Genre Character of the week: Greg Preston

As much as I love a good show about zombies (why won't October come sooner The Walking Dead?) I  am a fan of all sorts of post-apocayptic set ups, and today I'm thinking specifically of the pandemic scenario, wherein a fast moving disease drops the world's population by a huge amount.  In books like The Stand and Earth Abides, or television shows like Survivors.

Which brings me to this week's genre character, Greg Preston.

Before the influenza virus wipes out most of the world in the story, Greg was a systems analyst, not necessarily what you would expect when you think of post-apocalyptic survivor, but what sets Greg apart almost immediately is his initial quick thinking, leaving a city filled with the dead but making sure to stop at a Camping supply store first.

Played by Paterson Joseph Greg comes across as a man doing his best under extreme circumstances.  Initially he plans to go it on his own, but after meeting with a woman named Abby Grant, he joins a small band of survivors, trying to make their way in this strange new world.

If you haven't checked out the show yet (which itself is a reboot of a series of the same name from the 70s), it's well worth the watch, very intense, and leading to a lot of self examination, if almost everyone around you had died, what would you do?

Genre Character of the Week: Ben

Last weekend my daughter Kaia and I watched the original Night of the Living Dead, you see, she's become a pretty big fan of horror comedies, and as she has her eye on Shaun of the Dead, I figured that she should actually see some of the movies that those guys were parodying.

Anyway, as we watched the movie I realized that I hadn't done many classic horror characters as genre characters so I thought I would look at the one I liked best from that film, Ben.

Here's the thing about the characters in the film, with the exception of Ben (who's last name we never learn) everyone is pretty much ruled by their emotions or in a state of shock. Understandable, yes, but useful in a zombie apocalypse scenario - not really. Ben shows up about 20 minutes into the movie and up to this point we've just had Barbara freaking out by all the zombies chasing her. Taking shelter in an old house, she meets Ben, who begins to systematically set up the place for a siege.

What I like about Ben, he's pretty no nonsense, he's clearly the best guy to put in charge and he's working to save everyone's life. Also I'm fairly certain that he was the inspiration for the character Greg Preston (my personal favourite character in the reboot of Survivors - also a pretty no-nonsense guy who makes sure his first stop after the end times come is a camping store).