The Worst TV Stereotypes of the Week: Zombies Are Complicated Creatures Too...Right?
In last week's stereotype feature, Movieline spotlighted the Desperate Housewives, who in their exhausted seventh season on ABC, are pretty much the television equivalent of the walking dead. And this week, Movieline takes a look at actual small screen zombies (as well as sluts and drunk daytime talk hosts) haunting the airwaves.
1. Zombies (The Walking Dead)
As Movieline's horror and paranormal expert Lindsay Wolfe explained earlier this week in her first recap of The Walking Dead, AMC's comic adaptation is remarkably fleshed out and sympathetic to its humans -- like Deputy Sheriff Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), who has concerns back home that don't even begin to factor in the walking dead terrorizing his small town. And for that, Movieline credits AMC for making its heroes in the face of horror multidimensional and original. But the zombies....they are a different story.
Zombies did not get much screen time in the hour-long pilot but when they were featured, it was as the mindless, slow-moving, decaying corpses reaching awkwardly for human flesh typical of all zombies in popular culture. Zombies cannot just be lurching, expired bodies hungry for human flesh. OK, maybe by definition they are. But at one point in time, vampires were just evil creatures who feasted on the blood of humans. And then books -- and their big screen adaptations -- like Interview with the Vampire and Twilight helped dispel the whole vampire stereotype. Vampires now have cares and concerns. There are benevolent vampires who try not to kill (but romance) humans, narcissistic vampires, evil, chaos-wreaking vampires and every shade of vampire in between. So isn't it about time that zombies are fleshed out by something other than their rotting prejudiced profile?
Wouldn't it be great to see a complex zombie -- like, a teenage (dead) girl whose standard anxieties about appearances are only heightened by the oozing bullet hole on her forehead. How will she ever get a date to the fall mixer!? Or maybe the suburban zombie who was just been laid off from his lucrative accounting job in the suburbs. How can he continue to support his family of five, especially with Christmas just around the corner?! Do zombies have concerns about love, the economy, politics, holidays ("Tell your sister that she is cooking Thanksgiving this year!") and sexually transmitted diseases (The irony! They are already dead!)? We may never know unless zombies are given the benefit of the stereotype doubt.
2. The Walk of Shame-ers (How I Met Your Mother)
On this week's How I Met Your Mother, "Canning Random," writers poked fun at the "Walk of Shame" phenomenon by positioning Ted, Barney and Marshall on the street early on November 1 morning to watch the Annual Post-Halloween Walk of Shame Parade. Like in every other television show or movie to ever lampoon ladies walking home after a one night stand, a group of women -- all looking dejected, embarrassed and pathetic -- trudged back after an evening of assumed drunken revelry between the sheets. Only in How I Met Your Mother's twist, the Walk of Shamers were all wearing their Halloween costumes from the night before. "Looks like that French maid didn't turn down someone's bed," Ted fired after a not-so-sexy-anymore French maid dragged by. "Looks like Pocahontas has a couple of wounded knees," countered Marshall while another sad lady passed with her head down. It was refreshing to see a tired sitcom concept turned on its ear. But next time, could we get at least one male Walk of Shame-er. Not all participants in one night stands are female, you know.
3. Drunken Kathie Lee Gifford (Drunken Kathie Lee Gifford, Today)
While Movieline's third tired stereotype of the week does not apply to a social group, it is still a weary prejudice about one individual that has been perpetuated so many times -- in parodies and real life -- that even her own guests mock her to her face, like Joel McHale did brilliantly this week by bringing his own wine to the interview. Kathie Lee Gifford, Movieline recognizes you for your tireless work drinking on air. This week, your daytime drinking reached self-parody heights when you slurred through your teleprompter lines during an Amy Sedaris segment, sloppily giggled as your dropped your cue cards and then chugged white wine while your guest taught you how to make beer caps into a fun craft.
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Comments
i can see the emotional zombie as a teen comedy maybe
but those who love the zombies just want to see them blown to bits awesomely thats it like dawn of the dead, R.E. shaun of the dead
your a twit. Julie, you are a twit! no one cares about a Zombies feelings! they dont have feelings!!!!!! I dont like trueblood for this reason, too much sex and stupidity. No gore, no battles, just stupid emotions getting in the way of reality. I wish you had a brain, so when zombies do come around (and they will) they would feast on you!
your a twit. Zombies DONT NEED EMOTIONS JULIE!!!! YOU TWIT!!! I WISH YOU HAD A BRAIN SO WHEN ZOMBIES COME ( AND THEY WILL!!!!) THEY WOULD FEAST ON YOU!!
as far as the walking dead, your thinking to much about how to tear the show down, you can do that with any show really, how does jason come back alive when hes been butchered, how does micheal survive all these gunshots and still get up afterwards, after the termanator gets shot several times, wouldnt it hit some wires or damage some of the machine parts? how does a zombie after his head gets cut off still get up and go after the victim when he cant see, or a girl with a bag over her head, why dont she poke a hole where her mouth is? you can nit-pick every movie and your trying to tell us how a zombie is supposed to be? when zombies dont exsist
i agree with dave, trublood, twilight movie sucks, vampires are blood suckers and need to be staked through the heart, stupid how they change history, yes no battles and just a love story basically, stupid chick flick!!! and not a real vampire movie
Julie, Dave thinks your [sic] a twit.
This week in internet stereotypes. Julie Miller the blogger posing as a legitimate reporter. The typical narcissistic megalomanic self proclaimed philanthropist of knowledge who thinks their opinions dictate reality and knows whats best for everybody. So in her own mid she has the right to criticize every dumb insignificant detail as if the world depends upon her enlightenment.
FYI. there has been complex zombies, day of the dead, I Zombie, My boyfriend's back, land of the dead, survival of the dead, zombie honeymoon, ZA: zombies anonymous, to name a few off the top of my head.
Zombies can't have feelings or any higher brain function! Otherwise they'd end up eating each other...
This week in movie goer stereotypes. The horror fan is a shallow person who wants no depth in their films at all, any such attempt to put such things only infuriates them. They only want dark, grisly, and gory imagery to get off on. They only other thing they can tolerate is gratuitous nudity. They are very much old men at heart. They cannot deal with change, so they are disgusted by anything new or innovative, they just want the same old formula. You can see examples of them posting on this article.
The point being, stereotypes are often sacred cows to some.
Guys generally don't feel shame after one-night stands. Hence, no male walks-of-shame. Maybe walks-of-relief?
Huh....you really have no idea what people who like zombie related things like do you? Your idea of a teenage zombie girl who acts like a teen is near twilight levels of crap. What's next, are you going to start spouting crap about mummies needing love and hugs?
If you want a more 'developed' zombie, check out Ugly Americans where, because it's a comedy, it works out okay.
Other then that, stop trying to change our monsters. We don't need to make every-freaking-thing into some complex emotion-filled subject.
Doesn't a single person know the difference between "your" and "you're" and how to use them anymore? YOU'RE ALL TWITS!!!!!!
as far as The Walking Dead, if you're joking, you're lame. If you're serious, you're deadly wrong.
Reality check...one cannot stereotype something that does not exist. Zombies are not real.
This is kind of a fascinating concept. In the end, of course, no characters or creatures in any creative property are real, and in the case of zombies, they are often (and perhaps best) utilized as a riff on a stereotype. I'm thinking of Dawn of the Dead and its mall-descending flesh-eaters, or Shaun of the Dead -- which subverted the genre itself by making the middle-class nobody the hero as opposed to just another undead cog.
Maybe the more fundamental question is: When does an archetype become a stereotype? Even to the extent many filmmakers and TV producers actively work to subvert both, there is a comfort and familiarity for viewers in those limitations -- especially in genre. We know when we watch a zombie story, we're really watching "us." It's up to the storyteller to figure out how to make us see "us" in a new, different and compelling way.
Which is what I think Julie is getting at. The Walking Dead may yet achieve that phenomenon, but we're not seeing it so far.
It's that kind of thinking is what completely sucked the life out of vampires!!
Zombies have been addressed in more "humanizing" ways. Just look at MY BOYFIREND'S BACK, BOY EATS GIRL, or FIDO, all three of these films have zombies as main characters with feelings, all of them are comedies however. Part of what makes a scary zombie is its lack of brain function. Zombies are symbolic of group think and mindlessness that leads to loss of humanity. What makes zombies scary is their lack of humanity.
Also, Twilight as a reference for advancement in characterization of vampires is the stupidest example you could have ever chosen. Moral vampires were introduced far before Twilight - Interview with a Vampire, Buffy, and many more. The only thing twilight introduced was sparkling vampires, which is the worst thing to happen to vampires ever.
julie sucks!!! and so do the people who agree with her, all twits!!!
In response to the first bullet point: "My Boyfriend's Back." Ah, the '90s.
Stop the personal attacks. This is satire.......about television.
Go read a book or maybe a political blog.
De-humanizing zombies is a way to "justify" the mindless slaughter of them. If we gave them real human emotions, people would feel bad when they kill them. And in some movies, people already do, at least at first, until they realize they are all mindless, flesh-craving, freaks.