In the Flesh

You can dress a zombie up but can you take him out?  This is the question asked by BBC’s In The Flesh. It is a three episode Zombie series, that has recently aired here in America. Apparently it has done well enough in the UK, that it has been renewed for a second series.  I watched episode one and it was O-K. 

            It started out well.  Creepy,  abandoned Supermarket, a lone woman looting, and when you least expect it , a zombie attack! But then you pull back and the zombie doing the attacking wakes up in panic.  He is suffering from PTSD.  While most Zombie stories end with a cure, this one starts with it. A drug has been manufactured, that stimulates cognitive thoughts, thus allowing them to live a “normal life” Of course now that he is thinking again, he can remember all the savage things he did back when he was “rabid.” The series is about rehabilitating the zombies (now referred to as sufferers of Partially deceased syndrome (PDS)) back into society and the stigma and racism that they have to deal with.

While I do think it is an interesting concept, I don’t know if I like it. The show is kind of slow paced. PSD victims are given cosmetics and contact lenses to hide their state of decay. Zombie shows/movies can be expensive due to the make-up, and “In the Flesh” they probably use this as an excuse to save money as the zombies can be filmed without their make up for much of the show. Not certain if this is ingenious or a cheat.

Zombie stories hit you on a gut emotional level…you are meant to feel it, not really think about it. People have described this series as the “Thinking Person's Walking Dead,” although if you really do think about it, it makes less sense than most zombie stories. They give the zombies contact lenses, so that they eyes no longer look dead…but the reason that they eyes look dead is because they are rotten and do not work. Therefore Zombies are blind. This doesn't stop the zombies from surfing the internet to find out more about underground website of the “zombie prophet.” There is also no real explanation to why before medication, the PSD victims would attack and eat people in the first place. So I don’t know if the show really deserves the moniker…”the thinking mans’” anything…

For the most part I am against humanizing monsters. While many argue that it makes a story more adult because it is now layered, I think it takes away from the horror and evilness of the monster. The true horror of the zombie, is while it looks like the person you know and love, it is not. That person is dead and gone and what remains is only the husk. I do give the series creater,  Dominic Mitchell points for doing something different with the genre, but I don’t know if it is for me. All in all not really a bad show…a bit slow for my liking….As it was only 3 episodes I was planning on watching the rest before I wrote my critique....but life is short...and there are so many other things I haven't watched or read yet.... and as 6 months have passed since I started this writing this entry ...let face facts... It aint happening... so here it is...albeit a little incomplete....

...Sooo I got an IPTV...oh an yeah sorry it has been so long....

Sorry it has been a while.  I really meant to try to write something at least once every month but life (or something like it) just keeps getting in the way.  I promise I will do better in the future.  October was a busy month for me.  I went to Florida for Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights, attended New York Comic Con, did the Escape from the Walking Dead survival obstacle course and attended SHIMMER. 

Of course to pay for all that fun, I had to work like a dog (which is an odd turn of phrase as every dog I have ever seen doesn’t seem to do much working or for that matter anything at all).  Now currently I work retail, which I am not fond of.  I used to be a paraprofessional, which I would much rather be again….but I digress….

With the exception attending the House of Glory wrestling show and the 50^th anniversary of Doctor Who (which I saw in 3-D in a theatre in NYC) the entirety of my November was consumed with my application to the JET Program.  I put my everything into it and I hope I am accepted.  But between applying for JET and work, I didn’t have any time to write in this blog.  But my I have applied (wish me luck) and now I have a bit more time, so here we are.

So I got an IPTV. For a while I had it good. I got a steady dose of Puroresu from my various sources. But unfortunately those sources have for the most part dried up. Well I did what any desperate fan does, I went to forums, searched the internet, and begged people in Japan to record the shows for me and was met with very little success. Unless you can count annoying a lot of people successful… so after several months if this I decided to do what I probably should have done about 14 months ago. I figured out to get these shows myself. They say, “give a man a fish and will eat for day, teach a man to fish, and he will eat for life time!” Of course they also say, “Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day. Genetically bond his DNA with that of a plant, making him a monstrous, inhuman plant monster, and he'll be able to photosynthesize nutrients forever - or until angry mobs or military forces exterminate him. Alternatively, transfer his consciousness into a robotic body, and he can run on nuclear power indefinitely, eventually going insane as the eons wear away at his frail, human mind.”---or at least PSBlake said something like that…. 

....So I got an IPTV. I have had it now for about 2 months. For some reason I keep missing OZ Academy. ｡･ﾟﾟ･(>д<)･ﾟﾟ･｡ I am timezone challenged or something. This is the 3rd time I got my sums wrong and miscalculated when it airs. Oz Academy is one of my favorite promotions and yet for some reason I keep missing it. I really wish someone would record and up to the internet as I am doing such a bad job myself. I don’t seem to have this problem with anything on SAMURAI TV.so what gives? Is it because SAMRAI’s schedule is easier to read? GAORA sports lists programs airing at 2700 hours??? How does that work when there is only 24 hours in a day? (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ It might be just the fact that SAMURAI repeats everything several times in the same day. I really wish GAORA would do that. Well my next shot at OZ is 1/21, Hopefully, I won’t bollocks it up next time. So far I feel like the worst puroresu capper in the history of puroresu capping….