The Walking Dead

J

Jaymii

Baka Ranger
I thought I'd open a separate discussion thread since the series officially premiered in the states on Sunday and FX will be showing it on Friday over here. The opening episode of the show on AMC (which normally gets about 1 - 2 million max for Mad Men) and about the same for Breaking Bad got huge numbers when it came in. A staggering 5.3 million tuned in for the first showing, and it got up to 8.1 if you count the late-at-night showing (2.7 18-49).

**light spoilers**

I liked the first episode, a lot. I had my niggles, mainly wanting the characters to be a little more genre-savvy, but I can get past that. The tone and pacing was excellent, probably the best thing in it. The special effects really were great, as was Bear McCreary's effectively used score, and, of course, I was loving the cinematography -- AMC has some of the best looking shows on TV, and The Walking Dead is definitely no exception. I'm quite excited for where it can go, and I'm totally willing to look past next weeks apparent mis-step for a brilliant character study in the future.
 
Jayme said:
I liked the first episode, a lot. I had my niggles, mainly wanting the characters to be a little more genre-savvy
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Not Joss Whedon enough for you, eh?

I really liked the first episode as I said earlier, had a lot more to it than the comic, Morgan was fleshed out a lot more along with his son, they covered one and a half issues with this debut episode so I'm really wanting to know how far they get. I assume it'll probably only get to issue 8 or so which is nothing compared to what the entire comic has to offer.

A lot of people keep praising how the show opened up in the first few minutes with Rick shooting the little girl zombie in the head it's original content as far as I'm aware, didn't do much for me aside from thinking "Yeah, this show has balls" and if that's the case I wonder what they'll do when they get into the meat of the series.

Although this season hasn't even finished its run yet I'm worried about the future, partially how they will handle some things in the episodes to come. They've taken out some characters and replaced them, I wasn't sure what to think but listening to "The Walking Dead Podcast" Kirkman reassured they just won't be zombie fodder so it'll be interesting to see what happens with these original characters. There's also the issue of the children aging and you know... no longer being actual children, but they could easy get another full season out of them at least before they out grow their roles.

This series does have high production value which I'm glad, I know Bear McCreary has got some mad praise for his work on Battlestar Galactica but I never thought he would be as good as they say. I would actually seriously consider buying the soundtrack if it gets released (Which it eventually will)

But yeah, great first episode and I look forward to the next one, so much so I'm counting down the days to when the next one airs.
 
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So in preparation for The Walking Dead I re-watched Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead… which spoiled me because I was left sitting through stretches of The Walking Dead wondering why I wasn’t having the sort of visceral reaction to it that I still have with Night and Dawn.

Don’t get me wrong, it's probably because nobody was eatenand nihilism hasn't set in.

It is well directed with great cinematography - the whole waking up in a hospital thing has been done to death, but this at least makes it more atmospheric and creepy. I found myself thinking that it may be so beautiful to look at that a lot of the horror was negated for me. Hell, even the languishing, slow-mo on the zombie headshots with gloriously graceful arcing crimson jets of blood was beautiful.

The point where it picked up for me was the last ten minutes when Rick is pursued by a horde of zombies - just seeing that mass of people was unnerving.

Good opening.
 
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is it the old school shamblers or the 28 days later running zombies? I'm thinking about watching this show, but i think this is a bit of a make and break for me, i'm sick of runners
 
Old school.

Lupus said:
Not Joss Whedon enough for you, eh?
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Oddly enough, his characters aren't particularly genre-savvy. I was watching a bit of Scream 2 the other day, though. AMC shows always take me a while to warm up to, and around season 3 everything will finally click.
 
Anyone catch the second episode?

The zombies certainly shift from Romero to modern day running zombies pretty quickly, in the second episode some even climb over a fence. WHAT.

Waiting for the original characters to do something of importance, the third episode preview seemed to be focused on an original character. I hope it doesn't stray that far from the source material, it's not like there's a severe lack of it or anything.
 
I could justify it getting over the fence, since as not humans have equal strength, I doubt zombies do either. I liked the second episode - it showed how it's going to work as a television show. The pilot works almost as a film, so this begins the "never-ending" factor that they seem to love so so much, some colourful character additions with a bit of humour thrown in. It's making me miss Breaking Bad a hell of a lot, though.

Also, ratings for the second episode didn't drop too much (4.7 million) and so, it was renewed for a 13 episode second season last night.
 
Third episode is out this Friday for UK watchers, I can't hold out that long and I don't have Sky anymore. Third episode I enjoyed more than the previous, I don't really like the deviation from the original content all that much but I'll give it another week, it's by no means bad at all however. Some of AMC's original characters I don't mind either, next episode though I expect big things, seeing how they are done will decide whether I'll like the series or not.
 
I enjoy it more and more as it goes on, but I am finding it instantly forgettable. :/ Boardwalk Empire has more of a "must-watch" feel to me.

In other objective news, Sunday's latest episode rose in the ratings to a season high - 5.5 million (3.7 - 18-49). It's really remarkable, and I honestly hope AMC can begin to get audiences like this for their other shows. They must be hitting themselves for not ordering more episodes, and it makes me wonder if they indeed are going to go ahead and leave it until next Halloween for S2 -- if they do, its either going to be the Biggest. Show. Ever. or a show that loses half its audience in the jump. Hmm.
 
Jayme said:
I enjoy it more and more as it goes on, but I am finding it instantly forgettable.
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I agree with that sentiment. Hats off for the final five minutes though what with all of the zombie carnage... (they killed off the best looking girl in the series). :x

I have to say that Andrew Lincoln has impressed me with his performance. I find myself no longer wondering about whether he will drop his accent and just enjoy his presence.
 
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Lincoln's accent irritated me a lot in this weeks episode. It also reminded me a fair bit of a few other American actors who deepen their voice to that level, to make them all manly and stuff.

As for the episode itself? I was fully prepared to drop it after the finale, because 90% of it was tired and incredibly boring. Really. Then, again, that ending. It's becoming FlashForward, in that nothing happens until the final five minutes; however, I'm fairly sure if they use this weeks ending effectively, I'll be energised all throughout next weeks.
 
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An interesting listen. Nothing revelatory.
 
Series overall was kind of mediocre, I gave it 6/10, a lot of fans just bent over and accepted it being all "Yeah, it's its own entity" which is true, doesn't mean it has to be **** on purpose though. A lot of scenes were really awkward and also poorly acted, I had high hopes and in some ways I was pleased, but it was mostly wasted potential. The TV series had good music though, so it's not all bad.

If you want better, read the comics, I know someone who started off with the TV series and I shown him the comic and he pretty much came to the conclusion that after reading the original material the TV series isn't up to standard but still worth watching. Which I can agree with for the most part.

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This scene is so awkward to watch, it's just so... awful. In the original Amy gets a bullet in the head straight away, then Andrea laments slowly over time, it's so... overly dramatic for the sake of television.
 
Yeah, I'll agree with a 6/10. I enjoyed a lot of the final episode and much of the first/second, but the rest was incredibly droll and worn. Darabont seems to be taking a different approach to writing S2, so I'll see how that goes. I do, however, wish the show was more like this:

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Jayme said:
Yeah, I'll agree with a 6/10. I enjoyed a lot of the final episode and much of the first/second, but the rest was incredibly droll and worn. Darabont seems to be taking a different approach to writing S2, so I'll see how that goes.
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I agree with that. After the first episode I was puzzled as to why the show didn't move me viscerally and that was the first episode!

Despite the high production values, there was nothing startling, unfamiliar or disturbing. None of the characters or their ordeals moved me because it was all settled in a familiar manner. It's partly down to the fact that few of the characters beyond a core four of Grimes & Friend are really developed to the point where if they die, you care. And who keeps a grenade in their handbag?

I'm torn about criticism because a lot of effort was really put into it.

Thanks for the video Jayme. I agree, The Walking Dead did need more zombie carnage.
 
The [incredibly pointless] Golden Globe noms were announced today, with a load of predictable and popular entries crowding the TV arena. Not-so surprisingly, The Walking Dead got one for Best Drama. TVWithoutPity tweeted this:

Glad the #GoldenGlobes stopped pretending that #TrueBlood is a serious drama. Now they're pretending #WalkingDead is. http://ht.ly/3oWny
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