In the U.S. today, Television is an everyday normality of the average human life. The average viewer at home watches TV at least 4 to 5 hours a day at home. There are so many popular must see programs such as The Walking Dead and Law and Order which are both ongoing series that are share a similarity in audience appeal, but if contrasting have completely different areas such as subject matter, actors’ ability to assume their tv persona, and the likelihood of surprising incidents. The Walking Dead’s likelihood of surprising events is abundant. Throughout the seasons, there is a pressing issue like a horde that is closing in, but a survivor has problems with another survivor and does something drastic causing suspense then and a surprising event/problem …show more content…
The subject matter of The Walking Dead is the hope and fight for survival. The series begins in Atlanta, Georgia with the a sheriff, Rick Grimes who enters a police shootout and sustains an injury causing him to enter a coma. While in a coma, the zombie apocalypse spreads and humanity is falling. Whereas Law and Order is a very serious drama series following two New York detectives who attempt to solve brutal crimes that happen in their city while trying to deal with stress of being a police officer. The subject matter of Law and Order is serving justice to those who commit serious felonies. The Walking Dead’s lead actor, Andrew Lincoln can accept his tv persona without a doubt splendidly. Andrew Lincoln is an British actor with a noticeable change in tone, accent, pitch for his normal voice. In the show, Rick is an American sheriff and doesn’t show sign of accent, and changes his tone and pitch, handling the role in a positive unique manner. However in Law and Order, the two main characters are Lennie Briscoe and Edward Green played by Jerry Orbach and Jesse L. Martin assume their TV personas to an extent, but seem too generic and could be handled in a better
The Walking Dead is a television show produced by AMC based off the black and white comic books by Robert Kirkman. The show and comic book center around main character Rick Grimes as he learns to cope with life after waking up from a deadly wound into an outbreak of virus wielding undead creatures known as “walkers.” Over the course of season two and season three, the show starts to center around how Rick is able to command the group of survivors and the challenges they face trying to settle down in a safe area. They are confronted with another community nearby late in season three along with the increasing number of walkers in the area. While facing these challenges, the number of surviving members continues to dwindle; however, the minority ratio in the group remains below the average number of majority characters in the show.
Younger generations and the more vulnerable in society can be influenced in avoiding peer pressure, but for the individuals filled with wisdom, the shows can reflect based on American modern society. Everybody Loves Raymond and Full House are great shows who faces similar life obstacles a typical person living in the US has today. As a result, most modern family comedy sit-coms are reflecting our society’s generations and the more vulnerable. Based on the success of early family sit coms, American’s adapted to a fast pace lifestyle with the help of modern
Throughout the series, the characters encounter an abundance of obstacles to conquer. Not only do they have to protect themselves from zombies, but they are also dealing with the internal struggle due to their circumstances. In a world where the dead roam, one may begin to lose their sense of humanity and purpose. Characters such as Rick, Daryl, Michonne, Carl, and Maggie are
Today in America, people can’t get enough of zombies, zombies are everywhere ranging from movies, books and tv shows. The entertainment business uses the zombie apocalypse theme in order to present a post apocalyptic situation that no other form of genre can really create. In American zombie apocalyptic entertainment, humans must face the horrors of survival and change, while fighting off the zombies, thus also challenging their morals. Pessimistic viewers may see the situation as depressing, prejudice and an means of expressing xenophobia. However optimistic viewers see the situation as an opportunity for better change, individually and as a collective community. A controversial example of this topic would be Robert Kirkman’s popular graphic novel, called The Walking Dead, filled with violence, betrayal and challenges. The Walking Dead can be read as a pessimistic text but the most appropriate way to read is
Engelstad, Audun. "Watching Politics: The Representation of Politics in Primetime Television Drama." NORDICOM Review 29.2 (2008): 309-324. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.
The zombie outbreak had definitely brought Rick and the other character's a challenge to their faith and survival. Rather than waiting for their doom, the two characters, Rick and Daryl press on with the best of their ability. They chose to challenge whatever lies ahead for them, than to sit and wait hopelessly.
Popular culture is the artistic and creative expression in entertainment and style that appeals to society as whole. It includes music, film, sports, painting, sculpture, and even photography. It can be diffused in many ways, but one of the most powerful and effective ways to address society is through film and television. Broadcasting, radio and television are the primary means by which information and entertainment are delivered to the public in virtually every nation around the world, and they have become a crucial instrument of modern social and political organization. Most of today’s television programming genres are derived from earlier media such as stage, cinema and radio. In the area of comedy, sitcoms have proven the most durable and popular of American broadcasting genres. The sitcom’s success depends on the audience’s familiarity with the habitual characters and the situations
It starts out as finding a safe place from the zombies, but later, as the group is more and more confident in their defense against the zombies, it becomes about protecting themselves from other groups of non-zombies. Paul A. Cantor explains in his story that “this show suggests that its characters must ultimately reply on themselves and their own resources. In various flashbacks, we learn that, prior to the zombie plague, the husband and wives were generally unhappy in their marriages, with soap opera consequences.” (290) The greatest example of survival skills on the Walking Dead, comes from a character named Carol. Watching season 1, you would’ve never imagined Carol being alive in season 7. In the beginning, Carol’s character is a beaten down mousy housewife and mother. Her husband was very emotionally and physically abusive. This vicious cycle of abuse left Carol with little self-worth that left her mentally unprepared for survival skills needed in this zombie apocalypse. Carol quickly realizes that she needs to take matters into her own hands and makes tough decisions that no one in the group will. She eventually becomes so passionate about self-preservation that she starts teaching knife skills to children in their group. Another example of how ruthless her survival skills evolved, she takes a murderess child to the field and tells her “look at the pretty flowers,” and then shoots her in the back of the
Steven Johnson wrote an article for the New York Times in which he argues that back in the days, television shows use to have a very simple plot which was easy to follow without too much attention. It was just an other way to sit back and relax. However, throughout the years, viewers grew tired of this situation and demanded more complex plot lines with multiple story lines that related to recent news topics. He takes the example of the television show “24”. “24” is known for being the first show which its plot occurs in “real-time”, it is also known for not censuring the violence of its topics. It is a drastic change from what Johnson states as an example “Starsky and Hutch” where basically each episodes was only a repetition of the last one. Johnson also believes that there is a misconception of the mass culture nowadays where people think the television viewer wants dumb shows which in response makes them dumber. Johnson does not agree, for him, television shows such as “24” are “nutritional”. He also states that sm...
What exactly are these shows that are causing so much controversy in the criminal justice and forensic science fields? The more well known CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, reeling in almos...
Television has come a long way since it was first introduced. Originally, it was thought that the masses that watch television enjoyed the more simple shows that would tell you exactly what was going on from start to finish. In Steven Johnson’s article, “Watching TV Makes You Smarter”, Johnson argues that this is actually not the case. In fact, Johnson argues that much more people enjoy shows that involve multi threading, or multiple plots that are all connected.
The Walking Dead, a television show about surviving in the zombie world, is based on the comic book with the same name created by Robert Kirkman. In this show Rick Grimes, a sheriff's deputy, awakes from his coma and finds himself in a hospital. He soon discovers that while he was in a coma the world had become infected, turning humans into flesh-eating zombies later called Walkers by the characters. As Rick sets out to find his family he encounters many other survivors such as Glenn, Daryl, Carl, Maggie, Carol, Sasha, Hershel, Beth, and Michonne, among many others who have died along the way. Rick and the survivors have been through a lot throughout the show, such as having to move from place to place to avoid being eating by walkers. After walking a longs way, they finally find shelter in an old prison where they now live. Although The Walking Dead shows a lot violence, it sends many positive messages to the viewers that teach them about survival, religion and betray and how each of these can be beneficial in the real world
Throughout six seasons of AMC’s ongoing hit show The Walking Dead, Rick Grimes, the main protagonist, has grown from: a tough guy police officer with a soft heart for helping others (almost always coming with a great personal risk) to the ultimate leader and survivor. Rick’s character arc during the first five seasons of the show, were about the ongoing growth/development of Rick, along with little benchmarks along the way in the form of gruesome but necessary murder. During Rick’s character arc, he goes through three major phases that reflect his morals and view of the world. These changes are then highlighted by the various brutal gory kills Rick has achieved. We as viewers get an in depth look at this gradual evolution as he fights to survive
A series allows for broader representations, therefore a lot more criticism on the postmodern world. The Walking Dead’s ‘walkers’ as the character refer to them on the show, are fictional terrorists - people killing people, except their aims do not go past this, similar to a lot of terrorists in 2017. The media did not hesitate to call Salman Abedi a terrorist. Abedi was killed in the Manchester massacre, hence his intentions were never revealed. To compare, Stephen Paddock who is responsible for the Las Vegas shooting could not be labelled as a terrorist because “We still do not have a clear motive or reason why.” The definition of terrorist does not apply only to ‘Muslims’ howbeit to anyone. It is merely a stereotype that is rapidly corrupting the world. This is the same reason we enjoy zombie movies without contradiction. Terrorism is the second greatest fear in America while zombies are the least according to a Chapman University extensive survey. Zombies are fictional, as one grows up they can separate the real from the fake. Although we are still scared of them, meaning there has to be some truth. Yes, they are brain-eating monsters but they also embody a real life ordeal that we are facing greatly in reality. In The Walking Dead, an audience sees rotting facial features and thinks inhumane, dead. What we fail to notice is the dress codes. They wear everyday clothing.
“A Cultural Approach to Television Genre Theory” argues that the application of film and literary genre theory do not fully translate when analyzing television, because of “the specific industry and audience practices unique to television, or for the mixture of fictional and nonfictional programming that constitutes the lineup on nearly every TV channel. 2” The goal of media genre studies, Mittell asserts, is to understand how media is arranged within the contexts of production and reception, and how media work to create our vision of the world.