Sunday, August 18, 2013

8 Sundays

That's right. There are only two months to go before the return of television's most audacious drama "The Walking Dead." Immeasurably better than Season 2, Season 3 ended with the defeat of  the Governor; the death of Andrea (as much as I hated what she had become as a character, I still hated that she went, as well as how. Andrea was once much smarter than that); the death of Lori (happy the idiot is gone, but sad for Rick and the baby); the death and reanimation and destruction (at the hands of his own brother) of Merle and the incorporation of the survivors from Woodbury into the prison. Every single character was tested last season. Not all of them passed.

The teasers and interviews and con panels all promise not only deadlier (faster? hungrier?) Walkers but a new threat that is neither human nor Walker. Huh? I'm guessing the return of bubonic plague. Or cholera. Or maybe the whole thing will turn out to a live-action version of 'Oregon Trail' and they'll all die of dysentery. 

Regular readers know that "The Walking Dead" is one of my Malaprop Mom's favorite shows, hooked when I basically told her she had to watch the pilot when I re-watched it on DVR the next day. This helped open the floodgates, paving the way for "Falling Skies" and "Grimm" (all of which have some very interesting characters who grow and change with the plot lines). 

An acquaintance, who shall remain unnamed and only somewhat shamed, told me thought the failure of World War Z meant the end of the genre. I laughed and pointed toward not only the unprecedented success of "The Walking Dead," but any number of other upcoming zombie projects. World War Z failed for the same reasons most of this summer's movies failed: Lack of story and characters no one cares about. And I've always thought adapting Brooks' rather clinical novel was an exercise in futility. The ravenous flesh-eating 'Romero' zombie will be around as long as horror movies, doing what horror movies do best: remind us of how much worse our lives could be. Oh, glorious schadenfreude! And maybe too, they remind us to not let ourselves go dead inside, something too many people seem to do these days.

Uncle P and more than a few people he knows are all chomping at the bit, counting down to the big chow-down on October 13th. The official trailer (which I'm too lazy to bother checking to see if I've posted it before, so I'm posting it anyway) is pretty intense.



What did Tyreese see? And while Big Spot! may be a thinly disguised version of Big!Lots, I imagine those would probably be among the last stores looted along with any number of dollar stores. And who are all these new former Woodburians? Are the Walkers getting smarter, or just hungrier? Won't the Walkers just eventually rot away? Honestly, I'm just looking for a rousing and exciting season to rival Season 1. Here's a little bit of behind-the-scenes with cast commentary:



More, anon.
Prospero

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