In the novel Dracula, Bram Stoker redefined the mythological vampire. What was originally a fundamentally vicious and predatory monster became a sophisticated if slightly odd gentleman of the European nobility. Given that, the wealthy, urbane vampires of Twilight make a little sense. However, the Twilight series went too far, IMO, when Meyers made her vampires sensitive. Predictably, there is now a "thinking person's Walking Dead" which introduces a new kind of undead: The pathetic, angst-ridden zombie.
BBC?s In the Flesh Is the Thinking Person?s Walking Dead
The high concept for In the Flesh is that being a zombie isn't a permanent condition. Or, rather, it is, but thanks to a combination of drugs, therapy and cosmetics, zombies, or those with "Partially Deceased Syndrome," in the socially acceptable doublespeak of the show, they can be rehabilitated and placed back into society. The central character in the show is Kieren Walker (Luke Newberry), a PDS sufferer who returns to his hometown after committing suicide and then being resurrected as one of the undead. He's not happy to be back, and his conflicted feelings are reflected by both his family, who are simultaneously afraid of him and scared of losing him again, and his community, which is torn apart by bigotry against recovering PDS sufferers and bitterness over the deaths they caused before their cure.
The premise of the show does not create a "thinking person’s Walking Dead" unless the person doing the thinking has a death wish. If zombies -- or vampires for that matter -- really existed, the thinking person would be contemplating ways to exterminate them.
