I suppose everyone is moving on to the next episode thread now, but I have to say to Fubaya: Well said. Excellent explanation.
A few points.
I loved the flashback showing the bombing of Atlanta, could the shows producers make a one off special prequal maybe ?
Not focusing so much on individual characters survival attempts when the virus kicks off, but on the armed forces and the emergency services desperate attempts to contain the situation.
When you see the remains of the battle around the hospital in the first episode, you think that must have been one hell of a fight, it must have been really worthwhile watching.
Also I don’t like the way the Zs are so easy to kill in hand to hand combat.
Traditionally although Zs are slow they’re incredbly strong and don’t feel pain.
So that being close up to one of them would risk you getting a vice like grip on you which IRL would mean that you’d be dead, or at the very least infected.
The Z would have previous victims contaminated blood on them which I would have thought getting smeared on yourself would infect you if you had any open cuts or sores on your skin.
The whole “Oh look theres a Walker, I’ll just take it out” mind set, seriously undermines the chill/thrill factor, and ultimately the ove all enjoyment of the programme.
And back to the Soap debate.
If watchers of Eastenders or Coronation St.had Annie agonising over whether or not to meet her long lost mother who had her adopted as a baby;were interrupted by a horde of flesh eating monsters invading the house, then quite rightly they’d be peed off, as this is not really relevant to the genre that they’re watching…
So why do we have to endure a load of petty emotional crisis’s with all of its trivia and chit chat when the end of the world is at hand ?
Do you really think that the most ardent, hormonal Mills and Boon fan would honestly care less who their next door neighbours shagging if it was real life, when they know that they could literally die at any moment ?
If you want to watch petty emotional conflicts played out, then theres more then enough shows catering for you.
Inserting it into horror/thriller programmes just dilutes the enjoyment forthe majority of viewers.
Because that IS the genre you’re watching. It’s the genre of the comic it is based on, and so therefore it will travel over to the show. The story of The Walking Dead is NOT the story of the zombies - how the zombies came about, how the military failed, what caused it, etc. It’s the story of the survivors, and how humans keep being humans even in the middle of this kind of killing crisis. The show could be set in an ice age, or a sudden upswing in pollution that kills almost everyone, or the sudden rise of hyperintelligent rats from the sewers who destroy humanity. The disaster isn’t the important factor. The fact that the survivors KEEP BEING PEOPLE and how they have to adjust, THAT is the point of the story.
I always imagine the point of disaster movies/tv series whatever, is to give the viewer a feeling of what it would be like to be in that situation themselves.
To make them think about what they’d do in that situation, to get an approximate feeling of the fear and adrenalin when confronted by a frightening but totally novel disaster.
If you want to follow a group of people squabbling amongst themselves when things aren’t going right then just look around yourself in every day real life.
That, or watch one of the myriad Soaps or dramas on tv already.
Having been in life threatening situations IRL, I can assure you that people don’t act as though they’re in a Soap opera when the mucky stuff hits the fan.
As to the primary reason for the programme being about people being people.
How many of the viewers watch this specific series because its about peoples inter personal skills in adversity, and how many are watching it specificly because its about a zombie apocalypse ?
Would the same people watch it, if to use your example, it was set in an ice age ?
And for that matter would the same AMOUNT of people watch it ?
Would the viewing figures stay the same if the zombie presence was reduced to a raison etre’ for the characters behaviour?
(As in an apocalypse has happened, but after the stage has been set; the Z threat is merely a background thing )
Or would the viewing figures plummet ?
Plenty of Soaps on tv.,not so many Zombie horror stories.