The Walking Dead Series Premiere

*Warning contains spoilers of the first episode

I find that in my life there are few things I am passionate about. The Walking Dead series on AMC manages to combine both my love of Zombies and my goals of survival in a way that feels real.

Most Zombie literature and cinema fall into the trap of horror. They focus on cheap scares and gore in order to bring in uneducated audiences. I can’t blame them. My love of zombies is rooted in these types of entertainment but I am often left wanting more. I wanted this so more that I have even started writing my own story about how things would happen. The difference is that my goal is not to show fear it is to show hope.  

In The Walking Dead we see just that. Most have died and few are left but there is hope. These are real people living in a doomed world but they continue on. Yes they are people who have advantages. The main character is a police officer and with that comes certain benefits that the average person might not hold but he is no super hero. At one point in the first episode he almost kills himself. Instead of some gun-blazing terminator we get a real man with real human emotions. It shows his desperation and it shows his struggle.

There is another scene where a man fights in his heart between killing the shell of his dead wife and letting her walk in eternal hell. He knows that the right thing is to release her but he doesn’t have it in him to do it. All the while he is trying to suppress his own sadness to keep his son alive. I have never had to go through something this horrible but I can relate to it on a smaller scale when I was forced to choose what was best for a family pet. The actor so accurately captures the struggle that I actually found myself trying to comfort and encourage the onscreen actor.

Maybe Zombies isn’t your thing. Maybe you can’t handle gore. This show does include both of those things but it isn’t really the focus. The focus is on the human struggle for survival and finding the strength it takes to continue on. My opinion of the show may change in weeks to come but I highly recommend that you give it a chance. It comes on AMC on Sunday nights at 10:00 and it’s one of the few reasons I still turn on my television. I hope they continue the great work.