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The Rise of the Dead

  • Gage Chester
  • Jan 23, 2015
  • 5 min read

The Walking Dead has been something different from the start. Yes it is about zombies but it tries to capture the feeling of a person surviving without their everyday things, such as cell phones, showers and electricity in general. The show’s constant influx of new survivors adds new feelings and personalities to it all. The large amount of death also shows how some cope with it; are they okay or are they struggling to find a reason to move on? The Walking Dead is halfway through their fifth season and they are planning on making the rest of the season action-packed. The actors, graphics and challenges in the show have helped Robert Kirkman’s series reach popularity, especially to myself.

In its first season the show was semi-popular with around three million people watching the first episode, but at the start of the fifth season, over 17 million households tuned into the first episode. That’s almost the average amount of people who watched last season, that number was 18.3 million. Some of their popularity is due to the main character Rick Grimes, who was a cop before the apocalypse. He started out fixating over the past and the laws before the apocalypse. Then he sees horrible things happen and people close to him die. At this point, he realizes this isn’t a normal world anymore; that’s all gone. He then gradually becomes darker and darker, keeping his humanity, but knowing this world isn’t kind or fair.

One of the other popular main characters, Daryl Dixon, a redneck wielding a crossbow, shows growth. He starts out loyal to his brother, who is racist and sexist. After his brother disappears, he thinks for himself, which made him more likable to everyone else. He goes on from there to save plenty of their lives, doing whatever it takes.

Other than great characters, the Walking Dead always has a turn of events up its sleeve. One of the biggest surprises was probably Hershel’s death. Hershel was a character everyone liked. He was kind to everybody and he always wanted to help wherever he could and still had hope. In the beginning of the episode where he died, he was outside when the Governor just kidnaps him. He held him and Michonne hostage as leverage to take the prison. This doesn’t work and Rick tries to speak to the Governor and say they could share it and that it would work out, but this fails. The Governor decapitates Hershel with Michonne’s sword and the two sides fight, ending in the Governor’s death and the group getting split up. At this point, everything is wrong, people are devastated and don’t know what to do.

Every popular show, movie or book has an interesting villain, or someone who is just bad. This show has had a few, but the worst was probably the infamous, “Governor.” He ran a town, which he kept safe and ran. He adopted the nickname “Governor” partly due to the fact he doesn’t tell a lot of people his name, and because he’s in charge. He doesn’t appear evil to any of the townspeople, but he has a side few live to remember. Some of the people he has killed are trapped in glass fish-tanks, or at least their heads are, which are zombies because their brain hasn’t been destroyed. Worse than that, he keeps his “dead” daughter locked in a closet chained up, hoping to find a cure. The show also includes cannibals, which offer sanctuary to all, which is false. They just take them and eat them.

The Walking Dead has been something different from the start. Yes it is about zombies but it tries to capture the feeling of a person surviving without their everyday things, such as cell phones, showers and electricity in general. The show’s constant influx of new survivors adds new feelings and personalities to it all. The large amount of death also shows how some cope with it; are they okay or are they struggling to find a reason to move on? The Walking Dead is halfway through their fifth season and they are planning on making the rest of the season action-packed. The actors, graphics and challenges in the show have helped Robert Kirkman’s series reach popularity, especially to myself.

In its first season the show was semi-popular with around three million people watching the first episode, but at the start of the fifth season, over 17 million households tuned into the first episode. That’s almost the average amount of people who watched last season, that number was 18.3 million. Some of their popularity is due to the main character Rick Grimes, who was a cop before the apocalypse. He started out fixating over the past and the laws before the apocalypse. Then he sees horrible things happen and people close to him die. At this point, he realizes this isn’t a normal world anymore; that’s all gone. He then gradually becomes darker and darker, keeping his humanity, but knowing this world isn’t kind or fair.

One of the other popular main characters, Daryl Dixon, a redneck wielding a crossbow, shows growth. He starts out loyal to his brother, who is racist and sexist. After his brother disappears, he thinks for himself, which made him more likable to everyone else. He goes on from there to save plenty of their lives, doing whatever it takes.

Other than great characters, the Walking Dead always has a turn of events up its sleeve. One of the biggest surprises was probably Hershel’s death. Hershel was a character everyone liked. He was kind to everybody and he always wanted to help wherever he could and still had hope. In the beginning of the episode where he died, he was outside when the Governor just kidnaps him. He held him and Michonne hostage as leverage to take the prison. This doesn’t work and Rick tries to speak to the Governor and say they could share it and that it would work out, but this fails. The Governor decapitates Hershel with Michonne’s sword and the two sides fight, ending in the Governor’s death and the group getting split up. At this point, everything is wrong, people are devastated and don’t know what to do.

Every popular show, movie or book has an interesting villain, or someone who is just bad. This show has had a few, but the worst was probably the infamous, “Governor.” He ran a town, which he kept safe and ran. He adopted the nickname “Governor” partly due to the fact he doesn’t tell a lot of people his name, and because he’s in charge. He doesn’t appear evil to any of the townspeople, but he has a side few live to remember. Some of the people he has killed are trapped in glass fish-tanks, or at least their heads are, which are zombies because their brain hasn’t been destroyed. Worse than that, he keeps his “dead” daughter locked in a closet chained up, hoping to find a cure. The show also includes cannibals, which offer sanctuary to all, which is false. They just take them and eat them.


 
 
 

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