Brains...

Hi.  I am Tim and I am a television-a-holic.

I am currently only on step 2 of the twelve step program to rid of TV from my life.  This step is "Come to believe that a power greater than myself that could restore me to sanity." 

Unfortunately for me that power is HBO, and it currently streams live to my house. I fear that I will not be progressing very far.  On the plus side I now know more about the San Francisco Giants' clubhouse than I did before (the Franchise), that I do not want to go see a game of baseball in Mexico (East Bound and Down season 2), never trust eunichs or a brother who would sell you into sexual slavery in order to take over the world (Game of Thrones), that a car periscope is boss (Curb) and that Julia Stiles is not the complete and utter waste of human skin I once believed her to be (Dexter Season 5).

Currently, my favorite show is Community, but that is a topic for another day (note - if you are not watching Community you do not deserve to own a tv).  But that is not what this entry is about.  Community may be my favorite show - but zombies are my guilty pleasure.

Zombies and particularly zombie movies are everything that is right the world, in that they always focus on everything that will be wrong in the world when the inevitable zombie apocalypse arrives. 

Destroyed buildings.  Check.  Dwindling supplies.  Check.  Mindless hordes of non-breathing past humans who will tear you to pieces and force you to retreat into shopping malls where you wait your inevitable death.  Check. 

More importantly zombie movies are all the same with minor variations.  Something turns people into zombies.  Said zombies run amok.  Group of survivors attempt to stay alive.  Some do.  Most don't.  Rinse repeat in different locations.  There is something comforting about the sameness of the movies.  The repetition is what makes them enjoyable. You don't have to think and that is a good thing.

Which leads me to the Walking Dead.   The uber successful tv show on AMC.  All my friends who watch tv comment that this show is "too predictable".  They are missing the point. The whole point is for a zombie show to be predictable.  The beauty of a zombie story is not in the destination - it is the slow halting shambling corpse walk of the journey.  

The beauty of the walking dead is that it realises this and makes its characters nothing more than broad stereotypes.  The do-gooder ranger with a heart of gold. The wife of the ranger who is cheating on the ranger's best friend.  The black guy.  The racist (who in a surprising turn of events clashes with the black guy).  The old man.  There is even a Chinese guy (who no doubt will be good at kung foo or electronics down the road). 

We don't need to understand the character's motivations. The motivations are obvious - stay the fuck alive and don't get eaten by zombies. 

Not every show has to be as brilliant as Community to be good. 

Zombies movies are much like zombies themselves, they don't need brains... they eat brains.