By Nate Sanchez
Senior Columnist
If you’re alive and breathing, there’s a good chance you’re going to watch the upcoming season of “The Walking Dead,” premiering on Sunday, Oct. 12. You shouldn’t because “The Walking Dead” is the worst show on television.
“ The Walking Dead” is awful, and it still has a huge following. That confuses me. The show has some redeeming qualities in that it killed off Andrea (albeit two seasons too late) and the show runners put an insane amount of detail into the corpse-like appearance of the show’s namesake characters, but at its core, this show can’t sustain itself for much longer.
I watch television primarily for sports. I make time for narrative and fiction very rarely; it therefore has to be good. Really good. I refuse to waste my designated time-wasting time on a sorry excuse for entertainment.
I frequent AMC for my fiction fix. “Breaking Bad” was a winner, “Mad Men” is pretty good, but it appeals to a much narrower audience than its carcinogenic counterpart.
“The Walking Dead” doesn’t tell stories rich enough to satisfy viewers with IQs above six.
I waited for two seasons to become what I thought it was going to be. I thought the series was going to be just like when the walkers completely overran the farm where the group was staying.
There was lots of big, scary fire, gunshots, screaming and basically everything a zombie show should be. Instead, we, the American viewing public, have been given a steaming pile of crap. This crap happens to be steaming slowly and going nowhere.
The show may as well be renamed “The Scowling Humans.” If I wanted to watch a group of dirty people bicker under strenuous circumstances, I’d watch MTV. Aside from the occasional death, the actual walking dead has been relegated to an almost unimportant consequence of slipping up instead of being the adversary.
Where the premise of the show was once Living vs. Dead, it’s now Living vs. Living, with the Dead prepared to eat whoever loses. Instead of rooting for the characters to find a means of survival, I’ve resorted to hating a character until the show kills them off.
Now that Andrea’s dead, Daryl’s next on my list. He’s the most overrated character in the history of television. For some reasons he refuses to go to a sporting goods store and get more arrows, probably because he gets his kicks out of pulling them out of the walkers. Sicko.
There’s no cure, everyone has the virus, I hate all the characters and there are too many interpersonal problems that the focus of the show has become blurred, and there is no foreseeable end in sight. That’s not good.
From a socially conscious standpoint, “The Walking Dead” is representative of a white patriarchy. First off, women are rarely in a position of power and when they are, it’s usually because they used sex to get there (see: Andrea, Lori and Michonne). In Andrea and Lori’s case, their antics usually make things worse for the group and have to be defended by the over-masculine men.
Women like Carol, who take leadership by teaching the children to defend themselves, are cast out.
Another glaring omission: racial diversity. I found it hard to believe that in a show, which takes place in a post-apocalyptic Georgia, there is a surprisingly low population of black characters (or even zombies). When there are black characters, they’re either second-tier henchmen or overly-emotional peons whose machismo gets them killed.
Another thing that irks me is the fact that in this world, absolutely no one calls the living dead zombies. They’re called biters, walkers and roamers. I’m able to detach from reality to join into the fiction of the show, but you’re asking too much of me to think that in this world, nobody calls them by the term we all know them to be.
I understand there’s a series of graphic novels upon which the comics are based. That doesn’t give the show any sort of redemption. Super fans of the series will say, “I’ve read the graphic novels and they’re great, so eat it.”
You shouldn’t be allowed to lord over your peers just because you read the books. That only works with “Game of Thrones.” Just because there’s a printed version of a TV show or movie doesn’t mean it’s a winner. Look at “Left Behind” for crying out loud. They tried that crap twice and failed.
Also, graphic novels are just big comic books. Nerds.
I’ve watched every episode of “The Walking Dead” up until this season. I’ve invested too much time into a product that’s let me down. I’m legitimately disappointed in what this show has become, since it could have been great.
Some Guy • Oct 12, 2014 at 3:44 pm
I read the entire opinion piece and it’s a bunch of whining. You don’t have to like something, but calling the viewers stupid for liking a show that is definitely not stupid is…well stupid. The show needs work, but it’s a lot better than watching MEN catch balls and wrestle each other down…over and over again. Even then, I know why people like it and know better than call them stupid for doing so.