(Spoiler alert for The Walking Dead.)
The pot’s about to call the kettle black. I am hardly the person to protest zombie shows. I watched The Walking Dead until a few screaming nightmares made me decide to find viewing alternatives. I am watching Fear the Walking Dead because I got sucked in by the first few episodes. I am waiting for the return of Colony, too. Post-apocalyptic, end-of-the-world drama happens to be a favorite genre of mine.
So I’ll confess to feeling hypocritical as I write this post. But I am concerned at the number of students who seem to be watching with me. As I tried to explain a lesson while substituting for a drama teacher, I needed a common reference point. I tried a few current shows. Nope. Then I went straight to Fear the Walking Dead. I know from experience that if a teacher wants to share TV viewing moments with students, The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead are great launch points — or gangplanks if you choose. Connect! My student and I discussed character motivation. What did Victor see in Nick? Why? What was Victor’s motivation in saving the Clarks? Why as actors would we want to know these background details? How might the backstory affect our performance?
But I am talking with 7th graders here. I was talking with 8th graders about the same show last year, lamenting with a favorite student the probable death of a prescient bit character. Within the middle school demographic, these are popular shows.
Are parents watching these shows with their children? Are they aware that the romantic, heroic and popular Glenn was just graphically beaten to death with a barbed-wire-covered baseball bat, while his beloved Maggie watched in helpless horror? TV shows shape children’s worlds. What visions of the present and future are we sharing with our children? Or worse, not sharing with our children?
Eduhonesty: How many children in America watched Glenn die? I shudder to think. The Walking Dead is the No. 1 series on TV among 18-to-49-year-olds. Over 12,400,000 people viewed the episode shown during the last week in October, many of them younger than 18. Among other sources, Walmart and Amazon sell “Lucille,” the barbed-wire covered bat pictured above.
What are our children and students watching? With all the electronics scattered throughout houses today, parents must remain especially alert. If fifteen-year-old Aidan is babysitting nine-year-old Trent, I would not want them both viewing Glenn’s horrific death. I loved Preacher last season but, readers, if your child or your students are watching the show, I suggest you take in a few episodes. Or go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preacher_(TV_series) and read the content of those episodes. “Gore, glee and guile,” as Rotten Tomatoes says, captures this clever, funny series in a few words.*
At a certain point, we all have to let go and let our children immerse themselves in Criminal Minds if they choose to do so, but I wrote this post because I think the sheer volume of content out there sometimes overwhelms efforts to select viewing choices for children. I also think teachers might sometimes want to step into the gap during conferences or phone calls to say, “Mike certainly does talk about The Walking Dead a lot.” Mike may be watching his favorite shows privately to avoid upsetting his parents, for one thing, streaming content onto his laptop in his room.
The “What are your favorite shows?” conversation should happen regularly today, at home and even in classrooms. At home, the “You have to make sure your little brother does not see that show. It’s too scary!” conversation may have to follow. I have had too many students ask me, “Do you think zombies are real, Ms. Q?”, followed by the question, “But what if the virus got loose. Then could there be zombies?”
Young kids don’t understand chemistry and medical limitations, but they are aware that zombies have been proliferating on large and small screens across the globe. Classrooms will erupt into disputes as students take sides on the possibility of zombies. In these times, brain-eating viruses that can leave animated corpses have become perfectly plausible to many students.
I remember spending elementary-school years terrified that I would be attacked by sudden lightening in my bedroom, lightening that would make me disappear forever. I kept looking toward — or trying not to look toward — the corners of my room. The source of my irrational fear was a mediocre, black and white Outer Limits episode starring Donald Pleasance. But small children believe in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy. They cannot separate fictions from reality easily. They may not talk about their fears. I do not know if I ever asked my mom or dad about the lightening. I just kept peeking at corners of the ceiling, hoping not to see flashes of light.
Project Runway, anyone? I believe we need to rein in the apocalypse. The death and mayhem have gotten out of hand. If I were a small child today, I’d probably be stacking heavy items on a chair in front of my bedroom door to stop the dead from walking in while I slept, tearing out my throat, and then leaving me to reanimate as a shambling horror of blood and teeth.
Children’s imaginations should not be underestimated.
*I already said I had dubious taste in entertainment. But I also bought Disney movies for my kids when they were little. What’s good for the eccentric, retired teacher may not be good for elementary or middle school boys and girls.