The Walking Dead is a post-apocalyptic thriller TV show about the survival of humans living in a world overrun by zombies. Each 45-minute episode aims to entertain viewers and keep them emotionally invested in the characters through dangerous situations and occasional character deaths. The show explores how different groups cope with the lawless new world and often face greater threats from other surviving humans rather than the zombies. The setting changes locations as the characters travel, and being bitten results in a quick death and reanimation as a zombie.

1. The Walking Dead
By Marcus Tabram

2. Purpose
The Walking Dead is a fictional
thriller set in a post
apocalyptic earth and
therefore the main purpose of
the show is to entertain and
keep the audience on the edge
of their seats. Viewers are
supposed to feel emotional for
the characters, sad for their
losses, happy for their gains
and scared for them.

3. Form and Style
Each episode is 45 minuets long with the
occasional 1 hour long episode. The mood
of this show is meant to unsettle the
audience by putting their favourite
characters in dangerous situations and in
some cases the character dies. A common
theme of the show is how the different
people cope with the end of the world.
Another theme of the show is how people
will take advantage of the lawlessness of
the world by attacking other groups of
survivors. In fact, after a while the walkers
(zombies) weren't the main threat to the
characters, it was in fact the other groups
of survivors trying to kill them and take
what they have.

4. Content
There are a lot of main
characters in The
Walking Dead
The central character is
Rick Grimes, a cop who
was shot and put in a
coma. He then wakes
up to find out that the
world has been taken
over by walkers.

5. Content
Other main characters include; Ricks son Carl,
Glenn, Daryl, Carol and several more.

6. Content
There have been a few villains in the
show as well. The first main one was
The Governor, the leader of a group
of people who would go out to kill
and steal from anyone they meet.
Another villain are the people who
lived at the settlement Terminus
who would put signs around the
local area telling people that if
anyone arrived in their settlement,
they would be cared for and looked
after where in fact they were
capturing people and using them as
food

7. Content
The setting of the show changes a lot as the characters rarely stay in
one place for a long time, however they did spent some time at
Hershel's Farm, a prison and most recently a small town named
Alexandria. In this world, everyone is infected so that when they die
they will turn into a walker. If they are bitten, they get a fever and die
very quickly, turning them into a walker.

8. Meaning
The Walking Dead is telling us
that a lot of people in this
world are very selfish and if
they had to kill to have an
easier survival, they would do
so. All this show does is put
people in a scenario where
they don't have everything
given to them and the outcome
is that people would kill other
people to provide for their
family, their friends and for
their selves.

9. Genre
The Walking Dead is a TV thriller that has similar
conventions as other products from this group. It
does, however innovate the genre with new themes
such as the relationships between the various
characters.

10. Target Audience
The Walking Dead is rated 18, is aired at 10PM and
features graphic gory content. As a result of this we
can see it is aimed at mature audiences such as adults
so that they can relate to the protagonist, Rick. We can
also tell that it is also aimed at teens because Ricks son
Carl is a teen and is used so that teens can relate to
him.

11. Frequency
The Walking Dead has two half
seasons each year from November
to December and from February to
April. In these times there is an
episode every week usually adding
up to 16 episodes a season. The
show follows directly on from what
happened in the previous episode.
As a result of this you can really dip
in and out and watch the
occasional episode because a lot of
the characters will be talking about
things that happened in a previous
episode.