The season premiere of “Walking Dead” aired last night and I hadn’t planned on watching, but when show time rolled around, I thought I’d check it out. Mark and I used to watch the show regularly, but hadn’t been into it much last season and I was curious about whether I would be able to pick up the plot.
When you watch a show about the zombie apocalypse you have to expect some graphic violence – flesh eating un-dead creatures hunting their next meal of human flesh. Zombie violence. But that’s not what I saw. What I saw disturbed me so much I was unsettled and anxious all night.
There were no zombies in the scene that caused me to stop watching. It was a scene with graphic, unnecessary, inhumane violence carried out by a male character.
Thankfully, I’m able to turn off the television or switch the channel. Unfortunately, I couldn’t un-see the scene. And it got to me.
Here’s a list of what bothered me about the scene:
- Masochistic nature of the violence
- Graphic, excessive detail of a violent death
- Inhumanity of the character
- Other people in the scene standing around watching
I know it’s fiction, but I had a lot of trouble going to sleep. I felt anxious and unsettled. Maybe it’s because I’m older that I have no stomach for that type of graphic violence. Maybe I just don’t want to see it.
Whatever it is, I’ve resolved to do a better job filtering the messages to my brain, not because I think violent messages will make me more violent.
It’s because once I see it, I can’t un-see it and I don’t want that view of the world to settle in my brain – zombie apocalypse or not.
