Monday, October 28, 2013

The Sporting Apocalypse

I feel like I've spent the afternoon at Walt's sister's house, without leaving Davis. They are sports people and we all know that I am not. At this time of year, my brother-in-law watches every football game broadcast and subscribes to something called "the red zone," which puts up a screen of every game that is going on at the same time, so you don't miss anything.  When there is no game on, he often replays a game that he has recorded, even if he's already seen it.  No watching endless NCIS reruns with Joe around.  

When the seasons change, the games change.  I don't think he watches curling or equestrian events, but there are precious few sports that he does not follow.  Baseball... basketball... soccer (I think).  

Don't get me wrong.  I love the guy and he would give you the shirt off his back.  His love of sports (in addition to their meshing personalities) is what made such good friends of him and Tom, when he rented a room from Joe "for a couple of months" (which turned into more than a year) until Tom met Laurel.
It's just that his and my tastes in television definitely do not mesh.

However, this morning Walt and I watched the 49er game from London (they won!).  

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It was followed by the end of another game with two teams, both in blue (one light, one dark) that had an amazing literally last second touchdown that won the game for one of the teams.  I wasn't rooting for either one of them, but cheered when the guy got the touchdown.

Suddenly I was watching the end of the Redskins game.  Of course, since Walt is from the DC area and his cousin, who lives there, broadcasts sports for Fox, we always cheer for the Redskins. Walt was,by this time, outside doing yard work, but I reported excitedly that the Redskins had scored two touchdowns within five minutes (sadly they went on to lose spectaculary, 45-21).

I can't remember if there was another football game on after the Redskins game, but it was either after the Redskins game or the one after it when the 4th game of the World Series started.  Naturally, we are hoping for the Red Sox to take it all, because that is Jeri & Phil's team.

By now I had been immersed in sports all afternoon and I really wanted to watch the Series game, but also had become interested in zombies.   (How's that for a non-sequetur?)

See, someone in a discussion group happened to mention that she couldn't see what the big deal about zombies is, and how they seem to be all the rage these days.  I said that I didn't get it either and then posted a question on Facebook to find out what the big deal was.  Here are some of the answers I got.
  • They eat brains! What's more exciting than that?
  • Walking Dead had the temerity to be a brilliantly acted, directed and written show. Everybody wants on the band wagon.
  • 3 words: The Walking Dead. And a few more words: best TV show to air since Breaking Bad, and just happens to share the same network. I had never watched a zombie movie or show (0 interest) until my son got me to go back and watch the first season, right before the second season was to start. Now I can't wait for Sunday nights!
  • The Walking Dead...Am glued to it!!
Well, by this time, and having heard lots of good things about The Walking Dead, which several people says has some of the best writing on television, I decided that I would watch the first couple of episodes (streaming from Netflix) while I was watching the baseball.

After I had finished 1-1/2 episodes, I posted this to facebook...
Ok. I watched the first episode. I have questions. Why do all zombies have bad teeth?
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If you are DEAD why are you hungry? If you are the "walking DEAD" how can you be "killed"? If you're shot, and have no beating heart, why do you bleed?  Why aren't all dead people zombies and who decides who gets to be a zombie? And if you're killed, can you come back as another undead?   I assume that if I watch further I will eventually find out what the hell happened in the first place.
"What the hell happened in the first place" would refer to the zombie apocalypse that apparently occurred while the hero of the show was in a coma. 

I wasn't liking this show so I checked out the synoposis of Season 1 and it appears it's just more of what I didn't like in the first place -- dazed dead people wandering around moaning, eating flesh (for reasons I'm still not sure of), and chasing "normal" people -- and the remaining "normal" people banding together and bringing out the worst in each other.  I'm sure Walt will be happy to hear that I am not going to be doing a marathon of Walking Dead.

But it was a good afternoon, overall.  The game was very good and the Red Sox won (yay!), and Walt decided to give me the night off from cooking and went out for Chinese food from our favorite Chinese restuarant.

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