The Walking Dead: Horror for the Long Haul?

So why do we watch serial television?

Or, more accurately, why do I watch serial television?

Because here’s the thing: I recognize the aesthetic quality of The Walking Dead. It’s really good at what it does, and even does that thing beautifully, but I hate watching it.

Case in point: the cold open was technically great—I loved the visual effect of Lori’s red bucket giving the hint of blood and sex, and the tracking shots and the low shots of Lori used the grammar of the slasher movie really effectively, reminding us of the illicit, dangerous nature of Lori and Shane’s affair while also demonstrating the show’s place in the horror pantheon. The sound cues were great, really building on the menace of the woods, and the moment of misdirection when Shane surprises Lori was straight out of an auteur version of Friday the 13^th.

But the scene itself was painful to watch, not least for how it reinforces Shane’s scariness while essentially making Lori look like a cheating whore. That shot where they focus on the ring in the foreground while Lori and Shane are having fuzzy doggy-style sex in the background suggests to me that Lori’s not long for this world, certainly not if the show continues to follow in the footsteps of the slasher film. While watching the scene, I found myself tensing up physically—first preparing for Lori to meet a stray zombie, then gritting my teeth through the sex scene, knowing that only bad things can be on the way for these characters.

And this visceral discomfort is my general experience of The Walking Dead. I appreciate the 16mm film elements, and the power of particular shots, and the way it calls back to horror classics while suggesting the new possibilities that open up when you really occupy a world in the way that you have to when you’re following a show for months or years. But this isn’t a world I want to live in—and not just because it’s filled with zombies. The trajectories of these characters all head inexorably toward more violence and bleakness. The little I know of the comic tells me that the storyline mostly consists of things going from bad to worse. While I can see how that would be sustainable and even potentially awesome in a comic that takes ten minutes to read, I find myself dreading the 50 minutes I devote to The Walking Dead, maybe even more because I know I have to come back next week.

I love watching horror movies, but it’s because I find them invigorating in much the same way as a rollercoaster. It’s thrilling to experience that sensory overload, but part of the thrill is that it’s over so quickly. As I do on a rollercoaster, I spend most of my time in a horror movie laughing—it’s nervous laughter, driven by fear, but it still feels fun. But because serial television is by definition for the long haul (and I don’t even know how long), the terror doesn’t feel fun, it just feels scary.

So I think I might be breaking up with this show. If I am honest about why I watch serial television, it’s to spend time in a place I like, with characters I like and the possibility for the story to go in different directions, not just down.

Comments

[Mac]

I've only read the first two comics, so I don't know where the story goes for the long haul, but it's my belief that a television show set after a zombie apocalypse has tremendous potential for exploring stories that go in different directions. Most interesting to me is the idea of re-building human society under duress. I think groups of people always try to find a new level, a new norm, and having characters try to define that under these circumstances could take the best of Battlestar Galactica and build on it (without the onerous weight of go-nowhere spiritual pseudo-arcs about destiny and crap like that).

This kind of storyline could innovate and complicate the predominant Romero "the real monster is us" theme, which always favors the movie format because the evil of the surviving humans usually brings destruction on all of the characters very quickly (check out the fun, disposable Brit miniseries "Dead Set" for a great recent example).

I tend to think a zombie apocalypse would bring out the worst, best, and lots of stuff in between in people, in a manner similar to most actual real-life catastrophes. There are genuine ways to explore this in the ongoing-television format. (There are some interesting ideas in this direction in the Mira Grant novel "Feed," though that's only about a zombie semi-apocalypse.) Obviously I don't know if "The Walking Dead" will go this route. In the meantime, I'm just enjoying the abnormally well-produced zombie mayhem for as long as it lasts.

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