I’m writing my article this week about a popular TV show. I know this seems out of character for me. It is.
I have recently become a huge fan of the AMC series The Walking Dead. Many people have recommended it to me since the show first aired in 2010, but it wasn’t until the beginning of this semester that I finally gave it a chance.
I had a terrible mono-like virus that kept me in bed for days. By the second day of doing nothing, I thought for sure that boredom was slowly but surely going to drive me to the point of absolute insanity. I needed a show. I needed a show that was on Netflix. I needed a show that was on Netflix with a lot of seasons and a lot of episodes. My roommate’s boyfriend told me to watch "The Walking Dead."
So naturally, my stubbornness began to take over and I ranted about what I thought the show was, listing my assumptions:
"It’s just another over-contrived, over-rated, and unrealistic show...
with a weak plot line that is probably completely overpowered by gore and violence...
focusing on too many characters for the viewer to keep up with...
which means there are way too many characters for the show to provide adequate character development...
which will make it practically impossible to connect with even one character...
therefore the show is probably boring and stupid and not worth my time."
My roommate and her boyfriend both convinced me to just watch the first episode. So I did. And you’ve probably figured out by now that I was wrong about it all. I had completely misjudged something without any real knowledge of what it was.
Here is my opinion of the show now:
It’s probably one of the most masterfully crafted shows out there today. I really do believe that. All I can say is that it has all of the necessary qualities of what makes a show a great show and more. Not only is the plot extremely well thought out, but the almost all of the acting is impressive. I think my favorite part of the show is the juxtaposition between fiction and realism.
If you don’t already know the premise of the show, I will briefly explain it. A global outbreak of a deadly disease breaks out. When infected people die, their body comes back to life (becoming what the main characters refer to as “walkers”) and functions with the sole purpose of eating human beings that are not yet dead. These “walkers” do not feel pain and the only way to actually kill them is by damaging the brain. The show focuses on Rick Grimes, the sheriff of a small town in Georgia, as he struggles to survive the turmoil of what the world has become.
So yes, it’s a show about zombies. But it’s not as simple as it seems. What intrigues me about the show is the ever-changing, precarious dynamic between the various characters. When I talk about this amazing quality of “realness” within the show, I’m always referring to how well human nature is depicted in every single episode.
People react differently to the end of the world… Some people maintain their human values, some people lose them completely, some people are blinded by fear, some people rise up to the tasks at hand, and some people break under the pressure of survival. And that’s my favorite part about the show. It portrays so well authenticity and naturalness of human strength, weakness and capability. By devising a plot with a backdrop of a world that pushes them to their limits, the show gives the truest insight into the human condition--and I respect anything that can portray the truth about the human condition.
