The Cutprice Guignol

So, if you’re not acquainted with my other site, No But Listen, let me introduce you to our Halloween project: the Season of the Dead, where we deep-dive the history of the living dead in cinema. And, while we’ve been focusing on film so far, I knew that a true look at zombies in pop culture wouldn’t be complete without getting into one of the most enduring and popular pieces of zombie media of all time – The Walking Dead.

The Walking Dead first broadcast in 2010 (with what is, for my money, still one of the best pilot episodes of all time), and much like the zombies that make up its premise, just has not fucked off since. Even though the mainline show is finished in 2022 after no less than eleven seasons, we’re six TV spin-offs deep at this point with no signs of slowing down, not to mention the games that have expanded on the TWD universe, or the comics from which it was originally adapted. When it comes to zombies in the twenty-first century, there is little with the sheer cultural impact of The Walking Dead. But what exactly is it that made this universe particularly fertile for storytelling, even sixteen years after it first hit screens?

Well, first off, let’s be real – The Walking Dead had a pretty damn good run there at the start. It started going off the boil around season five, with trudging plots, unrealised character arcs, and villains who felt increasingly parodic instead of terrifying, but fundamentally, the reason it gained such a foothold was because it made for some great TV.

I watched the show around the time it came out, and I still think that the first few seasons have some downright brilliant storytelling and character arcs tucked away in there. John Bernthal’s career-making turn as Shane still puts him up there amongst the best TV antagonists of all time, and Melissa McBride as Carol is the Emmy That Never Was, as far as I’m concerned; the ensemble cast, hinged around an excellent Andrew Lincoln, had consistently solid chemistry and the balance of horror, action, and human drama in the world post-apocalypse proved a rich vein to mine for at least a handful of consistent seasons. Even in the dodgier ones that followed, there were usually a few standouts to be had, like Samantha Morton as Alpha, the saving grace of the show’s later era, as far as I’m concerned. Plus it made Norman Reedus the greasiest, grubbiest sex symbol of all time for a hot minute there, which has to count for something, right?

But there are plenty of good shows that don’t have The Walking Dead’s astounding longevity – so there’s something more to the magic here than just some good writing and great acting. And I think part of what has made TWD so enduring is that the zombies themselves make for such a flexible villain for a universe as expansive as this one. The zombies are a constant and reliable threat, one that can always be tapped into when a bit of action or horror is called for, but they can feasibly be outwitted and faded into the background when it’s time for the human drama to take centre-stage.

That human drama, too, they make a good vessel for – they have an in-built tragedy to them as they come to represent the last vestiges of a lost loved one, and the loss of humanity inherent in their conception makes for a great mirroring point for certain characters. They do not have the same distinct and unique identity as, say, a werewolf or a vampire or a human horror, and don’t require the same effort in characterisation or growth or development that other long-running villains might. They’re quite content bumbling about hungrily in the background of a series until they’re called on to be a real threat.

It’s one of the most popular and successful pieces of zombie media ever made, for better or worse . It’s that adaptability, I think, is why The Walking Dead has proved to have such a malleable world which can serve as a backdrop for so many different stories, even a decade and a half after it first hit screens. But I’d love to hear your take on the show – should it be put out to pasture, or does it still have teeth? What other zombie TV (or other media) do you think deserved the success of The Walking Dead? Let me know in the comments below!

If you’d like to check out the rest of the Season of the Dead series, you can do so here, and if you fancy throwing some support in the direction of my blog, please consider supporting me by buying my books or dropping me a tip via my Support page.

(header image via Wikipedia)