I mean seriously. Where did the current pop-culture obsession with these tropes come from?
I like a good zombie /vampire/werewolf battle for supremacy as much as the next person, but every second show seems to be about them now days. Many years ago, you had to search the wasteland of free-to-air TV for anything vaguely spec fic. Now, so many shows have a spec fic premise, the genre has become mainstream.
Being Human – Why? Because it explores our shared humanity through the medium (forgive the pun) of a ghost, a werewolf and a vampire living in share-house trying to pass for human. I like it that no one has super-human powers. I like it that they aren’t amazingly rich and powerful and beautiful. I like it that they get it wrong sometimes. It’s very human.
True Blood – Why? Because it doesn’t take itself seriously. Yet they use the show to comment on the absurdities of contemporary society. It also has one of the coolest title songs I’ve ever heard and a title sequence that is truly chilling.
Dead Set – Why? Because it did take the premise seriously. The inhabitants of a Brother Brother house are just about the only people left after a zombie plague hits the world. God help us.
Why werewolfs, zombies and vampires?
Because they reflect our preoccupation with what it is to be human. Life and death, and that space in between. The animalistic part of the human overtaking the civilised part.
What I’m trying to do with this round-up is point out that even tropes that may seem tired can be give a new slant and used to explore the human condition. It’s up to us as writers to follow the angle that fascinates us. If one of our characters won’t let us go and the problems associated with them are so interesting we catch ourselves daydreaming about them at traffic lights, then we owe it to ourselves to write their story and see where it takes us.
What TV shows have you seen recently that made you sit up and take notice? I’m always looking for something obscure and interesting that pushes the envelope.
Mad Genius Club 
15 responses to “What is it with Zombie, Vampires and Werewolves?”
Have you taken a look at Misfits? It is a super powers show but certainly is different to any other show I have seen.
The heroes(?) are a group of teens doing community service who get powers when they get caught in a storm. You know this isn’t going to be a vanilla series when they end the first episode killing their probation worker who also got caught in the storm and went berserk.
I only got into Misfits when they were showing the second series on the ABC(it is a UK production) but am glad I did.
Saw Misfits, Brendan. Loved it. The writing was excellent. Great characterisation, really snappy dialogue.
Excuse me for a ridiculous question. I know all the Mad Geniuses have a rotating schedule. But which of you wrote the blog entry? If there’s a signature/attribution somewhere, I can’t find it.
Thanks!
Gaaaah. Sorry, Lin W. Will fix this right away.My Bad!
Nice post.
Is next week a follow up exploring some of the various uses in books and what that might say either about the authors world view or about the social history of their universe?
Mike, I was hoping that by starting with shows we’ve all seen that would generate discussion on specific books.
For instance, Trent Jamieson does some clever thigns with his Death Works series. Death is a coprorate business and there’s a hostile take-over. The zombies in it are re-animated corpses being used by the would-be CEO. The book explores how we regard life and death, the mind-set of large corporations and asks how far would you go for someone you love? To death to bring them back?
Here’s the link to his web page.
http://www.trentjamieson.com
I wonder what it means that as far as I can tell, Japanese television hasn’t turned to this? There’s a fairly rich ghost, monsters, and so on strain in Japanese storytelling and manga, but I don’t think we’ve got regular dramas. Heck, we don’t even seem to be importing the twilight, true blood, and others. Something to think about…
I have a friend who married a Japanese man and lived there for 14 years. Totally different world view.
She’s very good at creating aliens – meaning being able to slip into a completely different world-view.
Ha! Talking of world view, I am re-reading Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age, and have just finished the section that outlines the first meeting between Judge Fang and Dr X. With hours wasted in trivialities and empty politeness, they separate with nothing of substance said at all. To highlight though the difference between Western and Eastern cultures Neal ends with the line “The Judge was quite happy; it had all gone just as planned”.
Interesting, Brendan.
Every now and then we need to be jolted by something like that to remind us our world view is limited. I think of it as doing mental yoga.
I liked the televised version of Tanya Huff’s “Blood” series of books. But then, Ms. Huff’s books are among the few “vampires aren’t necessarily bad guys” books that I’ve enjoyed reading. At least the vampires remain dangerous predators, they remain _vampires_, instead of angtsy fluffy bunnies with fangs.
Recently I’ve started getting interested in True Blood, starting from the beginning. I just finished the first season’s eps and am sufficiently interested to be seeking out the second.
In addition, I am looking for recommendations on “good” (for sufficient values of “good”) paranormal romance. I’ve got a concept for something in that vein and figure I should know something about the genre before trying to write in it. 😉
Hi David,
I really like what they are doing with True Blood. I laugh aloud during the show.
As for paranormal romance I don’t think you can go past the first 5 of Laurell K Hamilton’s Anita Blake books. The world building is excellent, the character is well drawn and there’s an intriguing mystery to be solved.
Nalini Singh writes a good book. Her psy-changling series is near future and the world building is excellent.
And if you are serious about studying the genre, then look up the shortlist for the RITA Award on the RWAmerica site. Buy or borrow the books shortlisted for the paranormal romance section. This will show you where the genre is today.
Ooh, good advice. Thank you.
Question: Do you know Huff’s “Blood” books (“Blood Price”, et al)? The show “Blood Ties” was very loosely based on it. Would that fall within the range of “paranormal romance” (although I tend to think of it more as “paranormal mysteries” myself, there is a fairly strong romantic element to it).
Don’t know that one. I like to read the books that get shortlisted for awards to see what’s happening with the genre.