Zombie TV Show Review!

First, it’s by AMC. They make Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Rubiconn and a pile of other stuff. They make amazing television. The story and character progression is their bread and butter.

So, The Walking Dead appropriately premiered last night. Like the comic book of the same name, it follows a deputy sheriff waking up in a hospital after what appears to be a zombie breakout. Romero zombies, the ones that are slow and dumb. The first 30-45 minutes are about him dealing with the world changing and the latter are about him finding his way through the small town to the big city. Naturally, the big city is infested.

A few standouts. The zombies look amazing – movie quality makeup. Hats off! The main character can act. This isn’t a zombie slasher flick. This is a realistic (hmm) look at how regular people act in extraordinary circumstances. Good exposition. The scenes are well laid out and well shot. Character progression is solid to boot. Emmy winner, maybe not but I will keep watching.

An interesting thought occurred to me while watching. In most movies, there’s an adversary. Man vs self or Man vs Man. In zombie movies, since the zombies are the opposite of characters, I think they represent the basic self. Take away the humanity of a person and you get a zombie. So in essence, a zombie movie deals with characters vs. their basic selves and striving to stay human – figuratively and literally. Don’t know why I didn’t see that before!

Looking forward to the next one.