Why The Walking Dead and Rectify Are Alike and Why They Shouldn't Be.

The Walking Dead has been on for 5 years. Just think about that for a second. 5 long years. There have been mid-season finales that have been insane and there have been finales that have fallen flat. There have been characters that have survived longer than I thought they could and there have been characters who have died quite quickly. This show has been around for some time and many of the audience has grown with it. Personally, I am ambivalent about this show and I hate that. I usually like a show or I hate it. The Walking Dead has its moments. There are moments where the writers, the cinematographers, and the actors all come together to make this brilliant action zombie drama that just makes my jaw drop. And then there are other times where it is slow. Incredibly slow. Painstakingly slow. But fans trudge through these parts to get to the ending. And I hate that. I hate showing this show and just falling out of interest because there are a few episodes where the plot is boring and I have no interest in the characters. That's because this show is trying to do too much and has been for many years. It's trying to be both a zombie show while also including a character study and I'm over it. It's like Rectify, because of this, and it shouldn't be.

Rectify is Sundance original based around an individual who has served 20 years on death row only to have his conviction overturned when DNA evidence exonerates him. I've only seen two episodes of the show but I can tell it's going to be a smoldering drama in which something drastic happens in the end. And I'm okay with that. I'm interested in seeing how a man reacts to his surroundings after being in a box for 20 years. I'm okay with storylines being developed, relationships being flushed out, and characters struggling to come to terms with this event. Because it is a life-changing event and that makes sense. The occurrence of zombies are a life-changing event as well but the writer's haven't allowed me to become connected and to develop the storylines of these characters because they've either killed them off or filled 45 with awesome zombie-killing gore.

The most recent episode I saw of The Walking Dead involved the group on the road and there were a lot of little scenes between each of the characters as they try to ruminate what has been happening to them. It's too late for that. I no longer have any interest in that because you have conditioned me not to. This character who is being incredibly profound may die in the next two seconds and I want you to speed up this scene so I can get to that point. I don't have an interest in watching Darryl break down and cry because this show has conditioned me not to care about any of its characters and yet it keeps trying to get me to.

You know what would have helped? Backstory. How these individuals met, where they were when the outbreak happened. Something like that. But don't do that now. It's too late for that now. Now I just want to see who lives and who dies. I don't really care how they feel because the writers have made me unfeeling.

Rectify is a slow moving, heavily acted drama, and I like that because I know what I'm in for. The Walking Dead tries to be a gore-filled action show. I just wish it would choose one and stick with it because I am beyond frustrated with this show.