Great TV While High: The Walking Dead

I know that most of you don’t personally know me, but if you did, you would understand just how good AMC’s The Walking Dead must be for me to recommend it. This is not some backdoor way of bragging about my highly (pun intended) refined taste, I say this because zombies mortify me. Zombies are number one on my list of irrational fears (beating out Peeps, sticky fingers, and Kelly Clarkson fans).

Ordinarily, just the sight of decaying flesh, the guttural, vaguely bestial moaning, and their unyielding appetite for human meat is enough to send me fleeing to my Doom Bunker with a full cadre of Ayn Rand books. Yet, The Walking Dead is so damned compelling, I cannot tear my gaze from the screen. As much as the “walkers” (also called “biters” and “geeks”) revolt me, the triumphs and trials of the cast make it worthwhile for me to fight back my instinct to flee and stay with the program.

Really, The Walking Dead is not about zombies. Sure, they are ever-present and deadly and provide a consistent backdrop of horror, but they become commonplace facets of this new world. Like gangs or guns or H1N1 Swine flu, the zombies just become another risk/threat to factor into your equation for survival. In season one, two characters are ruminating on what life was like before the Zombie Apocalypse. One character (a gang banger) says, “It’s just like it was before. The weak get taken.” The zomz are certainly a serious threat to contend with, but they quickly slip to the background as more pressing threats arise.

At it’s heart, The Walking Dead, like Breaking Bad, is an exploration of what the threat of imminent destruction does to the human psyche. When survival is the name of the game, we get to find out which of our morals and laws will hold fast against the pressing urgency of annihilation and which will remain true in the face of death. Some get stronger. Some give up and die. Some succumb to denial. Some go batshit insane.

For instance, I think stealing is wrong; but if my wife or children are starving, my drive to protect my family will easily dominate my aversion to theft.

Of course, even in a broken world populated with animated corpses, other humans remain the biggest threat. Survival reigns as law and resources are scarce. It’s kill or die and even the young learn to pull a trigger or impale a “walker” with a sharpened stick.

Some of my favorite characters:

Rick:

Rick is what you might call the main protagonist in The Walking Dead. He is the sheriff of a small town and was unconscious in the hospital when the zombies first broke. He awakes to the shattered world and quests to find his wife and son who are nowhere to be found (as walkers or humans).

 

 

 

Daryl:

Daryl is kind of an anti-hero. We first meet him with his brother, Merle. They are redneck hillbillies in form. They track and hunt and drink and swear. Merle is a wild card and I don’t want to ruin plot elements; but Daryl slowly reveals a gentle and compassionate soul beneath his rough Appalachian exterior. He has become so loved by fans that it prompted the above meme.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Michonne:

It’s a tough call for me to pick my overall favorite character, but Michonne is certainly in the running. Remember earlier when I said that some people get strong, some give up, some go nuts? Well Michonne opted for a dualistic coping mechanism and went crazy AND got stronger. When we first meet Michonne, she is alone holding a samurai sword in one hand and pulling to walkers by a chain like dogs. The walkers with her? They were formerly her boyfriend and her best friend. She has cut off their lower jaws and arms, rendering them mostly harmless (the walkers can’t hurt you unless they can bite or claw at you).

That’s all I’ll say, Weedists, its a great show based off a great graphic novel series. Get super stoned before you watch it to really feel the terror that the casts feels!

Check out other posts from Weedist’s Great TV While High series!