With 11.8 million viewers tuning in to watch the season 3 finale of True Blood last September, it’s no secret that HBO‘s sexy vampire drama is a huge hit with fans. The series started off fairly quietly and has since exploded into a force to be reckoned with. Over on AMC, another show featuring the undead is seeing similar results. The Walking Dead, an apocalyptic zombie drama that premiered last year, had six million fans tune in for the first season’s finale. So, what is it about the undead that has us so enamored? The Baltimore Sun sat down with some of the cast members and creators of True Blood and The Walking Dead to get to the bottom of our undead obsession, and for us, True Blood’s Stephen Moyer (Bill Compton) outlines our obsession fairly simply:
“Sex, drugs, blood, comedy, suspense. One of my favorite quotes is that television is chewing gum for the eyes — ours is like chewing gum with acid in it.”
Yes, True Blood oozes sex. The actors who play our favorite characters are all incredibly attractive, causing fantasies to lurk in every corner of our minds when we’re trying to work, grocery shop, or sleep. The dangerous, brooding hot guy that also has a very deep sensitive side, and will do nearly anything to save the girl? Sure, it sounds cliched, but isn’t that nearly every girl’s fantasy? True Blood’s creator, Alan Ball, admits that yes, there’s oodles of hot people to satisfy our eye candy cravings, but there is a bit more to it:
“There’s a lot of hot people for people to be attracted to and fantasize about. There’s a fun layer of social commentary, it’s romantic, sexy, it’s violent. It’s a big grab bag of entertainment goodness.”
It’s a teeny bit different on The Walking Dead. The zombies ooze guts and slime instead of sex appeal, and they certainly don’t move as fast as our beloved True Blood vampires. It’s more about survival for the non-zombie characters, about sticking together with family and friends to triumph over flesh eating monsters and find a better zombie-free life. The first 15 minutes of the series premiere set up the first season so immensely well: desolate, eerie, heart pounding, and over the top creepy (seriously, the little lip-less zombie girl wearing the pink bathrobe?!?). Enter the fear factor. One one thing is for sure: the undead cause fear. They are unpredictable, strong, hungry, and often vicious. And some of us just like being scared. True Blood’s Deborah Ann Woll (Jessica Hamby) agrees that fear is a bit of an adrenalin rush:
“Nothing gets under your skin so much as something that scares you. Things can make you cry, they can make you laugh, but if it really scares you, it got into your core in a way that very few other things can… Sometimes what’s really cool about doing genre work, at least for me, if we can scare you and get into your middle with that, then we can talk about something that might be interesting or thought-provoking. You can use this genre in a really strong way to get inside people’s minds and try to open them.”
So, for all you show creators, show runners, and executive producers thinking about pitching a new TV series, you might want to consider the undead, laced with a hefty mix of sex appeal, humor, romance, and smart writing. However, you’re going to have some pretty stiff competition…
Source: The Baltimore Sun – TV viewers eat up ‘True Blood’ vampires, ‘Walking Dead’ zombies
Photo Credit: HBO
