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AMC's The Walking Dead
Aug. 17th, 2011 04:45 am
Rob & I just finished watching AMC's The Walking Dead, season 1. It's good, and I enjoyed it immensely, but something is bothering me.
I haven't ever read the comic book series, and I'm not one to read all the forums & blogs that pop up around a series like this. Maybe it's explained somewhere in the canon...
This series takes place in the outskirts of Atlanta, GA. In the summer time from the looks of the sweat coating these people on a regular basis. They're all wearing light hiking/outdoorsy clothing for the most part. Considering the heat and humidity of a Georgia summer, why do none of the actual recently dead bodies display any signs of bloat? I could understand people drying into beef jerky here in Nevada, but Georgia? In the Summer? Indoors or outdoors, none of the dead folk are swollen up like sausages. Generally speaking, gas putrefaction lasts from a few days to a little over a week. So why no puffy bodies? Too graphic, or something? I've seen dead things in the southeast during spring & summer, and those remains can remain squishy for a little longer than the average. In the series, around the CDC, there were bodies that were partially skeletonized, meaning they had been dead about 3 weeks, maybe a little longer from the dryness of hair and remaining facial muscles. There were also bodies taking up more space, in other words, fresher. It irks me.
The other thing that's really getting to me is the total lack of scavengers. Aside from a few crows and flies/maggots (which also tie into that bloat-decomp cycle thing), there are no other scavengers. No rats, cats, dogs, foxes, 'coons, 'possums... no large scavengers at all. There are also no dead rats, cats, dogs, foxes, 'coons, 'possums... What kind of alternate reality is this? It just ain't natural. I mean, if Las Vegas has rats and mice, and a decent feral cat population, along with feral dogs, urban foxes & coyotes (and bark scorpions, even though they don't scavenge), where are all of Georgia's urban wildlife hiding out at? There are foxes & coyotes in Georgia, too, along with ravens, vultures, crows, magpies & other opportunistic feeders.
Rob's been squeamish about the scenes where people are just walking casually through and around mounds of dead bodies. Many people operate under the false notion that dead bodies are somehow dangerous, carry contagions, can make you sick just by smelling the funk. Every time he brings it up, I get into this discussion with him. Aside from cholera and a few other microorganisms that can live in the water supply, dead people do not spread disease. Most viral, bacterial & parasitic organisms cannot thrive and multiply inside a dead host, let alone infect a new one. In some cases, there may be fungal spores, but those mostly aren't dangerous, either. As long as you don't have any open sores & aren't rolling around in the carcasses, dead people can't do much to the living. HIV can survive on surfaces, including dead tissue, up to about 3 weeks - but if you aren't using dead people's bodily fluids as personal lubricant, you're not going to catch anything. Granted, the zombie factor in The Walking Dead is an unknown, meaning that it could be like cholera and still viable after a person dies. In fact, it most likely is since it's transmitted from dead people to the living via bodily fluid contamination. But in the real world, bodies don't pose much of a threat, other than to one's sensibilities. Embalming fluid is the real toxin. I did have to concede to his point about the bubonic & various other rodent-vector plagues. Yes, the vermin attracted to dead bodies of anything do carry potentially dangerous parasites.
Oh, yeah, there's the other serious, extremely fast-moving threat to human habitats in Georgia.
Kudzu.
I haven't ever read the comic book series, and I'm not one to read all the forums & blogs that pop up around a series like this. Maybe it's explained somewhere in the canon...
This series takes place in the outskirts of Atlanta, GA. In the summer time from the looks of the sweat coating these people on a regular basis. They're all wearing light hiking/outdoorsy clothing for the most part. Considering the heat and humidity of a Georgia summer, why do none of the actual recently dead bodies display any signs of bloat? I could understand people drying into beef jerky here in Nevada, but Georgia? In the Summer? Indoors or outdoors, none of the dead folk are swollen up like sausages. Generally speaking, gas putrefaction lasts from a few days to a little over a week. So why no puffy bodies? Too graphic, or something? I've seen dead things in the southeast during spring & summer, and those remains can remain squishy for a little longer than the average. In the series, around the CDC, there were bodies that were partially skeletonized, meaning they had been dead about 3 weeks, maybe a little longer from the dryness of hair and remaining facial muscles. There were also bodies taking up more space, in other words, fresher. It irks me.
The other thing that's really getting to me is the total lack of scavengers. Aside from a few crows and flies/maggots (which also tie into that bloat-decomp cycle thing), there are no other scavengers. No rats, cats, dogs, foxes, 'coons, 'possums... no large scavengers at all. There are also no dead rats, cats, dogs, foxes, 'coons, 'possums... What kind of alternate reality is this? It just ain't natural. I mean, if Las Vegas has rats and mice, and a decent feral cat population, along with feral dogs, urban foxes & coyotes (and bark scorpions, even though they don't scavenge), where are all of Georgia's urban wildlife hiding out at? There are foxes & coyotes in Georgia, too, along with ravens, vultures, crows, magpies & other opportunistic feeders.
Rob's been squeamish about the scenes where people are just walking casually through and around mounds of dead bodies. Many people operate under the false notion that dead bodies are somehow dangerous, carry contagions, can make you sick just by smelling the funk. Every time he brings it up, I get into this discussion with him. Aside from cholera and a few other microorganisms that can live in the water supply, dead people do not spread disease. Most viral, bacterial & parasitic organisms cannot thrive and multiply inside a dead host, let alone infect a new one. In some cases, there may be fungal spores, but those mostly aren't dangerous, either. As long as you don't have any open sores & aren't rolling around in the carcasses, dead people can't do much to the living. HIV can survive on surfaces, including dead tissue, up to about 3 weeks - but if you aren't using dead people's bodily fluids as personal lubricant, you're not going to catch anything. Granted, the zombie factor in The Walking Dead is an unknown, meaning that it could be like cholera and still viable after a person dies. In fact, it most likely is since it's transmitted from dead people to the living via bodily fluid contamination. But in the real world, bodies don't pose much of a threat, other than to one's sensibilities. Embalming fluid is the real toxin. I did have to concede to his point about the bubonic & various other rodent-vector plagues. Yes, the vermin attracted to dead bodies of anything do carry potentially dangerous parasites.
Oh, yeah, there's the other serious, extremely fast-moving threat to human habitats in Georgia.
Kudzu.
