Telewitterings: the Walking Dead

imageNetflix Canada just got The Walking Dead, and Kelly and I blew through it over the holidays, polishing off the last of S3 when I came down with a cold last week.

I do agree with musician Kari Maaren that zombies are, as monsters go, rather boring. (Kari’s Tube of You channel is here; she hasn’t uploaded the zombie song yet.) I get the mindless mob metaphor, and I appreciate that The Walking Dead is digging into the whole question of how far will you go, in a disaster, to survive? Even so, I found the first season to be tough sledding. I didn’t care much for anyone but Glenn, and the story seemed to end very abruptly.

By the end of S2 I was, along with the rest of the universe as I understand it, happily on board with Team Daryl. And several of the other characters were, if not lovable, at least intriguing. And the story moves. I read a few “top 25 TV shows of 2013” round-ups last week and one of ’em put it this way: it isn’t always well-written, and it isn’t particularly well-directed, but by Gar this thing is entertaining.

The immense degree of arguing, violence, and should we feed Character X to the Walkers, or what? does get to be wearing, over time. The show probably doesn’t get any nastier than the Battlestar Galactica reboot, but it was beginning to have that same kind of cynical edge. But I was pleased with the wrap-up of S3–the situation they left everyone in–and am looking forward to taking a break, possibly a long one, before dipping into S4 at some undefined point in the future.

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About Alyx Dellamonica

After twenty-two years in Vancouver, B.C., I've recently moved to Toronto Ontario, where I make my living writing science fiction and fantasy; I also review books and teach writing online at UCLA. I'm a legally married lesbian, a coffee snob, and I wake up at an appallingly early hour.

2 Responses to Telewitterings: the Walking Dead

  1. Colin Clarke says:

    Totally agree with your synopsis. It’s too bad that you can’t watch “The Talking Dead” chat show the accompanied each “Walking Dead” episode on AMC hosted the Nerdist Chris Hardwick. Most entertaining:)