Bite me

Now, since I've made my views on "The Walking Dead" completely clear some people have come to me and said, "But this is, like, the show you've been waiting for your whole life.  Now that it's here you don't like it?  I think that you wanted too much from the show and as such you've been disappointed that it hasn't been everything and exactly what you wanted."  Hey, maybe that was true.  I didn't think so but there had always been that lingering thought in my mind that maybe it was.  That was until tonight.

Before I go any further I need you to do something for me.  Go to YouTube, search "Bite Me" and watch the 5 episodes that come up.  Right now.

Done?  Ok.

That show erased any doubt in my mind that I wanted too much from "The Walking Dead" because "Bite Me" is the show that I really wanted and now I have it.  Let me tell you, in one phrase, why it's so much superior to "The Walking Dead":  it's realistically written.

There aren't any douchebag racists (although there is a douchebag in the style to which I'm most accustom), there aren't any stupid women who've been feebly tricked into cheating on their husbands, there are just traditional sluts and traditional ball-breakers.  It has characters about whom I care and to whom I can relate.

I want you to ask yourself, "can I truly relate to any single character on the 'The Walking Dead'?"  Then ask yourself if you can relate to any character on "Bite Me."  If you're anything like me then your answer to the first question was completely different than your answer to the second.

Sorry about the beginning rant but that was more directed to people I know personally (who seem to encompass about 2 of my 3 readers).  But now onto the zombies.

The zombies are well done in this show, both in makeup and in acting.  They're your good ol' fashion Romero zombies and you can tell that this is intentional from some of the dialogue in the show.  Somewhat more to the point is that there is actual discussion in the show about different types of zombies, which is a bit of a breath of fresh air.  In most zombie media there is little acknowledgment of the fact that zombie movies already exist.  In this show it is not only acknowledged but celebrated:  the main characters play "Dead Rising 2" and are expected to know the basics of zombie survival by each other.

To say something fairly close to what was said in "Bite Me," let me say that I like the fact that it embraces the beginning of the zombie "outbreak."  Quite frankly I think that how one handles a pressure like that is a truer sign of one's humanity and morality than how one handles the aftermath.  This, in a way, means that "Bite Me" better accomplishes what "The Walking Dead" set out to do than "The Walking Dead" has.  Anyone can make the best of a situation and try to do what they want after the fact but it's in the first chaotic minutes, the battlefield if you will, that truly tests the mettle of a man or woman.  "The Walking Dead" circumvented this to its own peril; it gave the show a flat feel that quickly ran dry whereas "Bite Me" shows me who, in the heat of the moment, is the real man and who is the real coward.

Let me also say now that I do care about the personal interactions of the survivors, when done well.  "Bite Me" certainly brings to me the same feeling that "Shawn of the Dead" did but in a more American way.  To suck all comedy out of a show about zombies is reckless:  life is full of comedy, why shouldn't unlife be the same?  In my mind, after a zombie attack, it's much less realistic to be hateful and bigoted against another living, breathing human being than it is to admit that I'm ashamed of that one time I shat my pants in high school.

In closing, let me say that "Bite Me" is a good zombie show because it hits all the bases not only for zombie media but also for a good show.  It gives me well done zombies who are realistically portrayed (and reasoned in a zombie geek kind of way, which is the best way of all), it gives me a realistic premise and realistic decisions based on this premise, it gives me reasons to care about the characters before it expects me to care about them, and, most of all, it gives me the comedy of life in a most painful situation which is, let's face it, the way in which most of us cope with arduous times.

Bottom line:  Go watch this, I believe it to be the best zombie media I have ever seen.