Blogpost # 4: Fight the Dead. Fear the Living

Zombies are now part of our present pop culture. From movies to television, from toys to games; zombies have invaded them. This proves that zombies were not just a classic horror icon, but also a great contributor and influence to our society. In addition, more people who used to hate them are starting to love them. In turns out that even these people got caught to zombie's irresistible charm.

Zombie genre did a lot of effort before it finally took a slot to the pop culture. It started after George Romero's first zombie movie and concept about the cannibal undead. However, it is not very successful the way it was expected by Romero. Though it became famous, outdated, but eventually got its fame back once again, yet it's still been exceeded and stereotyped by other genres. Until one day, a zombie related drama invades the entertainment industry. It is a series that introduced zombie, not just for adults, but also for young ages. It is a series that got us hooked up in front of our television, a series that makes us  look forward for its new episodes every week -- the focal point of zombies stardom to pop culture, The Walking Dead.

The Walking Dead, now on its on-going fourth season, is generally a story of a sheriff named Rick Grimes, (played by Andrew Lincoln) who just woke up from a coma in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. It is basically about dead invading human but it's also a story about family, friendship, humanism and survival. It's unique and addicting plot are what made it to become the world's number one television show. The fame later started zombies' big influence to our culture.

As I was searching for articles related to the show, I found one that certainly got my attention from charliewhitaker.wordpress.com. It is an article entitled "'The Walking Dead' Psychology 101." Written by Charlie Whitaker himself, the article focuses, not on reviews and criticism of the show, but rather an article that explains the psychology behind it.

The article started from the author's opinion about the show; what is the show all about and our shared concerns of how the plague began and how it will end. He then took these concerns as an advantage by asking himself various questions, until he came up with answers. His questions are, "What is the meaning of life in a world devoid of it?", "How important is human dignity in a survival situation?" and "Should normal-world social constructs remain in an abnormal world?"


He answers his first question by giving an example. He relates the show according to the decisions we make in real life. According to Whitaker, there are times that we make frustrating decisions. For instance, we're on a certain group that needs each member's opinion. Sometimes, because of own perspective and philosophy, group decision may just end up in arguments and misunderstanding until no specific decision is decided. Furthermore, he said that this situation happens most of the time to the show. He put Andrea (which he explains as cold, blond, zombie-eviscerating machine) an example of person who likes to make fatal decision. It all started after her sister, Amy, died from Season 1. For Andrea, hope and control had become extinct. However, for people who have the same mindset like Rick and Dale, hope is still there. It is just a matter of time before it appears again. Anyhow, for Whitaker, there's no right or wrong between the both parties involved. Moreover, Andrea and Rick decisions almost get them both killed.

The second question was explained by comparing and contrasting Rick Grimes and Shane Walsh (played by Jon Bernthal), both main cast from season 1 and season 2. Best friends, workmates, cops, both possessed leadership traits, are what best define Rick and Shane before everything gone bad. Eventually, their perspectives and philosophies diverted after the apocalypse started. There are instances where someone decides to leave the group. For Shane, it's fine to let them do what they wanted to do and let their own fate to decide what will happen to them. On the contrary, Rick will stop them to do what they want. The author quoted, "Save those who can’t save themselves," which put most of us into an idea that we will do the same thing as Rick, in case we are on the same situation. To sum it up, losing your human dignity to this kind of scenario doesn't help anything.

Lastly, Charlie Whitaker answered the third question by taking out some scenes from the show. For the avid fans like me and for the people who watch it, we can recall the scene where Lori Grimes (played by Sarah Wayne Callies) discovered that she's pregnant. For critical thinkers, pregnancy in a middle of zombie apocalyptic world is a shocking news. Another, Rick himself tries to maintain his ethics particularly to his group, even though Shane is against it. In a sense, these are acts of keeping social structure. In spite of growing numbers of characters from the show who doesn't care about social systems anymore, there are still people like Rick, who wants to maintain it because he had this belief that everything will return the way it is someday.

"It’s [The Walking Dead] more a hypothetical narrative regarding humanism than an impossible scenario in which character is undercut by plot, supernatural fighting ability, endless ammo, stereotypes and mildly amusing quips like its zombie flick brethren," stated Charlie Whitaker.

As a fan of the series, I must agree to author's statement. I used to hate zombie movies before, not because they contain disturbing scenes, but because they propose pornographic contents. Shows and movies related to zombies, are just the usual story of survival. But the "The Walking Dead," considered as the first zombie related television series, gave us another perspective about zombies. Though morbid, gore, suspense and scary, the show is still way greater than any other shows.

But the show is not just a show. It was not created to just pop out into our television. It represents something from our society. This was then supported by an article found in www.relevantmagazine.com which is, "The Deeper Message of 'The Walking Dead'." Written by Scott Elliott, this article focuses on the meanings and messages the show's trying to tell us especially on its devoted viewers. The author divided it into two parts.

According to the article, the first message of the show is obviously similar to my recent blog entries; our individualism. The heroes we recognize today whether fictional or historical are mostly taking all the credits for themselves every time they did extraordinary things. This tells us that they can accomplish great achievements with little or no help from others. Though the word "individualism" becomes one great virtue for most of us and teaches us that we can do great things alone, it is still not applicable once this threatening apocalypse happens. As what we see on the show, people who have joined a group, specifically Rick Grime's party, have faced the worst and they have overcome it. Otherwise, those who chose to travel alone, like Morgan from Season 1, didn't end up good. The shows' favorites, Michonne and Darryl, though very skillful, still refer to join Rick because they knew that living alone with a setting like this can lead them nowhere. In summary, there's always strength in numbers.

Next message, still according to the article, is about the community. If you are an avid fan of the series, you will be familiar to the two main community from the show; Rick's and the Woodbury. Still connected from the previous message, engaging into a group of people will lead you to become a part of the community of that certain group. From Rick's group, we can tell that they are a bold community who kills zombies in order to survive. They are also a community whose members know how to fight and kill zombies in order to protect themselves. On the other hand, the Woodbury, led by The Governor (played by David Morrissey), is a two-faced community. The citizen sees Woodbury as a community of peace that provides them bed to sleep and food to eat. In reality, it is a community that savage other communities in order to get supplies and a community that makes fun of zombies as a source of crude entertainment.

"As in real life as much as The Walking Dead, there are two kinds of dangers: external forces and forces from within. We have to fight the pride, violence and injustice we see in the world as much as we have to fight internalizing these ugly powers ourselves," stated Scott Elliott.

This quoted statement is so much metamorphic yet true. In order to overcome the danger from the real world, we must deal first to the danger from our internal self. We created these disasters and we are the only one who can stop it. If we failed to do so, it may cause devastation. For instance, some characters from the series show selfishness; they want to resolve their own problems or prefer to travel alone. In result, they got eaten. If we're going to continue to keep these attitudes, we may end up into something we didn't expected.

The Walking Dead is now on the peak of its popularity. The series will end up soon, but its influence will never stop. We will still continue to remember it for decades. Some of us even made it their own basis if there will be a possibility for the apocalypse to happen. It's realistic plot, drama and excellent casting is what made the show fantastic. It deserves a spot from our televesion and from our hearts.