Walking Dead - Season Five

For those that have been living under a rock for the last five years, Walking Dead is a television series from AMC based on the comic series of the same name from Robert Kirkman.

Regardless of the zombies and extreme violence, at its root it is a great drama utilizing extreme and banal problems to provide plot and character development. In this they do an excellent job, similar to the rebooted Battlestar Galactica, where they don't make the trope or effect the centre of the show but a periphery element that influences the core of the story.

I have not commented on this show before but am now because of the last season...it made me uncomfortable. Dwell on that thought for a moment. It was not the violence that put me off but the sheer logical savagery of the main characters Rick and Carol. They have both been the glue that have held the group together. At the start of the series they were the moral compass and it has slowly turned, and in the fifth season accelerated, to a brutal logic for survival. Currently its that logic that is making me uncomfortable.

Being the experts at survival that the group is, in this season they meet a group that protects itself very well from the outside world but oblivious at living in the outside world. The struggles that Rick's group has gone through makes Rick and Carol realise they might have to take over to keep the protected area safe. This might seem a departure from the morality Rick has been practising so far but it is not. Carol reached the conclusion Rick did in this season in the last one, that you have to do things to keep her people safe and that sometimes means killing people.

Rick's goal is to keep his son and daughter safe. They need people they can trust around them so Rick needs the current group. After realising the people in the compound are dangerous when it comes to dealing with the outside world, he knows he might have to kill some of them to continue to keep his people safe. Logical but disturbing. Uncomfortable. Great drama and emotion. Being uncomfortable means I'm learning about myself while being entertained.

Looking forward to the next season.