New Season of The Walking Dead is Almost Here!

Anyone who follows me on Twitter and Facebook knows I am a huge fan of zombies and specifically, AMC's The Walking Dead. AND THE NEW SEASON STARTS IN JUST A FEW WEEKS! Sorry, had to get that out of my system.

I stopped watching horror movies after I had kids and turned into a major wuss, but for some reason, I can still watch zombies. Strange, I know. (For the record I also like vampires, but not the sparkly kind). I first got into zombies after seeing Shaun of the Dead quite a few years back. After that, I couldn’t get enough of the undead. Now I’m so far into it that I’m going to my first zombie walk on October 13^th in St. Paul. I have white contacts and a professional makeup artist lined up, so I hope to look deliciously terrifying. 

I also wrote a book in which a teenage girl from southern Minnesota finds herself in the middle of a zombie outbreak. For some reason I couldn’t write about zombies without making it a funny story. Maybe it was my subconscious trying not to take a zombie outbreak too seriously because deep down, I’m terrified that one day it will actually happen. After all, the government is training the Army and law enforcement officers for a zombie outbreak (no joke–if you haven’t heard about it, check out this article: http://huff.to/U3SZg9).

When I first heard about The Walking Dead I was thrilled.  The best part of it is that the show turned out to be really good. I’m not talking Phillip-Phillips-on-American-Idol really good, but a-whole-new-fandom-of-Norman-Reedus-born-because-it-is-amazingly good. (If you don’t know who Norman Reedus is, go look him up. You can thank me later). The plot, the special effects, the acting, everything is top notch.

     Everyone who watches the show knows the surviving gang is going to be in a prison this season. I found this an interesting concept. Really, you could lock yourself up in a cell with ample food and water for days without having to come out. You could taunt the zombies all you want and they couldn’t do a thing to you. But I’m guessing that isn’t the direction the writers are planning to go. There is supposed to be some really evil guy called The Governor (no, it’s not Arnold Schwarzenegger) who bullies Sheriff Rick and his gang. Considering Rick has quite possibly lost his mind, this should be an interesting show down. 

     Plus there’s the whole mystery as to who is Lori’s baby daddy. If it comes out as a zombie, does that mean it was Shane’s? But they all are carrying the virus, right? I’m guessing there won’t be time or resources for a paternity test with everything else they have going on. I may not like Lori as a character, but I feel sorry for the sister now. She has to fight off people who want to eat her when all she wants is a tub of ice cream with pickles.

     Then we have the crazy chick in the wood with two armless zombies on metal leashes that saved Andrea from being written off the show (thank you very much to the writers as it wouldn’t be the same without Andrea). I have no idea where the new chick will fall in the story line (a new love interest for Daryl perhaps?), but she’s tough and managed to have two men as pets, so she has my vote.

    There are so many possibilities for the new season. I have total faith in the writers that we will see another nail-biting, holy-crap-did-you-see-that year of good, solid entertainment.

     The moral of this post is, if you haven’t seen The Walking Dead and you don’t mind seeing freaky dead people walking around with missing limbs and trying to eat other humans, then you really need to check this show out.

*Warning—the show has a TV-14 rating. It’s not for the young or weak of stomach.*

~Jen