An Open Letter to the Producers and Writers of the The Walking Dead

Now that Season Two has drawn to a close, I’d like to thank the cast and crew of the show for a great season of television.   This “zombie movie that never ends,” as Mr. Kirkman put it, is better than anything else on TV in my opinion.   Nowhere have I seen the stark realities of survival portrayed quite as vividly, especially the intense psychological stress of a survival situation.  The cast is fantastic.  The production values are high.  The universe you have created is a rich tapestry that revels in the bleakness of its central premise of a zombie apocalypse.

That being said . . .

I have been a regular visitor to some of the bulletin boards maintained by members of the preparedness community where your show is discussed, and frankly, many of us “preppers” are a bit concerned.  There have been instances where characters have taken reckless actions that seem contrived only to advance the plot.   The expanded episode count and pacing of this season have allowed you time to explore more of what living in this world is like, but many times the day-to-day struggle to survive has been perceived by many in the audience as taking a back seat to the character drama (or some would say melodrama).  Preppers are passionate about this show because the zombie premise is a stand-in for so many different types of emergency situations and disasters and your series serves as a primer to the uninitiated regarding what may happen and how to prepare and respond to a natural or manmade disaster.

So here, I humbly submit the following suggestions for you to consider as you break the major plotlines for next season.  Feel free to laugh, cry, or mock me as you stare at your computer screen.  Please keep in mind is that I am passionate because I care.

Make group security absolutely the first concern.  For too long the survivors lived an unguarded and idyllic existence at the farm, and paid the price for their complacency when their stronghold was overrun.  Security HAS to be the first priority.  If you have food and water, but no security, you are at the mercy of walkers or groups like Randall’s friends who want to take it from you.  Once they clear the prison facility of walkers at the beginning of next season, here are some ideas for increasing security.

Lock down the ground floor.  This is similar to what they did at the farm, but the covering of the window needs to be more robust.  It wouldn’t be a bad idea to cinderblock windows and certain doors if there are some on the property.  The design of the prison should help here.  Make sure you have one way in and one way out for new people, and plan routes out of sections so if one point of the prison is overrun, people can retreat to safety.

Get some more guns and ammo.  Locate and lock down the prison armory, if it has one.   Retrieve those weapons and distribute firearms and ammunition to the group.  Everyone should have a gun.  If there is not an armory, then someone needs to retrieve a phone book and find the closest gun store so that the survivors can retrieve weapons from there.  While we’re at it, we preppers sure do hope the next time you find an overrun Army garrison you pick up all the M-4s, M-16s and 5.56 ammunition.  A thirty round magazine sure does beat a six shooter when the zombies come marching.

No one goes outside the wire in less than groups of three.  That way, if one person is injured, two can carry him.  It also allows scavenging parties to carry more.  Hopefully this will keep Lori and Carl out of trouble.  Somehow I doubt it.

Practice noise and light discipline.  Morgan and Duane got it right in the very first episode.  Use blackout curtains or blankets to cover the windows at night.  While we’re on this subject, they should really find a couple more compound bows or even a .22 pistol with a suppressor fairly easy.  It’s Georgia. Lots of people own guns and bows.  Suppressors are legal, and at least one company in the state makes them for pistols.   Get some subsonic ammo and you’re set.  

Once everything is locked down, you can start doing some big time scavenging.