Greetings, reader!
The second season of the hit series The Last of Us wrapped up last week, and this got me thinking - as far as making top lists goes, it would be a damn interesting challenge to make a ranking of the greatest 'zombie episodes' from TV shows, thus comparing regular episodes from zombie shows to individual zombie-themed episodes from shows that aren't usually about zombies. After putting a lot of thought into this very arbitrary ranking, I decided that these are the greatest episodes of zombie television! Please note that they've been ranked purely based on how good they are as zombie fiction, and not on how good the overall episode is (therefore, no season 1 episode 3 from The Last of Us, which is a masterpiece of television but has very little to do with zombies despite the show's overall genre).
Oh, and a spoiler alert is order, so be sure to skip anything you haven't seen but might want to see some day!
Here are my honorable mentions: Beyond the Wall (Game of Thrones, Season 7 Episode 6), Feel Her Love (The Last of Us, Season 2 Episode 5), Oxygen (Doctor Who, Season 10 Episode 5), Treehouse of Horrors XX (The Simpsons, Season 21 Episode 4), When the Dead Come Knocking (The Walking Dead, Season 3 Episode 7).
15. Killer Within (The Walking Dead, Season 3 Episode 4)
In the third season of the Citizen Kane of zombie television, the main group of survivors takes shelter in an abandoned prison. Killer Within is the notorious episode where shit hits the fan, as the perimeter is breached and the prison is breached by a horde of walkers. In a show full of intense humans vs. zombies action sequences, the main chaos set piece from this episode is definitely one of the more memorable ones, and the walkers rarely felt as dangerous as they did here.
14. Look for the Light (The Last of Us, Season 1 Episode 9)
An episode from a zombie show can be great zombie fiction even if it's low on horror and suspense, as proved by the season 1 finale of The Last of Us. This episode makes it onto the list largely because of its take on the genre's sci-fi side (How does the fictional zombie virus work? Is there a cure? If yes, how does it work? Et cetera), and the ethical dilemmas that it implies.
Look for the Light focuses heavily on Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and her case of immunity from the virus, as well as the lengths that Joel (Pedro Pascal) is willing to go to in order to protect her. The classic "the needs of the many vs. the needs of the few, or the one" moral dilemma is on full display, in a manner that would make the original Star Trek writers proud.
13. The Maureen Ponderosa Wedding Massacre (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Season 8 Episode 3)
And here we have one of the many instances on today's list where a non-zombie show has produced a fantastic individual zombie episode! Okay, technically this wildly chaotic sitcom episode should be disqualified, because the answer to the mystery didn't turn out to be actual zombies. But, for a majority of the episode, Mac (Rob McElhenney) and Charlie (Charlie Day) sure think that it is, and the episode utilizes the tropes and conventions of the zombie genre to create a hilariously horror-spoofing atmosphere. Good stuff.
12. What If...Zombies?! (What If...?, season 1 episode 5)
Marvel found a way to adapt some of its more obscure comic book storylines to be a part of the MCU with the gimmicky What If...? series - and one of them is this gem, where the world is overrun by zombies. A very fun crossover of the superhero and zombie genres.
11. No Way Out (The Walking Dead, Season 6 Episode 9)
Ah, this is the stuff. By season 6, it felt like a tried-and-true formula for The Walking Dead - the survivors find a new safehaven, are there for about a season's duration, and then it gets overrun by zombies and the survivors are forced to evacuate in a chaotic and dramatic manner. History seemed to be repeating itself when Alexandria was breached by a massive herd of walkers in season 6 - but this time, Rick Grimes and company decided that they've been through too much and won't escape again, but rather will fight back despite the odds. The human vs. zombie action in this episode is insanely intense, and the payoff hits hard when Alexandria prevails.
10. The Unquiet Dead (Doctor Who, season 1 episode 3)
Only Doctor Who could pull off a combination this unhinged. In fact, it's episodes like this that make me imagine that the producers and writers of the series come up with episode premises by pulling random sci-fi plot elements from a hat and going with it. I mean, how else do you come up with going back in time to the 1800's, only to find that villainous aliens are also there, and that they are basically zombies, so now you're fighting the living dead, in Victorian England - with your new pal Charles Dickens? Anyways, the Charles Dickens zombie episode is gold.
9. When You're Lost in the Darkness (The Last of Us, Season 1 Episode 1)
The beginning act of a zombie story is often the best - nothing quite like starting off in the normal world, and seeing the utmost chaos unfold as the virus starts to spread and everything goes to hell. The pilot episode of The Last of Us does that, using its first act to properly introduce the Cordyceps parasite before jumping ahead to the time frame where the rest of the series will take place. The episode is intense as hell, and does a brilliant job introducing us to the big-screen adaptation of the video game world's most iconic zombie virus.
8. Treehouse of Horrors III (The Simpsons, Season 4 Episode 5)
"Dad, you killed zombie Flanders!"
"He was a zombie??"
That exchange alone makes the Dial "Z" for Zombies segment into one of the better parodies of the zombie genre. But it's not only that - from the Pet Sematary -inspired opening to the fantasy-spoofing ending, everything about this zombie-movie homage is pretty great.
7. The Grove (The Walking Dead, Season 4 Episode 14)
This is one of those instances where it could be argued that it doesn't belong on the list, as it's more about human drama than the horror and action generally belonging to the zombie genre. But, the thing is - the human drama in The Grove, one of the most gripping The Walking Dead episodes, is very much connected to the show's zombie apocalypse and its implications.
In what is probably the most heartbreaking storyline ever seen in the show's 11-season run, we follow sisters Lizzie and Mika, who had to grow up during the pandemic and who the post-apocalyptic society affected in a severely f**ked-up manner. The Grove is the episode where it all comes to a head - Lizzie is so sure that people are "supposed" to get bitten and turn, that when the sisters are left unsupervised, she stabs her sister in an attempt to prove her point. The final moments of the episode, where Carol has to make some impossible decisions regarding Lizzie, are absolutely haunting, making this episode into a fine example of the psychological side of the zombie genre.
6. Through the Valley (The Last of Us, Season 2 Episode 2)
Ah, this is the stuff. While the already-notorious second episode of the second season is remembered best by Joel’s tragic death, I’d argue that the ”B-story” of the episode plays just as big of a part in making the episode one of the show’s best. In that storyline, we follow the long-standing survivor community of Jackson, Wyoming being under attack as a herd of terrifying, evolved zombies breaches the perimiter. The action sequences are directed with brilliance, making for one of the most dramatic, high-stakes humans vs. zombies battles in the genre’s history.
5. Beside the Dying Fire (The Walking Dead, Season 2 Episode 13)
The season 2 finale of The Walking Dead is great zombie fiction for a couple of reasons. First of all, the sequence of the zombies overrunning Herschel’s farm, as the main survivors scramble to escape and survive, is the stuff of legends. But also, this is the episode where the very nature of the series changes, as we learn a game-changing key fact: as uttered by Rick Grimes in a heartbreaking line delivery by Andrew Lincoln, ”we’re all infected”.
Of course, Rick learned about this in the season 1 finale, but this is when the audience (and the rest of the main group) finds out this devastating truth. This alters the nature of the show’s setting and its fictional zombie virus: in a genre often leaning on the ”you only turn into a zombie if you’re bitten by a zombie” plot device, it’s refreshing and drastic to suddenly realize you’re in the middle of a story where the rules are changed, and that everyone who dies will eventually turn. It’s a dark twist, but a great one, with implications that carry on for the rest of the series.
4. Endure and Survive (The Last of Us, Season 1 Episode 5)
While not quite in the highest tier of The Last of Us episodes as overall television, I vehemently believe that this season 1 gem is the show’s finest hour when considering greatness purely as a zombie series. The major action sequence at the end is claustrophobic, well-choreographed and just intense as hell, feeling like the natural next step in the evolution of the genre. It is for modern production values what The Night of the Living Dead was for the 60’s.
Endure and Survive also features some kick-ass worldbuilding, as we learn a lot more about the show’s zombie virus variant and see many different types of Cordyceps zombies for the first time: it’s not just runners and stalkers now, but clickers and bloaters as well, which is pretty f**king terrifying to behold.
3. Hardhome (Game of Thrones, Season 5 Episode 8)
Okay, some purists say that the White Walkers and wights from Game of Thrones aren't zombies. But, if I were to go the route of elitism, there wouldn't be anything left on the list - the word "zombie" is never used on The Walking Dead or The Last of Us, so technically they shouldn't count either, as their living-dead-monsters are walkers or infected and not zombies. But, let's be real - if it walks like a zombie, talks garbled nonsense like a zombie, and wants to eat your brains like a zombie, it's a zombie.
And as long as the fantasy ice zombies from Game of Thrones count, Hardhome is one the finest hours of zombie fiction in the television medium.
It's a classic case of build-up and payoff: the White Walkers had been teased for four and a half season, with only mysterious small bits of pieces at a time, only once or twice per season. And this episode is where shit finally hit the fan, in a manner that felt both sudden and anticipated. All the sudden, the entire stakes and nature of the series are shifted, as the sequence at the end of Hardhome proved just what a dire and existential threat the Night King's army was. The sequence, directed by Miguel Sapochnik, can't even be called a "battle sequence", because what goes down is so much more chaotic and brutal than a conventional movie/TV battle - I think "slaughter" or "bloodshed" is more accurate. But, yeah, it's extremely well-directed, it puts the White Walkers on the forefront as the show's most compelling antagonists, and it really stays with you.
2. Days Gone Bye (The Walking Dead, Season 1 Episode 1)
Here's my hot take of the day - not only does The Walking Dead have the better pilot, but it is the overall better zombie TV series, when compared to The Last of Us. I know that the popular opinion is along the lines of "TWD walked so TLOU could run", and I get that - the newer one does many things better, notably the higher production value. But as overall television and as a zombie series, I still see The Walking Dead as slightly superior - for whatever reason, the sense of against-all-odds survival, post-apocalypse survival tactics, and the way in which the zombie-related storylines are written and executed just hits even harder here.
And nowhere is that more evident than the pilot.
While it isn't quite the show's best episode, Days Gone Bye is one of the better pilots in modern TV history, and a pitch-perfect introduction to this particular post-apocalypse scenario. The opening scene, where Rick Grimes wakes up in an abandoned hospital, walks to the parking lot, encounters a little girl, realizes what she is, and has to shoot her, is arguably the most gripping way in which any television show has kicked off its run. From thereon out, the pilot is full of iconic imagery - Morgan explaining how the zombies operate and can be killed, Rick riding the horse into the forever-changed downtown Atlanta, and the intense ending with the tank and the radio contact.
Frank Darabont's directing gives the episode a cinematic feel, one that feels strikingly realistic despite the outlandish nature of the genre - it really feels "yeah, a zombie apocalypse will never happen, but if it would, society would go down exactly like this".
1. Epidemiology (Community, Season 2 Episode 6)
Okay, it feels like cheating to put a parody of the genre at #1, and I know what it looks like (me putting my favorite series at #1 no matter what the list). But, really, I looked long and hard at the genre and its TV representation from all different angles, and this was the inevitable conclusion. This spoof of the zombie genre is the greatest-ever episode of zombie TV in my view. Yes, it isn't as scary and intense as the best The Last of Us / The Walking Dead episodes. But what Epidemiology does for the genre is arguably even more groundbreaking: great zombie films had been made before the great zombie TV shows more or less did the same with a slightly new twist, but this Community episode became the definite zombie comedy (come for me, Shaun of the Dead fans) in an utterly unique fashion.
The more you're familiar with the genre, the more you'll laugh at the pitch-perfect moments of making light here, ranging from satire to homage and everything in between. The premise is a pretty f**king clever way to justify a zombie episode in a sitcom about a community college, the more intense sequences are actually really well-directed, and the style choice of the soundtrack being ABBA's greatest hits is bizarre yet absolutely magnificent. This episode has so much fun with the genre and its every single trope, and reads like a love letter to zombie fiction (but also a fun-poking parody of it).
Thank you for reading! Tune in next week for my annual Pride Month post - this year, it's a ranking of the top 10 LGBTQ+ love stories from television.
No comments:
Post a Comment