In its seven years on the air, The Walking Dead has gone from moderately successful cult favorite to mainstream phenomenon. Its viewership has tripled since its 2010 premiere, and it's been one of the most watched shows on television for four years running.
In brief, a whole lot of people watch and love The Walking Dead. But for a whole lot more people, it's still a tough sell. The zombie factor is one of the major barriers to entry—watching the reanimated dead shuffle around in search of brains to eat just isn't every viewer's cup of tea. But the beauty of AMC's apocalyptic drama is that the zombies are kind of a footnote, albeit a really well executed one if you're into the guts and gore side of things.
In honor of the show's upcoming season seven premiere, here are seven great reasons to jump on the undead bandwagon.
1. It has some of the best female characters on television.
Yes, the phrase "strong female characters" is over-used and under-descriptive, but as a blanket term it really does apply here. Let's take Melissa McBride's Carol, a 40-something woman who began the series as a downtrodden victim of domestic abuse, and has evolved into a formidable badass and arguably the show's most complex character. Women like Carol are rarely given the chance to be a hero on television, much less an action hero.
Then there's Danai Gurira's katana-wielding Michonne—unquestionably the single character you'd want on your side most in a zombie attack—and Lauren Cohan's Maggie, who's endured an incomprehensible amount of loss and is still stoically fighting on. There are no damsels in The Walking Dead—even a character like Beth (Emily Kinney), who seems fragile and defenseless, subverts the trope.
2. It has one of the best pilot episodes of all time.
Of all time! (Insert Kanye shrug.) But really, not since Lost has a pilot felt so much like a fully realized cinematic experience in its own right. The fingerprints of veteran director Frank Darabont, whose Hollywood credits include The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, are all over the pilot, which follows the show's protagonist Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) as he awakens from a coma to find a horrific new world awaiting him.
Here's a peek to give you an idea:
3. Watching regular people become ruthless survivors is insanely compelling.
Not to pile on the Lost comparisons, but the most fascinating aspect of The Walking Dead is watching ordinary characters struggle to cope in extraordinary circumstances. Everybody changes a lot during their time on this show—running for your life and watching friends die on a near-daily basis will do that to you—but their development is generally nuanced and clearly motivated.
4. Absolutely everyone is expendable.
And that's a good thing! Lots of shows pat themselves on the back for being willing to kill their darlings, but few follow through with as much consistency as The Walking Dead. Okay, there are maybe one or two characters without whom the show might struggle to continue (the loss of Daryl would probably cause a riot) but given the track record, even those aren't off the table.
5. The cast is really hot—but also realistically disheveled.
There's nothing more annoying than watching characters who are supposedly fighting for survival stroll around with perfect hair and perennial makeup. That is emphatically not the case here, and fortunately, The Walking Dead's sexier-than-average crew can pull off the greasy hair, patchy stubble, and overall "could use a shower" aesthetic. This authenticity might have something to do with the fact that the cast is often genuinely shooting their action sequences in 110-degree Georgia heat.
6. The villains are as complex as the heroes.
Creating a genuinely three-dimensional villain is hard, and given the overriding zombie threat, it would be tempting to make secondary antagonists into an afterthought. Instead, the walkers (as zombies are known here) are a footnote in comparison to the much more dangerous kind of human evil which the apocalypse brings out in many characters. Whether it's an ally-gone-bad like Rick's best friend Shane (Jon Bernthal), or a straight-up sociopath like David Morrissey's loathsome yet weirdly human The Governor, the show's bad guys are as complex as a morally grey universe like this demands.
7. It'll give you a newfound appreciation for life.
Really, though. There's nothing like spending an hour out of each week soaking in the bleak, brutal realities of a zombie apocalypse to make you feel #grateful and #blessed.
The Walking Dead returns to AMC on October 23.
