REVIEW: The Walking Dead Season 2
When he said “The feminisation of TV is complete”, Dirk Benedict was onto something. He said the A-Team was the last TV show made for an adult male audience. He was was somewhat right, it was the end of man show saturation and the beginning of female show saturation – each had/has their own exceptions (Sons of Anarchy is the only show I enjoy since the Sopranos ended). The same applies to movies and network premieres. Nowadays they’ll pay more for rom-coms than actioners or thrillers, this is just a fact. Remember when Christmas Premieres featured Bruce Willis and not Jennifer Aniston? Pop-talent shows pollute. There is no end in sight, TV now panders completely to women. Time for a bit of a TV rant here: The Walking Dead is an example of a victim of the feminisation of Television process.
On paper it’s a great idea. A band of people led by some cops trying to survive a zombie apocalypse – turned into a TV show. The first season didn’t turn out that way, it was too awash with angst, normal social problems in an abnormal situation. But I thought it showed potential, maybe they were holding back for a killer second season. It’s been known to happen. How wrong I was. In the second season its all downhill with women trouble from opener to finale. Secret crushes, secret pregnancies. Secret affairs. Who is the father? Angst-ridden girl rebelling against father with secret boy lover. Will she chose the stable man, or the edgy bad boy? All this fucking garbage in the safety of an isolated farmhouse. In the farmhouse in Night of the Living Dead, there was no time for this shit. Get that fucking door nailed over the window, stat. This (Walking Dead) isn’t survival horror and that Sheriff is certainly no leader of men.
And don’t tell me that TV shows need to be fleshed out more. The original cut of Dawn of the Dead ran for over three hours and there was none of that shit – all considerations and decisions focused on surviving. 3 hours, that’s 4 episodes. Season 1 had 6 episodes. What this TV show should’ve been about was a real zombie apocalypse, i.e. filled with tension, immediacy and claustrophobia. Now instead of bored housewives on the prairie and secret affairs in the woods, imagine how awesome this show would’ve been with something like Dutch’s team from Predator. Or Clay’s crew from Son’s of Anarchy. You know, for a change, someone who’d know how to live in such a world. A SWAT team in the city, a biker gang on the road (like Romero showed in Dawn of the Dead). Survival horror. In The Walking Dead, the cast are enduring the easiest zombie apocalypse ever. When your main concern is marital affairs, you’re back to normal. I guess the isolated farmhouse was deliberate in creating that environ.
And you know what? From the trailer of the third season, it looks like they’re in another secure area. You know what that means. If season 2 was Little House on the Prairie, season 3 will be Dawson’s Creek. With the occasional zombie.
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