We continue on with my retooled and revamped list of all-time favorite shows. It has been a long time since I’ve revisited my list. And like a countdown show, some of my faves have fallen down the chart. There’s also some new blood on my list…
Like number seven!
‘The Walking Dead’ blasts up the charts with a bullet!
Isn’t it hard to believe that NBC passed on this series? Don’t you think some executive somewhere is blaming themselves for missing this juggernaut?
AMC picked it up and ‘The Walking Dead’ with the “Romero” type of zombie gets ratings that are close to what the NFL gets in primetime. The series has become the new “water cooler” show and in these days of DVR convenience along with thousands of other viewing choices, that’s a rare thing.
I’ve found out the hard way that if I don’t watch every week during the actual broadcast, shortly after, or the next morning… It’s going to get spoiled someway or somehow. I’ll see a spoiler somewhere on social media or from one of the many trade tweets. It’s just inescapable for me to go a day or two without spoilers of some kind.
As I write this, the world is still debating if the character of Glenn Rhee is still alive.
With only a few more episodes before the mid-season break, I’m sure they’re going to string along viewers until the return.
Personally, I wish his wife Maggie was the one they may have killed off. When the actress, Lauran Cohan, actually uses a southern accent it’s atrocious. I just don’t understand why actors make southern accents sound so dumb.
But anyway, the series is great on many levels.
Sure, there’s zombie carnage and that’s always fun. But the series is so much deeper. It’s about humanity and the fragility of how humane humans can and cannot be when there’s no law or order. ‘The Walking Dead’ is a character study of humanity. It’s Darwinism in action. It’s also anarchy where consequences are few and far between.
I often up end shaking my head at some of the posts that I read on social media about ‘The Walking Dead’. It’s a shame that some people only get off on the carnage when there’s so much happening and bubbling under the surface. For example, social media was buzzing about the episode where we find out what happened to Morgan and why he no longer kills another human being even when his life is threatened. The buzzing was about the lack of carnage and how boring the episode was to them.
I can’t help feeling that these people are missing out. Perhaps all the carnage is the only thing that holds their interest. The television snob in me pities them for a moment because they’re missing the deep character development that adds to the storyline.
They’re the same types of people that bitched and complained about the spinoff series ‘Fear The Walking Dead’. AMC fetched BIG numbers when the series premiered. But week after week the series saw a decline in ratings even though they were still in the bona fide hit series range.
Three things that interest me about ‘Fear The Walking Dead’…
1. It is interesting to see the outbreak from the beginning.
2. It is fascinating to see how Travis will transform from a gun disapproving man to a kill or be killed kind of guy.
3. And it’s great to see the writers breakaway from the blue collar types in the original to a man with means. Victor has money. Victor had his own set of rules from the start. He is a man of action that isn’t used to hearing the word “no”.
But the carnage just isn’t up to the sheeple standard yet. They simply cannot abide character development without it. And that’s a shame. Really. There are so many layers to both series and it kind of hurts that some folks just aren’t getting the full effect.
But oh well… I love it for everything that it is. And I love it for everything that it isn’t for a good portion of the masses.
It’s their loss.
