After all, I missed the entire first season and had to set my DVR to record reruns. I had foolishly paid no attention to the The Walking Dead when I saw a commercial with a sheriff’s deputy awaking in an abandoned hospital. What a cliché!
In 2002, two movies established this abandoned hospital trope. Resident Evil ended with the protagonist Alice strapped to a hospital examination table. No one is left in the hospital, or the city outside. Abandoned cars are everywhere. The same goes for 28 Days Later. The protagonist Jim awakes from a coma in an abandoned hospital. He goes outside down the empty streets of London as if the city were deserted. Now with Rick Grimes waking up alone in yet another hospital, I didn’t want to see the same old formula at work.
But I unfairly judged the show by its commercials. Of all the zombie material I’ve watched over the years, including the classic Living Dead series, I think The Walking Dead is the best of the lot.
In 28 Days Later the Rage Virus is introduced into chimpanzees by the British government. The virus is released into the general population when animal activists break into a secret lab to free the chimps. But the virus is contained to Britain and burns itself out. Thus the 2007 sequel 28 Weeks Later is about British expatriates who are returned to London from abroad, but the infection survives in a human carrier who is immune but capable of spreading the virus. At the end of this movie the “Rage” spreads to the rest of the world, only a cure will save humanity. Another 2007 movie, I Am Legend, follows this same focus on the virus, except this virus this one is not created by a corporation or a government’s military research, it is invented by scientists as a cure for cancer. A virologist, Robert, is immune and spends the entire movie researching a cure.
Though The Walking Dead dabbles with the hunt for a cure when the band of survivors finds the CDC “safe-zone” in season one, that search leads to a dead end. Only one staff member is left and the facility runs out of fuel. Without energy, the computers are designed to self-destruct. A cure is no longer an option. It’s all about survival. Besides, the good doctor whispers something to Rick which is revealed in season two. Everyone is infected. When you die, you instantly become a walker. How can humanity survive this circumstance?
At the end of season two, The Walking Dead survivors were scattered when Hershel’s farm was overrun. I have to know what happens next. I set my DVR to record the first two episodes of season three. I’ll watch DISH this weekend now that zombies are back in my home.