WASHINGTON — Since launching in 2010 on AMC, “The Walking Dead” has risen to become one of TV’s most popular shows. Even for those who haven’t watched it yet — or avoid it — there’s no escaping hearing or reading about it.
So how has this post-apocalyptic zombie TV show become such a ratings giant and a pop-culture fixture? Wall Street Journal reporter Paul Vigna explores that question in his new book “Guts: The Anatomy of The Walking Dead.”
“You can find a lot of different reasons and I think you can kind of layer this,” Vigna told WTOP. “The first layer is the fact that this is a zombie story, and if you like zombie stories — and I do, I did before the show premiered — the prospect here is that you’re getting a full-blown weekly zombie movie on television. It is filmed very cinematically.”
The next layer, Vigna said, is that the show is “character-driven.” While it was adapted from Robert Kirkman’s graphic novel of the same name, Vigna said that “these are not comic book characters.” Instead of flying around, wearing tights and having different superpowers, the show’s characters are “completely average, normal people,” Vigna said.
But doesn’t running away from zombies get old after a while? Not quite, Vigna explained. As Season 8 approaches, the story has evolved.
“The show has really de-emphasized the terror of the zombies. What has replaced it is the terror of the humans,” Vigna said.
He also delves into a bit of background on zombie lore and why zombies aren’t like other monsters. Unlike vampires or Frankenstein or wolfmen, zombies have no brains, no motivation and are essentially a blank slate on which to heap meaning.
And while “The Walking Dead” isn’t as deliberate as “Night of the Living Dead” creator George A. Romero was, the show’s arrival came at a moment of economic uncertainty.
“I think the show, in portraying a zombie story, hit at a time when a lot of people were feeling very anxious to begin with, and, I think without even trying, the show has become sort of a parable for our times,” he said.
“The title of show actually refers to the living as much as it does the dead.”
