Believable Characters

I am a huge zombie fan. I was probably more excited than most of the people I know about the show “The Walking Dead” when it debuted on AMC. I was psyched; I had my friends psyched.  We had a party for the series premier. It was awesome.

Three episodes later, I was disgusted and refused to watch another episode. The characters were unbelievable and I felt no connection whatsoever with them. The decisions they made, the way they dealt with each other, and the way they dealt with themselves seemed totally unrealistic given their situation.

Like I said before, I am a huge zombie fan and as such, I have a zombie plan ready to go at a moment’s notice. Maybe it’s because of that, that I don’t like the show. In a zombie apocalypse, or any apocalypse for that matter, there is no time to worry about love triangles and minor drama within a survival group. If I had a wife and some guy was obviously going after her, I’d shoot him and be on my way.

The show also gives the impression that if you were in a zombie apocalypse, there would be times when you would be able to say “I’m not feeling it now; I’ll be back later.”

While it is essential to compartmentalize thoughts and actions in a survival scenario, these characters seem to be way too adept at it. One second they’re being chased by a horde of zombies, the next they are totally at ease with their situation. These character traits are not realistic given the scenario they are in.

My point is that even pure fiction pieces, like “The Walking Dead,” need to have some realistic qualities to the characters. The writers clearly did not read true stories about wilderness survival and group dynamics during a do-or-die situation. Regardless of the fact or fiction of the piece, research and fact checking is important when writing anything.

Maybe they didn’t think their audience would notice. The problem with that is, most zombie fans have a zombie plan and know that the decisions these characters make are poor at best. The show does a good job at broadening the audience and getting more people into the genre, but as a survival horror show, it doesn’t do it for me.