Of "The Walking Dead"

“bow down before the one you serve

you’re going to get what you deserve”

-Nine Inch Nails

As I watch the episodes unfold of the dramatic, horrific, and extremely popular show, The Walking Dead, I am left, more and more, with the feeling that their world is hopeless.  As a recent episode made clear, it has gotten to a point where the people who are still living are worse than the walkers (or zombies if you aren’t in tune).  The heroes of the story are doing horrible things, but the writers have done an amazing job of making us believe that they had no other choice.  In the same circumstances we would do the same- or else we would already be dead.  Yet, I can’t stop watching it.  I still expect a happy ending.  Some how.  I'm ignoring the fact that modern fiction has been revealing more and more often that there are stories without happy endings.  The best storytellers will keep us hoping until the end.

What makes a show like that so popular?  I’m not talking about dissecting the characters, plot and so on.  Further than that.  What makes a culture crave such extreme fiction?  Such a wild escape?  What makes me ask?

It’s been building for years.  The understanding that the world is not right.  We are craving a change, a big change, and its been brought on by a tremendous overall dissatisfaction and disappointment with life.  There is too much control and not enough joy.  Too much money and not enough love.  Its gotten bad enough that secretly we crave the apocalypse.  And it is satisfying to chop away at a zombie, because that zombie represents_______________...