Post-Apocalyptic Patriarchy : American Television and Gendered Visions of Survival

Twenty-first century American television series such as Revolution , Falling Skies , The Last Ship and The Walking Dead have depicted a variety of doomsday scenarios--nuclear cataclysm, rogue artificial intelligence, pandemic, alien invasion or zombie uprising. These scenarios speak to longstanding societal anxieties and contemporary calamities like 9/11 or the avian flu epidemic. Questions about post-apocalyptic television abound: whose voices are represented? What tomorrows are they most afraid of? What does this tell us about the world we live in today? The author analyzes these speculative futures in terms of gender, race and sexuality, revealing the fears and ambitions of a patriarchy in flux, as exemplified by the "return" to a mythical American frontier where the white male hero fights for survival, protects his family and crafts a new world order based on the old. Cover 1 Acknowledgments 6 Table of Contents 8 Preface 10 Introduction 14 1. Nuclear Attack or Nanite Apocalypse? The New Wild West 18 Jericho 21 Revolution 29 Conclusion 42 2. Pandemics, Plagues and Contagion 45 Jeremiah 46 The Last Ship 57 Conclusion 66 3. The Alien Other 68 Falling Skies 69 Colony 80 Defiance 86 Conclusion 97 4. The Zombie Renaissance 99 The Walking Dead 101 Fear the Walking Dead 118 Z Nation 123 Conclusion 130 5. Parody and the Post-Apocalypse 132 The Last Man on Earth 133 Conclusion 139 6. After the Fall—The Post-Post-Apocalypse 141 Into the Badlands 142 The 100 150 Wayward Pines 161 Conclusion 167 Contexts and Conclusions 169 Chapter Notes 180 Works Cited 184 Index 192 "Twenty-first century American television series have depicted a variety of doomsday scenarios. The author analyzes these speculative futures in terms of gender, race and sexuality, revealing the fears and ambitions of a patriarchy in flux, exemplified by the "return" to a mythical American frontier and crafts a new world order based on the old"-- Provided by publisher Introduction -- Nuclear attack or nanite apocalypse? the new wild west -- Pandemics, plagues and contagion -- The alien other -- The zombie renaissance -- Parody and the post-apocalypse -- After the fall; the post-post-apocalypse -- Contexts and conclusions Questions about post-apocalyptic television abound. Whose voices are represented? What do they want? What tomorrows are they most afraid of-and what does this tell us about the world we live in today? This book examines these issues.