I’m not sure why I watched it to begin with. I suppose it was because of the commercials on the Comcast On-Demand this summer. I’m not really into zombies but I thought I’d watch the first episode. And I was hooked. I quickly watched the rest of the first season.
The Walking Dead has zombies in it, but it really isn’t about zombies. It is about people- humanity. What drew me in originally was Rick’s quest to find his family. Rick was a deputy who was shot during an arrest. He woke up from a coma to a whole new world he didn’t understand. His town was a ghost town aside from the walking dead who moved in herds. But he knew his family was alive and took some guns to go looking for them.
The show took some interesting looks at morality in extreme circumstances. This is a situation in which there is no law and order. The creatures who are trying to eat you used to be people. It is not like war where they have a different language, form of government or religion. These people used to be your neighbors. In the premiere, they showed a man conflicted about shooting the zombie who used to be his wife. He wanted to end her misery, but he still saw her. This show is not about killing zombies. It is about the living.
The second season brought a new factor into the equation- God. I’m only about 4 episodes in to the new season, but they’ve been talking about God quite a bit. It started with the season premiere when they stumbled upon a church. The writers put a crucifix in a Southern Baptist church. You’ll never see one of those! But it was a plot device as various characters in distress prayed. One for her missing daughter. The other was Rick, who now leads this rag tag band of survivors trying to find a safe haven. He’s overwhelmed, crushed beneath the weight of responsibility. He doesn’t believe in God but looks for a sign. He didn’t get the one he wanted.
Where he sees God as an absentee landlord, or negligent at best, one of the new people he meets sees with the eyes of faith. He reminds Rick that despite all the chaos, he actually found his family. When his young son was shot, the man who accidentally shot him lived with a veterinarian who could get the bullet out. There was grace in the midst of judgment. It is not heavy handed, but dealing with some honest questions and different perspectives.
The ethical issues continue to arise. Casual sex broke a man’s heart who wanted to start over. People deal with guilt over things they’ve done to stay alive. How do these people, without God, find a moral compass in the midst of the madness? Will it be personal ethics, tribal ethics or something that transcends them.
This is what I find so interesting about The Walking Dead– the zombies merely provide the stage to ask some important questions. The cliff hangers often leave you wondering what you would do. This can be lost in the midst of zombie carnage and flesh eating. Yes, the show is gruesome. But it is oddly satisfying.
Cavman Considers 
I watch the Walking Dead twice a week. I watch it once on AMC and a second time when I go to Walmart. Actually, I’ve become one of the Walmart zombies myself – but don’t remember getting bit.