The sixth season of the insanely popular The Walking Dead debuted Sunday night, and it shows no signs of stopping its momentum.TWD, as it’s known, has actually grown in audience size each year since its debut in 2010 [‘The Walking Dead’ Ratings Hit Season Finale High With 15.8M Viewers, by Dominic Patton, Deadline, March 30, 2015]. This graphic tale of zombie survival even spawned a spin-off show (Fear the Walking Dead or FTWD) which garnered the largest audience for its first season in cable history [AMC’s ‘Fear the Walking Dead’ Has the Highest-Rated First Season in Cable History, by Rick Kissell, Variety, October 9, 2015]
What attracts people to TWD? There can be no doubt two of the strongest white male characters in all of television—Rick Grimes and Daryl Dixon, played respectively by Andrew Lincoln and Norman Reedus—are part of the appeal. But there’s something far deeper at work. TWD allows the viewer to live vicariously in a world where civilization is replaced with barbarism. The shocking violence implicitly asks the viewer if he could survive in the absence of the state. ...
It’s a question that may not always be theoretical. ...
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