I am a big fan of zombie movies and have been following The Walking Dead ever since it started. I really liked it at first but nowadays I just kind of…still watch it. It’s not so much about all the boring conversations but the fact that being in a walker-infested country has only taught ALL of them this much:
1. If you die you become a walker, no matter what
2. You need to destroy the walker’s brain to kill it
– Appearantly this was news to that head of the town-woman I forgot the name of in Season 6, episode 5. She repeatedly stabs the walker in the chest… HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW BY NOW!?
3. They are attracted to noise and human smell (?). Covering yourself in zombie blood is a good camoflauge.
4. They tend to group together in hordes
5. If you remove their lower jaw they lose their interest in biting. This knowledge has actually only been used once (by Michonne).
The only new strategy they have applied is to make sounds before they enter a new building. Yeay.
With some logic of what you see from they show you could add some knowledge (of which the characters has not caught at all):
6. They makes sounds, especially when they see humans.
— Conclusively they breathe, since air needs to be forced out of their lungs to produce that sound. This knowledge is however not really useful since they don’t NEED to breathe (considering the walkers below water we have seen).
7. They are really slove but sometimes move in super-fast-silent-ninja-fast-mode when they are behind a human.
— This however only occurs when it is needed for the plot. The characters don’t know they are on a show, aaaand so this is useless knowledge as well.
8. You are better safe than sorry.
— Now here is a piece of information you could have some use of. Since you know walkers make sound and they usually show themselves when YOU make a sound. Why not, always always always, make sure there is no walker nearby when you enter a dark, enclosed space. Well, any place where you are not 100% sure there is no walker.
9. They rot after a while. Considering fresh walkers look, well a bit more fresh, than older ones.
— This could be useful information considering the fact that if there is decomposing going on, they might actually die or become immobile after some time.
10. They are not smarter than humans
— This is my biggest point and it is frustrating beyond belief when you watch this piece of crap show nowadays.
Why not outsmart, and annihilate, the walkers?
Ever since day 1 the humans have found themselves outnumbered by walkers. The walkers are everywhere and they could really end up anywhere as well, if someone dies. The human’s however have access to technology, co-operation and to some extent brain power. This is a great setup for the whole plot. An unstoppable force of killer walkers vs the ingenuity of mankind.
Once they have reached safer ground (like the prison or that town). Why not try to use that base to create and expand your borders? Why not try to actually fight back?!
Just from the top of my mind:
– Why not lure horde after horde down a big ol’ quarry by putting a siren on top of it. Once you have trapped some hundred thousand walkers you light it on fire and kill them all?
– Why not use molotov cocktails when you have a horde approaching your gate?
– Why not use firecrackers, sirens etc to lure walkers away from the gate when the pressure on them gets too strong?
– Why not clear the sight around your village walls so that you can see walkers (and other attackers) from at least 100 yards, instead of when they are just feet away?
– Why not clear an area of walkers and set up new perimeters and by so expanding your space? Also, by doing this you could create buffer zones with different safety where the inner circle is REALLY safe and the outer zone would be the “could be walker infested”-zone.
– Why not put someone in charge as a “walker researcher” in order to better understand your number one friggin’ enemy?!
– Why not always where armor when you are outside the safe zones? How hard could it be to wear some bite proof type of armor (as has only been used very rarely on the show).
– Why not put up a plan or strategy for the future of mankind? I mean, depression and the feeling of the world is going to an end clearly affects people in hazardous ways. Having a goal like that would probably motivate everyone TO FIGHT BACK.
WHY NOT!?!
I tell you why not. The basic setup of man’s ingenuity vs hordes of zombies, the random deaths you would have to succumb to facing that kind of enemy, and the social psychology of people under great stress are not good enough sources for a plot for the lazy ass script writers. Just as in B-rated horror movies from the 80’s they need to add completely irratical behavior and stupid, stupid characters that continue to put themselves in danger just for the plot to move forward.
When you watch a movie or a TV-show and you start ask yourself. “Why don’t they do that?” every 5 minutes instead of being impressed by “Ocean’s Eleven” style of ingenuity, you know you are a victime of lazy script writers while still being “pot committed” to the show.
…and that is why I despise The Walking Dead nowadays!