This document discusses the popularity and success of TV series, using The Walking Dead as a case study. It argues that TV series have become a new form of storytelling and social bonding in the postmodern age. The Walking Dead in particular has resonated by depicting characters who are struggling for survival in a zombie apocalypse, mirroring modern anxieties. It posits that viewers identify with these "infected survivors" as they search for meaning and community. Though the infected characters seem dehumanized by their condition, the show still depicts moments of unexpected humanity that transcend rational explanation and point to something essential in the human experience.

2. The power of TV series
• Since The Sopranos (HBO, 1999-2007)
we have lived in a golden age of TV
fiction (quantity and quality) (Sepinwall,
2013)
• TV series are contemporary extensions
of the model of construction of
imaginaries proposed by Hollywood to
Western civilization (Pérez, 2011: 13)
• Reasons for success: subscription cable
networks, transmedia products (TV,
web, social networks, videogames,
books, etc.), easy access (the Internet),
etc.

3. The Walking Dead: a paradigmatic TV
series
• Cinematic quality (casting, screenplay,
direction,…).
• Responds to our present-day fascination
with zombies: comics -Marved zombies,
The Walking Dead, Crossed-, films -28 days
later (2002), 28 weeks later (2007), Dawn of
the Dead (2004), Zombieland (2009),
Shaun of the Dead (2004), World War Z
(2013)-, videogames -Resident Evil-, apps Zombiebooth, Zombies Run-, cartoons Simpson, Spongebob-, toys and dolls Monster high-, TV series -Dead Set (2008),
Les revenants (2012), In the flesh (2013).
• Very successful in AMC (4 seasons until
now).

4. A postmodern problem
• Metanarratives and ideologies have
fallen apart during postmodernity
(Lyotard, 1979)
• This situation has provoked anomia
in individuals (Durkheim, 1983): 1)
Psychological malaise due to
meaningless existence; 2)
Individualism and social
atomization.
• How can the postmodern self
manage the individual meaning of
life? How can our society remain
unified?

5. Postmodern micro-mythologies
• Social imaginaries are those images or arrays of
images that we share socially at the conscious or
unconscious level and which let us establish
normalcy/abnormalcy and real/unreal criteria.
• Myths are crystallizations of certain social
imaginaries that help us find meaning in our lives and
that have the power to create society.
• Two kind of myths: a) founding myths (rational and
religious metanarratives) and b) micro-mythologies
(identity through consumption)
• Micro-mythologies: 1. reenchant our lives provoking
feelings of intensity; 2. generate new tribes
(Maffesoli, 1990).
• Examples: celebrities, football teams, adverts, logos,
video-clips, TV series…
Your daily dose of drama:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OIJRMqYAA0

6. The Walking Dead: the infected survivor
• TWD is a postmodern micromythology that has had an
important social impact.
• Every myth includes its own
anthropology.
• Thesis: The infected survivor
image is the main contribution
of this TV series to
anthropology.

7. The novelty of the infected survivors
Postmodern spectators experience two processes in viewing any TV
series:
a) Alignment: “concerns the way a film gives us access to the actions,
thoughts and feelings of the characters” (Smith, 1995: 6)

8. The novelty of the infected survivors
b) Allegiance: “concerns the way a film attempts to marshal our sympathies
for or against the various characters in the world of fiction” (Smith, 1995: 6).

9. The novelty of the infected survivors
Identification levels between spectator and
infected survivors:
•
Anthropology: Searching for happiness or
welfare = Searching for a place to live in
peace
•
Materialist society (crisis, 9-11,…) +
predominant economic and scientific
discourse: life = survival (without impossible
things).
•
Postmodern society: a) anxiety (anomia) =
continuous fight for survival; b) inability to
rely on metanarrative = infection.
•
According to Kirkman’s explanation, TWD
will never end. There will not be a catharsis.
The secret of our addiction to this TV series
is our identification with the infected
(through moments of feeling)

10. Humanity and the infected survivors
a) TWD focuses on the infected condition of different
characters which can be seen in their behaviour.
b) This infection is inside (illness) and outside
(apocalyptic world)
c) The survivors tend to dehumanize themselves
trying to survive (Shane)
d) Nevertheless, there are some moments when
certain characters embody an impossible humanity
(because of their infection and duress).
e) But… How can we explain this humanity or
moments of humanhood if the infected condition
(measured, calculated,…) seems to make it
impossible?
f) Two possibilities: a) Education (Dale); and/or b)
Openness to something that happens: “An
unexpected event is the only hope” (Montale)

11. Example of this openess to something
that happens
• A boy who belongs to a violent group of
survivors that has attacked the
protagonists has been captured.
• The protagonists cannot put him in jail
because there are no prisons.
• If he escapes, he can tell his group where
the protagonists are living, which is
extremely dangerous.
• The protagonists vote and decide to kill
him in order to solve the problem.
• Dale is the only one who opposes this
measure, defending the traditional value
of every person…
• Let’s see what happens in min. 35 (second
season, 11st episode)

12. The impossible happens
There is something in our experience of humanhood that surpasses our economic
and scientific model of reasoning. In certain moments we can experience this
human thing, though it remains contradictory to our logocentric model of
reasoning.
These moments of feeling help us to perceive the surplus of which humanhood
consists.

13. The impossible happens
Example of derridean paradox: We experience
forgiveness. What is it? Forgiveness  free 
doesn’t accept an economy  but there is always a
reason to forgive  a reason to forgive means an
exchange, because you forgive in order to obtain
something  so, there is an economy  which
means that forgiveness is not possible or that the
only way to get forgiveness is to forgive something
that is unforgivable, because there is no economic
reason to forgive the unforgivable  but…
something that is unforgivable cannot be forgiven
because in our language the unforgivable is
something you are not able to forgive  so, again,
we can conclude that forgiveness is impossible. (But
we experience forgiveness) (Derrida, 2002)

14. The impossible happens
So, we are all infected, but we experience that we are human. To be human
is a given impossible event that happens. But we need an open reason to
acknowledge it.

15. The End
(If you want to know more about this and you can read Spanish, don’t
hesitate to read my book)