TELEVISION
WALKERS, WALLS AND crusaders. All of humanity bifurcated into a good-vs.-evil, winnertake- all main event while a greater existential threat—the zombie apocalypse— looms. Add to that a callous indifference on the part of showrunners to killing off (and then occasionally resurrecting) a beloved main character. As the October 22 Season 8 premiere of The Walking Dead approaches, we wonder if AMC’s megahit is not Game of Thrones with a more penurious per-episode budget.
The Walking Dead premiered on Halloween night, 2010, and has since become the most-watched series in cable television history. Five months later, Game of Thrones made its debut on HBO and has since whacked The Sopranos as the mostwatched show ever on premium cable. For the first few years of their existence, the shows seemed to have little in common besides their massive audiences and roots in fantasy.