Dissecting The Walking Dead

One of the things that I enjoyed the most about The Walking Dead when it first aired was the way that it never failed to creep me out. I had my own ritual for the show every week. I would make sure I was all alone; turn off all the lights in the house, and then watch; just me and the eerie glow of the television. As much as I enjoyed following the survivors, the real stars of those early episodes were the zombies. The show had created some truly gruesome and scary zombies. The makeup and special effects were everything a zombie fan could have asked for. They crept the hell out of me every single time they were on screen, whether it was just a sole walker, or a much more menacing herd.

As I sat down to watch the second season finale last week, it occurred to me that although my ritual hadn’t changed one iota, I wasn’t really all that crept out by the zombies anymore; that particular enjoyment for me had lessened significantly. The show itself hadn’t done anything different to cause this; the makeup and effects were just as good and the zombies were as authentic as they’d ever been. Rather, I’d simply grown accustomed to seeing the zombies every week and a lot of the shock value was gone, In a way, I felt like I’d been robbed of the experience.

There’s an interesting parallel between my experience watching the show and the experience of the survivors living it. Just as I’d become desensitized to seeing zombies on my TV screen, the survivors of this zombie apocalypse have begun to become desensitized to death. Living with death as a constant companion, experiencing it so often amongst themselves, has taken its toll. Death, while still tragic, has become common place for this group of survivors. It was evident in Karl’s reaction to Shane’s death. The near witness of Shane’s death (and zombie resurrection), should have been paralyzing for a boy of Karl’s age. Yet, after a brief moment of shock, we see him quickly act on the danger it presented and then appear to emotionally move past the loss. Can this show really succeed on an emotional level going forward if the zombies are no longer as scary to the audience and death has such a diminished meaning to those experiencing it?

There’s an easy answer to both of these issues. While The Walking Dead is the best horror on TV, and horror will always remain an important element, the gruesomeness of the zombies can no longer carry the show by itself. For season three, the show needs to focus less on creating horror and more on creating suspense. The first and most important step that The Walking Dead needs to take to ensure real suspense is to create stakes, for both the survivors and the audience, by focusing on creating characters and relationships that are worth rooting for. I completely understand the idea of using this show to explore the human condition in an apocalyptic world where there is so little chance of survival. But, giving us characters we want to root for to survive in such a world is more important than the philosophical or artistic value associated with merely creating a group of survivors who are always so bleak and sad. There was no suspense in that final scene between Rick and Shane, because I knew Rick would survive it, and I frankly didn’t care if Shane did or not. In contrast, look at the scene between Glen and Maggie in the car shortly after they escaped the slaughter at the farm. The way the camera shot went back and forth between the two characters, each time focusing on the window behind each of them, just as much as it did on the character in the shot, had me involuntarily holding my breath, just waiting for something awful to happen. This was the tensest scene in the entire episode because I had a real emotional investment, not just in the two characters, but in their relationship as well…and it did it without including a single zombie. I’m looking forward to a lot more like it next fall.

Pilot Season

It’s that time of year again…pilot season!! Ok fine, very few people geek out over pilot season the way I do, but I enjoy getting in on the ground floor for whatever it is the networks will be delivering us this fall. Over the past 2-3 months, the broadcast nets have been green lighting and casting dozens of pilots for the 2012-2013 season. Thankfully, the Hollywood Reporter has put together a great comprehensive guide for all of the projects in development, which can be found here: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tv-pilots-2012-complete-guide-287221.

There’s nothing that I’m crazy excited about this year, but, basing my opinion on the one sentence logline, the creative team behind the show, and the announced cast, here are the seven shows I’m most intrigued to see get picked up for series.

(Editor’s note: My wife would kill me if I were to actually pick up seven new shows this fall!)

Last Resort, ABC – About a U.S. nuclear submarine which, after ignoring an order to fire nuclear missiles, winds up being hunted and escapes to a NATO outpost where the crew declares itself to be the world's smallest nuclear nation, this is easily the premise that draws me in the most. Speculative fiction can be a lot of fun, and this one has the potential to blend action with the exploration of interesting issues concerning morality, the armed forces and geopolitical concerns. It also gives me a lot of confidence that one of the creators behind it is Shawn Ryan, who is responsible for The Shield and The Chicago Code. I’ve been looking forward to his next project, and I’m excited he’s chosen such an ambitious one.

Nashville, ABC – Three words: Connie freaking Britton. If I haven’t mentioned it before, I LOVED Friday Night Lights. If it’s not my favorite show of all time, it’s certainly in the conversation, and I will follow Connie Britton, Kyle Chandler, and a few others from that cast almost anywhere they choose to go in TV land. Thankfully, Britton has been able to detach herself from the train wreck that was American Horror Story, and I’m hopeful we’ll find her on our televisions again this fall. Described as a family soap, Britton plays a country music star at her peak, who has to contend with another star (Hero’s Hayden Panettiere) on the rise. Whatever. As long as I get to hear Britton say “ya’ll” as much as possible!

The Selection, CW – I so want to like a show on the CW. I was hoping Ringer would be it this year, but alas, that was not to be. Set 300 years in the future, The Selection is about a poor young woman who is chosen by lottery to participate in a competition to become the next queen of a war-torn nation. The Hunger Games comparisons are unavoidable, and as much as I enjoyed those books, I’m hoping this is something completely different in both tone and story. Could be pretty cool if done well. I know nothing about the creative team behind the show, but the central character is being played by Aimee Teegarden, another FNL vet, who, while not my favorite actress on the show, I’m interested to watch again if in the right project.

County, NBC – Have I mentioned I liked Friday Night Lights? This is the latest from FNL creator Jason Katims, who also created Parenthood, another surprisingly good show on NBC. Katims seems to have a knack for taking premises that I’d normally have no interest in (I didn’t start watching FNL or Parenthood until late into their first seasons when the positive buzz was becoming unavoidable), and creating the type of heartfelt character driven dramas that I love the most. So, while County, about a group of young doctors, nurses and administrators in a frenetic underfunded and morally compromising L.A. County hospital, is something I’d normally never think twice about watching, this time I plan on getting in on the ground floor.

1600 Penn, NBC – Forget all the potential, of which I think there is plenty, that comes with a traditional family comedy with a White House twist. The real draw here is what child of the 90’s isn’t “pee your pants” excited to see Bill Pullman once again taking on the role of President of the United States! I really really hope the show’s first episode opens with a narrative voiceover by Pullman – “Mankind, that word should have new meaning for us all today…”

Mindy Kaling Comedy, Fox – No title for this one yet, but Mindy Kaling is funny. Giving her her own show as an OB/GYN? Sounds good to me, I’m in. Frankly, if I’m being honest, she’s one of the few bright spots left on The Office. If this pilot is picked up for series, she will be sorely missed there.

Revolution, NBC – There was a time, probably in that short cross-over period when both Alias and Lost were airing at the same time, that I was fully on board with anything and everything brought to us by J.J. Abrams. Since then, though, it seems he more or less only lends his name to shows or has only a small role in a show’s conception, and enough of those have been either average or duds, where I no longer blindly adore everything with his name on it. Nevertheless, his name still piques my interest, and his latest, Revolution, about a post-apocalyptic world where all forms of energy cease to exist, looks like it has some potential. What can I say, I’m a sucka for post-apocalyptic.

Why Don't I Love Once Upon a Time?

I don’t want the title of this post to give the wrong impression. I like Once Upon a Time, I’m fully rooting for it to succeed, I enjoy watching it, and I plan on continuing to watch for the foreseeable future. However, for some reason that I can’t quite pin down, I just don’t LOVE Once Upon a Time. Normally, this wouldn’t be all that unusual, except for the fact that this really is a show that I should absolutely freaking love. I am literally the target audience for this type of premise. I’m drawn to nearly anything on TV in the fantasy or science fiction genres. I’m certainly not all forgiving, but I tend to give a show a lot more leeway when it contains a strong genre element to it. In particular to Once Upon a Time, I’m a big fan of Fables, a fantastic graphic novel with a similar premise of fairytale characters living in the real world. I really enjoy this type of creative reimagining of fairytales, and I think the show has done a good job creating a fun mythology that mixes the familiar in with the new. I’ve also generally liked the things that the cast has done in the past, and I have nothing bad to say about them in this. And yet, when it comes to the finished product, it’s as if the whole of this show fails to add up to the sum of its parts.

There’s something intangibly off to me about the show. If I had to put it into words, it’s almost as if I can feel the effort being put in to making the show and that takes me out of the fantasy just enough to sour my enjoyment. Like I said, I tend to love science fiction and fantasy, so suspending my disbelief has never been a real issue for me.

It’s not one simple thing I can easily sum up, but one example of what I’m trying to get at may stem from the show’s two creators, Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, being veterans of Lost, a show that used a very similar storytelling technique to Once Upon a Time’s fairytale flashbacks. I absolutely adored Lost (still do), and its biggest strength just may have been the way it employed flashbacks to bring its characters to life and give them real depth. The problem isn’t that Once Upon a Time’s use of flashbacks haven’t been successful; in fact I find myself much more interested in the reimagined fairytale flashbacks and the clever way the back story is slowly coming together in a non-linear fashion, than I am in the often dull happenings of Storybrooke. The problem, I think, is that instead of being sucked into a story about these characters, I feel like I’m watching a television show that’s trying to recreate the magic of Lost, and, when a television show reminds me that I’m watching a television show, well that’s a real problem.

All that being said, I do admit, I have found all this to be slightly less of a problem in later episodes than it was in earlier ones, so maybe the show is coming into its own or maybe I’m just becoming more acclimated to its style.

What do you think? Is anyone else out there watching this show and having the same problems? Different problems? Alternative theories about what’s off with the show? Or is this a great show and I’m simply over analyzing it? I’d love to hear from you.