The Army has deserters but it wouldn't happen this quickly for the major armed forces. This isn't something that is easily explained to someone who has never been in the military. But trust me, major armed forces personnel would not desert this quickly, as I said maybe one or two but not this quickly we are talking months here. The National Guard is made up of civilians which makes this believable otherwise it wouldn't be.
Sure, that's fine. We also don't know the timeline involved here, nor do we know the state of the world.
Yeah, I just want to add that people who desert in the major armed forces, usually do so because they have been on multiple deployments and they have PTSD, this is why the majority of Army desertion cases are not prosecuted. It would be way too early for that to happen here. I really think though, they missed an opportunity to show how things got this way instead they are making it a mystery still and I think people will stop watching. The characters are just too dumb and the story-line feels as if it's going nowhere.
I think it would be awesome if every character dies a brutal death in the next episode. Make this only a one season show.
I think the difficult thing to measure based on real world experience is summed up in Strand's comments about the "old rules". Nobody in the Army today can say for sure how they'd react to their commitment when the United States disintigrated. Exactly when people would realize this not clear to me. I think a lot of training is build around making people fall back on the comfort of the command structure, but to the degree that people realize it isn't recoversble, at that point you'd have a significant fraction thinking thoughts about deserting that they would never otherwise contemplate. It would also make others dig their heals in to this clarity of following orders. But I believe a fraction would see that as the moment to say, "F this" It's not clear to me exactly how much that has sunk in. I know that the impending "cobalt" command would also make a bunch of people think about deserting, even soldiers who are otherwise impeccably loyal. Killing US civilians is kind of a third rail for the military. The irony of the LT's speech to Travis about being a bunch of murderers when the Barrett is pointed at the zombie waitress illustrates this.
I think that sums it up nicely. Some would see the military as the only chance anyone has and they'd stand firm, some would freak out about losing their families or whatever back home, some would freak out about the job when it entailed killing civilians, some would just lose hope in the success of the mission and go rogue thinking they'd do better on their own as a smaller target. I think the numbers when it comes to desertion and mutiny would be a lot higher in the Reserve and National Guard, but obviously it would be a problem for the "real" Army as well (saying it that way always pisses off Reserve and National Guard). You'd have to have absolutely stellar leadership for large units to stay intact if something of that scale happened. If they are too lenient, things would go to hell, if they were too strict, mutiny. Since it would be such a delicate balancing act, you'd probably end up with numerous pockets of military across the country with safe zones, but nothing really tying them together.
the only appealing character is the lieutenant, rightly annoyed with the sanctimonious, helpless family and their idiot emo children
I think the 6 episodes were pretty well done and the finale was the strongest. Not exactly holding my breath for season 2 but I'll watch. It doesn't bother me at all none of the main characters are likable.
So our heroes unleashed a stadium full of zombies on the base as a distraction, which led to multiple deaths just to save the annoying drug addict son? Yeah, let's root for these guys.
Can't belive how dumb this episode was. Let's release 2000 zombies to save an old injured woman and a drug addict and risk the lives of a whole bunch of people who are there to protect you.
Now, releasing 2 million zombies just to save a couple people is dumb, but the old guy gave zero f**ks! It was kind of awesome. Now I see why so many black men had to die. So this super G'd up black guy can live! fresh suits, fresh pad, dope yacht! We in there! Best episode. Took to long to get to it IMO.
I think the subtext of releasing the zombies onto the base was because the military was basically backstabbing the entire city [survivors] by pulling out and then nuking it. You guys are really narrowing your focus on the woman and drug addict when the military was basically planning on annihilating everyone. There were no good guys in that scenario. That said, I think this was a fantastic finale which was only hampered by some spurts of hamfisted writing. The whole part where Alicia goes on about how "some people have to die" and how Chris "sounds like his father" was shoehorned foreshadowing and character development that felt insulting to listen to. I like the idea of them going out onto the ocean. Maybe they'll just sail up and down the coast doing occasional coastal raids or something (I guess it's much likelier that they'll get stranded on continental land eventually, or something boring like that, just to push the story). I also don't have a problem liking these characters like so many people do. I was actually glad about the group they ended up with. Griselda and Liza felt like dead weight narrative-wise.
I thought it was a solid finale and I look forward to next season. In the end, the junkie kid is getting more and more likable, Strand seems pretty awesome, and the Salvadorian guy is still pretty harsh. I think they'll use the boat to go north and get to less populous land with more natural resources......and land that looks more like Canada where the show is filmed.
That Strand guy saved this show, the rest of the characters should die first episode of the second season.