What’s So Special
About The Walking Dead?
by Chris Vegvary
When I first heard of TheWalking Dead, it was years ago, before the show was ever conceived. At the
time, I paid it no mind. It’s not that I don’t like zombies, quite the opposite
in fact, but a comic book based around zombies just didn’t appeal to me for
some reason. When I heard that they were finally planning to do a TV show based
on the comic, I thought that maybe I better check out what it was all about,
since they were willing to make it into a show. When I read those issues, I’m
just going to go ahead and say my life changed a little bit.
In the comics, the action is quick, but powerful, and if you
think you can’t feel emotions reading a comic book, I’m going to suggest you
start with issue one and read through until at least issue fifty, because you
will see a drastic change in what you’ve seen in the show. Why is the show so
popular? Let me count the ways. First, zombies. What other TV show before this
was successfully about zombies? That’s right, none. Secondly, it’s a big break
for the horror genre in general. Thirdly, it’s got all the drama you can
handle, plus a little bit more, and for some reason audiences identify with
some of these nutcases.
While that’s all well and good, if you’ve read the comics
before you actually watched the show (like I did), chances are that you weren’t
happy about the changes that they took liberties with. I don’t plan to spoil
anything major, but just know that there are a few potential spoilers that
follow, so if that’s not your thing, look away now.
When The Governor assaults the prison in season 3, he was
supposed to kill a good portion of Rick’s group; Herschel, Axel, Tyrese (yes,
the same Tyrese that just joined the group), and even Rick’s wife, Lori, and
their newborn baby, Judith. While I understand that it’s in poor taste to show
a woman being shot in the back with a shotgun while holding a baby in a TV
show, I…don’t want to say I was looking forward to it, exactly, but when they
completely changed it up so that Lori and the baby didn’t die at the hands of
The Governor and his lackeys, I felt sort of cheated by that. That was
something that was supposed to hugely impact Rick and Carl as they escaped the
prison with their lives. Another major change (yet this is something that still
might happen) is that during Rick’s first meeting with The Governor, The
Governor was supposed to chop off one of Rick’s hand, forcing him to use and
become proficient with just one hand. That was another big deal that they just
seemed to zip past, yet I am hopeful that this will happen in the future of the
TV series, as it’s another one of those things that impacts Rick quite a bit.
All in all, I still like the show, and I’m still watching it
(season 4 just premiered), but I’m less excited now that I know it’s not as
extreme as the comics. But that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it with all the
extremeness in the world, because we have costumes based on the popular TV show
here for you to check out. Observe and follow the link below to see.
Great picture!
ReplyDelete