The Walking Dead TV

Wow. Really loved the last two episodes and the glimpse that we'll get a more global perspective for the final episode is something I'm looking forward to a lot.

Lots of rough edges but majorly enjoyable, still.

One I thought of from the last episode was that hick guy shoulda been more disagreeable about leaving if he figured his stumpy brother would only be able to find them by making back to that camp.

Also, I found myself in a "yelling at the screen in a horror movie" moment with the two sisters. Yeesh... But I think the scene gets a pass b/c it didnt go down the "typical" way and served as a good emotional moment. End of the world and your only connection to your old life is your sister and she dies BEFORE HER BIRTHDAY! A little over the top, but still good.

Liked the moment where the cop had the other one in his sights. Knew how it'd play out, but glad the old dude was there to see it.

Really excited to see how the dynamic plays out with the CSC guy. Seems kinda unstable. Booya.

When the next episode is over, I know I’m going to be jonesing hard for the next season… Super impressed overall.

If you guys are ever in Atlanta and there is a zombie apocalypse, DO NOT go to the Georgia Aquarium thinking it's the CDC headquarters. That was hilarious, as was the line "the government will do anything to keep the CDC running!" Obviously written by clueless writers.

I used to work for the CDC and I live literally around the corner from their main campus. When they said that's where they were heading, I thought "cool, they're going to the Clifton Road facility". Nope. That's the aquarium. The CDC doesn't even have offices downtown.

Anyway, I thought this was probably the worst episode. The dramatic beats were SO over the top and forced, so melodramatic...Shane's flip-out in the woods was just silly, the thing with Jim was boring and expected. The sisters bit was ridiculous. Even the lady smashing her zombified abusive husband's head was just silly and overdone.

It's definitely a transitional episode though, all setup for the end of season 1. We'll see how it goes.

It's worth noting too that this episode was directed by Ernest Dickerson...he was Spike Lee's DP for some of his better films, including DO THE RIGHT THING. He's dabbled in horror on and off over the years, TALES FROM THE HOOD probably being his most noteworthy. I think he also did the "good" CANDYMAN sequel.

Mike, I'm pretty sure you're the only one with beef about the real geography of this thing. Not saying I wouldnt be mindful of it if it was shot in my hometown, but I believed that was the CDC just fine.

Oh yeah, the wife smashing her husband was another scene I really liked too.

I wonder if my opinion of this will change when I rewatch back to back with my brother when he comes to visit. So far I've watched recordings of each episode chopped up and while doing other (baby related) chores since my wife's not into zombies.

And why is it a crazy thing to think that the govt would protect the CDC? Made sense to me as someone who has about 0 knowledge of it and hasnt worked there.

Mike, I think you know too much about stuff to enjoy this properly. Please get hammered and watch the next episode for expectations to be met.

Ska_baron wrote:

And why is it a crazy thing to think that the govt would protect the CDC? Made sense to me as someone who has about 0 knowledge of it and hasnt worked there.

More importantly why is it crazy to think the character speaking line couldn't believe that... true or not. I see shit geography in Vanouver filmed movies all the time and just ignore it.

Jackie Chan rumbling in the Bronx with the Rockie Mountains behind him... WTF? and the Vancouver library has been used in a ton of movies and fills in for everything from superhero headquarters to governement buildings in the future... who cares.

But I agree with Mike about one thing. The whole show has been far too melodramatic since day one and is only getting more obvious about it as time goes on. I don't like the feel of it overall.

You don't notice the overacting and hammy music cueing up emotional scenes in the comic. I stopped watching and don't think I'll continue.

Mike, it really seems like your biggest gripes with the series stem from you being a resident of Atlanta. I've yet to see a movie or TV show that accurately portrays New York City's geograhy, be it physical or socio-cultural. Not one. You're expecting way too much. Now your comments on the beats, the melodrama and the writing I can get behind, even if I don't agree with them, but you taking offense to the fact that the hispanic section of town is no where near where the vatos are holed up is a bit over the top.

The scenes with the sisters and the cops in the woods were both taken from the comic book. The woods scene didn't really work because they haven't explored Shane's psyche the way they did in the comic. I liked the episode over all, probably more than the last one.

Looks like we all had the same thought at the same time...

jay718 wrote:

Looks like we all had the same thought at the same time...

Which, according to the internet, makes us right.

Gotta agree with the others Mike, the nitpicking about Atlanta's geography isn't necessary, you pointed out the other things wrong with the episode that are more likely to matter to 99.9% of viewers.

The show has now taken a radical departure from the comic with the group heading to the CDC. I have no idea where they're going with this, which is kind of cool, but I figured they'd at least end the first season along the lines of the first tpb to placate comic nerds like myself before going off and completely doing their own thing.

You guys are seriously reading WAY too much into the Atlanta stuff. I'm pointing it out just because I think it's amusing since I live here. Not because it makes the show bad. Look, I've made pictures before, and I obviously understand that geographic/regional fidelity is WAY low on the priority scale. If I were a location scout on this show and I saw the CDC facilities around the corner from my house, I'd be looking at a different location too. It doesn't matter, what matters if it fits the story and in this case it did and that's fine. I just think it's funny they used the Aquarium. I'm sure for New Yorkers it's pretty common to never actually see the City in films set there. That doesn't mean that something is wrong or done poorly.

And it's also funny how the CDC is treated, not just in this show but elsewhere, like this incredible, critical government agency. The federal government really doesn't understand what the hell the CDC does on a very high level, and it's terribly underfunded. That's why the bit about keeping it running was funny. Sure, for a layman, that's a comment that would make sense.

I'm not quite sure why you guys thing I'm coming down on the show for this stuff- I'm just making the same comments and observations about it I'd make talking with friends about the program.

It's a good show, in all. Uneven and way too indulgent at times, but for TV it's good. And watching sunday's episode, the one key differentiator about the show versus other zombie media struck me- it's really, really mainstream. The Romero stuff, 28 DAYS LATER, LEFT 4 DEAD and so on are still very culty/non-mainstream. That's pretty interesting, since the show is a huge hit.

Michael Barnes wrote:

And watching sunday's episode, the one key differentiator about the show versus other zombie media struck me- it's really, really mainstream. The Romero stuff, 28 DAYS LATER, LEFT 4 DEAD and so on are still very culty/non-mainstream. That's pretty interesting, since the show is a huge hit.

It took 40 years to get there. This happens all the time. Impressionism was ignored, then that's all the public wanted all of a sudden. Classical was ignored in favour of Baroque, then it's all they wanted. Sex Pistols, Dolls, MC5 etc... were all cultish.. but Green Day was huge.

A bit more production, some critical success, and some time. Presto, new pop genre.

In movies this happens just like any other medium. When I was a kid video games were geeky. Now they're so common as to be considered non-consiquential.

Boardgames are backwards from the rest of the world.

Sorry Mike, just internet reading made it seem like you were giving equal weight to real word settings, that's all.

What're your thoughts on this being mainstream? Something in particular in the way it's written or filmed? Marketing? Timing?

Watched half of the latest episode then fell asleep.
My biggest gripe is that the show really needs to pick up the pace. Have more storylines going. Its the end of season 1 and really, bugger all has happened.

io9.com/5702995/frank-darabont-fires-the...entire-writing-staff

Rumor of Darabont firing his whole staff. Could go either way if true...

YEEESH! Now _that_ was a shitty episode! What a terrible way to end the season...I fucking _hated_ almost every minute of it. Contrived in every possible way. Utterly predictable. Nonsensical, and at its worst laughable. The drunken would-be rape, the idiotic melodrama in the control room at the end, the silly MRI thing...man, I couldn't believe how much I hated this one.

OK, so we're trapped in a room with a crazy doctor guy that's going to kill himself and everybody else in the room for everyone's own good and you're going to pull a shotgun on him and threaten to blow his brains out? And he's the only guy with a code to open the door? That's just really bad writing.

The doctor's crazed "we are the CDC" rant was pretty funny though...because everything he said was pretty much completely irrelevant given the whole zombie apocalypse situation.

I didn't even think the beginning was worth a crap...I guess it was a feeble attempt to garner some sympathy for Shane and make him seem like not so much a lying, wife-stealing jackass.

And you know, we've already seen the "OMG, hot water!" scene once in the show.

The grenade deus ex machina...I just rolled my eyes.

Who knows what the doctor told Rick..."I'm wearing ladies' panties", "Professional wrestling is not real", "Vader is Luke's father"...who cares!

I guess that's it until October then.

Pretty much agree. Overall, I'd say each episode was worse than the previous. As for October, I'm pretty sure I'll have forgotten all about it by then; that's to say it's not memorable enough for me to want to bother with a second series.