Last night cable’s most popular program, The Walking Dead, returned with an action-packed season 5 premiere, albeit one which fell victim to many of the most obnoxious TV tropes.
Once upon a time, The Walking Dead was a show where anything could happen, and your favorite character might bite the dust at any moment. I knew those days were over at the start of last season, when a strain of swine flu started exclusively killing off extras, leaving series regulars mostly unharmed. Not much has changed in season 5, as the core group of heroes were saved miraculously again and again, while extras (and not just Walkers) were killed off by the dozens.
Not only has the tension been nearly eliminated by making the main players essentially immortal, but “No Sanctuary” started season 5 off in a way that stamped out all the tension that season 4 painstakingly built with its slow reveal of the cannibal compound known as Terminus. Roughly 7 episodes of season 4 were spent gradually drawing the curtains on Terminus, with the finale showing that Rick and company had finally met their match, and might not make it out alive. Not only do they make it out alive, but they do so with plenty of time to spare before the end of the first episode, and they barely break a sweat doing so.
One moment that I’d like to draw attention to, as it was particularly ridiculous, was the way that Carol (Melissa McBride) blew the door wide open with a gas tank, a few bullets and a well-placed bottle rocket. Honestly, Rambo would have blushed at the sheer odds against this plan actually working. I have nothing against a fun action sequence, but my suspension of disbelief can only stretch so far.
Despite a weak attempt to humanize the residents of Terminus by phrasing yet another moral paradox regarding the human condition after the zombie apocalypse (“You’re either the butcher, or you’re the cattle”), I am beginning to feel that this show may be running out of ideas. The characters have been put through the ringer over and over, and have faced their own dark sides more times than I can count. I’m just not sure how many ways they can communicate the same idea – that only by embracing your dark side can you survive this world – before it all starts to sound like a broken record.
Regardless of the seeming lack of originality or the indestructibility of the characters, the ratings continue to grow, which leads me to the horrifying conclusion that there is no plan to ever end The Walking Dead. It will go on and on, and become more and more ridiculous until it cracks under the weight of its own nonsense. And despite my frustration, I will probably be there to watch it all crumble.
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