So, I have a complicated fandom with the show. I stopped watching partway through Season 6 (I still know who dies and stuff) so I'm not commenting as far as them. I would say that basically the show started off pretty perfect in the first 2 seasons, and declined straight downward after that from what I saw in the sense of traditional TV with plots and investable characters.
I think what made the the first 2-3 series' best were the emotional connections we made with the show's first Atlanta Camp survivors. I think it all started and ended for me with how many of those guys were left. I still love Lori Grimes more than any 'stronger' or 'better' characters they introduced after her death (although, damn it, she was actually getting more confident with a gun before she died) for instance 'cause she was an original For all intents and purposes we 'survived the initial outbreak' with her and the other Atlanta Campers, so it's natural to feel the strongest bond with them I think, which leads me to my next thought.
In a way the show's gradual interchangeability (though I'm not saying they were all bad) of its characters is actually a perfect mirror of what an apocalypse would be like and perhaps a weird barometer of how long one would survive. At first when there's still a glimmer of hope, you'd take the time to allow yourself to feel true kinship and bother to get to know people for themselves. After a while, it would be more what you can get out of each other. Basically usefulness. So, in that way the show was quite brilliant, perhaps unintentionally. If you're watching the show and living the apocalypse with them, the point you decide to stop watching is perhaps how long you'd survive in-universe. The point you no longer care about the people (most of them anyway) and feel like pulling your weight (them scavenging, fighting etc. and for us viewership) and it's all just a cyclical slog would be the point you'd probably yourself be doomed. In that way, I actually feel like the producers could see the show's dwindling viewership down to a success in realistic apocalypse portrayal, if they so chose.
So, as much as I complain about the gradual wiping out of the Atlanta Camp survivors (as representing the show's/our humanity) I can't fault it as unrealistic in-universe. It doesn't make me want to keep watching beyond a certain point, but I get it. That said, I also know some actors wanted to opt out when Darabont left (Jeffrey DeMunn and Sarah Wayne Callies I think) so it's possible some would've hung around longer had he stayed.
As standalone entities Seasons 1 and 2 I think are perfect as is, and 3 and 4 are good too. All of the sad deaths in those seasons made sense (even though Dale's was 'cause the actor quit), I don't know how the fatigue (in my opinion) that the show appeared to fall into could've been avoided, yet for the premise of the show it's entirely realistic and perhaps even desirable strictly for realism's sake.
I guess to sum it up, the first two seasons are my favourite 'cause they most represent humanity as we know it, but even though I gradually dislike the show for my own tastes after that, I still think as a hopeless apocalypse world portrayal I can't say it didn't develop badly...
Submitted May 16, 2020 at 09:48PM by Envi-us https://ift.tt/3dUNYlI
No comments:
Post a Comment