Walking Dead, on AMC Options

[Hocus Pocus]

I wasn't going to watch this because i don't get AMC, thanks much stupid service provider, but AMC is having a month long free so I was able to watch it tonight. They have two more encore presentions so if anyone is interested catch it.

Its a zomibe tv series based off the comic book. I've followed it in so much as wiki would post synopsis of each comic until they recently stopped doing that. probably a prelude to the show coming out. The comic is known for its gore, and that anyone can die at anytime. If you are a fan of the zombie survival genre definately check it out.

[Voran]

We watched it a couple times tonight, after the neighborhood kids _finally_ stopped coming around. Ravenous little buggers.

More than a few zombie-movie cliches in this premiere, but generally ok. Protagonist being not genre savvy led to several expected blunders and such.

Not really sure why he needed so many shotguns, unless he was thinking ahead to potentially arm any survivors he ran across, though the arms cache is temporarily out of reach.

As for cliches, the near opening scene of protagonist in cop car talking to his partner about his troubles with his wife made all of us in the room immediately go, "Hm, yeah, your cop partner is fooling around with your wife, and this will be an issue down the line". Lo and behold....

Natural 28 days later approach used. We had mixed reactions, some felt it was a rip off, I reasoned with my friends that despite not being original, it does serve the 'worst case scenario' approach to finding yourself in a zombie apocalypse...that is finding yourself in one that happened while you were out cold, and when you wake up you have no frakking idea what the hell is going on. Not only are you dealing with physical issues, but you have to play catch-up on the world ending situation, which can lead to hilarity.

We all felt sorry for the horse.

[klinktastic]

I thought it was pretty interesting. I'm not a huge zombie-pacolyse guy, but I'm going to give it a few weeks worth of watching.

[Reg06]

Natural 28 days later approach used. We had mixed reactions, some felt it was a rip off, I reasoned with my friends that despite not being original, it does serve the 'worst case scenario' approach to finding yourself in a zombie apocalypse...that is finding yourself in one that happened while you were out cold, and when you wake up you have no frakking idea what the hell is going on. Not only are you dealing with physical issues, but you have to play catch-up on the world ending situation, which can lead to hilarity.

I imagine this was done so that the writers could jump right into the zombie apocalypse and not have to worry about how the world fell apart.

I really enjoyed the premiere. All around a solid show, and I really hope it succeeds.

[Tarantian]

I imagine this was done so that the writers could jump right into the zombie apocalypse and not have to worry about how the world fell apart.

Probably the exact reason, anyway when I read the comics and checked this same thing, it turned out that the they came out at almost the same time. 28 Days was released first, but The Walking Dead #1 and 2 had already been sent to the printers. A coincidence that has no doubt annoyed the author no end.

Oh, and the comic is well worth checking out - there are differences that may become more pronounced as it goes, though so far they have mostly been entirely acceptable presentation changes. It has a bit more action as well, but that's no problem.

In fact, there are a few things I kinda hope they remove in the show... Such as the katana-wielding schizophrenic lawyer, or just the stupid katana. And the death of far too many awesome characters - which is to say, almost all of them.

[Tarantian]

Double Post...

This post has been edited by Tarantian: Nov 2 2010, 10:40 PM

[capt.pantsless]

A very solid premier. It captured the feel of the comics, but they told their own story.

I liked the expanded section with Morgan and his son, as well as a much more creepy hospital scene.

For a TV show, it looked damned good, I just hope they can keep up the production values. I hope the ratings support whatever budget they need to keep it up.

[Zhan Shi]

Never read (or even heard of) the graphic novels. My two cents on the TV series:

Not bad, just mediocre. Same old stuff you see in every zombie flick. One minor innovation: in the other zombie flicks I've seen, they leave the animals alone. These buggers seem to like horse flesh as well.

[capt.pantsless]

Not bad, just mediocre. Same old stuff you see in every zombie flick.

I'd generally agree with the 'mediocre' thing - The Walking Dead takes a bit of time to get rolling. It is a character-driven comic, the zombie-killing action is NOT the main focus, so it might not be for everyone.

[Reg06]

In fact, there are a few things I kinda hope they remove in the show... Such as the katana-wielding schizophrenic lawyer, or just the stupid katana. And the death of far too many awesome characters - which is to say, almost all of them.

I can't see that person getting removed from the show- way too much fan love. I would like to see that person made less comic-booky .... replace the katana with a machete for instance. And while I definitely can see a couple of deaths getting prolonged, or removed, because beloved actors draw in money, the deaths of awesome characters makes the story succeed.

[Paul]

I read the series and loved it, and have high hopes for the TV Series.

[klinktastic]

Episode 2 was pretty good.

[Voran]

Id be interested to see where they go with the 'background' behind the zombies. At the moment I can see the rabies like infection angle, but what I realized I was having difficulty lining up was the crawler half-corpse we saw in the pilot. (there was one right? It was halloween and I was drinking so I might have misremembered).

I'm getting the 'shoot them in the head' to kill them aspect, but that crawler was an outlier. Was it a partial corpse that got zombified? It looked more beatup than the walking shamblers. Was it dead before it got zombified? A body from the morgue or somesuch?

[Critias]

As far as the 28 Days Later "rip off" thing, the storyboards for the first several issues of the comic had already been sent off to the publisher before the flick came out. I'm sure it was a matter of irritation to the Robert Kirkman (writer/creator), but by then it was likely too late to change anything just to move away from 28 Days.

[Fabe]

As far as the 28 Days Later "rip off" thing, the storyboards for the first several issues of the comic had already been sent off to the publisher before the flick came out. I'm sure it was a matter of irritation to the Robert Kirkman (writer/creator), but by then it was likely too late to change anything just to move away from 28 Days.

Try telling that to the fans of "28 days" especially now a days where any thing that has even the smallest resemblance to something else is declared a rip off.

[Voran]

Try telling that to the fans of "28 days" especially now a days where any thing that has even the smallest resemblance to something else is declared a rip off.

Omg I had an opinion similar to what you just said! You ripped me off! Get out of my braaaaain!

[Reg06]

Id be interested to see where they go with the 'background' behind the zombies. At the moment I can see the rabies like infection angle, but what I realized I was having difficulty lining up was the crawler half-corpse we saw in the pilot. (there was one right? It was halloween and I was drinking so I might have misremembered).

I'm getting the 'shoot them in the head' to kill them aspect, but that crawler was an outlier. Was it a partial corpse that got zombified? It looked more beatup than the walking shamblers. Was it dead before it got zombified? A body from the morgue or somesuch?

If the person had been grabbed and mauled while alive, but only from the waist down, and then somehow escaped and managed to cling to life long enough to turn- that would cause that sort of effect. I believe it has been established that the larger the wound the quicker a human turns.

[Hocus Pocus]

If anyone missed the first 2 episodes. This sunday they are playing them both plus the new episode. It starts at 7pm on AMC which is free for the rest of this month.


eat'em up eat'em up yum yum yum!

[Randomonioum]

Thank god for the channel FX, otherwise I wouldn't be able to watch this here in dear old blighty.

I agree, that it is taking a while to get rolling, but that doesn't make it a bad show. Hell, I've had more fun with it in two episodes than I have with some shows. Looking at you, stargate universe. Anyway, it didn't stop me crying over the horse, cheering over the tank, and nodding sagely over the ballsy method they use to get out. It's a good show, and now a weekly fixture of my fridays. Heres hoping it keeps going till completion.

[CanadianWolverin...]

Just watched episode 3. I hope I am not spoiling too much but to say the least, these are not "rabies" zombies. These are corpses controlled by what remains of the nervous system in the head. I think some have called it a return to the Romero zombie, to a degree.

A spoiler on this tv episode in the hidden text:
Decapitated head is still trying to bite the living.

And if you had read the comic, this gets revealed more and more along the way but when it comes to the tv show, it seems they are definitely going to differ from the comic in some respects when it comes to the story but in this they appear to be similar.

A spoiler on the comic book in this hidden text:
People who die from pretty much anything in the comic come back as a zombie unless that death involves the destruction of the brain somehow. At first they think it is because of contact with the zombies, like bites, scratches, and other exchanges of bodily fluids but later this view point changes with some little girls being killed by the serial killer. One particular nasty character keeps zombie heads in containers for what seems like the purpose of a personal source of "entertainment".

So, not determined yet if that is going to be the case in the tv show.

[Mercer]

I like this show (never read the graphic novels), but I am disappointed in some of their storytelling choices. I was sad to see the horse go in the first ep, because I thought that was a really elegant solution to the whole "cars breakdown and need gas" thing (and it reminded me of the quote from the Tribesman archetype in the SR1 BBB).

Character-wise, I'm 50-50. I was surprised at the amount of hate for the Shane character on another tv review sight-- the guy seems to be doing the best he can. And I'm not sure I buy the whole infidelity angst angle either; there has to be some sort of apocolypse waiver for booty calls.

My moral barometer for end-of-the-world zombie scenarios goes like this: sleeping with my wife when everyone asusmes I'd dead, that's maybe a 2. Driving a car with a car alarm going off into the middle of camp is at least a 7. Honking the horn imaptiently because you think some other people are taking too long gathering up ammo means you get to be used as a human pogo stick.

That's not to say I think characters shouldn't make bad decisions, I think they should. If it makes sense for the character, it makes the story stronger. But then there's things that just seem really, really obviously dumb, like people making a lot of noise for no real reason when survival seems to depend on remaining hidden. It wasn't like there wasn't a zombie twenty feet from tents ten minutes prior to Darryl honking the truck horn-- although to be fair, that zombie was outside the impenetrable "cans hanging from string" line of defense they had set up. Seriously, is that a thing? Zombies are terrified of cans? What's the thought process there? "We have some cans hanging from a string ten feet from our tents, so if we hear a 'clink' in the middle of the night, that's either a squirrel, the wind, or a horde of zombies." (Here's an idea. If we're worried about getting eaten by the hordes of ravenous zombies, let's not use a defensive measure that's eerily reminiscent of a dinner bell.)

Overall I like the show, but that just makes the little stuff that bugs me bug me all the more.

[Voran]

I just watched the pilot again over on Hulu and realized there was stuff I missed the first time I saw it. Possibly because it was late, and we were drunk while watching it. Drunk watching the pilot 3 times in a row didn't help so much for recall.

Anyhoo...

the zeds are creepy in that they retain a little knowledge or mannerisms of their previous life. The girl picking up the doll for example, zombies knowing how to work doorknobs, etc, or how to peer into peepholes.

The zombie mom peeping back through the peephole also makes sense in later context, as we learn about smell being a factor, she probably smelled faint 'human meat' behind that door. In the later ep we see zombies having enough sense at times to use tools (rocks vs window).

Having read the wiki, I see they are going the route of 'body issues don't really matter as long as the nervous system is still sorta functional', which then does explain torso lady. I also noticed that all the dead bodies we see in the hospital backyard/dock had headshots, presumably to keep them down.

[Reg06]

That's not to say I think characters shouldn't make bad decisions, I think they should. If it makes sense for the character, it makes the story stronger. But then there's things that just seem really, really obviously dumb, like people making a lot of noise for no real reason when survival seems to depend on remaining hidden. It wasn't like there wasn't a zombie twenty feet from tents ten minutes prior to Darryl honking the truck horn-- although to be fair, that zombie was outside the impenetrable "cans hanging from string" line of defense they had set up. Seriously, is that a thing? Zombies are terrified of cans? What's the thought process there? "We have some cans hanging from a string ten feet from our tents, so if we hear a 'clink' in the middle of the night, that's either a squirrel, the wind, or a horde of zombies." (Here's an idea. If we're worried about getting eaten by the hordes of ravenous zombies, let's not use a defensive measure that's eerily reminiscent of a dinner bell.)

If not the string of cans, then what? It's something, and I imagine getting spooked every time a squirrel climbs across the can line is alot better than stepping outside your tent into a facefull of zombie.

Glenn shouldn't have driven the stolen car back to camp, but it was shown that he wanted to keep the car.

The survivors are louder than they should be sometimes, but they've survived by hiding in the woods, not by perfecting their stealth skills and survival strategies against the zombies in the city.

[capt.pantsless]

although to be fair, that zombie was outside the impenetrable "cans hanging from string" line of defense they had set up. Seriously, is that a thing? Zombies are terrified of cans? What's the thought process there? "We have some cans hanging from a string ten feet from our tents, so if we hear a 'clink' in the middle of the night, that's either a squirrel, the wind, or a horde of zombies." (Here's an idea. If we're worried about getting eaten by the hordes of ravenous zombies, let's not use a defensive measure that's eerily reminiscent of a dinner bell.)

This made me laugh out-loud at work.

I believe the writers are very cognizant of the fact that the camp is basically a zombie buffet right now. The campers are counting on:

1.) Round-the-clock watches being scheduled
2.) The fact that they're on a mountain in the middle of no-where, where currently there are no other people, and thus, no other zombies

I'm guessing that the safety of the camp is going to become a significant plot-point soon.

Just about anywhere there would be a secure structure for that many people to live, (such as an abandoned apt. building) there's going to be plenty of walkers roaming around. That, and the isolated quarry DOES have easy access to water, which is a pretty major concern for survival, especially in the Atlanta summer.

[CanadianWolverin...]

This made me laugh out-loud at work.

I believe the writers are very cognizant of the fact that the camp is basically a zombie buffet right now. The campers are counting on:

1.) Round-the-clock watches being scheduled
2.) The fact that they're on a mountain in the middle of no-where, where currently there are no other people, and thus, no other zombies

I'm guessing that the safety of the camp is going to become a significant plot-point soon.

Just about anywhere there would be a secure structure for that many people to live, (such as an abandoned apt. building) there's going to be plenty of walkers roaming around. That, and the isolated quarry DOES have easy access to water, which is a pretty major concern for survival, especially in the Atlanta summer.

Ding ding ding, we have a ... dinner bell.

That some haven't read the comics is pretty telling, I hope you enjoy the ride as the survivors realize they are living in a zombie apocalypse, every time they don't accept that has dire consequences and I am so glad someone who hasn't read the comics is figuring that out, especially with such fine quotable remarks.

(Here's an idea. If we're worried about getting eaten by the hordes of ravenous zombies, let's not use a defensive measure that's eerily reminiscent of a dinner bell.) - Mercer

Pure gold, pure gold. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)