I gave up watching The Walking Dead about halfway through season 5. While I loved some of the characters, I could not continue to stomach the constant overtone of “99% of people in this world are bad people” that seemed to run through nearly every storyline.
I think it was the cannibals that sent me over the edge. Though it was lovely seeing Carol be all kick ass against the cannibals in the season five premiere, the concept that people would be terrible enough to eat other people – especially when it was not an emergency situation like a plane crash but a situation where so many people have died and there should be more than enough food at Costcos across America to keep these people eating for many, many years..
Now we are watching Westworld, a show where there are robots in a theme park specifically for the humans to go on holiday and do.. whatever they like.. to the robots. The themes in both these shows are somewhat similar – that given the opportunity, humans will be evil. That deep in the heart of all of us is a desire to rape, pillage, maim and murder. To watch the world burn, and actively participate in the burning. Whether it be people, or robots.
I want to believe that these TV examples are not how things would actually go. I want to believe that deep in the heart of all of us there is actually a desire to be good. To help each other, build things, build a community, celebrate each others successes and push each other to do better.
After recent events, I am fearing that the TV examples are the closest to reality and truth, and the things that I want to believe about my fellow humans are simply silly naive daydreams.
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I feel like there will be an awful lot of award nominations for Westworld. The cast includes some all time greats including Sir Anthony Hopkins and Thandie Newton is just blowing my mind every single week with her huge talent. The acting is incredible. The show is utterly gorgeous to look at – Utah helps, but it is filmed beautifully. I cannot stop looking at the costumes – in particular the jewellery on the house of ill repute girls.
I can watch shows where I do not like or agree with the underlying themes, especially when everything is so beautifully done, as it is on this show. If you feel the same, you probably should be watching Westworld.
I haven’t yet seen Westworld, but am curious about it. As for Walking Dead, I find the zombie theme completely uninteresting and always have, so I’ll take a pass on that one; I haven’t even watched part of an episode.
I kind of like the idea of the Walking Dead as I find post-apocalyptic themes interesting (if not depressing and terrifying for the same reasons as you) but zombies don’t interest me. Westworld sounds interesting, I’ll have to check that out.
I never was interested in The Walking Dead and I’ve never heard of Westworld. Now that I have, I’ll probably forget about it by dinnertime.
I feel the same about Game of Thrones. Horrific violence and negativity but great acting and beautifully filmed.