AMC's The Walking Dead Season 1 Discussion & Spoilers

[Dream]

Aragorn wrote:

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Some people were not amused by the placement of this ad

Very funny ad.

If there are still people watching this great show for the first time, please post your thoughts!

Looking forward to more zombie goodnesss in season 2!

[Immolatus]

As a law enforcement officer we would be the 1st line of defense and I would be thinking of my wife and kids, if things look like there going down hill I'm gonna jump in my unit and head for home to secure my family. My brother in law who is in the National Guard said he would do the same thing (we talked about his over a couple of beers). We would hate to leave our post but my family come 1st.

[Dorian Thompson]

Shouldn't you make sure that your family is defense ready at all times and stay at your post? That's dereliction of duty if the war isn't completely lost.

[RJDiogenes]

Yeah, it's nice to know our first line of defense will be so quick to desert.

[Immolatus]

that's my point this isn't some riot or invasion by another country, this is the dead raising. Now were assuming this happened all of a sudden and no body was prepared to see the dead walk again. That sh!t would really mess with a person head

[Temis the Vorta]

That's interesting. I've seen the argument raised frequently that any competent military would be able to defend itself handily against a horde of brainless zombies, but I think it's impossible to make that prediction due to the freak-out factor.

Even a military that will stay at its post and not rush to protect loved ones during a normal invasion might behave unpredictably in a zombie related situation. For instance, what proportion of soldiers would decide it's the end times and see their first priority as getting to church, to pray and await Jesus?

Which reminds me. So when the frak is World War Z coming out?!?

[JD]

The movie? I just checked wikipedia and it doesn't have anything about a release date on there.

[Temis the Vorta]

2014 on IMDB.

[Sindatur]

Temis the Vorta wrote:

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2014 on IMDB.

I recall hearing they dumped JMS' script, because it wasn't shallow enough or something

[Checkmate]

Temis the Vorta wrote:

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That's interesting. I've seen the argument raised frequently that any competent military would be able to defend itself handily against a horde of brainless zombies, but I think it's impossible to make that prediction due to the freak-out factor.

Even a military that will stay at its post and not rush to protect loved ones during a normal invasion might behave unpredictably in a zombie related situation. For instance, what proportion of soldiers would decide it's the end times and see their first priority as getting to church, to pray and await Jesus?

It would only truly freak them out if they were unprepared for it and it came out of nowhere while they were on patrol or something. If they went in knowing what was going on, they'd be prepared for it and would have little trouble. Probably less than fighting true combatants since there wouldn't be any moral issues with killing brainless, monstrous strangers.

It'd be like fighting robots.

[watermelony2k]

I think one has to keep in mind that fighting a zombie apocalypse would not be a traditional war with "fronts". It's the dead rising EVERYWHERE within your borders, among your populace, and from within the military and law enforcement themselves.

And if infection works like it does in the Walking Dead where everyone is destined to become a zombie no matter HOW you die -- then you face the daily threat of hundreds of thousands of people dying from natural causes everyday, only to become zombies.

[Checkmate]

Right, but once the situation is understood and accepted, you adapt to it. You wouldn't freak out every waking moment of your existence. If you had the training and the equipment, you could fight back as necessary.

Of course, this also assumes that the stupidity of a zombie invasion were even remotely possible. To make that happen, it would have to have a tremendously long incubation period in which it's all but undetectable or where everyone is infected almost immediately somehow (which is basically what The Walking Dead is I guess), otherwise it would be as easily contained as any other viral outbreak. Which, you know, is why we're not all dead from ebola or any other nasty virus you can think of.

And, again, it's not like you'd be facing a cunning and well-organized opponent with an impressive infrastructure and travel capabilities. You're dealing with brain-dead zombies that shuffle along at ridiculously slow speed (unless dealing with the "new" ones that run at high speed for whatever silly reason) who are easily distracted by loud noises.

Zombie invasions require a lot of Stupid(tm) in order to make them even remotely believable. But if you're going to go about saying that the military is just going to freak out if one did happen and would instantly and forever be ineffective because every single soldier would be flailing their arms and screaming like a little girl 24/7, that's... well, that's covered by the Stupid(tm) brand.

[Temis the Vorta]

I think the biggest problem would be simple denial. People would believe anything - alien invasion, government conspiracy, mass hallucination, End of Days - before they'd believe that the dead were rising (without any religious angle) and eating the living. For the newly killed people, there would also be denial that they are "really" dead in some irreversible way. Their loved ones would hold out hope that they can be cured - nobody would be around who could definitively tell them otherwise - and would be reluctant to shoot them in the head, even in self-defense.

[Sindatur]

One also has to think about how long it would take for the masses to learn what it takes to actually kill them, without media being available. I mean, they're brain-dead, why would it occur to someone (unless they saw it in a zombie movie) that the way to kill them is to blow out their brains? And of, course, a real zombie invasion, wouldn't neccessarily follow the rules of commonly known zombie movie rules.

[Temis the Vorta]

Wouldn't it be funny if there was a real zombie uprising and their kill-spot was in the big toe? Everyone would keep aiming for the head!