So, the biggest scripted series on basic cable is “The Walking Dead”. Being a nerd is officially as mainstream as it gets.
Anyway, we’ve been watching this show and we have a few opinions, namely that the opening of the episode was spectacular, and it features what might be the most hilariously disgusting zombie they’ve ever had on the show, but that so far this season is making us really miss Frank Darabont. I’m still not sure how I feel about the “one episode equals one day” timeline introduced this season. It’s starting to get a little dull, not least because we all know the current situation can’t last; at some point something is going to go spectacularly wrong (something this episode started to set up), so why don’t we step that up, guys, and get to the good stuff?
I know why the show has the pace it does: you can’t get the audience to care about the people getting eaten unless we get to know them first. I’m just not sure it’s working.
How about you?
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The characters seem to be infinitely stupid and incompetent. There is a horde of superslow zombies attacking us, oh noes! Fuck you. If I was in a zombie apocalypse, this would be my checklist:
1. Put some serious fucking cardboard around all my bitable areas.
2. Barricade myself in a house/flat with a mail hole in the door, with at least 5 days of food.
3. Poke the fuckers with a knife or any other sharp object through the hole 16 hours per day.
Voila. There CAN NOT be enough zombies for me to run out of food before they run out of walking dead.
The checklist of the characters in the show seems to be:
1. Have dramatic pep talk.
2. Have dramatic argument.
3. Have soulsearching argument.
4. Continue soulsearching argument with tilted heads.
5. Repeat all talks with tears and optional tilted heads.
6. Whine.
7. Do absolutely nothing survival-wise.
There was this scene in the highschool gym (in episode 3 methinks) they basically turned into a “holy shit panic now!” scene. Dude… you had a shotgun and were standing on an zombie-unreachable bench. Just pound their heads in one by one, shotgun melee style. They’ll run out of heads before you run out of stamina.
I’m sort of with you there, Dan. They’re putting a lot of effort into making us care about some of these background characters and they’re really not pulling it off. It’s basically having the opposite effect they’re going for, where I’ll actually be happy to see them die off.
In rebuttal, zombie torn in half and side boob.
I rest my case.
Yeah, I have to admit, the well zombie might just be the grossest thing this show has ever coughed up, and I was torn between laughing at how ballsy it was and barfing at how disgusting it was. How they got that past Standards and Practices, I’ve got no idea.
This whole season has been boring with two exceptions:
1. The redneck with a crossbow is the best
2. Shane fucking over the fat guy so he could get away
other than those two things its been boring and tedious. I do not care about your stupid wiener kids.
I admit, the crossbow is a major part of why I keep watching. You know he’s going to poke somebody’s eye out with that thing.
Too much whining, not enough brain meals.
Make a list of who you want to die and compare it against who you really care about:
Blonde girl that wants to shoot herself? I think she’d make a great Zombie.
Short haired Mom that has spent the whole season crying about her missing daughter? Eaten.
Black guy with the cut that that mumbles all the time? Zombie food.
Daughter that ran off? Mini-Zombie!
The old guy is pretty smart, the hill-billy is awesome, and might as well keep the horse riding farmer’s daughter for the visuals. Everyone else seems pretty delicious to me.
F Love Triangles.
I just watched the newest episode and other than the bullets I mentioned in my first comment and this one was exceptionally retarded in how they were getting that zombie out of the well. Seriously, “live bait”? What? Just chuck the noose in and aim it at the neck, the god damn thing is looking up at you! If you miss, try again, it cannot take you more than 5 tries. It’s amazing people actually get paid to write this nonsense.
I am away and haven’t watched this weeks yet…
Who’s reading the series? If you are, then you know who SHOULD be dead by now.
I do not understand how a comic series that is so gripping can be drained of all it’s powers in the live action form. They walk ten feet, they fight. They walk eight feet, they cry. The ONLY deviation from the book that works is the redneck with the crossbow.
Kill all non essentials and get the frack back to the source material already. The love triangle subplot? Get on with it; THAT’S what’s slowing you down. And please kill Sinead O’Hillbilly as soon as possible.
To be fair, people uninitiated by the comic series are blown away by the show. Understandably so. But there wouldnt be a show if Kirkman’s book wasn’t the ass kicking phenomenon that it is. At the rate the show is going viewers may never get to meet ‘Michonne’ or ‘The Governor’, and that would be a shame.
From what I understand, people are forgetting that:
1. The series was intended to deviate from the comic since day 1.
2. This is a drama series with zombies, not a zombie series with drama.
I haven’t (and won’t) read the series so everything is working for me so far. I agree that the little girl has been lost for too long but I understand that they are trying to establish some story arc instead of just having mostly independent episodes with constant zombie killing. I’m glad that they’re spending time developing characters within the hive a la Lost instead of just having them roam the countryside killing zombies left and right. We have season 1 and videogames for that. If season 2 were too much like season 1 we’d have the nerds, who are not actually carrying the show ratings-wise, complaining about that, too.
The shock and emotional payoff when Shane offed Otis last week was worth the wait. You knew fatty was expendable but they spent two episodes with Otis, so to me it turned out better than if they had introduced him and killed him in the same episode. The way Shane was babbling on and on when he got back annoyed the hell out of me, but then when they showed what happened to Otis it made sense. People with something to hide go into way too much detail with their stories. They really got me with that. It’s the small touches like that which keep me watching and engaged.
Thumbs up for season 2.
I agree with Mattyj2001. If it was a zombie series with drama it wouldn’t last very long and it would be a series based around the premise of “How are they going to die this week”?
Sorry, I’m going to be the guy that makes comparisons with the comic. Not direct comparisons but it’s very much in the spirit of the comic, which is heavy on the drama also and the comic is brilliant.
I suggest reading the comic to enjoy the series more and help you tolerate the clunkiness that occurs at times.
Do keep in mind the desperate situation these people are in and they aren’t well trained in killing zombies via a virtual world like most of us.
Lastly, it’s got to be made for the general public with nods to the fans of the comic and genre. If it didn’t, it would be cancelled after the first few episodes.
All fair points, although the acting and screenwriting is falling way short of the superior source material. The brilliance of the book is how survivors SURVIVE. Leaden acting and subplots do the series little justice. MattyJ, you don’t know what you’re missing.