ZOMBIES

THE WALKING DEAD

If you're a fan of zombies, you don't really want to miss out. I've been watching since last year. I actually missed the first season, though I kept hearing about it and intending to watch. TV is not really my bag other than NHL and the occasional movie, so it was an effort to finally sit down, watch the entire first episode on Netflix, then start watching it on AMC last fall. Very glad I did. End-of-the-world done right, gory and exciting Sunday night TV. We almost ditched it last fall when things were getting a little too soap-operay with Lori and Shane and Rick. Who cares who's sleeping with who when the world's filled with zombies?

"Waking up in an empty hospital after weeks in a coma, Sheriff Rick Grimes finds himself utterly alone. The Walking Dead tells the story of the weeks and months that follow after the apocalypse. Based on Robert Kirkman's hugely successful and popular comic book series, AMC's The Walking Dead is an epic, edge-of-your-seat drama where personal struggles are magnified against a backdrop of moment-to-moment survival. A survivalist story at its core, the series explores how the living are changed by the overwhelming realization that those who survive can be far more dangerous than the mindless walkers roaming the earth. They themselves have become the walking dead."

Things got better once the matter of Sophia was settled. The writers listened to their audience and brought back the confrontations, zombies, and gore. While we still had to deal with quite of a bit of who's sleeping with who, total annoyance with the weak and drama-ho female characters Lori and Andrea, and Herschel's never-ending strange behavior, they focused less on that and you could really feel things coming to a head. My lone complaint would be, and my wife agrees, that the female characters have largely been very flat and predictable. We like Maggie (the farmer's daughter) and Carol, who both have been very interesting characters and seem more dimensional. We agree that if Glen or Daryl get eaten, we're going on strike! 

The season finale was killer. (Warning: Spoilers) Forced to leave the farm (who ever really thought it was safe, anyway?) due to an unexplained sudden influx of thousands of zombies walking across the fields, the group loses a couple members and finds themselves with no safe haven.  
We then also find out that everyone is infected--once you die, no matter how, you will turn. This wasn't a complete surprise for me, since some readers of the comic book series had hinted at it to me. I have not read the comics and don't intend to yet. I enjoy being surprised. The series reportedly hasn't followed the line of the comics much (to the comic fans' dismay) but reportedly, with the season finale last night, things are about to change. 

After the episode, we got into a discussion at home about where we'd go for safety if a zombie apocalypse occurred. At my house, this isn't weird, we threw a party last spring when that religious nut publicized his beliefs that it was about to happen. We even jokingly made up a map with the quickest and safest route to the gun store half a mile away, and drank a lot of beer.  Anyway, a prison seems like an obvious and fantastic choice. My daughter also brought up hospitals and large government buildings. Most government buildings are used to being overrun with zombies, though, aren't they? ;)

Finally we are rid of the dubious Shane, which you pretty much saw coming since the second season began. He leads Rick off into the woods, on a fools errand to find their escaped prisoner (who he murdered) and attempts to shoot him down like a dog. In many ways it was a shame, because the character of Shane could have gone a whole different direction, had he not gotten so focused on the love triangle between Rick, Lori and himself.

 Hershel's Barn burns to the ground! So much for safe home turf. So we've theorized that there is a large contigency of survivors inside that prison, perhaps led by Michonne (see below). Again, having not read the comic books, we're guessing. This is a fantastic turn of events, since we all agree that new characters are badly needed, and not just because the zombies ate some.

The character of Michonne, from the comics was introduced. I wasn't familiar with her and know nothing about her, still, but the scene was breath-taking. Whinyass Andrea had been separated from the rest and was running blindly through the woods, chased by hordes of zombies. She was about to meet her maker (eater?) when she was saved by a hooded woman with a sword who was leading two armless zombies on leashes! At home, we freaked out :D As the camera fades out, leaving us in total suspense over who this woman is and where she came from (and why the hell does she have pet zombies?), the audience sees, just behind the treeline where Andrea lays looking up in shock at her savior, a large prison.