The first season of Fear the Walking Dead shows how social media and mass communication aid in a disaster.
Just call it theDeep Impact/ArmageddonLaw.
Wouldnt that just negate the dramatic concept of its not the cause but the outcome?
What it loses in dramatic relevance, however, it gains in socio-political intrigue.
You likely remember the conversations.
I would raid the local gun shop and then barricade myself at the library.
*
*The only correct answer.
These takes are interesting enough in their own way.
But they only reveal the personality of the person answering the question.
And the personal myths individuals have about themselves can be boring.
Just look at how boring it is to hear about other peoples dreams or March Madness brackets.
These fantasies dont say anything deeper about society or a global sociological human response to a possible extinction-level threat.
Thats where season one ofFear the Walking Deadcomes in.
What would you do during a zombie apocalypse?
has been answered to death.
When would we all realize a zombie apocalypse is even happening?
is much less explored territory.
The answerFear the Walking Deadcomes to is surprisingly optimistic.
First, lets placeFear the Walking Deadin a time and place.
That isnt when the story is chronologically, however, asFear the Walking Deadis a spin-off ofThe Walking Dead.
WhileThe Walking Deadcomic was released in 2003, the TV version premiered on Halloween 2010.
Its then safe to assume that the narrative begins sometime in the fall of 2010.
Users sent around 65 million tweets a day.
Facebook was also very much a thing.
It had at least 500 million users and was valued at around $40 billion before its IPO.
YouTube, smartphones, bluetooth, reliable public WiFi all around.
And the show dutifully reflects this in how quickly its world realizes it is threatened.
Here is a brief timeline of how quickly humanity comes to terms with the dead rising.
Day One One of our main characters, Nick, encounters his first zombie.
Day Two Nick, Travis, and Madison are already ready to leave town.
Nicks sisters boyfriend, Matt, is sick from a zombie bite.
There are reports of police brutality involving officers unloading into a seemingly sick person.
Night Two There is widespread rioting in Los Angeles.
In passing, we hear terms such as state of emergency and flights being grounded on the radio.
The power-grid starts to fail.
Nearly every character has encountered a zombie thus far.
Day Three The military arrives to declare martial law and establish a safe zone around the main characters neighborhood.
They have no Romero movies, but they are aware that something is seriously amiss.
Still, three days is all it takes a truly impressive response time.
How does that compare to zombie uprisings in other classic zombie works?
The book is global in almost every sense of the word.
Lets say its from 2005 for the sake of argument.
The plague still manages to gradually spread across the globe due to human trafficking and refugees.
Israel is the first nation to recognize the legitimacy of the threat and institutes a nation-wide quarantine.
Even then, there is not global awareness of the zombie plague.
Its at least around a month maybe longer.
Why does it take so long exactly?
In 2005, YouTube was in its infancy and may not have even exist depending on the date.
Twitter didnt exist and Facebook wasnt even open to anyone without a college email address.
In a strange, roundabout way,Fear the Walking Deadpresents us with an interesting observation about communication technology.
There are many reasons for this, chief among them is that were just a chatty group of creatures.
Wasnt that language and communications original purpose?
The Center for Disease Control actuallyhas a page on its websitedevoted to surviving a zombie apocalypse.
every time it shows off a new product.
