Flesh-eating, decomposing corpses, otherwise known as zombies, have officially taken over American televisions. In October, according to Neilson Media Research,16.1 million viewers watched the fourth season premiere of the AMC series, The Walking Dead, gaining recognition as “record setting” for basic cable views. Two days after the premiere the AMC renewed The Walking Dead for its 5th season.
Based on the comic books series of the same name by Robert Kirkman, The Walking Dead became a popular television series in 2010. Now in its 4th season, the show has more than doubled in viewers since its first season. According to Nielson Media Research the average number of viewers for each episode is around 10.5 million.
The Walking Dead
For those who don’t watch the show or know its premise, is set in a post-apocalyptic world inhabited by zombies. The main character, Sheriff’s Deputy Rick Grimes, is involved in a gun fight and awakens from a coma weeks later.
He finds himself in an abandoned hospital, in a post-apocalyptic world with flesh-eating zombies. He meets other survivor and begins a quest to find his family in season one. Throughout the next seasons, Rick tries to find a way to survive and comes in contact with other survivors while being chased by the flesh-eaters.
The Walking Dead series is known for killing off its characters and each week viewers wait in suspense to see who survives.
But, beyond its suspense, why is a show about zombies so popular?
Aside from opinions that great writing, acting, and visuals make The Walking Dead show so popular, the popularity of zombies moves beyond this particular AMC series. The show offers the gore and fight scenes with a hint of love triangle, appealing to men and women alike. But on a deeper level, the series is about what other zombie stories are about- survival against the odds. The protagonist is surrounded by a world that has been decimated and is chased by mindless, speechless human-eating beings that are not alive but are not dead. They are terrifyingly “undead.”
What is it about zombie stories in general that make audiences glued to their television sets? Differing opinions exist but many lead to the general idea that the zombie filled post-apocalyptic world represents a life that human beings fear, ranging from the fear of consumerism to political issues and to some, the fear of invasion, not of zombies, but uninvited countries trying to invade America. According to a History Channel program about the zombie culture, more than half of zombie movies were made after September 2001, the year that terrorism attacked American soil so grievously.
The consequence, and sometimes the cause, of the zombie filled world is societal instability. In becoming a zombie, humans lose their identity, their voice, their feelings, their morals. They lose their humanity. The dreaded aspect of becoming a zombie is the inability to escape. In most cases, there is no cure.
The Walking Dead depicts the human in survival mode while trying to maintain their humanity. The story follows the characters; the zombies are the backdrop. The zombies are always present, but the plot focuses on the plight of the human characters and follows their stories. The audience cheers for the characters survival almost as if their own survival depends on it. But that’s why shows like this are so popular. The audience survival isn’t dependent on the characters. Viewers can switch off the television and know that zombies are not going to eat them. They have faced their fears, almost handled them in a way, without putting themselves in danger.
What will happen to Rick Grimes and his group? Some will meet death or worse becoming the very thing they were fighting against. AMC won’t release the cast for upcoming season due to the “nature of the show.”
