Glenn has fallen in love with a new show: AMC's The Walking Dead. Some of you may be saying, "Gee Glenn, welcome to the phenomena that has swept the country over the four years". I know I am (I've been reading the comics since I was in college). But some of you may have never seen or enjoyed the TV series that takes a brutal look at life after a zombie apocalypse.
The show's fifth season premiere shattered records on both the network and TV history. It brought in 22.4 million viewers, making it the most viewed drama ever on cable. The eight-episode fifth season also beat the NFL on five Sunday nights, a feat that Sports Illustrated called remarkable because the NFL "simply does not get out-rated on Sundays".
After watching the show for the first time, Glenn seems hooked.
"It's really good," he said.
But what does the success of the show say about society?
"So we're watching that and Pat and I have this conversation about I think there's something to the psyche of America that knows that we're in real trouble. And I'm trying to think -- wasn't it the 1950s that the zombie movies were really big?" Glenn said.
"So in the 1950s look what was happening. We were a society that was completely out of control. We were afraid of things we couldn't stop. The World Wars were over and now we're in a Cold War and we could be vaporized at any time. So if you look at the entertainment at the time, it was zombies, it was aliens. They were all things that we just could not control. However, at the same time, you had some lighter fare going on. In the Great Depression, you will see that we went to Frank Capra and Jimmy Stewart," Glenn said.
"Very hopeful movies. Right now there's something in our psyche that I think is really disturbing. Everything that was coming out that people are going for is apocalyptic or, just like the 1930s when we felt out of control, we went to Superman. Now we're going to Ironman. We're going to Captain America. All the old things that show us again, these situations are out of control, mere men cannot fix them."
In essence, Glenn believes the success of 'The Walking Dead' and superhero movies reflect this sense of things being out of control in the world.
Do you agree?
Watch the trailer for the midseason premiere of 'The Walking Dead', returning to AMC this Sunday at 9/8C.