I'm not sure what it is about this show that has captured my attention. I think losing the word 'zombie' and replacing it with 'walker' or 'walking dead' helped far more than I would have ever thought. It immediately dispensed with all the silly and goofy stereotypes we have and allowed us to reset as it were.
But the show captures so much more than that, it places us in an apocalyptic setting in which the arbiter of our demise is utterly mindless, presumably gaining nothing even from eating the flesh it craves. It cannot be sated. It cannot be reasoned with. But it can be fought. No hard luck asteroid where the bulk of us live or die off the rambling adventure of a few; no alien invasion where the aliens are so far superior to us our only chance is to accidentally give them a plague. The arbiters of our demise are rather easy to kill and once one becomes skilled at they offer little in the way of a challenge . . . unless in a horde.
So this means the decisions of life and death reside with the characters. Once they have gained their footing, how they cope in the world of the walker is utterly on them. One slip up and the end is upon them. And that's what I like about this show I think, its makes it very survivable without ever losing the chance of death. Watching the struggle unfold is the joy of this show simply because you know surviving on one's own wits is entirely possible.
Even odds, that's the best you can ask of fate.
The show is so grounded that it is easy to imagine yourself in the midst of this new world and wondering what it is you would do first. And its nice to watch, the action remains on the characters, the tension . . . from blood and sweat to desperate need for food and weapons . . . is always present. There is some astounding acting going on in this show.
For those of you who may not have seen, here are some pretty cool websodes for the show. This is episode 1, there are six in this series and then another series called Cold Storage.
2 comments:
One issue with apocalypses (apocali?) is how to keep them apocalyptic. If it's a singular event, then it's hard to imagine that people wouldn't get to gether and start to rebuild, no matter how few they are. Eventually it becomes less about the apocalypse and more about just a rough life. Once you get a stable place you can start building hydroelectic generators and reforging technology and society.
Revolution takes two tracks. By changing the laws of physics it prevents people from regaining modern tech. The other part is they do have people organizing. They are forming governments that are expanding and trying to take over.
Dark Skies does this by having aliens searching for technology use.
Finally, zombie apocalypses do this by having millions of roaming zombies. Whatever you build is at risk because there's too many zombies out there to stop all of them.
I think that's why I like the Walking Dead so much, its an ongoing thing and because the walker do no follow any normal patterns . . . eating, sleeping etc . . . their arrival can be utterly unexpected and from any quarter. Its the perfect wild card in the scenario.
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