The Hot Zone

Season 1 about Ebola was great.

Good actors, nice settings and a contagious disease. Exciting and scary.

I was hoping that season 2 would continue the story especially since the end of season 1 mentioned "Island of the plagues" and the idea that there was a place where multiple viruses were mixing had me intrigued.

Instead we got season 2 about Anthrax and it feels like every other episode from CSI.

Season 1 gets an 8/10.

Season 2 ... ugh, snooze.

Read the book when it came out and it scared me pretty badly. The series started out well but as we got to the last few episodes everything that could go wrong did for overly dramatic effect. The situation with Ebola is scary enough without the overly contrived situation. Additionally Liam Cunningham as Wade Carter started out doing American accent but by the end of the series sounded like he just got off the ship from Ireland.

It is ridiculous that they don't where general personal protective equipment in the BL1 lab! Also real scientists would open unknown animal samples in a biosafety cabinet to ensure that neither they or the sample get contaminated. Contact me if you need a technical consultant that knows about lab safety!

EBV does not stand for Ebola virus but for Epstein-Barr virus. Ebola's acronym is EVD.

"The Hot Zone: Anthrax" is not quite as good as the first season about Ebola, mostly because there is a lot of "War on Terror" politics portrayed here, and you really cannot count on any of it being accurate because the primary government officials are depicted here like cartoon characters. "That's our guy; he's guilty! Tell the media!" The editing is also not as tight and some dialogue is cringe-worthy. But all of that is somewhat redeemed by the outstanding performances by Tony Goldwyn and Daniel Dae Kim. Tony completely embodies a socially-awkward Ivins, and Daniel exudes a calm yet confident authority. Their performances keep you going, however the ending is a bit rushed. The creators take too much liberty with "inspired by true events" so that they don't have to delve into the real excruciating details of this moment in American history.