Zombies could benefit from an image consultant. They’re dead like vampires and eat raw meat like werewolves but don’t have their sex appeal. And if vampirism represents sexuality (or STDs—spread through intimate contact and you’re either a carrier or a casualty) and lycanthropy represents the dual nature of man (and woman)—civilized in the light of day but at night, the animal nature assets itself and can only be overcome by its death (which incidentally also kills the other half)—what does zombism represent? Conformity? Mass-consumerism to the extreme? The danger of a radical mob? (Tea Party joke goes here.) Or is it best represented by Shawn of the Dead (great movie, by the way) where we are already so zombielike in our everyday lives that when real zombies start popping up, we hardly notice?
Besides, except for the 28 Sequels Later variety, zombies are notoriously s-l-o-w; you can easily outrun them. And they’re decaying—we’ve all had the experience of encountering road kill, you usually smell it before you see it—so unless you have a really bad sinus infection, there’s no way a zombie can sneak up on you.
Despite having major problems with suspension of disbelief, even in a medium where it’s a requirement, AMC brings us The Walking Dead (Sundays, 10 pm EST). Something Happened (we don’t yet know what, why or how) and zombies stalk (well, shuffle, really) the Earth. There is the usual band of disparate non-victims who must band together and overcome their differences in order to survive, sort of a cross between Lost and Gilligan’s Island with a few soap opera (okay, “serial drama”) elements thrown in (the now-single father who can’t bring himself to put his wife out of her misery, the other father searching for his wife and son (and the wife is now “bonding” with his coworker—okay, they all think he’s dead, but still…).
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he production values are top-notch; the producers have major genre pedigrees (Gale Ann Hurd (the Terminator films), Frank Darabont (the major interpreter of Stephen King material) and it’s based on Robert Kirkman’s popular graphic novel series of the same title. But can they make it “interesting” for the next few years? AMC’s done pretty well so far with a high school chemistry teacher turned meth dealer (Breaking Bad) and who would have thought a 1960s advertising executive’s biggest problem wasn’t dodging his witch of a mother-in-law (Mad Men)? So we’ll keep hope alive.
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