Good morning, y’all. A cloudy, rainy, windy, cold, nasty day here in the mountains. We seem to have caught the convergence of two fronts at the same time. Cold air coming from the North and wind and rain coming from the remnants of hurricane Charlotte.
It’s a good time to stay inside and re-watch this season’s episodes of The Walking Dead. This is a solo act for me as Mulva doesn’t even like to hear the word Zombie, much less watch them. I’ve tried to promote the social significance of the themes of the episodes, even played the “age” card, but to no avail. If being socially engaged and hip means keeping up with Zombies, you can count Mulva out. According to Mulva, when folks die and you put them in the ground, they’re supposed to stay there. That’s why it’s called the “final resting place”.
Just in case you’ve been living in a cave, or Alabama, for the last six years, and haven’t heard about the Walking Dead, well, let me tell you. Zombies have come to Georgia. Not just Georgia mind you, the Zombies are everywhere, but the show is based in Georgia. I have to admit it is pretty cool seeing Zombies on TV overrunning places that you’ve been. The fact that the production has setup in the little town of Senoia, which looks like a hundred other little Southern towns, really makes the scenes personal. You feel at home, which makes the experience way more scary. It’s not like watching Zombies in New York city, where you would typically pull for the Zombies over the natives.
The series is based on a comic book, which I guess isn’t too strange when you consider SuperMan, BatMan and the thousands of Marvel characters that have been brought to life on TV or the movies. What I find surprising is the richness of the characters in the series. The characters seem to be too real to have come from a comic book, so kudos to the writers.
For the most part, each episode has logically followed a progression of events after a man made apocalypse. The survivors are learning about themselves at the same time that they are learning about the nature of the apocalypse. The visit to the CDC in the first season should send chills down everyone’s back when considering the hosts of things that could be unleashed in the air that would bring about the end of mankind. I was hoping that the prevailing winds from the CDC would pass by our area, but I think we’re right in the path.
Anyway, each season has progressed with the group of survivors gaining and losing members, while seeking out a sanctuary. For the most part, the episodes have been high action, high drama, and highly entertaining. There have been some lulls, which I describe as the “angst episodes”, but predominately the episodes have been go, go, go. I will point out that the most chilling scene I have ever witnessed has come from an episode of “The Walking Dead”. I have watched thousands of horror, gory, slasher, scary movies, and the one scene that almost made me turn away came in “The Walking Dead. I won’t give it away other than to say it’s in season five. You’ll know it when you see it. Again, kudos to the writers and all involved.
The economic impact to Georgia apparently can’t be calculated exactly based on the fuzzy math of film studios, but let me just assert that it has been huge. The number cited is five billion dollars, which accounts for the tourism and ancillary businesses that have been created since the dead started walking in Georgia. In fact, there’s even a Zombie school in Atlanta teaching folks to be Zombies.
I see my next career looming. Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my closeup.