Thoughts On The Walking Dead

As the cult phenomenon, The Walking Dead enters it's 4th season, it is pulling the highest ratings that cable television has ever seen. The critics are raving about how wonderful, original, and shocking this show is, but that's the thing, it's not...

I am a fan who has seen every episode and while I enjoy it, it is anything but original and there are very limited places the show can go and only three possible ways the show can eventually end. Maybe the other critics haven't watched as much Science Fiction as I have, few have, but the truth is that following the original story of the first graphic novel, (basically season 1 of the show) The Walking Dead has been taking ideas that have already been done and are re-packaging them.

I'll get back to that, because it all comes back to the basic problem with this show...

Given the story they have, there are very limited places to go and the creators can re-package and re-write it as many ways as they'd like, but the fact is that show is about a group of people trying to survive at the end of the world. Whether it's in a trailer park, on a farm, or in a prison, it is the same story being repeated. People are trying to survive the walkers and each other. They face hardships and people die, but soon new people take their place and we re-live it all again in one big cycle. This is why the show is aired once a year instead of seasonally. How long do you think it will take before people get tired of seeing the thing over and over again?

Okay, so it's repetitive, people like continuity, that's why there are so many sequels, but what about originality?

All I hear about this show is how refreshingly original it is, but outside of the make-up and the gore they get away with on prime time television, there is nothing original here anymore. Ever since the end of the original novel, the start of season 3, they have been stealing ideas from other shows!

Two towns of survivors, fighting with each other over control of land and resources, after a disaster that has ended the world as they know it....Sounds an awful lot like Jericho, Season 1, Part 2... What about the Governor? He was a great character, but anyone who is a fan of Star Trek will remember a very similar leader from DS9. Now, season 4 has started and there is a trader in their group! Besides being painfully obvious who it is, it's also a theme we had 8 episodes into Lost.

The show is repetitive and unoriginal, so why do we watch it? The answer is simple, we have invested the time in it and want to see what happens to our favorite characters, but as I see it there are only three possible ways for this show to end...

Either the walkers start to heal as in Warm Bodies or they all start to die for real as in 28 Weeks Later. Once that happens, the group can move into an abandon town and live happily ever after. Scenario number two, everyone dies and becomes walkers at the end. I think we've all seen that before and know exactly where. Finally, the artsy answer, it was all a dream and Rick awakes from his coma to find the world is safe and sound and he's a changed man.

Either way, all three endings have been done and all three endings will be obvious and disappointing to a large majority of the fan base. Look, I'm not trying to rip the show, I watch it with you every Sunday, but the fact of the matter is, while the ratings are enormous, the show ran out of ideas two years ago, it's limited in how it can end, and the true appeal is nothing more than blood and guts mixed with the oldest theme in the book, who lives and who dies.

AMC is putting all their eggs in the Walking Dead's basket, cancelling shows like The Killing and promoting the Walking Dead, months before it airs, instead of promoting new projects like Low Winter's Sun that aired ahead of it. Every commercial set, every promo, even the website is all Walking Dead and now their even talking about a sequel, featuring another group in a different area of the country at the same time. While I agree with them riding the wave of success, eventually people are going to get sick of seeing the same thing over and over and what's AMC going to be left with? No Killing, No Low Winter's Sun, Breaking Bad and Mad Men are done, and pretty soon, I think it'll be back to 30 year old movies and reality TV.

Just one man's opinion... Please feel free to leave your own in the comments....