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 Breotan wrote:

 Mr Nobody wrote:
That one guy in the last episode had a gun. didn't help against the military.

Hmmm... I think we need to consult with an Engineer on this.

Engineer wrote:How am I going to stop some big, mean mother-hubbard from tearing me a structurally superfluous new behind? The answer is a gun. And if that don't work, use more gun.

I was going to give you a laughing Ork for the gun shrine/walker joke, but now that you brought The Engineer into this, you get an exalt.

So based on the show it seems like military way over extended trying to cover everywhere it was needed and didn't deploy enough troops to the LA Basin. They talk about the platoon (only a platoon) having the company record at like 80+ zombies. Which means the zombies they are killing is a drop in the bucket.

Looks like they are being penny packet deployed and getting chewed up....sorry, couldn't help it...and are now retreating. I really like the new character they introduced this week with Nick in the containment area.

Overall good, also gave a bit more perspective from the military and grunt side. Next week should be fun and then we're back to Rick and the gang!

So did the NG officer get eaten or fragged by his own guys?

The revelations about Daniel were pretty interesting. Really put a whole new spin on that family. Wow. He's kind of a monster, and Griselda maybe too.

Alicia and Chris...creepy or not? I guess they aren't technically related, but... Then again, I guess dating options are about to become very limited, if they aren't already. The two of them trashing the "rich people's" house was interesting. By making them behave very similarly to the looters we saw earlier in the season, are the writers saying that we're all just animals prone to destructive behavior and lashing out against those who have more than us? Or are they just again illustrating the "leveling" of society going on, which I guess might have been echoed in Strand's comments about bringing back "the old rules."

I thought Travis's switch was going to flip there behind the 50 cal, but not yet. I still think they're teasing and toying with us about that.

Oh...and I guess we're left to assume that Daniel is about let the gates of Hell open?

This episode was the best one so far I think, pace has gotten to the point where its entertaining, and things are actually happening.

The character in the holding cell with nick is awesome! I feel like he is going to play out quite nicely.

David doesnt strike me as a monster, so much as someone who's switch flipped earlier then everyone else, and he is honest about it.

The scene where he tells the blonde mother "do you want me to do whats needed, or do you want me to do it and just not know?" (paraphrasing)
the subsequent acceptance by her, and the half hearted acceptance by the father seem to indicate they are finally getting into apocalypse mode, though the father has farther to go for sure.

Im not really buying the military breakdown, especially considering that thus far it seems the zombie hordes are largely confined to indoor spaces, which would actually mean the military response would be more effective, since you can pick your battles more carefully and concentrate forces in specific areas to go room by room and building by building. The only areas it gets problematic are larger structures like office buildings and hospitals, but considering the average zombies inability to operate a door, even a heavily infested building would only mean you have to face small handfuls of zombies at any given time.

Zombies and Daleks, screwed over by the simple house...

Daleks can climb stairs!

Now.

I forget, what day are we on FtLD time? Is it reasonable to assume the CDC has their "specimens" yet?

chaos0xomega wrote:
Im not really buying the military breakdown, especially considering that thus far it seems the zombie hordes are largely confined to indoor spaces, which would actually mean the military response would be more effective, since you can pick your battles more carefully and concentrate forces in specific areas to go room by room and building by building. The only areas it gets problematic are larger structures like office buildings and hospitals, but considering the average zombies inability to operate a door, even a heavily infested building would only mean you have to face small handfuls of zombies at any given time.

Correct, assuming everyone closed all the doors in a building or that the weight of bodies didn't break or open doors. Interior doors that aren't for bathrooms wouldn't really stand up to a press. And going into a confined space with the wrong weapons with the power out seems like a recipe for the breakdown to me. It's not like they've had a ton of training on zombie clearance.

@easysauce

I pretty much entirely agree.

@Breotan

I think we're about 16 days from the first episode at this point. Could be 23. Not sure how many weeks they have been confined to the camp but I thought they said 2 weeks or so when it time jumped.

These characters are horrible, not the acting mind you, the characters themselves. Druggie whackjob, libtard dad who thinks everything is hunky-dory and why cant everyone get along, schoolmom wife who is finally starting to get her head on straight, angst-ridden teens who are so full of themselves and how this impacts their lives they are completely oblivious to what needs to be done. The only saving grace is the old Hispanic man who is a bit off his rocker. No one has any guns? No one has seen any of the zombie movies dating from the 1960s forward. The military would not be out and about like this, they would have either all gone awol to be with their families or they would be at their bases protecting their families. What this show needs is a Snake Pliskin and an Escape From LA. How hard is it to fortify built up areas and clear them? Aim for the head? The new fun part now that the lame military folks left to go where-ever is food. How are they going to get food. Are they smart enough to try growing it themselves? Going to where its grown? Water will be important as well but I am guessing the hippy dippy people so far represented have cases of Evian and Fiji water in their basements.

On the good side, I think it is a funny satire on the current state of culture in wacked out places like this and it will be interesting to see how things evolve. I wouldn't give them 2 weeks in the ZA now that the military is gone. If this were to be filmed in any of the Southern or Redoubt states I think the whole show would be over and you would have fortified towns already set up with an armed and wary populace with farms already started and the people having gone into survival mode. Be funny to see the crazy religious cults that appear in some of the backwoods areas though.

Col. Dash wrote:
No one has seen any of the zombie movies dating from the 1960s forward. The military would not be out and about like this, they would have either all gone awol to be with their families or they would be at their bases protecting their families.
.

Zombie movies are generally considered out of universe.
I think the point is that these are the military that is left after the awol and base army is taken out of the equation.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, TWD is basically the south's solution to the zombie problem. They already did that show.

Yeah I know. But they skipped my favorite part, the first 30 days. I do disaster management and communications, this kind of stuff intrigues me.

I'm not a big fan of operation Cobalt. "If we can't save you, no one can".

Col. Dash wrote:
Yeah I know. But they skipped my favorite part, the first 30 days. I do disaster management and communications, this kind of stuff intrigues me.

Interesting. I doubt any Zombie scenario short of a 28 days later type will even remotely work. A zombie plague is just not that dangerous except to locals. Your basic Sean of the Dead scenario seems most appropriate. Zombies get going, local population gets hit, military/PoPo get act together and deal with it.

Frankly I'd take a zombie over someone spreading a superflu just by breathing. Heck, the zombie games make me excited, not scared.

chaos0xomega wrote:
Im not really buying the military breakdown, especially considering that thus far it seems the zombie hordes are largely confined to indoor spaces, which would actually mean the military response would be more effective, since you can pick your battles more carefully and concentrate forces in specific areas to go room by room and building by building. The only areas it gets problematic are larger structures like office buildings and hospitals, but considering the average zombies inability to operate a door, even a heavily infested building would only mean you have to face small handfuls of zombies at any given time.

the thing you have to remember,

the soldiers are *tired* I think it was mentioned that they had stayed up 50 hours straight, a significant amount of that time is spent doing physical activity that would drain them.

Zombies do not get tired, only die to head shots, and can easily get into rooms and through doors. The # of Z's only goes up too as for every pocket of people the military can protect there are huge swathes of areas they are not even in. there are only ~ 2 million active military + national guard members of which not even close to all are front line combatants (many are support + logistics)

the shows military presence has killed ~80 zombies.

America's population is over 318 million, 6,775 people die in non zombie apocalypse conditions every day, but now, each person who dies, will go on to kill multiple people most likely, who then will also go on to kill more people in an *exponential feedback loop* where there is no limiting faction on how many zombies that can be infected, especially given that it took a while for anyone to start capping Z skulls.

we are about a month into this thing, I am going to be very conservative, and do the math with each Z only infecting 3 more Z's (reality, probably much much higher).

day one, 6,775 people die, and infect 20325 people, we now have 27100 zombies. day two we now have 108400 Z's, day three 433600, day four 1,734,400, day five 6 937 600, day six 27 750 400,

end of one week, 111 001 600 zombies.

Given the strange nature of the epidemic, peoples natural reaction is to *NOT* kill them in real life, I dont care what zombie comics have done to you, you are a human being and it will take a lot of face eating before you flip the switch and become a zombie killer. New Z's are often indistinguishable from the living, and in a crowd soldiers will be hesitant to shoot civvies. My math also does not account for the very probably reality that one zombie will infect a whole stadium/school/croded area at a time. This is a universe with no zombie comics, so the flip will take longer, especially since quite a few people will think its a hoax for at least a few days and communication has broken down to the point where you dont really know what is going on.

So even assuming each military member was on shore, without losing a single soldier to death/desertion/ect, ready to go, all in the right locations at the right time, showed up for their call to arms ect ect each one would have to personally get ~55 head shots on zombies in *one day* to kill all the Z's before they infect more people.

and again, that is assuming that every single active military person is at a rifle shooting Z's as opposed to logistics, medical, ect.

 Mr Nobody wrote:
I'm not a big fan of operation Cobalt. "If we can't save you, no one can".

Yea, I don't see that happening in reality. If it were one location and it stopped the Bug, sure, but not if the Bug is out of containment already.

 Frazzled wrote:

Col. Dash wrote:
Yeah I know. But they skipped my favorite part, the first 30 days. I do disaster management and communications, this kind of stuff intrigues me.

Interesting. I doubt any Zombie scenario short of a 28 days later type will even remotely work. A zombie plague is just not that dangerous except to locals. Your basic Sean of the Dead scenario seems most appropriate. Zombies get going, local population gets hit, military/PoPo get act together and deal with it.

Frankly I'd take a zombie over someone spreading a superflu just by breathing. Heck, the zombie games make me excited, not scared.

For sure, airborne illness would be way worse, but having Z's start popping up would overwhelm the system till society adapted, shaun of the dead is one possible reaction if the military responded the the zombies in the correct fashion, in time, in an orderly fashion, but that is a best case scenario. I think a lot more people would be freaking out and become helpless then in SOTD, because lets face it, we all think we would be bad ass zombie killers, but more then likely, we would just be zombies

and remember, the illness probably *is* airborne, everyone already has it after all!

I just don't see a shambler as being dangerous. A mom with a stroller moves faster. Your only real risk is the first hours until a warning goes out or you run into one and get away. Alternatively, just you know, close your doors.

 Frazzled wrote:
I just don't see a shambler as being dangerous. A mom with a stroller moves faster. Your only real risk is the first hours until a warning goes out or you run into one and get away. Alternatively, just you know, close your doors.

right, until you get tired, or boxed in, or have to sleep, or eat, or take a squat or somthing.

the idea that you can just wait a few hours for a warning is a bit pastoral, reminds me of "dont worry about nukes, just duck and cover if the sirens go off!" one Z can easily get through a door/window, several more so.

no warning would come within hours, would likely take a few days before anyone even *notices* people are turning into zombies and not just rioting on bath salts or something. For every situation where its just you and a few Z's in an area where you can run, there is a situation where a crowd of people simply cannot run away, trample others (making more Z's) and create a sea of zombies that will walk over your house, let alone through your doors.

once the warning did come, sure everyone stays inside, but that doesnt actually deal with the problem outside, it just leaves less people to deal with it.

once you hit a critical mass of zombies its a lot harder to deal with, and people just wont start shooting people they think are sick right away.

The only real way to avoid the zombie apocalypse is through education!

in out real world, we all know *exactly* what to do once people start turning, no need for the military!

everyone just pick up a cricket bat, bop off a few Z"s and be home for pints by the evening!

 easysauce wrote:

chaos0xomega wrote:
Im not really buying the military breakdown, especially considering that thus far it seems the zombie hordes are largely confined to indoor spaces, which would actually mean the military response would be more effective, since you can pick your battles more carefully and concentrate forces in specific areas to go room by room and building by building. The only areas it gets problematic are larger structures like office buildings and hospitals, but considering the average zombies inability to operate a door, even a heavily infested building would only mean you have to face small handfuls of zombies at any given time.

the thing you have to remember,

the soldiers are *tired* I think it was mentioned that they had stayed up 50 hours straight, a significant amount of that time is spent doing physical activity that would drain them.

Zombies do not get tired, only die to head shots, and can easily get into rooms and through doors. The # of Z's only goes up too as for every pocket of people the military can protect there are huge swathes of areas they are not even in. there are only ~ 2 million active military + national guard members of which not even close to all are front line combatants (many are support + logistics)

the shows military presence has killed ~80 zombies.

America's population is over 318 million, 6,775 people die in non zombie apocalypse conditions every day, but now, each person who dies, will go on to kill multiple people most likely, who then will also go on to kill more people in an *exponential feedback loop* where there is no limiting faction on how many zombies that can be infected, especially given that it took a while for anyone to start capping Z skulls.

we are about a month into this thing, I am going to be very conservative, and do the math with each Z only infecting 3 more Z's (reality, probably much much higher).

day one, 6,775 people die, and infect 20325 people, we now have 27100 zombies. day two we now have 108400 Z's, day three 433600, day four 1,734,400, day five 6 937 600, day six 27 750 400,

end of one week, 111 001 600 zombies.

Given the strange nature of the epidemic, peoples natural reaction is to *NOT* kill them in real life, I dont care what zombie comics have done to you, you are a human being and it will take a lot of face eating before you flip the switch and become a zombie killer. New Z's are often indistinguishable from the living, and in a crowd soldiers will be hesitant to shoot civvies. My math also does not account for the very probably reality that one zombie will infect a whole stadium/school/croded area at a time. This is a universe with no zombie comics, so the flip will take longer, especially since quite a few people will think its a hoax for at least a few days and communication has broken down to the point where you dont really know what is going on.

So even assuming each military member was on shore, without losing a single soldier to death/desertion/ect, ready to go, all in the right locations at the right time, showed up for their call to arms ect ect each one would have to personally get ~55 head shots on zombies in *one day* to kill all the Z's before they infect more people.

and again, that is assuming that every single active military person is at a rifle shooting Z's as opposed to logistics, medical, ect.

again, mostly confined to buildings. There may be 112 million zombies after a week, but if 99% of them are indoors (a safe assumption considering that we're dealing with LA here in the show, which is Americas second largest city/metro area, and we've yet to really see anything at all walking the streets that wasnt a gun toting soldier), you're (for the most part) probably only going to end up dealing with pockets of 1-10 zombies at a time. In this situation theres also no need to rush either since the chance of further spread is minimal, meaning conducting a 50 hour op should never ever become a thing.

Given that zombies have been portrayed (for the most part) within TWD as the slow shuffling type, and are generally speaking rather mindless, a platoon of soldiers (particularly a platoon of soldiers that seem to understand the concept of 'aim for the head, don't get bit') would have a relatively easy time of sweeping through residential suburban neighborhoods. Urban areas get a bit more dicey as you then have to contend with things like subway lines which allow openings for walkers to bypass your cordon, and department stores which are large open spaces with lots of hiding places. The subway lines could be a challenge, but given you're discussing a military force evidently willing to firebomb civilians, you would think they would take a rather straightforward solution and just burn trouble areas down to clear them of infestation. Apartment buildings are compartmentalized, so generally speaking going unit by unit through the building won't be difficult as the common area zombie population should be minimal, a squad of well trained troops who know what they're doing won't have much to worry about, a platoon should be able to clear the average residential building in 1-2 hours with proper coordination. Office buildings are a bit dicey, the compartmentalization isn't quite as good as with residential buildings, and the spaces tend to be more open along the lines of a warehouse or department store and would probably require several hours and an entire company to properly secure. Hospitals... well, might as well burn those fethers down too.

Another issue I'm having is that platoon has only managed a kill count of about 80 or so walkers, which is an apparent record. Either there aren't as many zombies out there as we think, or they haven't been looking particularly hard for them (or they are far more difficult for the military to put down, despite the fact that we saw them make short work of the few walkers we've seen them engage).

right, until you get tired, or boxed in, or have to sleep, or eat, or take a squat or somthing.

See the cool thing is the military set up these fences, so they have these safe zones they can go to. Military can get in, walkers have to stay out. Only a problem if someone inside the safezone dies and reanimates. We know from TWD that fences are actually pretty good at keeping people and walkers separated (up until someone does something like drive a tank through it, or you let the zombie horde build up to too large a size and the fence breaks down anyway).

I think I remember Cracked actually did a whole thing on why the standard slow zombie apocalypse would not work. Fast zombies have a much better chance. But yeah I am way more scared of a disease than zombies, but they make for fun rehearsal drills for serious stuff that people are motivated to take part in.

Even worse though, EMP. Knock out the grid. Nasa a few year back did a study, if the East coast was hit with a powerful enough EMP, a third of the population would be dead and dying inside of two weeks depending on the season and that's with aid coming in from outside of the affected zone. We just do not have the resources to help that many people over that big an area all at once. Starvation isn't even a major factor in that, disease, the elements and water are the major kickers. Elements alone are bad, if it was summer you have all the heat deaths in the south. If its winter all the deaths from the cold up north. Can you imagine if Atlanta went through the "Snow-pocalypse"(that was the official term for it btw) with no power and next to no operating vehicles? The zombies would be corpse-cycles and not even a factor.

chaos0xomega wrote:


again, mostly confined to buildings. There may be 112 million zombies after a week, but if 99% of them are indoors (a safe assumption considering that we're dealing with LA here in the show, which is Americas second largest city/metro area, and we've yet to really see anything at all walking the streets that wasnt a gun toting soldier), you're (for the most part) probably only going to end up dealing with pockets of 1-10 zombies at a time. In this situation theres also no need to rush either since the chance of further spread is minimal, meaning conducting a 50 hour op should never ever become a thing.

that is not a safe assumption at all... nothing stops Z's from breaking down doors or going outside. the show is also specifically depicting a less inhabited suburb, and while you dont see massive crowds of Z"s around, you also dont see other people around (presumably because they are out eating people)

You are also not accounting for the fact that they pop up everywhere, spread out, in a non centralized manner that exponentially increases.

if it was just a few buildings full of Z"s they could just nuke it or bomb it, but its not.

its one person turning, around 1000's of living people who have no idea what to do, who's first reaction is to help that person, who will likely get turned into Z"s and continue the cycle.

Especially since they don't know how it spreads. The stadium was proof of that.

The subway lines could be a challenge, but given you're discussing a military force evidently willing to firebomb civilians, you would think they would take a rather straightforward solution and just burn trouble areas down to clear them of infestation

exactly. if they have risk assessed beyond worrying about trapped cities, most of these situations would just be dealt with via the burning the structure down or putting ordance on it. I wonder if a pressure wave takes out zombies?

Assuming zombies have overrun LA somehow, they should just be firebombing the place. if units aren't available, start burning buildings whenever the wind is in the right direction.

chaos0xomega wrote:

right, until you get tired, or boxed in, or have to sleep, or eat, or take a squat or somthing.

See the cool thing is the military set up these fences, so they have these safe zones they can go to. Military can get in, walkers have to stay out. Only a problem if someone inside the safezone dies and reanimates. We know from TWD that fences are actually pretty good at keeping people and walkers separated (up until someone does something like drive a tank through it, or you let the zombie horde build up to too large a size and the fence breaks down anyway).

right, and this is why not everyone dies... its why a few people who are fortunate enough to have strong walls and a military defending themselves managed to survive a few weeks.

everyone who doesnt have strong walls or an army to protect them (most people) is in for a serious face eating.

Over time, the Zombies advantages of not having to eat, sleep, rest, ect make them at least equal in capability to the humans ability to run fast and use tools.

let alone that the humans themselves will turn on each other and cause all kinds of issues. the military and police were spending more resources on *rioter* then the zombies at the beginning.

Remember in TWD people are the real threat. just takes one crazy guy to throw a kink into the most well run operation.




Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Frazzled wrote:

The subway lines could be a challenge, but given you're discussing a military force evidently willing to firebomb civilians, you would think they would take a rather straightforward solution and just burn trouble areas down to clear them of infestation

exactly. if they have risk assessed beyond worrying about trapped cities, most of these situations would just be dealt with via the burning the structure down or putting ordance on it. I wonder if a pressure wave takes out zombies?

Assuming zombies have overrun LA somehow, they should just be firebombing the place. if units aren't available, start burning buildings whenever the wind is in the right direction.

Remember, z's have not taken over LA, LA is just one city out of *every city on the planet* where every single human being on earth is already infected with something that turns em into a Z when they die.

If it was just a localized thing, it would die out pretty quick, but it isn't.

It is spread out everywhere, to everyone, before the Z's even start showing up.

 easysauce wrote:
Remember in TWD people are the real threat. just takes one crazy guy to throw a kink into the most well run operation.

Like Daniel with a set of bolt cutters?

 gorgon wrote:

 easysauce wrote:
Remember in TWD people are the real threat. just takes one crazy guy to throw a kink into the most well run operation.

Like Daniel with a set of bolt cutters?

Oh god yes... as soon as I saw her cutting the fence I go "NOOOOO YOU FOOL!"

Same when she doesnt pick up the gun on the ground.

Humans are generally far more rational when hypothesizing about these things then when actually acting in intense situations.

Seen many a person who thinks they can be joe cool mc badarse in tough situations absolutely lose it when things go sideways.

 easysauce wrote:
that is not a safe assumption at all... nothing stops Z's from breaking down doors or going outside. the show is also specifically depicting a less inhabited suburb, and while you dont see massive crowds of Z"s around, you also dont see other people around (presumably because they are out eating people)

Actually it is a safe assumption. Z's are no stronger than a normal human (except for, apparently, their jaw muscles - if anything, owing to their status as 'dead' they should be weaker). They are also far less coordinated than a normal human. Normal humans have difficulty enough breaking down doors and windows without making a concerted effort of it. We also know that TWD zombies only really seem to respond to sound apparently, cool thing about that is that the human ear is notoriously bad at determining the direction from which sound comes from, thats even more true when you're in a high acoustical clutter environment like an urban area where the sound reverberates off every building even remotely nearby, or in, say, an apartment building, where something like a gunshot is simply indistinguishably loud. Even if they could determine a direction from which the sound came from, the lack of reasoning ability would mean they would try to do something like walk towards the wall in the direction the sound came from, rather than say... congregate at a doorway.

You are also not accounting for the fact that they pop up everywhere, spread out, in a non centralized manner that exponentially increases.

Aside from things like a subway line, its relatively easy to limit access to areas for something that travels at half the speed that the average human walks and has no capability for though process which would lead them to do something like, say "stay out of sight" or "try to go around" or "not loudly announce your presence to everyone within earshot via gurgling moaning sound". In a situation like this, the military response would be similar to what they have been doing for the past decade in Iraq and Afghanistan while conducting sweeps of villages, etc just on a much larger scale. After establishing the cordoned off safe zone, they would isolate an area with further fences/personnel, clear each block/street, house by house, room by room by room , then integrate it into the safe zone, and keep spreading out. The only wildcard in this is the fact that anyone who dies suddenly becomes a zombie. You can mitigate this to an extent by isolating the ill and injured, etc. but you cant fully stop people from doing any of the myriad of stupid things that can get them killed. Still though, given the physical limits of the common zombie, a simple education as to whats going on could go a long way to limit and prevent re-infection. Beyond that, this is one of those situations that would basically require universal conscription, so the average citizen is now armed and has, theoretically, at least a basic idea of how to use a gun.

if it was just a few buildings full of Z"s they could just nuke it or bomb it, but its not.

No, its actually just a lot of buildings full of Z's. Realistically in this scenario the world as everyone knows it is over. Concentrated military force could be used to seal and clear an urban area like manhattan, and then sweep up through long island, and you could probably move the entire (or at least what you have the available fuel and resources for) surviving population (i.e. whoever survives in the military safezones established nationwide) of the US into that area where they could carry out a relatively normal standard of living in relative safety. From there you either burn the rest down or (more likely) just ignore it.

As an aside, I suspect that those that live in the flyover states are relatively less affected by the situation and a larger (but harder to secure) safezone could be established in these areas for additional farmland & space.

Assuming zombies have overrun LA somehow, they should just be firebombing the place. if units aren't available, start burning buildings whenever the wind is in the right direction.

This.

right, and this is why not everyone dies... its why a few people who are fortunate enough to have strong walls and a military defending themselves managed to survive a few weeks.

The point is the presence of the walls and military forces, in combination with the nature of zombies themselves, makes it unlikely that these remnants of civilization would in fact fall apart.

Over time, the Zombies advantages of not having to eat, sleep, rest, ect make them at least equal in capability to the humans ability to run fast and use tools.

Dont have to run if you have a fortified compound, do you? Supplies could be an issue, but we have emergency stockpiles of those dotting the country for just this sort of reason. Hell, you wouldnt even need to drive outside the walls thanks to things like helicopters.

let alone that the humans themselves will turn on each other and cause all kinds of issues. the military and police were spending more resources on *rioter* then the zombies at the beginning.

Id like to think that for the most part people would be able to work together for the survival of the species once the nature of zombiism becomes known to them. Its interesting when you compare zombie fiction to alien fiction. Alien invaders always seems to unite people, whereas zombie fiction always seems to divide people. While the personification of the threat may differ, the nature of it is essentially the same.

I'm telling you guys if you like a reasonable (well, most reasonable version I've ever encountered) of a zombie apoc event read John Ringo's Under a Graveyard Sky series. It's one of the few that actually take place in a world that has a zombie culture. Fun reading. Even if the "zombies" are as fast as normal humans.

As for the show I'm sticking with the exhausted and penny packet deployments and limited available resources committed the wrong way that allows the situation to get to where it is. As for firebombing I can almost guarantee it was being held back until the very last as a president who is out of touch with what's really happening (which they would be on a personal level) isn't going to want to firebomb American cities. The actual COBALT might be a purely military response of we can't handle it anymore and might have actually taken the government out of the equation.

We'll never really know but I do like the extra bits they threw in with the soldiers to at least make the situation everyone is in more reasonable. Tired people make mistakes. Angry people make mistakes. Scare people make mistakes. And the soldiers are shown as all of them.

@Chaos0xomega

You make it sound reasonable. But that assumes the resources for dealing with a nationwide outbreak. It also assumes all troops actually reporting in. It also assumes non of the losses are in critical areas like pilots, key command and support personel. It also assumes an instant willingness to make hard decisions from our government. It assumes an instant response from our soldiers to shoot people in the head who still look alive. It makes a lot of assumptions.

Not saying a slow zombie outbreak could succeed. I have my doubts. But it's not completely unreasonable. I think it's more unreasonable that the entire world would collapse where people have a bit more control over their populace or are more willing to make cold blooded and swift decisions. Honestly Russia and North Korea would probably be fine as long as their leaders didn't succumb.