The broader strokes of the internecine conflict on AMC’s “The Walking Dead” have already been covered on Big Hollywood, but plenty of room has been left for detail.
Sunday’s episode of TWD left me with a bad taste in my mouth. For one, it took the band of survivors (henceforth, “the Gang”) for a stroll down a series of pulse-deadening subplots that I imagine did things like “develop characters” and “heighten drama” and “purge the crap out of some emotions” without involving any, you know, actual zombies. Nary a flesh feast to be seen in 45 minutes.
And while the conspicuous dearth of shotguns being primed for battle disappointed a blood-and-guts zombie aficionado like myself, it was something else that frustrated me most about the episode.
It shouldn’t be news to Big Hollywood readers that television writers are people of the left. If it is news to you, then you’ve got some catching up to do, Rip.
The writers of TWD are no different, and they have been quick to let us know that throughout the show via this season’s suicidal gun policy and the overriding caricaturing of conservatives (on a side note, this caricaturing extends even to the show’s “webisode” mini-series, as seen here and here).
In the show’s latest episode, Important Character Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies) struggles with the unexpected news of her impregnation (by her husband’s best friend, in a soapy twist). And while having to fidget through a maternal crisis was bad enough for those of us out in Viewerland who tune in primarily for moments like these, it became even less bearable when the writers co-opted the subplot primarily to talk about… abortion.
It all started subtly enough — so subtly that I imagine viewers of the non-political stripe missed it completely.
Not long into the episode, the Gang’s thoughtful proxy-liberal geriatric, Dale (Jeffrey DeMunn), confronts Hershel (Scott Wilson), a Colonel Sanders-type and the thoughtful proxy-conservative geriatric of the Gang’s charmingly Southern host family. As it turns out, the host family was–in true Faulknerian fashion–covering up a secret, keeping undead relatives (Attack of the In-laws!) locked in their barn. Dale wanted to know why, and the conversation that unfolded was strangely analogous to the fetal personhood debate…with zombies! It went something like this:
BUCKET HAT: With all due respect…I’ve seen people that I cared about die and come back, and they’re not people.
COLONEL SANDERS: My wife and stepson are in that barn. They’re people.
Although this exchange set off klaxon sirens in my well-conditioned, hair-trigger political mind, it wouldn’t have been particularly noteworthy had the balance of the episode not been devoted to Lori’s pained decision about whether or not to abort her pregnancy.
Since the lion’s share of the episode was about Lori’s dilemma, I feel my inference is well grounded. I find it illuminating that the writers chose zombies as a parallel to human fetuses (and not only because many proponents of abortion see the fetus primarily as a parasite, although that certainly adds another layer of interesting to the equation). Dale is, after all, the rational arguer in this case. In the zombie survival genre, zombies are distinctly the Other, not human persons. Hershel, then, is the ill-informed, emotional arguer. I think it’s clear that the writers view the abortion debate as divided along similar lines.
The abortion issue becomes more explicit later in the episode, with all the caring, supporting characters (Glenn, Rick, et. al.) of course affirming Lori’s right to choice. By comparison, the only expressly pro-life character, Maggie (Laurie Cohan), does nothing but scream at Lori about her selfishness and “abortion pills.”
I’m disappointed by this thoroughly unbalanced portrayal from a show that continues to unspool into dramatic clichés and political gotchas. And to think, all I asked for was a few split skulls.
Author’s note: Interestingly enough, some other politically-minded souls have charged TWD with just the opposite–as being “extreme” and “surprisingly conservative” in its handling of abortion. Thoughts?
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