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[JetBlackPanda]

Loved the premiere, I am a fan of survival/end of days type stories, count me in for the rest of the series.

edit: the zombie makeup was phenomenal holy shit!

 

[jax (old)]

GAFfers expecting lots of horror might want to adjust their expectations a bit. The book isn't horror at all, really. Very, very rarely does it try to scare you.

The show has already been stuffed with more horror than the book ever has, so I think Darabont wants to ratchet up those elements a bit.

Nah. about the same. The do need to hold your attention so it has to pizzazz up a bit.

The one thing I will say is that TWD is about the human drama/condition - what's his face even writes about it a lot in the letters pages. That said in the premiere watching the black guy emote angst... I just wasn't buying it. Guess I've been watching too much LIE TO ME.

These actors are going to have one hell of an acting gig acting in this zombie fucked universe.

 

[KevinCow]

That was an awesome premiere. This show is going to be great.

 

[Cornballer]

- Q&A: Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes)

What's up with the second picture in the Q&A? :lol

 

[The Lamonster]

Can I watch a high quality stream anywhere like amc.com or Hulu? These sites are blocked at my work so I can't check.

 

[Stumpokapow]

Ugh digital downloading is so dumb. I can get it on Amazon VOD in HD and only be able to watch it when connected to the internet and be able to take screencaps of it, or I can get it on iTunes in HD and be able to watch it ANYWHERE but not take screencaps.
Stupid Amazon not allowing downloads to mac.

Buy on either service, then "pirate" the episode (naturally turn off uploading). I guess this is suboptimal if you have a bandwidth cap, but it solves your dilemma; no ethical harm done, and you'll be able to watch it on any platform and take screencaps.

 

[JoeBoy101]

Why was he spared?

Welp, first and foremost he was in a closed room. So if zombies were out roaming, it might explain why they didn't get him. Second, as I recall, a gurney had been pushed up to his door so it might have prevented zombies from even attempting to get to the door, even if the noticed. Third, the military had encamped around the hospital and the building itself had taken damage from combat and it looked like some explosives (missles or otherwise). Given how epidemics spread, hospitals tend to be the front lines so it would have gotten the worst and early on. I'd imagine that the military had first quarantined the area and then fled, with the zombies all drawn out of the building (excepting the ones locked up). In all that chaos, one quiet guy in a room in a coma can either be easily forgotten or easily written off as a casualty by fleeing personnel.

Couldn't hit the side of a barn.

Bear in mind they were a little distance away at moving targets. Given the adrenaline, fear, and all, its tough to keep a straight aim. Its was unrealistic given the number of bullets, but not overly so.

 

[sixteen-bit]

- Q&A: Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes)

What's up with the second picture in the Q&A? :lol

awwwwww :lol

 

[Seth C]

I didn't say it was "good" dialogue, and I myself think it's too preachy/talky. But I've seen many people defend it and anything Kirkman writes so *shrug* "zomg so deep"

It's Kirkman, so yeah. It's going to have wordy, extraneous dialogue and lots of of words randomly bolded for emphasis.

 

[Discotheque]

Aww man. Now that just makes me even more sad that the Horse got killed

 

[JoeBoy101]

Aww man. Now that just makes me even more sad that the Horse got killed

Saved Rick's life though.

 

[Alucrid]

Sweet. So happy this is on Amazon. Will buy a season pass when I get home.

 

[Confidence Man]

Was it just me or did the main character not seem all that freaked out about the situation he woke up to? I mean, you come across this door that says not to open it because the dead are inside, but you see a hand reaching out. I would think a normal reaction would be to assume there was someone that wasn't actually dead but got trapped in there, given he didn't know about zombies yet. Did he even yell Hello? I don't remember.

 

[hsin]

Incredible premiere. Haters gonna hate.

 

[The Lamonster]

Can I watch a high quality stream anywhere like amc.com or Hulu? These sites are blocked at my work so I can't check.

So Amazon.com and iTunes have it for sale. Are they the same price? Same video quality?

 

[Kuroyume]

Was it just me or did the main character not seem all that freaked out about the situation he woke up to? I mean, you come across this door that says not to open it because the dead are inside, but you see a hand reaching out. I would think a normal reaction would be to assume there was someone that wasn't actually dead but got trapped in there, given he didn't know about zombies yet. Did he even yell Hello? I don't remember.

I sure as hell wouldn't have said hello. Alone by myself in some dark deserted hospital with corpses lying on the floor and locked doors holding some growling people back? GROWLING PEOPLE :lol

 

[gdt]

Was it just me or did the main character not seem all that freaked out about the situation he woke up to? I mean, you come across this door that says not to open it because the dead are inside, but you see a hand reaching out. I would think a normal reaction would be to assume there was someone that wasn't actually dead but got trapped in there, given he didn't know about zombies yet. Did he even yell Hello? I don't remember.

I wouldn't have yelled "Hello?" :lol . I'd be as quiet as possible.

And being cool under pressure (most of the time, at least) is very much in line with Rick's character.

Edit: Awesome photo

 

[gdt]

This show isn't supposed to be scary any more than The Sopranos is supposed to be about whacking people. It's tense as hell, as it's supposed to be. It's a television show, not like Saw 3-D or something.

That's a pretty good analogy.

Zombies in this show/book aren't used for scares (all that often) but more as a threat. Even then, the zombies aren't the worst thing out there, rather the people you're stuck with.

 

[gdt]

This is pretty cool. Every week, EW will chat with Robert Kirkman about the previous episode.

'The Walking Dead': Comic book series creator Robert Kirkman answers our questions about last night's shocking pilot
by Clark Collis

Last night, AMC screened the pilot of new show The Walking Dead, in which Andrew Lincoln’s small town Georgia sheriff Rick Grimes desperately attempts to reunite with his family in a zombie apocalypse. The result was an epic start to this adaptation of Robert Kirkman‘s long-running comic—and an amazingly horrific display by TV standards.

How did pilot director Frank Darabont get away with featuring so much bloody mayhem? Will a knowledge of the original comic series help viewers guess which characters are going to live and which become undead chow? And was that really Jim Carrey cameo-ing as a zombie?

After the jump, Robert Kirkman—who is also one of the writers on the show and a Walking Dead executive producer—tackles these questions and more. Though, be warned, at times the conversation leans toward the gory and, if you haven’t yet seen the pilot, spoilery.
Entertainment Weekly: I’m guessing the Walking Dead pilot is the first to open with the hero shooting a cute—if admittedly zombiefied—little girl in the head.

Robert Kirkman: That could be a first possibly, yeah.

EW: Even your original comic didn’t kick off in such a brutal fashion. Was there much discussion about that whether that was a good idea?

RK: You know, it was just something Frank put into the script. At no point did AMC say, “Yeah, maybe we shouldn’t be doing this.” So I guess because it was treated like it wasn’t a big deal, it didn’t really occur to me how bold that was until I was on set. It was always a question as to how much of that they were going to show, and AMC has surprised us with everything that they’re allowing us to do. There was a plan at one point to shoot a lot of gore—which is what we did—but the original plan was to have re-edited versions of the episodes, that would go on DVD. But at this point, AMC hasn’t really made us pull anything.

EW: The kid was wearing rabbit ear slippers, for goodness sake!

RK: Well, Frank is very demented.

EW: Then the show cut back in time to a long conversation about women between Rick Grimes and his fellow cop, Shane (Jon Bernthal). It’s like the first scene was saying, “Hey, if you don’t like zombie movies, then switch over to Brothers and Sisters, but the second sequence made clear that this is not just going to be a show about people plunging axes into zombies’ heads.

RK: Yeah. It’s a very cool juxtaposition [that explains] what this show is going to be. The
show is going to serve a lot of masters. There’s going to be very straight human drama stuff, and then there’s going to be very graphic, crazy zombie stuff. And it’s neat that in the first minutes of the first episode you get a sense of exactly what the show is going to be bringing you, week after week.

EW: I suspect a lot of people who are coming across the story of The Walking Dead for the first time would have thought that the guy-wakes-from-coma-to-discover-that-the-world-has-been-overrun-by-zombies plot was very similar to 28 Days Later. Presumably you had seen that film when you wrote the first issue of the comic?

RK: No. Welcome to my life seven years ago. It was complete coincidence. I saw 28 Days Later shortly before the first issue of Walking Dead was released. That first issue came out in October of 2003 and 28 Days Later was released in the States in June of 2003. So we were working on our second issue by the time I saw it. It was going to be a matter of somehow trying to restage the entire first issue, because it was a very similar coma opening. I made a decision—which I pretty much regret at this point—I said, “You know what? It’s so different [from that point on], I will probably never hear anything about this.”

And I was wrong.

EW: So when you saw the movie you must have thought, “Oh s—!”

RK: Yeah. It was a little annoying. But great minds think alike, right?

EW: A colleague of mind who saw the pilot, and is unfamiliar with the zombie genre, couldn’t believe that Rick didn’t spend more time going “So, what exactly happened while I was in a coma?” He doesn’t seem to show a lot of interest in the details of how the entire world fell apart.

RK: Well, he has a lot distracting him. He has a wife and son that’s out there and right now he’s focusing on that. As the show progresses, you’ll see that Rick is a very one-track-mind kind of guy. He’s not going to stand around and go, “Well, I’m going to find my wife and son, but first we need to find out what all these dead people are doing.” Plus, if something like this were to really happen, the people in Georgia aren’t going to walk out of their houses and say, “We need to get to the bottom of this!” Pardon my French, but that’s like a bulls— action movie kind of stance. That’s not how it would be. The main worry would be, “How are we going to survive today? How are we going to find food? How are we going to protect ourselves?” People would just assume that the government was trying to do something. Or they would just assume that there was nothing we could do.

EW: It’s interesting, because Rick’s a cop, but he’s clearly not John McClane.

RK: Rick is a much more realistic police office. I always kind of pictured that Rick Grimes was not a police officer that had used his gun very often. He was just one of those guys that basically just walks by the local malt shop and made sure the kids were getting home on time.

EW: There was one zombie in the show that looked just like Jim Carrey, who worked with Frank Darabont on The Majestic. Can you confirm whether or not that was a cameo from Ace Ventura?

RK: It’s not Jim Carrey at all. And dammit, most days I remember that guy’s name. He’s a great guy. I’ve met him a few times. He works for [visual effects company] KNB. He appears like maybe four times as different zombies in the six episodes.

EW: Also, one of the first zombies we saw in the episode had no legs. Was that CGI or did you use an amputee actor?

RK: That was completely CGI. The woman was wearing basically blue stockings and then everything was cleaned out. There is an alarming amount of CGI in the pilot episode and in the whole show, and you would never know it. The company, Stargate, that does it, does a lot of CGI for television, and they do an amazing job. There’s a shot where Rick is riding off on the horse and his hat actually blew off, and they really liked that shot, and so they had Stargate go in and digitally put the hat back on his head.

EW: We also discovered in the pilot that zombies love eating horses, which is a departure from the undead mythology as set out in George A. Romero’s zombie films. In fact, as I’m sure you know, in Romero’s most recent zombie movie, Survival of the Dead, they spend a long time trying to persuade one of the zombies to eat a horse.

RK: Yes, that is true. Anecdotally, that is actually the exact same horse.

EW: Really?

RK: Yeah, yeah, the trained horse in the Walking Dead pilot and is the exact same horse from Survival of the Dead. But again, similar to the 28 Days Later situation, the zombies-eating-the-horse thing was in The Walking Dead seven years ago. So, screw you George Romero! [Laughs]

EW: In the comic book, the affair between Rick’s wife Lori and Shane is over by the time we catch up with the characters. But in the show, they’re depicted as still together. Why?

RK: Well, I didn’t know how long the comic book series was going to last. I hoped that it would become a success and survive for years and years. But at that time in my career, it was very early, I had had a lot of books canceled, just because of poor sales. So early on in the book I would move past storylines very quickly. I set up this love triangle and I resolved that story and moved along within the first [few] issues. But there’s a lot of story potential to mine there. One of the things that the TV show is able to do is to look at the comic book series with hindsight and go, “This would probably be something that we could explore more.” And that’s what we’re going to be doing. So we’ll be seeing a lot more of the Lori-Shane-Rick love triangle.

EW: I’m very familiar with your still ongoing comic series. So, how confident should I be that I know which characters are going to survive for a long time?

RK: Not. Confident. At all. One of the best aspects of the comic book series is, when you sit down to read an issue, you really have no idea what’s going to happen. Anybody could go at any moment. There’s really no sense of safety in the comic book at all. And I wanted to preserve that for the television show. If people on the show have ideas for different things to happen, I encourage that. I want people to be as surprised by the show as they are by the comic book series.

http://popwatch.ew.com/2010/11/01/walking-dead-amc-pilot-kirkman/

I personally think it's a good idea to explore that triangle a bit more. Especially if

Spoiler

it ends the same way as it did in the comics .

 

[Xater]

Watched the premiere this morning and wow this was awesome. Best new show by a landslide.

 

[demosthenes]

Was it just me or did the main character not seem all that freaked out about the situation he woke up to? I mean, you come across this door that says not to open it because the dead are inside, but you see a hand reaching out. I would think a normal reaction would be to assume there was someone that wasn't actually dead but got trapped in there, given he didn't know about zombies yet. Did he even yell Hello? I don't remember.

What the hell? No way. I'd be out of there in a second :lol

I really liked the episode, definitely the new thing to do on Sunday @ 10pm with the girlfriend!

1) The shoot out...like some have said, A LOT OF BULLETS.
2) Being in a coma for a month at least and no IV but still alive? We know it was a month because the gas had been off for a month according to the guy that found him, forgot his name. So I'm assuming this happened at least a month ago.

The poor horse

Awesome picture though.

One thing I've always wondered about zombies. Say we have zombie 0, the first person. He finds person 1 and starts munching on him. What makes him stop? Wouldn't he keep eating until there was nothing left to eat on?

 

[Replicant]

I hope they're not straying from the comic too much. I don't want them to start randomly killing characters that are not dead in the comic book just for the sake of surprise. Or letting those who are dead to continue living for a long period of time. I don't want that.

 

[MidnightRider]

Love the show so far.

can't wait for next week

 

[gdt]

I hope they're not straying from the comic too much. I don't want them to start randomly killing characters that are not dead in the comic book just for the sake of surprise. Or letting those who are dead to continue living for a long period of time. I don't want that.

Eh, I'm fine if they do that. I'm not that much of a purist, I can live with a different take.

There are SOME things they better not fuck with though!

 

[Xater]

One thing I've always wondered about zombies. Say we have zombie 0, the first person. He finds person 1 and starts munching on him. What makes him stop? Wouldn't he keep eating until there was nothing left to eat on?

Maybe zombie 0 did not kill the person? Also who says the initial outbreak was just one person?

 

[ElectricBlue187]

What the hell? No way. I'd be out of there in a second :lol

I really liked the episode, definitely the new thing to do on Sunday @ 10pm with the girlfriend!

1) The shoot out...like some have said, A LOT OF BULLETS.
2) Being in a coma for a month at least and no IV but still alive? We know it was a month because the gas had been off for a month according to the guy that found him, forgot his name. So I'm assuming this happened at least a month ago.

The poor horse

Awesome picture though.

One thing I've always wondered about zombies. Say we have zombie 0, the first person. He finds person 1 and starts munching on him. What makes him stop? Wouldn't he keep eating until there was nothing left to eat on?

I don't think you could eat an entire person. Also, I don think Zombies eat with any particular purpose in mind. The parasite or contagion either evolved or was designed to cause zombification to happen in order to spread itself to as many corpses as it possibly can

 

[demosthenes]

Maybe zombie 0 did not kill the person? Also who says the initial outbreak was just one person?

Ture, it could be a wide outbreak caused by something other than biting and then you have lots of people biting.

But what causes a zombie or zombies to stop eating. Look what happened to the horse, it was devoured. Before the zombie / human ratio is 95/5 even when it's 20/80, shouldn't hordes of zombies just devour humans so no new zombies are made assuming the only way then to transfer is through bites/scratches?

 

[Shinjitsu]

Maybe zombie 0 did not kill the person? Also who says the initial outbreak was just one person?

Zombies in Walking Dead are just made upon human death, ANY death.

 

[demosthenes]

Zombies in Walking Dead are just made upon human death, ANY death.

Thanks. Saw that a few pages back after I posted it. Assuming we'll find out more on this soon.

I don't think you could eat an entire person. Also, I don think Zombies eat with any particular purpose in mind. The parasite or contagion either evolved or was designed to cause zombification to happen in order to spread itself to as many corpses as it possibly can

Yea, this is what my gf said.

 

[ultron87]

Eh, I'm fine if they do that. I'm not that much of a purist, I can live with a different take.

There are SOME things they better not fuck with though!

As long as they keep with the spirit of Kirkman's spectacular cruelty towards all his characters I'll be happy.

 

[MidnightRider]

I'm kind of glad I'm not familiar with the comic going into the series. I feel like I'll have more fun with the show itself and not be constantly thinking about what happens in the comic or what has changed in the transition from print to screen.

Exactly! I think I will start with the graphic novel after the show is over.

 

[Xater]

Zombies in Walking Dead are just made upon human death, ANY death.

Bites still turn you because you die of the fever. my point about not killing was the one after zombie zero might hvae just been bitten.

The parasite thing does make sense but you also have to think of the human survival instinct. Alot of people probably barely escape a zombie and therefor get turned. In the beginning you also have to factor in the suprise. People were probably bitten out of nowhere and no one knew what they were dealing with. Stuff like this has to be learned and then the news also has to travel around.

Now I want to read World War Z again. That book was pretty awesome at explaining how such an outbreak might happen.

 

[mjc]

Yeah I would have to assume that the outbreak is caused by something other than a virus or the like.

 

[ultron87]

The parasite thing does make sense but you also have to think of the human survival instinct. Alot of people probably barely escape a zombie and therefor get turned. In the beginning you also have to factor in the suprise. People were probably bitten out of nowhere and no one knew what they were dealing with. Stuff like this has to be learned and then the news also has to travel around.

Well we all know that at least 1 out of 4 people got killed by approaching someone who's back was turned while asking if they were okay, getting closer and closer until they put a hand on their shoulder, only to have the person turn out to be a zombie, whip around and make with the bitey bitey.

 

[MidnightRider]

Zombies in Walking Dead are just made upon human death, ANY death.

This is how all Zombies are supposed to be taken I thought.

If you die. You come back to life. No matter if you were bitten prior or not.

 

[BattleMonkey]

This is how all Zombies are supposed to be taken I thought.

If you die. You come back to life. No matter if you were bitten prior or not.

It always changes depending on movie, series, etc

 

[MidnightRider]

Now I want to read World War Z again. That book was pretty awesome at explaining how such an outbreak might happen.

I can't make myself finish that book. I can't get into it. I bought it after I read both Day by Day Armageddons. I guess I bought it hoping it would be like those books but sure enough it isn't.

 

[demosthenes]

This is how all Zombies are supposed to be taken I thought.

If you die. You come back to life. No matter if you were bitten prior or not.

Well something has to get IN you to do it, right?

Also, can anyone explain to me why in no zombie movie I've seen nobody has ever heard of zombies? Do video games and movies not exist in their worlds?

I've wanted to read World War Z for a while, good read ?

 

[MidnightRider]

Well something has to get IN you to do it, right?

Also, can anyone explain to me why in no zombie movie I've seen nobody has ever heard of zombies? Do video games and movies not exist in their worlds?

I've wanted to read World War Z for a while, good read ?

Get Day by Day Armageddon. Both of them. It's written in the style of someones journal they are keeping through the Zombie breakout.

Amazing read. really gets you into the story where as World War Z bounces around between different people.

EDIT**** Also in Day by Day there

Spoiler

is a submarine out in the water where people are dying from natural causes and not coming back to life....

but once the sub surfaced any dead on the ship came back to life. Fucking nuts.

 

[YuriLowell]

Love the comic, but this shit is just slow and plodding.

I hope it picks up.

 

[demosthenes]

Get Day by Day Armageddon. Both of them. It's written in the style of someones journal they are keeping through the Zombie breakout.

Amazing read. really gets you into the story where as World War Z bounces around between different people.

EDIT**** Also in Day by Day there

Spoiler

is a submarine out in the water where people are dying from natural causes and not coming back to life....

but once the sub surfaced any dead on the ship came back to life. Fucking nuts.

I guess that would imply that it's air born and just doesn't affect you until you die.

Anyone on why NO zombie movie ever has anyone talk about how they might be 'zombies'?

 

[Foob]

goddamn this was amazing!!

watched it with a bunch of my friends who have no interest in comics and they all really enjoyed it

 

[Xater]

Well something has to get IN you to do it, right?

Well in the Walkign Dead that seems to be the case. Not the case in every horror fiction though. In the Romero movies a meteorite is responsible for reanimating all the dead.

Also, can anyone explain to me why in no zombie movie I've seen nobody has ever heard of zombies? Do video games and movies not exist in their worlds?

That is all work of fiction. No one ever expects that shit to become real.

I've wanted to read World War Z for a while, good read ?

I really enjoyed it and would recommend reading it.

 

[Shinjitsu]

Love the comic, but this shit is just slow and plodding.

I hope it picks up.

This starts off almost exactly like the comic...

 

[BattleMonkey]

Love the comic, but this shit is just slow and plodding.

I hope it picks up.

The comic was just as slow, not sure what people expected out of the show. If you think this was slow, the rest of the series if it's true to the book is going to kill you.

 

[A Human Becoming]

Love the comic, but this shit is just slow and plodding.

I hope it picks up.

It should. The best aspect of Walking Dead is how the characters interact in their attempts to survive, not their struggles remaining alive.

So next week's episode going to be just an hour?

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

This starts off almost exactly like the comic...

A comic which is very frequently slow and plodding.

But man, I really love the King feel to the whole show. Imagining seasons and seasons of this kind of thing is just...so rad.

 

[Shinjitsu]

A comic which is very frequently slow and plodding.

But man, I really love the King feel to the whole show. Imagining seasons and seasons of this kind of thing is just...so rad.

I've never felt any issue was "slow and plodding", yeah it doesn't have insane action or drama every issue, but it does a great job building tension and setting the stage for larger events.

I just don't see how anyone who's a fan of the comic wouldn't like the pilot.

 

[wayward archer]

Also, can anyone explain to me why in no zombie movie I've seen nobody has ever heard of zombies? Do video games and movies not exist in their worlds?

In Return of the Living Dead some of the survivors talk about how the movie Night of the Living Dead was based on actual events that were covered up by the government, so they try and kill a zombie with a pickaxe to the head and when that fails (the zombies in Return are virtually indestructible) one of the character's exclaims "The movie lied?!". Great scene. :lol

 

[LM4sure]

On a side note, AMC has quickly become my most watched channel. Prior to this year I only watched Mad Men. But I flew through all the seasons of Breaking Bad this year (thanks for the recommendation, GAF!) and I can tell that The Walking Dead will be a pretty kickass show.

And I saw a commercial for AMC's new show, The Killing, which looks like it could also be pretty damn good. I'll probably also check out Rubicon when it hits dvd, as it seems like one of those shows you have to watch multiple episodes at once. Bow to AMC.