Zombies

I’ve said it before. I just don’t see the insane appeal of this TV show. It’s entertaining and all, and the FX are good, but it’s just so “been there, done that” to me. I have a friend who sets his schedule around this show (Shout out to Devin!); despite the fact that he could easily TiVo it, he HAS to be there in front of the TV every Sunday night. I teased him this past Sunday. “Spoiler alert!” I said to him. “Tonight on TWD—somebody dies!” I had errands to run, and so did NOT rush home to watch it. I was in Wal-Mart buying milk when I received a text from him. “You jinxed it!” he said, informing me that [SPOILER EDIT] had been killed. Later that night, social media was on fire with the news. It would seem to me there is no reason to mourn the (possible) passing of [SPOILER EDIT] as this is a zombie show. The showrunners can always bring [SPOILER EDIT] back as a zombie, right? I mean, the show IS called THE WALKING DEAD? Am I being insensitive to my friend, who is traumatized by this whole thing?

I can, at least, get a little more excited over the WALKING DEAD comic book series. It’s always nice to see a comic enjoying such resounding success. I’ll give it a plug here, then. Check out the linked video of how the comics are created. Fans despondent over the (possible) passing of [SPOILER EDIT] can comfort themselves by looking at some lovely horrific artwork.

When a house has been abandoned by its owners but has yet to be grabbed up by the bank and put back on the market, those in the real estate business call it a “zombie.” Why would anybody just up and leave their house? One imagines they have more than one (houses, that is), or at least they have someplace else to go, someplace more attractive to them for some reason. Perhaps the house they leave behind to become zombified is in poorer shape than the one to which they are moving. Or it might be in an overall bad neighborhood. This also explains why banks, which usually don’t let the dust settle on any abandoned building (or anything else) before swooping in like vultures to take possession of it and resell it, are willing to let the zombie just sit there and slowly rot away. It isn’t worth the investment to foreclose or fix the place up. In certain neighborhoods, places like this are also referred to as “crack houses.” I like “zombie” better.

I don’t expect any of you really care about abandoned houses or the intricacies of real estate. I don’t either. I mention it only because, searching the trusty old Internet today for zombie news, this headline caught my attention, and it perfectly illustrates just how pervasive the concept of the zombie has become in our culture. When ever real estate people are using the term, you know the zombie has pretty much taken over the public consciousness. Brains!

I’ll admit it. I used to HATE Harry Potter. Viscerally HATE it. It wasn’t because I thought the books, and later the movies, were that bad. I didn’t. I resented the unparalleled success of the whole Harry Potter machine. Why was Harry Potter enjoying the highest book sales in the history of the printed world when there were other, more deserving, and BETTER books that struggled in relative obscurity? And then people had the audacity to start comparing Harry Potter to Lewis Carroll, to C.S. Lewis, to TOLKIEN?! Oh, HAY-UL no! (Then TWLIGHT came along and made me realize that Harry Potter was kind of okay after all, but that’s something I discuss over at our sister site, vampires.com).

Why am I mentioning Harry Potter in a post about zombies? Allow me to explain. FEAR THE WALKING DEAD just scored the highest ratings EVER for their inaugural season, for any series on cable television. EVER. And while the Horror junkie in me should be celebrating, as my inner book lover and Fantasy mark probably should have been celebrating J.K. Rowling’s taking over the world, I still can’t help but resent it just a little bit, because there is better, if not zombie TV shows, at least zombie ENTERTAINMENT, out there. There are people out there watching these Walking Dead shows who have never seen Fulci’s ZOMBI, for cryin’ out loud! EDUCATE YOURSELVES, PEOPLE!

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I don’t really care for THE WALKING DEAD. It’s not that it’s BAD. It’s just that it’s so FAMILIAR. And I do kinda have zombie burnout. Unlike with other supernatural creatures of menace, like vampires and werewolves, I like my zombies in a limited quantity. It wasn’t always this way. But today you can’t spit without hitting a zombie. Zombies saturate the entertainment industry. We suffer from TOO MUCH ZOMBIE.

Turns out George Romero, grand high poobah of zombieness, isn’t a WALKING DEAD fan, either. He also finds the series, both in its televised and comic book iterations, “too close for comfort.” It’s nice to have such an authority lending his voice to my own opinion. Stressing that, for him, the zombie serves as a vehicle for satire or propaganda, and that he sees little of this subtext in the TV series (I’m with ya again, George!), he calls THE WALKING DEAD a “soap opera with an occasional zombie.” Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It just isn’t what he’s interested in. And it isn’t what my tastes call for, either, when I’ve got a hankering for zombies.

Then again Romero hated WORLD WAR Z, too, so it’s not like he’s ALWAYS right.