James Mangold’s Forgotten Sci‑Fi Thriller Is the Perfect Weekend Binge

Zoo, produced by James Mangold in the mid-2010s, leaned into a wildly imaginative tone: kamikaze bats, wolf-organized prison breaks and giant computer-hacking octopuses all figured into its strange, attention-grabbing plotlines. Based on James Patterson’s novel—at least for its first season—the series followed a mysterious virus that made animals homicidal and the ragtag team sent to contain the chaos: a scientist, an enforcer, a veterinary pathologist, a journalist and an investigator.

At the center was Jackson Oz (James Wolk), a renegade zoologist with rakish charm and a strange connection to the unfolding animal apocalypse. Season 1 landed with a 43% Rotten Tomatoes score, leaving critics and viewers scratching their heads even as the show drew weekly audiences during the summer of 2015.

After that shaky start the series stopped apologizing for its own madness.

zoo, james mangold, james patterson, james wolk, jackson oz, kamikaze bats, homicidal animals, giant octopus, rotten tomatoes, season 1