AMC's The Walking Dead and the spin-off series Fear the Walking Dead are from a franchise well known for an important reason: just as the comics keep readers on the edge of their seats, the series keep viewers biting their nails in anticipation for the next Sunday installment. In the seventh season of The Walking Dead, viewers were reminded that no one is safe and that there is more to the end of humanity than hungry corpses and broken down cars. Still, despite just how zombie media keeps an audience engaged, the question is simple - why is society so obsessed with the rise of the dead and the end of the world? While I will not claim to have any true answer to this question, I can merely present my own opinion.

Past decades have found an increase of media revolving around corrupt government and false utopias. For example, published in 1932, Aldous Huxley's The Brave New World presented a society focused around the enjoyment of inhabitants and how a system is sent into disarray when someone holds a different view of what is and what should be. Anyone who has read the novel will know that it does not end well and that there are no winners. To call upon another example, look no further than the beloved Hunger Games series. It is hard to forget the trilogy that took preteens by storm, introduced the side-braid hairstyle into mainstream for all girls, and brought outrage to the murder of children. Again, this is one of many instances in which we become obsessed with the breakdown of our own society.

How does this connect to The Walking Dead? I question whether the zombie apocalypse is any different from the brainwashed in The Brave New World, or if the murder of innocents in The Hunger Games is so far removed from killing walkers whose only true crime was dying. The nameless, the mindless, and the survivors who stand apart - is it so estranged for there to not be a connection? I think not.

Instead, I think that it is a true reflection of how people view today's world and it is a form of escapism. In order to remove ourselves from political conflict, financial strain, and other forms of strife that cover the papers and newscasts, people turn to watch or read about how survivors in The Walking Dead fight off cannibals - both living and dead - in what is a thinly veiled juxtaposition to current issues. In 2016, U.S News relayed the results of a poll in an article by Tammy Webber and Emily Swanson to show that only about 20 percent of Americans polled are content with the federal government. To back this up, the Pew Research Center has reported that only about 19 percent of Americans say that they can trust the government "always or most of the time."

What I find disturbing about this is that it is not close to an even split - in which case it could be said that one political party is satisfied while the other is not. The fact of the matter is that, whether someone is a Democrat or Republican, they are more than likely not content. If this is the case, then why not watch a show where there is no federal government to be discontent with?

Even more than the government - or lack thereof - is the way that The Walking Dead allows characters a chance to rebuild and make anew. This is displayed in both physical ways that can be seen through new communities built up over the course of the series, or internally in the characters themselves. The third season of The Walking Dead brings in Woodbury and Rick's prison, both of which are communities meant to bring back a sense of humanity and restoration to a population that has been trampled down and is outnumbered by the deceased. The walls mean protection, in a trend that has continued throughout the scramble to find Terminus, and the current setting of Alexandria.

Finally, one needs to look no further than several of the characters for a sense of hope for the better. Season one portrays Carol as a victim of abuse, but by the beginning of season five, she evolves to the circumstances and kills left and right. Glenn was a pizza delivery boy, but as early as the second episode ever, he is praised for his plans of escape and skills for scavenging. Then there was Daryl, who embodies everything that one would want to be in his situation - he is a survivor. The apocalypse brought him from the status of an unwanted outcast to someone that is needed to keep everyone alive. Fear the Walking Dead, in it's third season, has seen characters such as former-addict Nick and his mother, Madison, rise to levels of survivor that never would have been unprecedented in the first season.

Therein lies the appeal. Not only is our society discontent with our government, people are also discontent with their own ways of life. The underdogs rise up to their full potential because their success means that they can survive on their own. For that reason, in my opinion, it makes sense why people are obsessed with zombies in the current media as it means reconstruction and the downfall of a source of dissatisfaction.