Over the last 10 years, I've been relatively out of the loop when it has come to keeping up with the lengthening, ever-rigid, throbbing erection of popular contemporary television shows. In fact, the last television show I was able to watch faithfully had been Boy Meets World.
You have to love that Mr. Feeny call.
Yet, this past fall, my attention-as well as eyeballs-have been gripped unrelentingly by the clutches of a new television show. I can only assume by its average viewer rating of 6.5 million per episode that this show-The Walking Dead-has extended its deathly reach on not just my life, but mostly everyone else's for one Sunday out of every week over a 2 month stretch.
What is it about this show that's so compelling?
Well, it's freaking zombies! For starters, you generally can't go wrong with televising a post-apocalyptic and cannibalistic scenario, especially in a time where we're going through an economic recession, and a great deal of uncertainty and fear about the future both domestically and internationally.
So, the morbid backdrop of The Walking Dead naturally possesses a gruesomely familiar appeal.
The main character of the show, Rick Grimes, is played by the relatively unknown Andrew Lincoln.
Grimes is a sheriff in Atlanta who ended up in a coma after a failed shoot-out with a criminal. Upon awakening from his coma, he finds himself stranded in a hospital room.
When he left his confinement, he sees the hospital is in shambles. He quickly leaves the hospital and comes across endless rows of corpses lined up.
Everything changed for Rick Grimes. The world he had known before his coma had fallen victim to the scourge of the undead, and now his mission is to find his wife and son in a hope to rekindle any memories of a world once peaceful and normal.
The show is very different from any a-typical survival horror flick that has been churned out over the last 20 years. There are numerous layers of character development, and the zombies serve as the backdrop to remind us-the viewers-about what is at stake for each of the characters.
A cast of unknowns for a big budget show might draw a skeptic eye from more than a few, but in my opinion, this is a great way to keep the attention focused on the story and not distract from it through an A-list presence on the screen.
Even with that said, this cast more than holds their own, delivering top-notch performances and stirring in me a great deal of empathy and sympathy for their plight.
So what are you waiting for? Check it out!
Looking for the 411 on your favorite show, AMC's The Walking Dead? Visit The Walking Dead to get all the info you need on the zombie sensation.
We deliver news, updates on cast interviews, and also offer our own piece of mind regarding episodes, changes to the show, or just overall zombie-reflective articles that are both humorous and thought provoking.
Don't wait for a zombie apocalypse to check out the news on this smash hit.
