Linnea wrote:
Joolz, I chickened out. I really hate being scared out of my mind - and zombies! oy!
I am sorta toying with the idea of watching the pilot on the AMC site. Haven't made a final decision yet.
LOL
Well, if you decide to check it out, we'll be here.
I'm not a huge fan of zombies, either, as I said before, but they aren't the real focus of this show. If it were all about horror and scary stuff, I know I wouldn't like it. (I thought 'Zombieland' was awful, for instance. It sucked royally, IMO, and was basically unwatchable for me. Waaay too much gratuitous violence and gross-out stuff. I know some of it was
supposed to be campy and funny, but it didn't work that way at all for me.) I didn't find this show to be scary, though. I can say that, I think. There is suspense, but I didn't find myself afraid. Grossed-out a few times, yes, but not scared.
The focus in this show, from what I've both seen (so far) and read, is on the human drama, on the characters. I found them compelling. In one episode, they managed to make me care about them. What it's about, thematically, is survival in a holocaust of epic proportions. Apocalyptic disaster and how people who are left respond to it. (It is in this way that it has
some similarity to 'Lost,' and is attracting some of the 'Lost' fan-base -- it has a compelling ensemble cast who form a group of characters trying to find ways to deal with an almost incomprehensible and utterly life-changing event.)
The zombies take a back seat to this element. They're just what caused the disaster. Although what caused them to become zombies (no one calls them 'zombies' in the show, though -- they're called 'walkers') is a virus -- which I wonder if we'll learn was engineered by humans. Perhaps there is a reason why the story is set in and around Atlanta, headquarters of the CDC? I have a feeling that a lot more along the lines of social allegory will be worked in as it goes along, too. It's a perfect medium for that sort of thing.
It's got some gross stuff, for sure, and I won't lead you astray on that, but nothing of the proportions of most zombie fare. IMO anyhow. And there is something different about how they treat the subject, something truly pathetic about these zombies. That they were once human is not ignored. There is pathos here.
OK... enuff said. I'm not trying to convince you to watch, just rambling on about what I think about it.
With several more days to absorb it all and think on it, I'm finding I have more to say about it (not a surprise, eh?).