I'm probably the only person that actually liked the recent S6; I found my interest renewed in the series because of the scale and intensity of it, starting off with the battle for/of Alexandria, and the creeping feeling of knowing that Negan will eventually appear towards the end with his infamous character killing scene - I even liked the ending of S6 particularly for the reason that it'll give S7 a bang to start off, much like how S6 started with the eventual reunion of Morgan and Rick which I've been waiting since S5 showed him to be still alive. S7 and 8 will probably be the best seasons of TWD to come, considering Negan is like the most savage and bloodthirsty antagonist to ever appear in the series, his interactions and how his fate ties into Rick and Carl's should be interesting to watch.
Actually, I liked the recent pace of keeping characters alive and then killing them off once in a while, and the body count actually kept rising towards the end of S6 until Negan's arrival; every season having a few characters dying made it more impactful and shocking than having a constant stream and flow of death. Noah's death in S5 was unexpected, I know a couple of ppl that were shocked that Denise died, and depending on who dies in the S7 premiere, Glen's "death" early on in S6 could either be a final "Glen is Ultimate Luck" throw, or confirming that he is truly the luckiest character in TWD, cheating death so many times in a row.
Who do you think they killed in the last TWD episode?
If they really wanted a solid impact blow for S7 I think they should kill off Maggie, but TSDF already kinda proved that theory otherwise so they might just follow the comics and kill off Ultimate Luc- I mean Glen and another character for extra measure.
Also, I love the Zombie Genre, I find it to be something that is best enjoyed sparingly with a side of popcorns and shots on a cold friday night. Honestly zombie friction often falls under either a commentary on human darkness and Nietzsche's "becoming a monster yourself", or just end up being a mindless blood and gore fest like The Evil Dead; the first one in particular is what I enjoy about this genre the most because zombies are such an effective tool at highlighting the back-stabbing and despicable nature of humans while at the same time showing that true compassion exists even in situations where one's life is at risk. Or, in the case of TWD, it highlights that humanity must try to keep a balance between killing and showing compassion to others, and that being on either ends of the spectrum is detrimental to both themselves and everyone around.
Tbh though, I don't think the origins of zombies truly matter that much at all because they'll still follow the same conventions and tropes regardless; I think the insistance of virulent/infected zombies reflects society's fear of bio-terror warfare/terrorism. Train to Busan's immense popularity in Korea is especially due to the recent MERs outbreak and the growing dissent with the direction the country is going, along with the disturbingy accurate portrayal of the ruthlessness that some ppl will go to, towards the extent of putting others directly into harm's way just to save themselves.
Throughout the zombie cinematic history, the "zombie" has always been used to reflect on society's fears at that era of time; even way before George Romero became the god-father of the modern zombie, traditional vodoo zombie movies (1930s to 1968) often highlighted and capitalized on the fears of a rebellion amongst slaves against their masters, which is why most of the time the zombies before Romero were portrayed as black men killing their white masters, reflecting the time period that those films were made. The funny thing is, Romero never did state a definitive cause for the outbreak. There were hints that it was caused by a nuclear radiation leak scattered around NoTLD, but nothing was ever truly confirmed, he never even decided to call them zombies until the general public went along with it themselves. While I don't think there's a definitive way to pin-point where the infected-themed zombies came from, but I'd likely wager that the Biohazard series was one of the few entries that helped construct the modern zombie; even the zombie film released in Hong Kong during 1998, "Bio-Zombie" follows the convention of bio-chemically created zombies, with the film's "virus" being an experiment gone wrong.
The appeal and horror of zombies, in my books, is that they stand against the idea of progression; to become a zombie, means to revert to the most primal of creatures. Also, zombies represent the unexpected - to quote Max Brooks, paraphrasing, "You can choose not to go to the abandonned summer camp, you can choose not to go near a poisonous sting-ray, but you don't get to choose where a zombie apocalypse happens, they can appear right at your door", I think it is this element of unexpectedness that really ingrained the concept of a zombie apocalypse into the minds of people, that a single case of infection can easily turn into a full-on battle to the death.
Furthermore, zombies are one of the few creatures left in the horror genre that hasn't been corrupted by the "mainstream virus"; Vampires, while usually portrayed as sensual and seductive though violent and bloodthristy denizens of the night, had their image ruined just because someone merged vampires with some lame soap-opera and bought them into the "mainstream", same applies for werewolves. Zombies on the other hand, have remained relatively faithful to their conventions and have never really lost what made them popular back in the days, even films like "Warm Bodies" and "Shaun of the Dead" which are arguably mainstream zombie entries didn't tarnish their image and rather introduced more ppl into the genre - I think you'll be hard-pressed to see any generic Twillight fans who actually knows what a real Vampire is, but on the other hand, almost everyone will know what a zombie is even when they've never watched a single zombie film prior.
last edited at Oct 5, 2016 5:16PM
