Our Family Obsession With ‘The Walking Dead’

Is ‘The Walking Dead’ a new obsession or the new ‘Andy Griffith Show’?

I sat down this morning to write an article about my obsession with the TV series ‘The Walking Dead’ and realized that this show is more than a fascination for me.

Let’s get to the root of this story. On Black Friday of this year my wife and I found ourselves in Best Buy around midnight. After much digging through an endless barrel of b-movie DVDs my wife decided she wanted to get a season or two of a TV series for us to watch together. She says, “I’ve heard ‘The Walking Dead’ was good. Let’s get it!”

Needless to say we went home with Season One and this is where the obsession begins.

Night one: My wife and son retreat to our bedroom to watch episodes 1 & 2 while I sit and watch one of the many shows I DVR each week, quite possibly ‘The Voice’ or ‘Restaurant: Impossible’.

Night two: They are hooked and cannot stop talking about ‘The Walking Dead’.

Night three: After much persuading I am talked into sitting and watching episode one. Then I watch episode two.

Night four: I agree it’s good and we watch episode 3 together.

Little did we know it but we had just found something to bring us closer. Something we enjoyed together. We’ve found a common interest to start conversations with. We now enjoy nights, lying on the couch, talking, and sharing our excitement as we watch something together. I realize we could be exercising or playing board games as a family but for my bunch, this is a major accomplishment. With two parents working two busy jobs and a twelve year old with endless energy, it’s hard to find the time to sit and do any one thing as a group. Well, not anymore.

I remember as a kid we would all come together to watch ‘The Andy Griffith Show’ or at 7pm on Thursday nights we would all gather around the television to watch ‘The Cosby Show’. ‘The Walking Dead’ is far removed from wholesome family entertainment but my family is a more cohesive unit because of it.

We’ve since signed up for Netflix and are almost finished with Season Two. Yes, we are obsessed, but are obsessed together.