The Walking Dead
If someone were to create my dream TV show then it would be about a zombie apocalypse, documenting the last few people on earth. A couple of months ago along comes one fitting that exact description.
The Walking Dead is based off an original comic series that began in 2003 and is still ongoing with 79 issues thus far. Its story is based around a group of people trying to survive in a zombie apocalypse.
The first season (6 episodes) finished airing in the US yesterday. Actors, production values and the adjusted story line from the comic are all top notch. I've always been a huge fan of post-apocalyptic or in a more general term dystopian material.
Dystopia: "An imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one. The opposite of Utopia."
In recent memory, i've loved films like:
- 28 Days Later
- 28 Weeks Later
- Children of Men
- Dawn of the Dead
- I Am Legend
- 30 Days of Night
And surely a bunch more that I can't recall. Theres also a few books like Max Brooks' Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z plus a bunch of other fiction.
It's fascinating and always fun to daydream and think how you would survive if something horrible were to happen.
Back to The Walking Dead though, if you get a chance to watch this then I implore you to do so.
I hadn't looked much into the original comic before it started airing so as not to spoil the first episodes. However now that it's finished i'm going to delve into it.
I found a neat application that makes viewing comics seamless too, it's called Simple Comic (OSX, free) and its perfect, with a full screen mode, multiple layouts, keyboard shortcuts and so forth. On the iPhone/iPad side there is Comic Zeal which is also the best from what i've seen.
I'm also looking forward to reading other comics & manga besides The Walking Dead, and with the TV series already having been renewed for another season, I can't wait.
The Walking Dead originally aired on AMC in the US. Images taken from the first comic and TV episode.