Thursday, December 9, 2010

AMC’s The Walking Dead: Devouring six million viewers, and me

Confession: I watch almost no TV. Well, that’s not quite true: NFL football, an occasional news program, and the odd episode of The Simpsons aside, I watch no TV. Lost is lost on me. There aren’t enough hours in the day for 24. The Sopranos? Fuggedaboutit. There are too many good books to be read in the world and not enough time for television.

Another reason I avoid TV, particularly serialized programming, is the “that guy” phenomenon. When it comes to shows like Lost, there’s always one person in the office who insists on telling you how much you’re missing, or describing the minutiae of a cast of fictional characters’ lives for whom you know and care absolutely nothing about. It just ends up making me hate the boob tube even more.

So now that I’ve set the stage for why I avoid TV, let me tell you all about AMC’s The Walking Dead! I’m a huge fan of the zombie genre and the temptation to watch a TV program about the undead was too great not to tune in. After an excellent episode one I was hooked. I’m mortified that I have to wait until the fall for episode 2.

To read the rest of this post, visit The Black Gate website.

3 comments:

Eric D. Lehman said...

My wife and I just started watching Mad Men on AMC - amazingly good stuff. Looks like I'll have to try this one, too. I've certainly seen enough of the promos to be interested - but like you I find starting a new TV series a little exhausting - do I really have time for another? I've got books to read, to write, and, oh yeah, students to teach. There are only so many hours in the day.

Anonymous said...

do you know the english zombie-themed shows dead set and survivors? interesting enough? you've got all the reason to follow some series could be exhausting, I use to select them by genres, I prefer historical themed shows, Rome, The Tudors, and horror shows, Masters of horror, Supernatural I don't like tv series about lawyers or doctors and police dramas
and after watching three seasons of Lost I don't know if continue watching it
Francisco

Brian Murphy said...

Eric: The good (and bad) thing is, the first season of The Walking Dead was only six episodes. So the time committment isn't too bad. Though I've heard season 2 will be 13 episodes...

Francisco: I haven't heard of either Dead Set or Survivors... I don't know if I could handle more than one zombie series at a time, though!