The Walking Dead (New Show On AMC)

[razzzorsharp]

Anyone else read the comics. I just got done reading all that are available and the story as well as the characters are very unique. I look forward to what AMC, and Darabont (Shawsjank redemption guy) will do with this series after putting out such quality with Mad Men and Breaking Bad. Premiers this Sunday, anyone else in?

 

Trailer can be found here...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ub8FXMPT7oU

[pogokat]

DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDE.

 

yes, i will be watching...that's a great comic...looks even better in this format...

[thebruce44]

Read the first 10 or so. Stopped when they got to the Prison (don't think thats a spoiler really). It will be interesting to see how close the show sticks to the comics. Either way, it amazes me that nobody has made a weekly zombie apocalypse show yet. There are tons of 2 hour movies, but I don't think I am the only one who has thought more about long term survival in this scenario.

[razzzorsharp]

The story leads itself to a TV show very show in the fact that Kirkman (the creator) has said that he wanted the main character's journey to be long and almost unending.

 

By the way Bruce, you need to go on, it gets extremely good from that point on.

[thebruce44]

The story leads itself to a TV show very show in the fact that Kirkman (the creator) has said that he wanted the main character's journey to be long and almost unending.

 

By the way Bruce, you need to go on, it gets extremely good from that point on.

Yea but at this point why read when I can have TV do it for me...

 

 

[TracyThom]

I've never read the comics, but I cannot wait for the TV show. It looks awesome.

 

I'm also enjoying the heck out of Dead Set on IFC. It's a British miniseries that has been playing all week on IFC. (There is a marathon on Halloween.) The premise is that there is a zombie outbreak and they attack the Big Brother UK house. Tonight is the finale.

[davego]

I love Zombies (so to speak). If some writer could combine Zombies with Cylons...I might not be able to take it.

[razzzorsharp]

Excellent start.

[pretendastronaut]

I never read the novels, but I thought it was very good. My wife was working on the computer while I watched it, and despite her continual instance that she found it scary and disturbing, she admitted she'd be watching it next week.

[pogokat]

yes, my wife thought it was thoroughly disturbing...the best thing about waking dead is that there are no easy solutions...it makes the whole epic more real even though it's an impossible real

[TracyThom]

Great first episode. Intelligent dialogue and real drama. (The scene with Morgan, the rifle, and his wife. Wow.) The only downer I can see is that the first season is only 6 episodes.

[pitchleague]

Finally got to it tonight. I never read the originals but I'm a sucker for a show like this. Very nicely done, I must say. I'll be back for more. Will every episode be an hour and a half?

[tchimmay]

not sure if this has already been passed around the internet, but a "walking dead" fan was so excited for the show's debut that he created a version of the opening credits. here's the link: http://vimeo.com/15266890.

phrases like "fan-made opening credits" usually indicate a fine blend of excessive free time, obsession, and full-blown nerdiness, but those credits were way too awesome to criticize. the actual opening credits were well done (seen here), but i have to give the edge to the fan.

[razzzorsharp]

I like the fan credits a lot better but they wouldn't work with the show as well.

[RobertR]

Just got around to the pilot and liked it very much. Heck, we've all seen the "my loved one was turned into a zombie" trope before and usually it ends with either a) the zombie being put down or b) the zombie eating the person that loved them. In a long form format, you've got maneuverability from needing instant payoffs and can try other tactics. I also enjoyed that it's a quiet show. Much sneaking around. A simple scene of a guy going down stairs with matches that keep going out, needs nothing else to set a mood.

 

I like Rick too.

 

OTOH, I thought the conversation between Rick and Shane at the beginning of the show rang false. And am I supposed to like Shane? At all? Or Lori?

 

But, generally, I'm very positive. I'm very happy to have something different, and well done, than yet another cop/doctor/lawyer show.

 

Robert

[chadomac]

I'm going to say now that I think the Lori/Shane thing was going on BEFORE the zombie takeover occurred. If that's not the case it just seems kind of weird and rushed. I think they'll eventually reveal that she was having an affair with his partner before the Walkers started popping up.

[colbyjack]

I typically don't like over-analyzing TV shows, although the stuff AMC has been producing lately is similar to some of the stuff HBO has produced to years in regards to quality.

 

However, I agree with Robert's assessment that the opening dialogue seemed a little forced. Otherwise I too like the mood that is being established and agree that the staircase scene was pretty intense despite being so simple.

 

Overall, for a show like this, which is obviously about people trying to survive in a world overrun by zombies, I don't like that the love relationship appears to be the bigger storyline that the show is leading to. I prefer to see the show develop with the original premise, survival on a daily basis, with several shorter, personal issues tied in (like the man with the rifle who couldn't bring himself to shoot his zombie wife) than have some stupid love triangle dumb things up. That just makes it more like a soap opera...with zombies.

 

I hope I'm wrong, and it certainly is good enough as-is to stay tuned and find out.

[thebruce44]

I'm going to say now that I think the Lori/Shane thing was going on BEFORE the zombie takeover occurred. If that's not the case it just seems kind of weird and rushed. I think they'll eventually reveal that she was having an affair with his partner before the Walkers started popping up.

 

I think a lot of people here know how the story is going to unfold so its going to be difficult to get a discussion going about where the storyline is headed without people reviling spoilers to those who haven't read the comics.

 

Overall, for a show like this, which is obviously about people trying to survive in a world overrun by zombies, I don't like that the love relationship appears to be the bigger storyline that the show is leading to. I prefer to see the show develop with the original premise, survival on a daily basis, with several shorter, personal issues tied in (like the man with the rifle who couldn't bring himself to shoot his zombie wife) than have some stupid love triangle dumb things up. That just makes it more like a soap opera...with zombies.

 

One thing that I took from the comics and from other stories of near apocalypse, like Battlestar Galactica for example, is that people seem to find a need to rush into sexual relationships for comfort/distraction when there is less of a society to judge them. Also, when you could die at any moment its probably a lot easier to jump into something you normally wouldn't. If I remember correctly this becomes a popular theme in the comics with several characters. I can see how it would bother some, but I think its a realistic theme to explore, or as realistic as you can get for a story about a zombie apocalypse.

[RobertR]

I haven't read the original books. I know of them, but I expect that they're going to go their own way to an extent. I suspect that the trip down the stairs, if it wasn't in the original book, was inspired by a similar bit in The Stand. Certainly I'd expect Frank Darabont, director of The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and The Mist, to draw inspiration from that, if Robert Kirkman didn't draw from the same well earlier.

 

I also get the feeling that they're pulling from the same well as The Day of the Triffids which was at least as much about trying to rebuild a semblance of civilization as it was about survival.

 

Robert

[TooLiveBrew]

I typically don't like over-analyzing TV shows, although the stuff AMC has been producing lately is similar to some of the stuff HBO has produced to years in regards to quality.

 

I agree completely with this. AMC has brought HBO-quality original programming to basic cable, and I love them for it.

[colbyjack]

One thing that I took from the comics and from other stories of near apocalypse, like Battlestar Galactica for example, is that people seem to find a need to rush into sexual relationships for comfort/distraction when there is less of a society to judge them. Also, when you could die at any moment its probably a lot easier to jump into something you normally wouldn't. If I remember correctly this becomes a popular theme in the comics with several characters. I can see how it would bother some, but I think its a realistic theme to explore, or as realistic as you can get for a story about a zombie apocalypse.

 

I understand what you're saying, but that wasn't really what I was commenting on. I just don't like the heavy personal stories being intertwined in such a story. I've seen a lot of promising movies and overall ideas ruined by bad "love" stories. Its not hard to see the conflict they are trying to build up to, and personally I could do without it.

 

For example, I loved and always will enjoy Band of Brothers because the producers didn't go and cheapen up the story with some love story. They touched on many of the characters own personal issues being in WWII (thanks Vets!), and their (brief) conflicts with one another, but didn't go overboard with some emotional overlying storyline when the war, and how the soldiers dealt with the war, was and always remained the focus of the story.

 

I recognize that this series was based off of a comic book, of which I'm assuming this story was already existing. I just have a bad feeling of where it's going and what impression it will leave on me when its all said and done.

[Nottso]

One thing that I took from the comics and from other stories of near apocalypse, like Battlestar Galactica for example, is that people seem to find a need to rush into sexual relationships for comfort/distraction when there is less of a society to judge them. Also, when you could die at any moment its probably a lot easier to jump into something you normally wouldn't. If I remember correctly this becomes a popular theme in the comics with several characters. I can see how it would bother some, but I think its a realistic theme to explore, or as realistic as you can get for a story about a zombie apocalypse.

There's also the phenomenon where a male and a female survive a near-death experience together, even if they're repulsed by each other, will be drawn to "mate" right away. Iirc, it's about the "species survival" instinct.

 

Wife and I like the show thus far.

 

 

[thebruce44]

One thing that I took from the comics and from other stories of near apocalypse, like Battlestar Galactica for example, is that people seem to find a need to rush into sexual relationships for comfort/distraction when there is less of a society to judge them. Also, when you could die at any moment its probably a lot easier to jump into something you normally wouldn't. If I remember correctly this becomes a popular theme in the comics with several characters. I can see how it would bother some, but I think its a realistic theme to explore, or as realistic as you can get for a story about a zombie apocalypse.

 

I understand what you're saying, but that wasn't really what I was commenting on. I just don't like the heavy personal stories being intertwined in such a story. I've seen a lot of promising movies and overall ideas ruined by bad "love" stories. Its not hard to see the conflict they are trying to build up to, and personally I could do without it.

 

For example, I loved and always will enjoy Band of Brothers because the producers didn't go and cheapen up the story with some love story. They touched on many of the characters own personal issues being in WWII (thanks Vets!), and their (brief) conflicts with one another, but didn't go overboard with some emotional overlying storyline when the war, and how the soldiers dealt with the war, was and always remained the focus of the story.

 

I recognize that this series was based off of a comic book, of which I'm assuming this story was already existing. I just have a bad feeling of where it's going and what impression it will leave on me when its all said and done.

 

 

I see what you are getting at. Without giving too much away I will just say I found the resolution of this particular storyline unexpected and satisfying. I think you will too.

[RobertR]

I don't mind a bit of soap opera amidst my zombie apocalypse. But, the goal should be to keep the soapy stuff at the same level as the zombie attack stuff.

 

Right now, I think The Walking Dead's biggest problem is that it has a tendency to fall into cartoonish characterization at times. Racist, redneck and wife-beating, lazy, redneck are so blatantly bad guys that the best thing to happen would be for them to be eaten. Quickly. Granted, giving Shane a target helps me like Shane better, but I'd prefer these people to be flawed and gray, not drawn in black and white terms of good and evil. That even extends a bit to Rick and his decision to go back to Atlanta, he's white hat good. Someone like Daryl seems to be the more interesting variation on the flawed individual. He at least seems to be useful.

 

There's some good stuff here, but the more people talk and the more the characters are painted in black and white, you see the show still has some growing to do.

 

Robert

[TracyThom]

Right now, I think The Walking Dead's biggest problem is that it has a tendency to fall into cartoonish characterization at times.

You read my thoughts perfectly. Not only do you have the stereotypical southern redneck (racist and a wifebeater), but you also have stereotypes of other races as well. The Asian character drives a sports car and the African-American character has the name T-Dog. T-Dog??