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AMC's The Walking Dead Season 1 Discussion & Spoilers

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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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! :rommie:
 
No wonder they shamble. Every time they take a step, it rattles their brains.

In such a case, the only ones who would make any headway would be little girls with the Deadly Stomp Attack.
 
Okay, I can't resist throwing this out there. CW's Awakenings has an ahem interesting take on zombolgy. I'll spoiler code it in case anyone wants to be surprised (but being part of the premise, it might be in the publicity anyway):

The two sisters who are the lead characters are both zombies. Instead of being mindless and all groady with body parts falling off, they're quite presentable and are basically just people who have an embarrassing appetite for human flesh. So the writers have essentially taken the vampire story and renamed the vampires "zombies."

Whaddya think? Brilliant twist or stupidest idea ever?

PS, Titus Welliver is still onboard as the zombie hunter, so I'll be watching the show regardless.
 
I'm leaning toward stupidest idea ever. You don't bill your show as one niche or genre, then shoehorn all these ideas from another niche into it just because the other niche is popular. In other industries, that's known as bait-and-switch. That was the problem with the BSGification of SGU, and the Xmenification of Birds of Prey, and you saw how those did.
 
Silvercrest said:
I'm leaning toward stupidest idea ever. You don't bill your show as one niche or genre, then shoehorn all these ideas from another niche into it just because the other niche is popular. In other industries, that's known as bait-and-switch. That was the problem with the BSGification of SGU, and the Xmenification of Birds of Prey, and you saw how those did.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it is horrible idea. It's pretty much The Walking Dead for tweens. I'm not sure even Titus Welliver can make it worth watching.
 
Do the zombies sparkle?

Come on, let's be honest here -- did anyone honestly expect a rotting flesh horror show from The CW? It's the network about hot white hardbodied teens and twentysomethings. You can't have abs of steel AND body parts falling off.
 
I'm leaning toward stupid here. If you're going to do something like that, at least make it something close to the concept you're using. Hell, even in Twilight the vampires still had some of the characteristics of vampires.
 
That sounds a bit like Philip Nutman's Wet Work.

In that book, there are different 'stages' of dead. Some are the typical Romeroverse slow shufflers, others are faster, all the way up to 'smart' zombies - those who retain their personalities and can think and act completely normally.
 
Come on, let's be honest here -- did anyone honestly expect a rotting flesh horror show from The CW?
Click to expand...
I admit, it had me perplexed and very curious when I first heard about it. :rommie: So their "solution" is not really surprising.

OTOH, I'm feeling a bit open-minded this morning, which makes me wonder whether there isn't space on TV for a radically different take on zombitude. Are these zombies even dead? Does the "one bite and you're a zombie" rule still apply? I'm figuring no to the former, to evade the groady factor, and yes to the latter, since it's vampire rules anyway.

The one way this silly idea might be salvaged is if it becomes an intentional self-parody, wallowing in its CW-hood, in other words, take the Reaper route. Maybe if Bret Harrison's current show gets the axe, he can join Awakenings as zombie bait. He'd be just about perfect. :D
 
I didn't enjoy the Land of the Dead, because of the Intelligent Zombies, so, not sure this will appeal to me. Willing to give it a try though, if I find it when it comes on.
 
"I'm not dead."
"Here, he says he's not dead."
"Yes he is."
"I'm not!"
"He isn't."
"Well, he will be soon, he's very ill."
"I'm getting better."
"No you're not, you'll be stone dead in a moment."
 
Temis the Vorta said:
OTOH, I'm feeling a bit open-minded this morning, which makes me wonder whether there isn't space on TV for a radically different take on zombitude.
Click to expand...

"Just because I'm a zombie, it doesn't give you the right to ban me from prom! I already bought my dress!"
 
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