It’s a classic tale. A police officer wakes up to find that everyone is dead and trying to eat each other, and he quickly find help from another man and his son. This is The Walking Dead. Rick is a police officer who isn’t quite sure what happens when he wakes up. He’s been shot, and been in the hospital for quite some time. As he ventures through the silent halls, he discover dead bodies, and undead lunatics attempting to bust through a chained door with a warning “Don’t Open, Dead Inside.” The intensity builds up as he searches for an escape. There isn’t any action going, but his sudden realization that there are zombies and that he is alone leaves the viewer to await whatever happens next. He eventually find his way outside, only to find thousands of corpses in body bags in the parking lot for the hospital. This is the next step, realizing it’s the apocalypse.
It all hits Rick hard. He stumbles out of the parking lot, and ventures through a field scattered with trees. Everything’s quiet, and the viewer can feel for Rick and his pain. This is what The Walking Dead looks to accomplish. It pulls the viewer in, and makes them feel an attachment to Rick and his shock that he is all alone. As he travels through the field, he meets his first zombie face to face. He is on the ground, helpless, but scary nonetheless. He quickly peddles away on a bike, and stops to just take in the moment and slow down. There’s a ray of hope for Rick, which can help the viewer feel better. However, at the same time, everyone has to fear the worst as he sees what appears to be a normal human walking the streets. He’s hit by a shovel, as a man (Morgan) and his son (Duane) try to get information out of him and find out if he has been bitten. This is a common feeling when watching The Walking Dead. They work to give the viewer hope that Rick will get out of everything okay, but at the same time, create an atmosphere of intensity, and the feeling that something bad will happen.
The entire emotion of the story changes. Rick goes from being alone, to now finding a couple of strangers that he doesn’t know what to expect from. The Walking Dead creates constant changes in emotion and the atmosphere. In order to keep the viewer interested, they have to switch between fear, sadness, hope, and other important feelings. Just when you think everything will be okay, something terrible happens that pushes the characters to just sit down and cry. After however, they work to create a ray of hope for the characters, such as when Morgan and Duane find Rick. It doesn’t make things too much better. Sure, they help each other out and of course, find a stash of weapons at a police station, something that any zombie story would do. However, they part ways after learning each others story. Everybody has a background, something bad that has happened to them. The stories pull the viewer in, and make them care about all of the characters, especially in moments like when Morgan attempts to shoot his ‘zombified’ wife. It's the classic zombie story, having different individuals with different sad stories coming together to survive.
Rick thinks it’s a good idea to venture into the city, but from what we learn from other characters, that isn’t a good idea. They attempt to respond to him on the radio, but can’t get through. Eventually he finds himself surrounded by thousands of hungry zombies who tear apart his horse. All he can do is escape into the tank, just to find a zombie inside. The gun shot he fires dazes him for some time, and makes Rick stop and think, only to hear a voice on the radio specifically talking to him, and asking him if it’s “cozy in there.” This creates the ray of hope.
Moments like this make The Walking Dead. This is of course only one episode, but it’s the perfect example of how to keep the viewer attached. The emotions constantly shift, and even when hope appears to be lost, there’s someone
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