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THE WALKING DEAD: Season 1 on AMC (avoid comic book spoilers)

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Good episode, although I think the 2nd one is still the strongest of the three. Something felt very off about it. The reunion scene had shitty music, and it didn't have the build up of some of the reunions that were in Lost. They reunited too quickly. Also, while I understand there should be tension with jerk characters I found the man abusing his wife to be kind of retarded. It's a zombie fucking epidemic, and I just figure that people would stop acting like jerk offs and get along so I thought was silly... Not to mention that there are two cops in the camp, one of whom left a jerk off chained to a building for being an asshole. It just seems so stupid to start trouble there.

I like the show but it's starting to become quite obvious that the overall quality is a notch or two below the likes of Breaking Bad and Dexter. That opinion is mainly in regards to the casting. Whereas Breaking Bad has as flawless a cast as you can get, and Dexter with MCH, Doakes, and the guest actors that have show up over the years, this show so far hasn't given a strong performance. The closest character I've felt that might be that person is the black dad, but I'm not totally convinced. I understand it's only been three episodes, but I thought I would have had a favorite character by now.
 
Jack Scofield said:
This is so stupid. The zombies features in The Walking Dead are literally reanimated dead corpses. Without a working immune system, nature would wreak havoc on these shambling husks of rotting flesh. Warm weather would quickly rot their flesh and bloat their bodies, and since they're unable to heal from bodily harm, they would accrue so much accidental damage that they'd soon be unable to move at all. Wild animals and insects would feast on this extremely easy prey, since their awareness and reaction time is extremely low, and they have no real defense mechanism aside from biting. I mean, these things can't run, they can't climb, they can't can't even swim. Just go hang out on a yacht and party for awhile. Or climb onto a roof.

Speaking of bites, how on earth did this become an epidemic in the first place? From bites? What a moronic way to spread a disease. Especially when the bites are from things you could literally speed-walk away from, and with mouths not designed for attacking in the first place. If you can let an extremely slow, groaning, half-rotten corpse get so close to you that he/she can bite you, then you're probably the dumbest person on earth. The CDC must not exist in this fictional universe, as a simple quarantine would've stopped the zombie apocalypse after Patient Zero. Even if you conveniently ignored the military capabilities of our nation and let nature take its course, this so-called "zombie apocalypse" should have begun and ended by the time the main character awoke from the hospital.

In short, The Walking Dead features a flawed and utterly moronic premise. It could have been avoided simply if the "zombies" were people infected with some mutated strain of rabies. I expected much more from such a highly-celebrated series.

20s6pts.jpg
 
Jack Scofield said:
Speaking of bites, how on earth did this become an epidemic in the first place? From bites? What a moronic way to spread a disease. Especially when the bites are from things you could literally speed-walk away from, and with mouths not designed for attacking in the first place. If you can let an extremely slow, groaning, half-rotten corpse get so close to you that he/she can bite you, then you're probably the dumbest person on earth. The CDC must not exist in this fictional universe, as a simple quarantine would've stopped the zombie apocalypse after Patient Zero. Even if you conveniently ignored the military capabilities of our nation and let nature take its course, this so-called "zombie apocalypse" should have begun and ended by the time the main character awoke from the hospital.
.

For starters they never said it starts from bites. In fact if you take the time to read the comic series
you learn they don't spread from bites, bites speed up the process but everyone is already infected. You turn into a zombie no matter how you die, hence you learn what the title really means, The Walking Dead

Very interesting twist with Lori and Shane. That one change suddenly makes her character sympathetic again. In fact if that twist would have been in the comics I would have liked her character a bit more. I already hated Shane and thats ok because now I hate him more. Really nice move they did and will help her character in the episodes to come.
 
JoeBoy101 said:
I've been thinking about this and, not to be an apologist, its possible that Shane's intentions at first were noble. The hospital was overrun and Shane was likely there as police. The hospital falls and Shane can't get back in to help Rick because of the fighting and zombies. Only thing he can do is make sure that Lori and Carl are OK. Well, if he's still alive in the hospital, they won't leave for Atlanta, so he tells them that Rick was killed when the hospital went to hell. He probably believed it, and told them it as fact so that they would agree to leave for safety so he could look after them.

Over time, he started taking advantage of it towards Lori and, more insidiously, with Carl.
I see it that way too. I think he's a good guy and was trying to rescue them. I'm doubting that he was having an affair wih her prior to the zombie invasion now though. She seemed to love her hubby very much despite the problems.
 
Why'd the guy cut off his hand and not just cut off the handcuffs?

And Jesus, this show has the most stereotypical Southerners I've ever seen. One is a racist, the other is a gun toting lunatic, and the other beats his wife. Way to go, writers!
 
I like that the guy from Boondock Saints uses a crossbow. It's pretty much the perfect zombie killing weapon. Silent and reuseable ammo. Only isn't great if you get swarmed.

Judging from the preview:
It looks like the camp is getting swarmed next week. I imagine we'll lose a few redshirts there.
 
Okay, FUCK, guys.

You people need to distinguish between minor comic spoilers and fucking major comic spoilers.

I don't mind reading slight spoilers from the comic. But if you're going to reveal one of the major twists of the series, you need to fucking announce that shit.

If it's something minor, then just post something like: If you read the comic, you'll understand that
some bullshit happens.

If it's something of major fucking importance, then post something like: If you read the comic, you'll understand that (MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD)
some major fucking bullshit happens.

Jesus Christ, I feel like I've had some of the best moments of the series ruined for me by you oblivious fucktards.



TheClimaxan said:
It is waaaaaay to early to make that call. Not saying it can't reach that level, but WD is not there yet.

First 3 episodes of WD > first 3 episodes of Lost or Breaking Bad.
 
I bet Andrea and Shane are going to hook up at some point. They shared a special moment after he beatdown Ed. She was either second guessing his leadership fitness or turned on (or both?).
 
LM4sure said:
Why'd the guy cut off his hand and not just cut off the handcuffs?
Zombies at the door!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2x8RhadlpA#t=2m13s
I've been thinking about this and, not to be an apologist, its possible that Shane's intentions at first were noble. The hospital was overrun and Shane was likely there as police. The hospital falls and Shane can't get back in to help Rick because of the fighting and zombies. Only thing he can do is make sure that Lori and Carl are OK. Well, if he's still alive in the hospital, they won't leave for Atlanta, so he tells them that Rick was killed when the hospital went to hell. He probably believed it, and told them it as fact so that they would agree to leave for safety so he could look after them.
Yeah that's how I read it too. I really like how they're dealing with the Shane situation so far.
 
JGS said:
I see it that way too. I think he's a good guy and was trying to rescue them. I'm doubting that he was having an affair wih her prior to the zombie invasion now though. She seemed to love her hubby very much despite the problems.

Same here. Now I think the fry-ketchup scene was foreshadowing instead of dramatic irony. Plus, her conversation with Rick in the tent was dripping with hidden meanings with all her contritions and apologies.

Wayward Archer said:
I bet Andrea and Shane are going to hook up at some point. They shared a special moment after he beatdown Ed. She was either scared of him or turned on (or both?).

Nah, I think scared and confused. Sure, it was good to see Ed get punched, but Shane started coming close to beating him to death. I think they were more shocked that the guy who was all rules and 'no risks' just nearly killed this dude for something that everyone seemed to know was already happening.

Makes me wonder how many people, if any, knew about Lori and Shane.
 
JoeBoy101 said:
Same here. Now I think the fry-ketchup scene was foreshadowing instead of dramatic irony. Plus, her conversation with Rick in the tent was dripping with hidden meanings with all her contritions and apologies.

I really wish she had just told him then and there what had been going on. She had the perfect opening after he agreed that she had ever reason to think he was dead. But that'd be way less dramatic.
 
Kuroyume said:
Good episode, although I think the 2nd one is still the strongest of the three. Something felt very off about it. The reunion scene had shitty music, and it didn't have the build up of some of the reunions that were in Lost. They reunited too quickly. Also, while I understand there should be tension with jerk characters I found the man abusing his wife to be kind of retarded. It's a zombie fucking epidemic, and I just figure that people would stop acting like jerk offs and get along so I thought was silly... Not to mention that there are two cops in the camp, one of whom left a jerk off chained to a building for being an asshole. It just seems so stupid to start trouble there.

I like the show but it's starting to become quite obvious that the overall quality is a notch or two below the likes of Breaking Bad and Dexter. That opinion is mainly in regards to the casting. Whereas Breaking Bad has as flawless a cast as you can get, and Dexter with MCH, Doakes, and the guest actors that have show up over the years, this show so far hasn't given a strong performance. The closest character I've felt that might be that person is the black dad, but I'm not totally convinced. I understand it's only been three episodes, but I thought I would have had a favorite character by now.
I've never seen Breaking Bad but my fiancé just speed watched the first four seasons of Dexter over the last couple weeks. In what ways is Dexter even remotely comparable in quality to The Walking Dead?

Dexter has some of the cheapest, most hilariously awful production values I've seen in a series over the last couple years. The lighting on any night time scenes looks like it was done by a crew from a late-night Cinemax movie.

The writing in Dexter might be even worse. The awful, repetitious monologues, the lack of any three dimensional characters besides Dexter and the cheap plot connections used by the writers to wrap everything up so nice each season all add up to crap.

And I don't even think I need to bring up any of the terrible performances besides Dexters. The actor that played Doakes got stuck with a poorly written role and made it even worse. I have no idea how/why this series gets any love.
 
LM4sure said:
Why'd the guy cut off his hand and not just cut off the handcuffs?

And Jesus, this show has the most stereotypical Southerners I've ever seen. One is a racist, the other is a gun toting lunatic, and the other beats his wife. Way to go, writers!

Well stereotypes exist for a reason, and being from the south I don't really see anything wrong with the potrayal, lot of these fucktards here. Plus it's 3 people out of a large group of people.... in the South.
 
BattleMonkey said:
Well stereotypes exist for a reason, and being from the south I don't really see anything wrong with the potrayal, lot of these fucktards here. Plus it's 3 people out of a large group of people.... in the South.

Yeah, given that Rick is from Kentucky, you could argue the whole group is Southerners.
 
Leunam said:
It's got a long way to go before it's better than Breaking Bad.

Okay, maybe not Breaking Bad Season 2. That was a truly sublime season of television, possibly the greatest in history.

This is right up there with Season 1 though, and probably better than Season 3, which I thought was a pretty big drop in quality from Season 2.
 
Puddles said:
Okay, FUCK, guys.

You people need to distinguish between minor comic spoilers and fucking major comic spoilers.

I don't mind reading slight spoilers from the comic. But if you're going to reveal one of the major twists of the series, you need to fucking announce that shit.

If it's something minor, then just post something like: If you read the comic, you'll understand that
some bullshit happens.

If it's something of major fucking importance, then post something like: If you read the comic, you'll understand that (MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD)
some major fucking bullshit happens.

Jesus Christ, I feel like I've had some of the best moments of the series ruined for me by you oblivious fucktards.

I agree with all of this.
 
Ponn01 said:
For starters they never said it starts from bites. In fact if you take the time to read the comic series
you learn they don't spread from bites, bites speed up the process but everyone is already infected. You turn into a zombie no matter how you die, hence you learn what the title really means, The Walking Dead

What issue/arc is that in? I've read the whole series but I don't recall that bit (not saying it's not there, I just want to reread it since it obviously didn't stick the first time. :lol)
 
JoeBoy101 said:
Yeah, given that Rick is from Kentucky, you could argue the whole group is Southerners.
In the show, he's from Georgia (That was what was on his police car at least) for some reason. I'm not even sure why they're being vague about it. It's weird.

However, I have seen people like the racist dude everywhere since just about every state has some kind of redneck demographic in it (Just like there is a hood & blue blood type).
 
Puddles said:
First 3 episodes of WD > first 3 episodes of Lost or Breaking Bad.

Considering 2 of LOST's first 3 episodes consisted of the Pilot and cannot agree with you on any Level. No disrespect to Walking Dead.

Edit: Or Breaking Bad (I just watched the Pilot last week so I'm LTTP)
 
Man, the dialogue from the comics is on par with newspaper Spiderman or something of the sort. :lol

It's a great idea, and some of the panels are brilliant, but the writer could have used a dialogue coach or something. The show is a massive improvement in that regard.
 
Puddles said:
Okay, FUCK, guys.

You people need to distinguish between minor comic spoilers and fucking major comic spoilers.

I don't mind reading slight spoilers from the comic. But if you're going to reveal one of the major twists of the series, you need to fucking announce that shit.

If it's something minor, then just post something like: If you read the comic, you'll understand that
some bullshit happens.

If it's something of major fucking importance, then post something like: If you read the comic, you'll understand that (MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD)
some major fucking bullshit happens.

Jesus Christ, I feel like I've had some of the best moments of the series ruined for me by you oblivious fucktards.
If you are talking about what Ponn01 posted, its not a spoiler. The same thing has been the norm in every zombie movie..
new deaths = new zombies.
i dont even know why i spoilered that :lol
 
reggieandTFE said:
I've never seen Breaking Bad but my fiancé just speed watched the first four seasons of Dexter over the last couple weeks. In what ways is Dexter even remotely comparable in quality to The Walking Dead?

Dexter has some of the cheapest, most hilariously awful production values I've seen in a series over the last couple years. The lighting on any night time scenes looks like it was done by a crew from a late-night Cinemax movie.

The writing in Dexter might be even worse. The awful, repetitious monologues, the lack of any three dimensional characters besides Dexter and the cheap plot connections used by the writers to wrap everything up so nice each season all add up to crap.

And I don't even think I need to bring up any of the terrible performances besides Dexters. The actor that played Doakes got stuck with a poorly written role and made it even worse. I have no idea how/why this series gets any love.

The production values are on par with pretty much any drama of its calibre. It's not going for anything epic like The Walking Dead so I'm not quite sure why your're critiquing it's lighting. The characters on the show are fine. Dexter is the main character and he's strong and fascinating enough to carry it on his own. Perhaps the only thing I could agree with is the repetitous monlogues regarding the death of his mother and Harry, but otherwise everything else has been handled incredbley well. Quite frankly I don't see how wrapping everything up at the end of each season is negative but you're entitled to your opinion.

Dexter
Miguel (Jimmy Smits)
Trinity (John Lithgow)

3 great actors and 3 great main characters on the show over its run. Doakes was amazing just because of who he was. Not saying that actor could pull of anything else well, but he pulled of his character well.
 
Yeah Dexter is just pretty lame overall. I like the guest stars of the season usually though, but even that can't save the latest season.

But nope, Walking Dead isn't even close to on par with Breaking Bad just yet.
 
You guys are really putting Breaking Bad on a pedestal. It had one season that was GOAT material, but two that were just pretty damn good.
 
Puddles said:
You guys are really putting Breaking Bad on a pedestal. It had one season that was GOAT material, but two that were just pretty damn good.

Breaking Bad S1 was just good in my opinion. I think the length really kept it from being anything but an introduction. The Walking Dead Season 1 is probably going to have the same problem of feeling unsatisfactory in comparison to the normal 13 episode character payoffs that we're used to.

This season so far is right there on par with Breaking Bad Season 1.
 
Puddles said:
You guys are really putting Breaking Bad on a pedestal. It had one season that was GOAT material, but two that were just pretty damn good.
You just called Walking Dead better than it after three episodes, one of which that was mediocre at best.

It has a ways to go. It could end up better than Breaking Bad, but there has been very little character development so far.
 
Not sure if Puddles comment earlier was in regards to my reply in the thread about this episode but my comparison was particularly about the casting. Surely, you guys can agree that the cast has so far been unimpressive right? Not a strong character or actor yet in the bunch.
 
Puddles said:
You guys are really putting Breaking Bad on a pedestal. It had one season that was GOAT material, but two that were just pretty damn good.
Kindly shut your dirty mouth, sir. Breaking Bad is worthy of the sacred and majestic pedestal, not a show halfway into its first season.

EDIT:

Kuroyume said:
Not sure if Puddles comment earlier was in regards to my reply in the thread about this episode but my comparison was particularly about the casting. Surely, you guys can agree that the cast has so far been unimpressive right? Not a strong character or actor yet in the bunch.
Yes. I agree completely. Initially I thought Glen would be this show's hotness but man was I wrong.
 
BattleMonkey said:
Well stereotypes exist for a reason, and being from the south I don't really see anything wrong with the potrayal, lot of these fucktards here. Plus it's 3 people out of a large group of people.... in the South.


It's not that large of a group of people. So the fact that there is 3 of these stereotypes is significant. I'm really not digging all the one-sided characters thus far. Hopefully as the show goes on and moves away from its source material, we'll get some better developed characters.
 
LM4sure said:
It's not that large of a group of people. So the fact that there is 3 of these stereotypes is significant. I'm really not digging all the one-sided characters thus far. Hopefully as the show goes on and moves away from its source material, we'll get some better developed characters.

Funny enough, every single stereotype is a character not from the book.
 
Kuroyume said:
Not sure if Puddles comment earlier was in regards to my reply in the thread about this episode but my comparison was particularly about the casting. Surely, you guys can agree that the cast has so far been unimpressive right? Not a strong character or actor yet in the bunch.

I thought the black guy and his son were great. Too bad they're only in the first episode. WTF is up with that shit?
 
Discotheque said:
I thought the black guy and his son were great. Too bad they're only in the first episode. WTF is up with that shit?
They'll clearly be back, there's no way their plotline is just left dangling like that.
 
episode 3 was marginally better than 2

again, i'm on board for the first season but i hope these terrible "evil redneck" types dudes just get offed before they ruin the cast
 
Kuroyume said:
Surely, you guys can agree that the cast has so far been unimpressive right? Not a strong character or actor yet in the bunch.

Here's a list of the only characters I care about so far, with the strongest performances (imo) in bold. The pilot was great because it focused on the best acting talent the show has thus far.

Morgan - Lennie James
Rick - Andrew Lincoln

Glen - Steven Yuen
Dale - Jeffrey DeMun
Zombies - extras

I know that its a bit premature since the first season hasn't finished yet but I am really concerned that they miscast the female leads (Lori and Andrea) in this show. I don't think either actor can compete with the likes of January Jones (Betty Draper), Anna Gunn (Skyler) and Elizabeth Moss (Peggy Olsen). Hopefully now that AMC knows that they have a massive audience they will hire better writers and sign more capable actors for the 13 episode long second season.

After this episode I'm sort of warming up to Shane a bit.
 
Sharp said:
They'll clearly be back, there's no way their plotline is just left dangling like that.

One of the previews for the season has Rick on the radio saying "Atlanta is not safe".

So I would assume that he gets his bag, gets the walkie-talkie and tries to at least make contact w/ the son/dad to get them to stay out? He says he owes a debt, he's not just going to leave them hanging.
 
LM4sure said:
It's not that large of a group of people. So the fact that there is 3 of these stereotypes is significant. I'm really not digging all the one-sided characters thus far. Hopefully as the show goes on and moves away from its source material, we'll get some better developed characters.

Much of the characters are going to be throw away I would assume at this point. But to not expect redneck stereotypes in Georgia is kind of a stretch, since it's filled with them in real life.
 
dave is ok said:
You just called Walking Dead better than it after three episodes, one of which that was mediocre at best.

Yeah, my bad. I had been drinking a bit and was just being a reactionary. I rescinded that comment, especially in regards to Breaking Bad Season 2, which is my favorite season of television, full stop.

It's definitely better than what Lost eventually devolved into. It's been so long since Seasons 1-2 of Lost were fresh in my mind that I can't remember what I thought of the show then.
 
Holy fucking shit! From the reunion, the cock-measuring contests, to the ending with that 28 days later-ish music at the end... I just love the look into the sociocultural(not sure if that's the correct term, feel free to correct me) workings in a post-apocalyptical setting. It's the most interesting thing in the world. Maybe it's a shallow one in this case, and intellectuals may scoff at my non-analytical approach to this show but I don't give a shit. I'm giddy as a little kid atm!

Please stay this awesome forever, thx
 
Puddles said:
First 3 episodes of WD > first 3 episodes of Lost or Breaking Bad.

It's not even within a thousand miles of either one of those shows. Walking Dead is a bunch of two-dimensional stereotypes acting out scenes we've seen a hundred times before. Just cliche after cliche after cliche. Hey, look, it's the handcuff scene from Saw. It's the "act like a zombie to escape the zombies" scene from Shaun of the Dead. It's the "hesitate to kill a zombie you knew when they were alive" scene from every single goddamned zombie movie ever made.

And how many laugh-out-loud southern cartoon stereotypes have we seen so far? Three? Four? I lose count because they all run together. Bad acting, bad writing, and long stretches where absolutely nothing happens.

Three episodes is all they're getting from me.
 
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