didn't take long for the "Walking Dead" comparisons to saturate the social media sites, as Movie Pilot reminds their readers. The comparisons were short-lived as this SyFy show soon demonstrated that other than the setting of a group of people struggling to live through a zombie apocalypse, this show is a totally separate entity.

Getting back to the pure genius of this show, which was demonstrated nicely in Friday night's season opener, it is the ability of their writers to weave hysterically funny quips and clips into the scenes without you having any inkling that it's coming.

Doc, played byRussell Hodgkinson, steals more scenes with his ability to shoot out a one liner and make his observation in quips that pop up when you least expect it. He is an old and lovable hippie with the nickname of "Doc" because of his pharmaceutical knowledge and his duffel bag that usually has some type of drug inside to fix those painful moments along the trail. Murphy, played by Keith Allan, is gruff and while his one liners are also comical, they are more graphically charged than those of his peace and love era co-star.

'Man' and docile survivors

Here comes the spoilers, so you might want to stop here if you haven't seen the "Z Nation" season 3 premiere. The weary travelers meet up with a group of good people about to go into battle with an evil man, known only as "Man." This very bizarre guy has a list of people he is collecting for a mysterious client and the last person on this list is a Dr.

Tiller. The good doctor happens to be living in a make-shift commune with a group of very docile survivors. These folks are not battle ready, as most don't even know how to shoot a gun.

While in their travels, 10K runs across a wild child and this kid leads Warren, Murphy, Addy, Doc, 10K, Murphy, Cassandra and baby Lucy to this group of people.

They are no where near ready to battle so they ask Warren and the group for their help in fighting this "Man" who wants to take Dr. Tiller. No one knows why he wants the doctor, but the "Z Nation" crew agree to help and they prepare for battle.

Talking to monsters

While the good Dr. Tiller remains silent about why this "Man" may want to take him, Murphy and his zombie psychic abilities stumble upon a group of people that look like monsters, but are very kind folks. One of these monsters is Dr. Tiller's wife who was contaminated along with a group of co-workers when an experiment went airborne during a zombie attack.

The only thing disappointing in the show last night was the lack of detail used for this monster looking group. While their faces weren't too bad when first seen behind a dirty window, once they emerged and they were seen from head to toe, it was evident they missed the mark on monster creating!

Whose breastfeeding Lucy?

The fight ensues and while everyone dies, except for the battle ready "Z Nation" crew, "Man" gets his Dr,. Tiller. Off he goes in shipping crate hanging from a helicopter with a dozen other people on "Man's" list.

The boy who 10K found in the beginning of the show was raised by crows and this kid would make the crow's cawing sound, which made the show interesting. 10K took him under his wing and he also took a fancy to his adoptive sister and just when you thought you were getting two new cast members, they die at the hands of zombies. This episode had mercy-proof zombies, a fungus that spread and created monsters and oh... Cassandra started breastfeeding baby Lucy! "How is that even physically possible?" This is the question that Addy asks when seeing the zombie infant at her bare breast!
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