It started as a joke presented by my Nerd's Eye View co-host Matt in which November of 2010, I would take to the pages of Divergence and review the premiere episode of the Walking Dead. At the time, there hadn't really been a zombie epic on television before, but AMC seemed to have faith in the project, and if they managed to give Mad Men and Breaking Bad some love, I don't see why this new show would be any exception. Of course, this logic was later questioned when shows like the Killing and Rubicon got airtime only to fade off into obscurity. I continued last year less successfully with Part 2, despite a rising fan base of the show. However, I vow every year until its cancellation (which with a 10.9 million viewer rating last night seems unlikely) to watch the Walking Dead season premiere episodes and answer the question: Do I get zombies?
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Before I continue, I shall share some history with you. I just do not get the importance of zombies. This isn't to say that I haven't enjoyed media that has featured the living dead, notably Dawn of the Dead, Shaun of the Dead, and my favorite animated film of 2012 to date: ParaNorman. However, when it comes to the general construct of these creatures, I am left trying to find a logical reason why I should care about these stories. I always found them to be dead ends with no resolute ending. They just keep coming and coming until we're eventually perished. There is interesting conflict in how long one survives, but the rest of the thrill seems to be vanished. We know that our protagonist will die eventually and even if he gets out of the current mess, it just means he'll die somewhere else.
This is probably why I don't get zombies the most. Sure, George A. Romero can weave together interesting characters, and that goes a long way, but I feel killing every zombie is a hopeless cause that will eventually leave the survivors alone and bored. In fact, I have even felt at times like they are just a poor man's vampire. Similarities are simple: both rose from the dead to feed off the living. One has a brain, the other doesn't. One takes complexity to kill, the other can die with a whack to the head. There isn't that deep of a conflict.
Before I finally address the episode, I want to conclude this prologue with a simple fact. I love James Whale's Frankenstein and its sequel Bride of Frankenstein. Is the Monster a zombie? No. While it is simple minded, it does have body mechanics and can operate on basic human instinct. Sure, zombies have been claimed to do that, too... but they were not built in a lab from spare organs. I think this is what I look for when it comes to my horror creatures: complexity and a sense of wonder. I suppose I just want to feel like we're fighting against something with pathos.
Moving onto the Walking Dead. Here is the thing. I think that this show looks really good. In fact, it hooked me for four episodes in the first season simply because it was kind of beautiful. The scenery was ominous and the tone was eerie. It knew how to draw out the silence and introduce the characters through tense moments. The show could build suspense and made me care for Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and the crew as they roamed from place to place. However, by the end of the fourth episode, I kind of had enough. These people were going to face zombies until the show got cancelled.
So I returned for season 2, thus starting this annual series. I remember being intrigued by the first 20 minutes of it, and by the end feeling like the show had won me over. This is a show that is really good at building suspense and leaving me with something to clamp onto. I felt like there were humans at the center of this story. However, there was something that happened between that first episode and the second. I guess I just didn't watch. It didn't sink its teeth into me and make me love it. I left the one episode with high marks, but none that felt long term.
Since then, I have fallen in love with AMC's Breaking Bad, and realize that I should applaud a network for making very cinematic television. Every week feels like another hour to a bigger movie, and the Walking Dead feels that way at times. In fact, after my second Zombies Can Be Fun segment, I noticed that the show was getting traction. Everyone I knew was talking about it and I was just forced to listen to how awesome barn burning was. I don't think I know enough to follow what they said, but as long as I knew that a barn burned down and zombies were on the loose, I would be fine when approaching this next one.
I think part of me wished I somehow reviewed last season better. There were many moments during this time in which I was left scratching my head. Why should we care about this pregnant woman Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies), or why is there that kid Carl (Chandler Riggs)? I guess they were collected along the way, but I felt like I was missing something personal. These were characters who now had established backgrounds and personas. During a scene where they are camping around a fireplace singing music, the emotional impact was lost on me as they burst into song. I don't think this episode suffered from the "Do I get zombies" argument, but that I don't get the people just by jumping in once a year.
As for the rest of the episode, I have to admit that the show knows how to pace. I was kind of impressed with the five minute opening in which the gang shimmies through an abandoned house only to bust up a few zombies. Jump scares are hard to come by, and this show manages to do them very well, and admittedly through excessive use of silence. I can see why this is one of AMC's best rated shows.
The rest of the episode featured everyone managing to take over a prison that was impacted with zombies. Here is pretty much where I resumed old confused me. I knew the simple goal: knock 'em dead. However, it felt once again like the zombies would just continue to come and things would keep getting monotonous. That's how it felt watching dozens of zombies getting butchered in the head with sticks. It could be seen as good strategy, but along with the infinite bullet conundrum, I just couldn't get into it. There wasn't any conflict besides knock 'em dead.
So this season premiere "Seed" kind of lost me. Sure, it looked ominous and these characters know how to fight, but I was left wondering what the point was. I think I suffered more from not knowing who these characters were than why the simple minded creatures don't make sense to me. However, because of this, all of the fighting suffered and I just didn't care who lived or died. The Walking Dead, for me, suffers from informality of opponents. There isn't a purpose other than bashing in something's head. It kind of rings anticlimactic to me.
I decided to one-up myself this year and try to figure out the simple answer: why are zombies so intriguing? After searching, I found this video Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Steven Schlozman discussing the subject for an upcoming zombie documentary:
It all boils down to the final statements made in the interview. When we die, we want it to be personal or in some way reflect us as individuals. Also, while vampires are more personal and lure you in, zombies are more intrusive and impersonal. There is a sense of death over something pointless. That is just happens. This pretty much establishes everything about zombies in general that I dislike, but makes sense. The idea of the unknown killing us is a thrilling concept.
In an article on Bitmob titled "America's Zombie Obsession," writer Liam O'Connell that made the argument that zombies reflect the Revolutionary War in which America was freed from the control of the British:
"Zombie plots regularly feature a plucky, outnumbered group of people up against a much larger force of zombies. These zombies we are told, are very stupid, usually shuffling along out in the open where anybody who can hold a gun still can shoot them in the head. Usually, the outnumbered group tends to win, whether by making it to the escape boat or helicopter, clearing the land of the foul beasts, or finding a cure. Roll credits.
Now, reread that last paragraph. Does that sound familiar?Face it, the foundation of America mirrors a zombie story. Replace "zombies" with "British", "group of survivors" with "Colonists", and "abandoned house" with "America", and suddenly Night of the Living Dead is a lot more familiar."
This could make sense for America's interest in the subject, even if it is only metaphorical. Of course, this was the basis behind Dawn of the Dead as commentary on consumerism. Also the idea that anyone can be a hero is appealing, especially to those who feel like they need to be our saviors. I guess that it is a hero complex when it all boils down. You want to die for a cause and not be forced to die by something strange and impersonal.
Though I'd rather be chucked into a lake by Frankenstein or even drowned by the Create from the Black Lagoon. These are almost equally impersonal, but they have more strategy and characteristics going on. They play on more internal fears that aren't as obvious. I think that is why I like them more. They present a challenge that seems more complex than picking up a gun and shooting them dead.
What does this have to do with the Walking Dead? It isn't that I don't get zombies, and I do find the show to be very cinematic, but I don't see an endgame worth investing in. With Dawn of the Dead, you were in and out in two hours. This series is now 27 episodes old, and I am sure that those who have stayed true to the show can find something to love in the characters, but all I see is an eventual pointless endgame of cancellation without any real fulfilling conclusion. Maybe that is a thickheaded way to go about all of this, but I just don't get zombies as a cultural craze.
I will see you most likely next year for Zombies Can Be Fun Part 4, in which I hope that the show will have solved its problem and gotten around the infinite bullets conundrum. I also hope that baby grows up nice and good.
Also check out more of my work at http://nerdseyeviewpodcast.blogspot.com/ where I have a podcast called Nerd's Eye View.
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