Zombies, Lies, and Seduction

Wow, it's been a long time since I updated this blog! :O Anyway, on to pressing discussions...

THE WALKING DEAD

I began watching this with Laura's recommendation. Fucking love it. At first I was a bit worried, since the horror movies we watch are generally cheesy, and we tend to humor ourselves by mocking and imagining different scenarios for the characters of old '70s terror flicks. However, the series is so much more realistic than that. The Walking Dead introduces personalities and events that produce some serious moral dinner discussion. I have watched the first season, which brings a chaotic theme to life in 6 episodes (impressive!), and now I'm catching up on the second season (now on episode 8, hell yeah!).

A few things I like to consistently tell when I'm advertising the show to my friends like a street preacher selling God:

• The series premiere: The very first episode was riveting. It starts with a man waking up from a coma in a hospital with absolutely no notion of how he arrived there. He tries to enter the corridor but finds the door blocked from the outside. After body-slamming the door open weakly, he discovers the hallway is strewn with papers and upturned medical equipment and is DEVOID OF PEOPLE. Which, if I may mention, is naturally unusual since hospitals are all about the commotion. The man, whose name is Rick (probably should've mentioned that earlier), stumbles from the hospital exit to see dozens of bodies covered in sheets and half of the hospital building in crumbs. 
• What I love: The audience really feels the fear and confusion from the specific shots and cinematography. You know as little as poor Rick does. Also, the plotline and camera shots allow for the watcher to deduce the situation, slowly but surely. 
• The characters: After the first episode, and a little during it, you start to figure out the characters are deeper than the stereotypes. For example, in the first episode, Rick meets Morgan Jones, a man who stands as an informer to Rick and the audience about the zombie "apocalypse," and you can instantly tell that Morgan and his son Duane have been through a shitload of awful experiences since the zombification (Duane, his preadolescent son, meets Rick with a loaded rifle aimed in Rick's face). Morgan reveals how his wife was bitten and his inability to put her down (I don't really know what to call it, since she's already dead). During his story, the camera flashes to his wife, uncoordinatedly walking around in front of the house at night and scratching at the door like a lost cat looking for its owner. And the loss is apparent in Morgan's face as well as the pain in his son's. 
• What I love: The depth and reality of the characters. Morgan is one good example, and now, as I watch the second season, Shane is becoming more uncouth in his manner. After being "Shane the Savior," he has started to taste the bittersweet truth of his loneliness. The lack of reciprocity for his morally upright actions begins to wear him down, and he steadily loses his protective nature towards others.
• Plotline: The story is loaded with events that present the group with moral dilemmas. In each episode, the characters each deal with a scenario that forces them to make an ethical decision.
• What I love: As if it isn't enough to cause the characters' mental mechanisms to surface, it urges the audience to think as well. What if I were in said situation? If my sibling, parent, child, friend, spouse, etc. were turned into some grotesque version (not just aesthetically) of their former selves and it was dangerous for others and myself, would I have the courage to kill them? How dangerous is too dangerous, and can I do for others what I hope they would equivalently do for me? Another concept not to be taken lightly is the formation of a society. As the group becomes isolated from others (and each other) because of distrust, the roles become clarified: leader, devil's advocate, survival expert, the woman (I really don't know what to call this emotional role - something along the lines of Rev. Lovejoy's wife in the Simpsons - "Think of the children!" Lol), the voice of reason, the instigator, the religious fanatic, and all the background characters to enhance the movement of the plotline. Although the societal change doesn't evolve as quickly as that of The Mist (whoa, Marcia Gay Harden, put the bible down and stop sacrificing people like the Aztecs), it allows for a good study of the evolution of human interactions.

So, these are just a few of my faaaavorite thiiiiinngsssss (I've got to start toning down the Sound of Music segues) about the Walking Dead. I hope it continues on (as I have yet to reach the amazingness of the mystery hooded figure Yahoo! mentioned in an article about the season finale), and I hope it continues to maintain my interest. :D

P.S. I LOVE YOU, GLEN! Call me anytime. ;)