ChillerPop

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OCTOBER 18, 2011 1:21AM

October 18 - Return of the Walking Dead

RATE: 4 Flag

(of course SPOILERS for the season premiere of "The Walking Dead")

There's very little I can say about the season 2 premiere of "The Walking Dead" that Matt Zoller Seitz didn't state in his excellent piece for Salon today. He brought up so many excellent points and concepts, primarily about the role and purpose of zombie films, stock characters, "Hobbes’ State of Nature", zombie-by-proxy films, etc. Superb.

One of the show's strengths, mentioned in the article, is its well-crafted suspense scenes. The season premiere leads off with a white-knucklingly tense zombie hide-and-escape scene at an abandoned highway pile-up. The characters, scattered about the pileup they're attempting to clear, have to hide under vehicles and take care not to make noise, shoot guns or smell like clean fresh meat. I don't think I drew one breath until the scene ended.

We were also treated to a nice gothic image of zombies in elegant tattered church finery awaiting victims inside of a church, victims that come running when automated bells call to prayer. Who's a Pavlovian dog now, hmm?

What I didn't like about the premiere? The praying-out-loud histrionics at the church and a nihilistic cliffhanger.

Also, the show brought out an inner conflict within me, via the character of Andrea. One one shoulder: a selfless superhero. On the other shoulder: a selfish survivalist dick. Were I leading that group, I may very well have handed Andrea a gun and said "Go for it. You have no interest in surviving? Well I have no time to waste on you." However, the character Dale may just be a selfless superhero, doing all in his power to save a life despite his personal circumstances. Or, as my wife pointed out, his need to care and invest in someone's safety is his survival mechanism?

Perhaps I need to slug this inner Objectivist dick and throw him in jail.

But this is what zombie properties help us to imagine: the breakdown of society and what we would do when there are no limits. Also, as a counterpoint to torture porn, a guilt-free transgression of the human body - a post for later.

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I've never seen this show although it sounds good and the critics like it. Frankly, I'm tired of zombies, especially when they're supposed to be metaphors for all kinds of things that would surprise them if zombies could register surprise. I'm ready for a new creature; zombies, vampires, werewolves, they don't do it for me anymore.

Margaret Feike

OCTOBER 18, 2011 02:48 AM

I am with margaret on this. The zombie paradigm needs
tweaking, don't u agree?
They really make little sense to me. What do they want?
How could they even have a "will"?
What is their, uh, motivation?

Shapeshifters may be the wave of the future..

James M. Emmerling

OCTOBER 18, 2011 09:17 AM

I have never seen this show but Trueblood is my fave. I dont know if I could watch this every week.. but I will give it a try.
HUGGGGGGGGGGGG

Linda Seccaspina

OCTOBER 18, 2011 09:49 AM

Margaret & James, I completely understand. I too was getting sick of the zombie genre - it seems like all anyone ever wants in a horror movie anymore is gory ripped limbs. But the Big Salon article has reinvigorated my interest in the genre. Zombies themselves aren't interesting (unless you look at them from a Haitian Voudun perspective), but if I'm not mistaken, there's an "...of The Dead" franchise entry that deals with them forming a society and a hierarchy. I need to check that out.

Linda, if there were a zombie apocalypse, I bet you could stand your ground by charming and hugging them to death!

ChillerPop

OCTOBER 18, 2011 12:52 PM

Andrea emerged out of this past episode as almost the only worthwhile and interesting character. The only other one to show any spunk or verve is Daryl. Glen, who used to be the only interesting character, has apparently receded into the background.

Really the show is not being served by the characters. I realize the comics have done a slow burn on Rick's gradual disillusionment and willingness to be truly awful in order to survive, but he was rounded out by more brutal characters than the show seems willing to allow.