Zombies and genealogy

Hi neighbors. There was good news on television the other night! "The Walking Dead" show opens its new season this Sunday night. Yeah! One of my favorite shows (just below "Elementary," which won't start until Oct. 30). "The Walking Dead" is more soap opera than horror.

Science Fiction channel tried to fill in the gap over the summer while impatient audiences waited for word on when the new season of "The Walking Dead" would start; by featuring a series called "Z-Nation." "Z-Nation" tries to emulate "The Walking Dead" by featuring the human characters as the primary focus with the zombies being mostly extras and walk-ons. (Or shuffle-ons I suppose).

This new show is good -- not up to "The Walking Dead" standards, at least not this first season -- but it did help us "Walking Dead" addicts get through the long summer.

"Z-Nation," by accident or not, may have shown a spoiler for "The Walking Dead" show. Last season ended with almost all of the cast of "The Walking Dead" being trapped in a semi-trailer. Most people are speculating that they have been captured by cannibals.

"Z-Nation" approached this same situation by showing that the cannibals did not kill the humans they ate, because to do so would turn them almost immediately into not-so-tasty rotting flesh zombies. "Z-Nation" offered an alternative by simply slicing off pieces of meat from still living humans. (I know it sounds horrible -- however that was once a popular way to conserve meat in the Middle Ages, but with sheep and calves, not humans.)

If how the cannibals act means anything; eating human flesh polluted with a zombie virus isn't a healthy alternative to just starving to death. In "The Walking Dead," and in "Z-Nation," the cannibals act like chain-saw welding sociopaths who have eaten mad cow brains.

I guess we won't know until Sunday night how things will turn out.

At least new shows of all types are back; continuations of familiar series and new series just starting.

"Criminal Minds" has added one of my favorite actors -- Jennifer Love Hewitt -- to the cast. She fits in well from the two shows I've seen.

The Flash is supposed to make a comeback in an all-new series titled "The Flash," of course.

Superheros are still on top. Batman gets a childhood flashback series in "Gotham." Similar to "Smallville" for Superman, "Gotham" shows how Batman and his arch nemeses originated.

"Batman" was never one of my favorites in the whole superhero universe myths. He always seemed too pouty and angst ridden for my tastes.

I've been enjoying "Who Do You Think You Are" and "Finding Your Roots;" two genealogy based television shows that are really interesting. It's nice to watch people fly around the planet looking for their ancestors. Those of us stuck in our desk chairs are offered the option of joining Ancestry.com.

Not so certain about that; I would rather hop a plane and fly to Scotland.

I saw a new show the other night about castles of Scotland and the first one featured was Inveraray Castle, which is the home of the Clan Campbell's current chief, Torquhil Ian Campbell.

The show was great and I found a website about the castle and the Clan Campbell. It is open for tourists and it would be great to go there someday.

I think on the show the next castle has something to do with Prince Charles and his family's castle in Scotland.

Before I make it to Scotland, though, I need to go to Tennessee and Virginia to find my own Campbell Clan.

But, before I go anywhere, I have to see this season's "Walking Dead." Come to think of it, that's set in the southern part of America. My genealogy research has so far not revealed any zombies in the family, but who knows?