Season 2 of the ‘The Walking Dead’ premiered this past
Sunday on AMC to ridiculous TV ratings from the zombie starved masses. It’s an interesting conundrum though; the
seemingly sudden fascination the general public has with zombies. Long looked upon as a cult interest, Robert
Kirkman’s show based on hits comic book, has breathed new life into the genre.
The spike in zombie popularity comes on the heels of the
resurgence we have seen in classic horror genres. The classic horror film was
supposedly redefined In 1999 when ‘The Blair Witch Project’ came out. TBWP brought back the idea that ‘Jaws’
initially gave us which was the less you see the scarier it is. The old guard of gory zombie and vampire
movies of the 80’s was slowly eroding away to give rise to this new sector of
horror the American public was actually craving.
The decline in popularity of these movies was its own
undoing. What started out as Dracula,
Frankenstein, and classic zombies, horror movies had become victims of their own
clichés. The idea of the vampire as a
tortured soul struggling to survive through an eternity of punishment was
gone. The focus was now on the wrong
things. Since Dracula was the vampire
model, all vampires had to be classic counts dressed in ceremonial garb and
searching for the perfect kill to satisfy their undying urge.
Zombies had gone from slowly decaying monstrosities to
mindless puppets walking with arms out forward craving
“brrrrraaaaaiiiinnnnnnssss.” With movies putting zombies into everyday situations some had started to view
them as allegories for our consumerist culture.
It became more prevalent to see zombies wearing wedding dresses or Nike
apparel. You also had movies like ‘Dawn
of the Dead’ in which zombies walk around an infested shopping mall, not
looking much different than before.
Movies began to draw a hard line between humanity and zombie-ism. The subtext of the movies was that we all
were walking through our lives as zombies before, and now our physical
presences manifested that inner reality. In order to survive we had to renounce our
previous lifestyle and start anew.
Humanity was given a second chance and was presented with multiple
reminders of what their life once was.
This time things needed to be done the right way. The survivors had to redefine how their new
world was going to operate going forward.
This was the subtext of the zombie genre initially. Unfortunately, it became less and less
prevalent with each movie made.
Regardless of how deep our portrayal of zombies or vampires
aspired to be, they were considered ‘played out’ by the general public. Instead of searching for the deeper meaning
behind anything, the public was instantly turned off by the prospect of a new
zombie or vampire moving coming out. The
public had been desensitized and zombies and vampires had lost their appeal.
That all changed roughly 5-7 years ago, with the advent of
books like ‘Twilight’ and the ‘Sookie Stackhouse Series.’ Vampires had become sexy again. While Anne Rice had been writing vampire
books for years to much success, there was still an element of camp to what she
was writing. Now, I would contend that there
is such an element present in the ‘Twilight’ book series, but that is just my
opinion. The ‘Twilight’ books rekindled
the ‘romance’ aspect of the vampire and made the crucial move of putting it in
modern times.
Part of what made vampire story’s less popular over the
years was that it was hard to relate to.
Nobody knew what it was like to live in Victorian times, so the problems
of being a vampire in that era didn’t resonate with everyone. While this was a vehicle to making the
stories more plausible (nobody was alive so you didn’t have to deal with the
“that would never have happened” argument), it made them nothing more than
slight entertainment. Putting them in
modern day meant that we could all relate to these new stories.
With vampires another crucial change was made in that the
main characters in ‘Twilight’ and ‘Sookie Stackhouse Series’ books weren’t
vampires. Nobody knows what it’s like to
be a vampire so they can’t relate. But
when you put the main character as a normal person, it becomes much easier to
put yourself in their shoes. When that
normal character gets involved with a vampire it heightens that sense of danger
and excitement. That is a large part of
what has driven the vampire genre to renewed success.
Zombies ran into similar issues. While nearly all zombie stories took place in
modern times, the focus kept getting blurred.
Zombie movies got too concerned with mass killing of all the zombies. There was no awareness of the bigger picture. All people wanted to see was the next “really
cool zombie kill.” Such a phenomenon was
even poked fun at in the film ‘Zombieland.’
In that movie, after killing a zombie the Woody Harrelson character asks
“What do you think? Zombie kill of the
week?” The movie then proceeded to go to
a “highlight” type segment going over what was actually the ‘Zombie Kill of the
Week.’
In zombie movies everybody was killing zombies, but nobody
was thinking “OK, after we kill all these things, what’s next?” Just as the trick of putting vampires into
modern times did wonders, the idea of answering the question “what’s next?” has
put zombie drama back on the map. This
question has been dealt with before on a limited basis with the likes of ‘The
Omega Man’ starring Charleton Heston and others, but those played to such
limited fanfare that it was never fully developed as a sub-genre. Instead, people wanted to see lots of
zombies, lots of blood, and lots of gore and that’s what they got.
This was all shaken up a bit when ’28 Days Later’ came out in
2002. No longer were zombies the
‘un-dead.’ The people didn’t even know
automatically what to call them.
Further, there was a scientific reason behind their existence that not
only made it plausible but made it even scarier to think it could happen at any
point. These “zombies” were creatures
created by a rogue virus that affected the majority but left the chosen few to
fend for themselves in this new hell of mankind’s own creation.
’28 Days Later’ delved into the “what’s next?”
question. It didn’t try to make us find
out who the zombies were or why they were there. The movie started with a man waking up from a
coma and not understanding what has changed the world he once knew. The zombies have come along and nothing was
the same. No longer was it about trying
to stop the outbreak from happening, it’s already done. Now the characters just have to re-learn how
to live in this new world.
This is infinitely more intriguing to the American public
today and it showed in the box office receipts.
The zombie genre had basically started over again and was taken it to a
different place. No longer was the genre
going to be about running zombies over with lawn mowers. That was not acceptable and the public
demanded more from their zombie movies. Answering
the question “what do we do now?” is what the masses wanted to delve into.
It is asking this question that makes ‘The Walking Dead’ a
popular show that is only growing in its popularity. I count myself as part of the group. I have
seen every episode including the recent season 2 premier. I am sure AMC thought they had a show that would
be successful and keep people coming back to AMC on Sunday nights in between
‘Mad Men’ and ‘Breaking Bad.’ However, I’m not sure they realized they would
have a mega-hit on their hands.
This begs the question of what exactly has made this show so
popular. In searching for the answer to
that question we come upon the reason for my love/hate feelings toward this
show. TWD didn’t waste much time and
knocked you over the head with exactly what this show’s going to be about in
the first episode. After awaking from a
coma (how long that coma was, we don’t know) our main character Rick Grimes
finds himself beaten over the head with a shovel.
Once it’s discovered he’s not a zombie, the people who hit
him over the head nurse him back to health.
Shortly thereafter, Grimes wakes up and we are presented with a scene
where a zombie pounds at the door. All
three inhabitants lay low and try to not make a noise so the zombie will just
go away. That’s when we learn the zombie
is the wife and mother of the man and son who saved Grimes.
The tension mounts as to whether or not the zombie gets in. Then we are introduced to the question of
whether or not these characters have what it takes to kill a zombie that used
to be someone they loved. This is a
central aspect to most zombie films.
With the world crumbling around them survivors do whatever they can to
rekindle their past lives. That longing
for their normal life makes it hard to kill a loved one as a zombie, even if
they no longer resemble the person they love.
This is where zombies are used as reminders of what was wrong with our
previous lives and how we have to move on.
Loved ones are no longer the humans we once knew. Zombies are creatures that exist as beings
controlled by the completely primordial area of their brains. Their only instinct is survival and to
survive they need to eat. Humans,
animals, it doesn’t matter; their physical forms need to be sustained in order
to continue on. They are so consumed
with this urge they will put themselves in physical danger in order to quench
it.
This is what makes zombies such a scary prospect. They are relentless. Zombies don’t get winded; they don’t feel
pain, all they know is they have to eat.
These aspects of a zombie’s nature are what feed into my love/hate
attitude towards ‘The Walking Dead.’
On one hand I love the tension and drama this show
creates. When hordes of zombies come
chasing after the group of survivors its puts us all on the edge of our seat
waiting to see how people will survive.
Being marooned on the top of a car or inside an abandoned army tank is a
precarious situation. How one escapes
this situation is usually a tension filled endeavor. This makes for good TV. Being cornered or chased incites a certain
human reaction towards survival that we can’t control.
While that may pull us in as viewers, it also makes me feel
cheated. I care about whether they can escape the zombie herds and continue to
survive in this dystopian world. I care
from a human part of myself that wants humanity to survive and flourish. How much I actually care about the character
in danger is irrelevant at that point because the stakes are bigger than just
one person.
When not presented with the scenario of a post apocalyptic, zombie
infested, world things might be different.
If one of these characters was in a fight in a non-zombie world, would I
care what happened to them? The answer
to this question isn’t clear because we don’t know enough about the true nature
of these characters when they’re not in survival mode.
When I’m caught in the moment, these characters attempt to
survive makes for great television.
After the show goes off the air, when I think back to what happened, I’m
not as enraptured as I was while it was going on. I asked myself “Why is this?” The answer led me to where I’m at now, having
a love/hate relationship with this show.
Playing on this innate need for survival and our
predisposition towards the prosperity of the human race, TWD has found a way to
make viewers out of people who don’t even care.
I would bet that if you ask the majority of the viewers of TWD you would
hear a comment something like this “the show is really good! And I don’t even like zombies!!!” It’s a classic phenomenon that this show was
able to recreate with incredible accuracy.
By using a vehicle that turns most people off, TWD can
create a scenario that people can’t help but watch and be enthralled by. ‘Lost’ captured somewhat of the same
phenomenon in its run on TV. Most people
who watched lost would probably tell you that they weren’t even science fiction
fans. These people were pulled in by an
interesting premise and then human nature took over. People couldn’t stand not to know what was on
the island, what the mist was, why they were there, etc. It’s a fundamental phenomenon that viewers
could not move on unless they knew what it was all about.
While these are two different aspects of our inherent
humanity, the principle remains the same.
Issues such as character development and depth of personalities can be
skirted around with the right premise and the right situation. Assuming TWD can keep the plots of the show
grounded the first couple of seasons (not get too hokey) then they can most
definitely continue this show’s success.
Towing that line will be a difficult task. It’s a very thin line between viewers caring
about characters and feeling manipulated.
Once that line is crossed, it is hard to go back. While audiences might be able to turn a blind
eye to certain things in the name of entertainment they don’t like feeling
manipulated. At times I feel cheated
while watching TWD. I feel that way
because the characters seem to have more depth to them. I want to know more about these
characters. I want to know what their
previous lives were like that has made them act how they do now. This is why I currently don’t feel
manipulated, there seems like there’s more.
If this show continues and doesn’t give me that depth of those
characters and it’s just one zombie chase scene after another, then I think
that I won’t be the only one tuning out.
As for now, I’m going to keep watching.
For now.
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