Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

Watched the second episode of ‘The Walking Dead’ yesterday. If youre late to the party, its “Jericho” with zombies. Happily, like Jericho, Lennie James (“Hawkins”) is in it. Poor guy is gonna get typecast as the new Charlton Heston. (“If its the future and its bad, Charlton Heston is there!” [Soylent Green, Omega Man, Apes, etc])

What sets the series apart from other zombie themes is that, thus far, it hasnt become the gunfest many of us would think the apocalypse would be. It’s realistic in that you get a handful of surviviors, maybe five or six, and they have two handguns between them all. No Burt Gummer types running around (yet). I would not be surprised if the viewing demographic for “Dead” doesnt mimic the one for “Jericho”. Because, really, who can resist a post-apocalyptic series? Theyre just so damn entertaining.

As I am told, “Walking Dead” is based on a graphic novel so theres a bit of fan service and the material tries to follow the books…but at some point that source material will peter out and it’ll be uncharted territory.

As always, zombie invasions are excellent ’safe’ metaphors for planning for the apocalypse. (Even the guys in Afghanistan, when theyre bored, make up plans to defend their bases from zombies) Zombie Squad, of course, is the prime example of taking anti-zombie activities into real world actions. Interestingly enough, locally we have our own branch of zombie eliminators who are in the business of making sure your headchopper is a little more uptown than a WalMart $12.99 machete. ( I rather like their Para Bellum model.)

Of course, no one actually comes back from the dead and turns normal humans into followers (well, not in about 2000 years, anyway, according to some folks) but the useful thing about shows like these isnt so much the one-man-versus-the-hordes (although that is always entertaining) but rather that it gives you a chance to envision likely real-world infrastructure failures and how to work around them. (Fuel acquisition, for example, is the same regardless of whether its zombies stopping the deliveries or a hurricane…an empty gas tank is an empty gas tank.)

Hunt around a bit and you can find “Dead” on line for viewing. I’ve found it to be fun and about as ‘realistic’ as you could expect given the subject matter.