Just Watched "THE WALKING DEAD"

[DS Operative]

I don't get the AMC channel so I had to wait until it was available on DVD from Netflix.

WTF-- ONLY SIX EPISODES???? They gave me one FULL season and it was only SIX episodes????? UGH!!! Now I have to wait until every episode airs next season, avoid all the spoilers and talk about it while it's on, and wait for Season 2 which according to IMDB will 13 episodes long. Ugh. I don't know if I can wait that long. I love me some good Zombie movies!!

 

[lupus]

I will second those views! Wish there was more episodes in the first season.

Guess I'll have to make do with catching up with the comics in the down time.

 

[Sigma-LS]

Honestly they got a bit of miracle when they asked to do a pilot and AMC said "Not only will we fund a pilot, we want 6 episodes!"

Rock on. What did you think of the extras? I thought some were hilarious.

"If you see some zombies in the far background, then some random dip****s that look like they're lost wandering around, then more zombies, that's my fault. Sorry."

I had no idea Rick's actor was british either. I got Lost flashbacks listening to him. Excellent stuff!

 

[cayman shen]

I saw the first episode and then we lost our cable...fast forward, I get disc 1 in the mail, last night I settle in to watch it, get through the first episode before falling asleep :lol

So, those other five are gonna be worth seeing, huh? I can't wait!

The make up on the zombies looks better than most feature films to me (though I'm no expert). They either had a heck of a budget, some top notch talent, or both.

 

[Chiok]

With a few British actors in prominent roles, it almost seems natural for it to only be 6 episodes, because that's how long most British series are, maybe 8. Does seem strange to cast Andrew Lincoln as the main American role, must have been the best audition. When I saw the trailers, I thought it was going to be a British masterpiece on the same scale as Dead Set written by Charlie Brooker.

Nevertheless, I really liked it. Fun stuff.

 

[Scareb]

I loved Dead set but this totally blows it away. When they initially cast Lincoln as rick grimes i was like "whaaaa" because I thought Jake Weber of dawn of the dead and medium fame would make an awesome rick grimes but Lincoln did a damn good job.

The Visual Makeup is done by Greg Nicotero and KNB effects. They've done every romero makeup since day of the dead so you can tell they've had some practice. I would ninja kick polar bears to work for KNB.

 

[wuher da brewer]

As a guy who still enjoys the comic book, I didn't like how some of the show was cast, especially with regards to Andrea and to a lesser extent, her sister Amy. I was listening to a review of the show and the reviewer was perhaps the only reviewer I've ever heard say he didn't like it. He added soap opera music to the instances where Amy and Andrea talked to each other and I couldn't help guffawing with laughter because it was so true. Some of the acting and dialogue on the show is down right corny and not at all how I wanted to imagine it reading the comic.

That said, I still love the comic and the KNB effects are awesome. I was hoping the season finale would end with Carl holding a smoking gun. I fully intend to keep watching. Maybe hope for some improvement in season two. I just have to hope that the next season starts with Herschel and Tyreese entering the cast. Maybe end with Michonne coming into the show.

 

[Scareb]

It would be dope to have tyreese in there, he was always one of my favorite characters and I think it would be awesome to have one episode dedicated to herschels farm. I have serious doubts that they'll have tyreeses daughter and her boyfriend and if they do, I could seriously see them not doing the....incident.

I'm kinda surrprised though that they dont have Allen and Donna and the twins in the show.

Admittedly they went a little overboard with amy and andrea but I think they wanted to show a different side to the death of a character, more emotional. Not like some of the other characters.

 

[Supa troop]

This has just aired this evening in the UK i must admit i was well impressed with it cant wait untill next sunday

 

[Scareb]

I was the same way, every sunday it aired here in canada but unfortunately I always had to go back to base where we had no cable in the shacks so I had to wait for the following weekend to watch it.

It was like a crackhead missing his dose and having to wait a week......scary

 

[Slave1]

Honestly, the series is good, but I liked the comics a lot more. I got that huge compendium off of Amazon and read it in like weekend. Every time you turned the page there was something else that made you want to keep going, and with that big a book, I had plenty to satisfy me.

That said, this sprawling post-appocolyptic story borrows heavily from Stephen King's The Stand. It just adds zombies. Replace Stu Redman with Rick Grimes. Replace the Glenn Bateman character with Dale Horwath. And those characters are very, very much the same. And likewise, both stories have a Glenn character.

Survivors are on the move to meet up with other survivors and meet up in very much the same way. They leave signs in both as to where they are going in each story. When Stu Redman breaks out of his holding cell at the CDC, he sees basically the same sort of stuff Rick does when he come comes out of his coma. And they both have this moment where they each go down a stairwell to get out--though in SK's story one of the plague-ravaged survivors grips his leg down at the bottom in a very zombie-like way, then says, "Come down and eat chicken with me, beautiful."

If the two stories were not already enough alike, in the TV series of WD, they even add in a bit which wasn't in the comics where they come to the conclusion that maybe all this was viral and perhaps they should make their way to the nearest CDC. Yup, that happened in The Stand first.

In the Walking Dead, it's pretty clear the zombie stuff comes secondary in both the series and comics, and it's the dynamics of the characters that they focus on. And what do you think the focus is in The Stand that makes it work so well?

Don't mean to dog on The Walking Dead. I really love it. But there aren't just parrallels to The Stand, there are outright instances of borrowing from it, whether on purpose or not. Surprised that Darabont didn't make this realization and approach Stephen King about redoing The Stand as a series and doing it right. Maybe he did. Don't know.

So, if you're missing TWD series, read the source material for it . . . the comics. And if you still want more, read the source material for them . . . The Stand. And lest you think I believe The Stand was wholly original, it is a known fact that Stephen King found a lot of inspiration in the writing of Richard Matheson . . . who just happened happened to write a little thing in 1954 called "I Am Legend." Another post-appocolyptic story including vampires, and which ironically also inspired Night of the Living Dead (switching vamps for zombies), and by proxy, in my opinion it also inspired every post-appocolyptic zombie epic thereafter.

 

[Guy Cowen]

Just watched the first season in one hit tonight, I have to say I really enjoyed it but like the post above I can see so many comparisons. 28 days later, the stand, Day & Dawn of the dead etc etc.

It is a great series though on its own 2 feet, a few things dont add up like the opening scene where the lead is looking for fuel then goes back to how it began. Where in the time line was he looking for fuel when he found the Zombie kid?

I guess everything has been done that can be done with Zombies, that said I really enjoyed it much more than Romero's last 2 flicks. Looking forward to season 2.

 

[Slave1]

I don't think the zombie kid scene factored into the time line. I think it was just a dream sequence.

It's definitely good zombie watching fun, and I'm glad AMC let them go so far with what they were allowed to do.

What's funny though, is I was reading this interview where people on the SyFy channel were discussing why they were making those giant monster throw down movies. The question came up of why they never tried zombies on one of their made for TV movies since they were gaining such popularity nowadays. The answer--we just don't believe zombies would make for good TV. Apparently this was before The Walking Dead showed up on AMC. LOL!

 

[darthgordon]

I was pretty surprised that they were going to leave it at 6 episodes and wait 10 months to air anymore after the extreme success it had in the ratings. I'm pretty well convinced that your average American has the attention span of a goldfish and bringing back their attention after a 10 month hiatus seems like it would be difficult.

Then there’s the craziness of firing all the writers for the next season. Which means, the series will have no real direction and they’re obviously shooting off from the comics by design.

Why air on Halloween night as well? Do people really stay home and watch television Halloween night? …probably… just not me. Of course, thankfully, I have On-Demand.

It just seems like a lot of crazy decisions are being made; almost as though everyone involved has no business sense what-so-ever.

“It was a huge success, so let’s fire all the writers that wrote those successful episodes and then wait 10 months before releasing anymore!”

But maybe they’ll turn out to be crazy geniuses.

 

[Scareb]

Most adults don't go trick 'r treating on halloween unless they have kids and most parties are usually on a friday or saturday.

They stated that they're going to go along the lines of the comic story-wise but that they are going to change it up every so often so that audiences are not gonna go "i read the comic, i know what happens next"

 

[darthgordon]

Yes but a lot of adults have kids to take trick-or-treating... then, while the most successful Halloween parties take place the Friday or Saturday before, I've still seen a lot of people going out the night of... Of course, those staying home to hand out candy do need something to watch.

But that's why I say, they probably do... I don't and just assume the hardcore Halloween fans are also the hardcore horror fans that this would appeal to.

 

[Slave1]

They stated that they're going to go along the lines of the comic story-wise but that they are going to change it up every so often so that audiences are not gonna go "i read the comic, i know what happens next"

That's what they said, but so far nothing of any significance has deviated from the comics. They've added characters and deleted characters, but since it's pretty much Rick's story, it doesn't matter a whole lot to me. The CDC thing was added in but that didn't throw me for a loop or anything.

They also said not to get too attached to any of the characters because they could be killed off at any time. Dumbest thing to ever say! If you want us to care about the characters--which I assume film-makers would hope we would--don't tell us up front not to get emotionally invested. Kind of defeats the purpose. DUH!

 

[Scareb]

Well just look at the comics, I wont spoil it for anyone but if you get attached to any one character, you're in for a surprise.