Why can't she close the bloody car door?

[Janx]

This should be my most controversial thread ever based on a TV series. You've been warned. No name calling.


I've been watching the BBC series Survivors which is about the survivors of a viral epidemic. There's no zombies. Just 99% of the world's population is dead.

This main character named Abby has the most annoying habit of getting out of whatever car she's in and just walking away with the door left open.

If this was ZombieLand, that'd be inviting a zombie to climb into the backseat for a nap, so it can bite you later.

I get that there's less of a threat here. But seriously, who the frak does that? What part of common sense and habit goes out the window that you just waddle away from you car without closing the dang door so the map light and the beepy thing doesn't drain your battery or attract undo attention?

I could buy that initially this behavior was a symptom of emotional shock, but it's been months, and this survivor stands out among the others as too lazy or stupid to close the bloody door like everybody else.

So, the question du jour is, why is her behavior not unusual, lazy or stupid? History demonstrates that somebody will have a well thought out explanation of why my initial viewpoint is wrong.

 

[Morrus]

Yikes, that was a while back! I can't remember much about it except that I was hoping Patterson Joseph would get the Doctor Who role at the time. It wasn't a great series.

That does sound like odd behaviour. I wonder if it's one of those weird directional choices like why nobody ever says "bye!" on a phone on TV? Add up all the extra half-seconds over a series and you have yourself a whole extra.... nah. I got nothing!

 

[Janx]

The day is young. Umbran's usually goood for some wisdom....

In real life, I was visiting a friend in the rental houses area of town, and someone arrived at his neighbor's house and left the car door open. It struck me as a gangster thing to do, to enable a quick escape.

 

[Umbran]

The day is young. Umbran's usually goood for some wisdom....

I'm from New York, originally. I get an itchy feeling when I leave my car door unlocked, much less open. I have to work to find a "no-prize" explanation for this one

In real life, I was visiting a friend in the rental houses area of town, and someone arrived at his neighbor's house and left the car door open. It struck me as a gangster thing to do, to enable a quick escape.

That's one possibility - the idea is that she wants to make sure she can get back in the car as fast as possible. Stopping to open the door means a zombie catches her.

More likely, though, it isn't a conscious thing. Either it is an old habit - she lived in a kindly or rural area, and developed the habit there, or it is an unconscious desire to have an escape? Or, maybe she's just terribly distracted at these times?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Bad gas- she's airing the car out. (She's a big Cranberries fan, and doesn't want to let it linger...)

 

[Janx]

I'm from New York, originally. I get an itchy feeling when I leave my car door unlocked, much less open. I have to work to find a "no-prize" explanation for this one



That's one possibility - the idea is that she wants to make sure she can get back in the car as fast as possible. Stopping to open the door means a zombie catches her.

More likely, though, it isn't a conscious thing. Either it is an old habit - she lived in a kindly or rural area, and developed the habit there, or it is an unconscious desire to have an escape? Or, maybe she's just terribly distracted at these times?

The Abby character doesn't strike me as tactically minded. And the two "dangerous" dudes do shut the door.

The start of her character was in a city. A rural minded person may leave doors unlocked, but they close the doors to keep the cats from jumping in and hitching a ride.

At best, I'd describe her as "just terribly distracted"

 

[Janx]

Bad gas- she's airing the car out. (She's a big Cranberries fan, and doesn't want to let it linger...)

That was worth a hearty guffaw.

Somehow, she's the only one. I would suppose that she who smelt it, dealt it, so she's being selfconcious about it

 

[Hand of Evil]

This way she does not have to find her keys and place in the lock...which does mean she is never locked out, unless someone closes it, which says someone has been there.

side effect of the whole toilets seat war between men and women.

 

[MarkB]

That was worth a hearty guffaw.

Somehow, she's the only one. I would suppose that she who smelt it, dealt it, so she's being selfconcious about it

It's been awhile since I saw the series, but aren't the available vehicles basically the ones that were occupied when their drivers succumbed to the epidemic, and thus have the keys handy? Even after only the first couple of days, that's got to start getting icky.

 

[Mark CMG]

Jeeps in the late 70s had a door handle and latch that one had to close and turn to secure. The 1979 movie Salem's Lot based on the Stephen King novel, starred David Soul of Starsky and Hutch fame. Some scenes showed him driving his jeep up to places, hopping out, then swinging the jeep door like any other car door with the expectation it would close. Of course, it would pop back open every time. It was a made for television movie and I often wondered if their budget was so low that they never bothered to fix those errors with extra takes. Strange. There's a fan video on YouTube someone put together splicing some bits from the movie with some footage from the fan showing the places where the movie was shot. You can see one of the errors at 3:50 in the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpMMHK1PO94