The Walking Dead – Salem Happenings

Don’t Fear the Walking Dead!

WARNING: Spoilers for “Fear the Walking Dead” may be present in this post. If you’re more afraid of having the plot spoiled than you are of zombies, it may be a good idea to stop reading this post now.

I’m a big fan of the AMC series, The Walking Dead, and it should come as no great surprise that I was pretty excited when AMC announced that they were making a spin-off series called Fear the Walking Dead. In fact, I made sure to set my DVR to record every episode, so there was no way I could miss a single zombie-filled moment. Unfortunately, I have to admit that once I finished watching the first season, I realized that the series really wasn’t as good as I was hoping. I mean I don’t hate the show, but it definitely doesn’t capture the suspense and emotion of the original series. Now, it is completely possible that some of my feelings in regards to the show are the result of the fact that there are very few things in life that are ever as good as the original, but Fear the Walking Dead is a series about people surviving the early days of the zombie apocalypse. How could something with a premise like that possibly go wrong?

Well, the answer is that pretty much any premise will fail miserably when you take a group of characters that are difficult for people to relate to and place them in a situation with plot holes big enough for you to drive the main character’s pickup truck through. Let’s face it. The most interesting characters in Fear the Walking Dead are the Salazar family, and they don’t even have a chance to really catch our attention until halfway through the season because the spotlight is focused on the Clark and Manawa families who are too busy trying to figure out which end is up to accept the fact that the world is ending.

The biggest problem with the show, however, is not the characters, but is instead the situations that the characters are placed in and how those situations unfold. The worst of these plot offenses actually occurs when the National Guard is deployed to aid the survivors of the zombie outbreak in Los Angeles. The deployment of the National Guard is, of course, a perfectly reasonable direction for the plot to go because the National Guard is always ready to respond to a crisis and zombies eating their way through a major city would definitely constitute as one. The problem is, as Matt Fowler from IGN says in his review of the first season of Fear the Walking Dead:

I thought the Clarks trying to battle gross army negligence and abuse would breathe fire into the show. But it was never handled right. There was no central character on the army side to focus on, or to play the enemy. And while the military seemed to be actively trying to help the wounded, they were also, like, shooting people for crying too much. And shooting people for sending mirror signals (did we ever even find out what happened there?).

-Matt Fowler, Fear the Walking Dead: Season 1 Review, IGN

No, we did not. The writers never actually explained why the military was randomly killing people outside of their quarantine zones even though it would have only taken a single scene before Travis hears the shots fired at the mirror signaler’s home. In fact, a scene in which we actually see the mirror signaler saying something along the lines of “You’ll never get away with this. When the people find out what you’re planning to do after things get really bad, they’re all take up arms and rise up to stop you” would have been enough to tie up everything nicely. It would have created the implication that the military was trying to stop an uprising consisting of people who were more than a little upset with the “humane” way in which they were planning to handle survivors after they pulled out. And, there is always the possibility that a scene like this is sitting on a cutting room floor somewhere, but without it, the whole season becomes one giant convoluted mess.

As a result, if you’re looking for something zombie-related this weekend, I highly recommend that you forget about checking out Fear the Walking Dead and check out the Zombie Walk at Collins Cove in Salem, MA at 4:30 PM tomorrow (Saturday, October 10, 2015) instead. The Zombie Walk will give you the opportunity to see over 400 people dress up as zombies and shamble through downtown Salem as a somewhat unruly hoard of brain-eating fiends, which as much as I hate to say it (because I really want to like Fear the Walking Dead), is probably going to be a whole lot more fun than watching Fear the Walking Dead‘s dysfunctional leading family.

Photo credit: Dustin Coates / Foter / CC BY-SA

A Truly Terrifying Friday the 13th

When you stop and think about it, we’re a strange species. I mean how many other species actively seek out things that frighten them? The answer, of course, is probably not too many because, when you get right down to it, humans are one of the the only animals that has shown any interest in scaring themselves silly at all. However, even though we appear to be in the minority, there’s nothing wrong with seeking out the catharsis that comes with a little controlled horror now and then. And, if you’re looking for a way to truly terrify yourself as the full moon rises on this Friday the 13th, here are a few things that you should definitely check out.

First, if you’re a video game fan looking for something that will give you nightmares, I highly recommend the Nintendo DS game, 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors. This game, which is often abbreviated as 999, is a visual novel in which you take on the role of a 21-year-old college student who finds himself aboard a sinking ship. However, your character’s problems don’t stop there for, shortly after you awake, you come to the realization that you have been kidnapped and placed on board the ship to participate in a disturbing game. The game, as the game’s title indicates, is to work with nine people to escape through nine doors within nine hours, and failure to do so (or failure to follow the rules) will lead to your untimely demise. If 999 sounds like something you just have to check out, you can find out more about the game on the Official Aksys Games 999 website or purchase the game from Amazon.

Secondly, if you’ve already played 999 or you’re just looking for an escape game that’s a little more “real”, you may want to check out Trapped in a Room with a Zombie. Trapped in a Room with a Zombie, which is presented by Room Escape Adventures, is a live-action escape game in which 12 people have 60 minutes to solve a series of puzzles. The only problem is that you and your friends (whether you brought them with you or just met them) won’t actually be alone in the room. In fact, there will be one extremely hungry zombie chained to the wall and his chains will get a little longer every five minutes. As a result, you need to be pretty fast. For more information on Trapped in a Room with a Zombie, please visit the Room Escape Adventures website.

Finally, if you’re a big fan of the AMC series, The Walking Dead, and you think dodging one zombie is child’s play, you may want to head over to the Westin Waterfront in Boston. This is because the Westin Waterfront is hosting Walker Stalker Con from 12:00 P.M. today (Friday the 13th) to Sunday, June 15th at 5:00 P.M. This event will allow you to meet a number of actors and actresses from The Walking Dead, including Jon Bernthal (Shane), Steven Yeun (Glenn), Lauren Cohan (Maggie), Michael Cudlitz (Abraham), Chad Coleman (Tyreese), and a bunch more. It will also give you the opportunity to meet some of the stars of The Boondock Saints and AMC’s Comic Book Men, attend a variety of panels, purchase a wide assortment of zombie-themed items in the Dealer’s Room, and more. For more information on Walker Stalker Con, please visit the Walker Stalker Con Boston 2014 website.

Photo credit: Luz Adriana Villa A. / Foter / Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)

Friday Fun: Comic Books and Concerts

As we say “sayonara” to another summer month, it finally looks like we may be in for a weekend where we’re not going to be drenched in sweat or rain. Unfortunately, since we’re now past the halfway point of summer, there isn’t as much going on in the Boston area as there was a few weeks ago, which just sort of figures. In fact, you may have already realized that finding stuff to do this weekend is going to be a little more challenging than usual as your favorite app, website, and/or newspaper just doesn’t seem to have a whole lot listed. However, there are still a number of events going on in the area, and you should be able to find something for just about everyone.

If you’re a comic book fan, there is one major event that you should definitely check out in Boston this weekend. Boston Comic Con, which runs from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday at the Seaport World Trade Center, is one of the largest comic book conventions in the Northeast. This event will give you the opportunity to attend panels with well-known comic book artists, buy a wide assortment of comic-book related merchandise and artwork, check out all of the people in costumes, enter contests (including a cosplay contest), meet actresses from the Walking Dead and True Blood, meet actors from the Hobbit, play games, watch a variety of independent and zombie-themed films, and a whole lot more. Tickets for the convention are $25.00 for one day or $40.00 for both Saturday and Sunday, and you can purchase tickets and find out more about the convention at the Boston Comic Con website.

If, on the other hand, you are looking for something that is aimed more at younger kids than teenagers and kids at heart, you may want to head on over to Georges Island. Georges Island, which is actually an island located in Boston Harbor, is holding a Family Jam with Karen K and the Jitterbugs from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. tomorrow (Saturday, August 3, 2013.) This concert will feature kids music, dancing, kids crafts, and other kid-friendly activities. The concert and all of the activities are free, but you will have to pay $15 for each individual 12 or over and $9 for each person between the ages of 4 and 11 to take the ferry to the island (kids 3 and under are free.) For more information, check out the Boston Harbor Island website.