The Walking Dead (AMC + Darabont) - Page 10

And the show is only rated TV-14, gotta wonder what they would have to do to get a TV-MA rating.

Didn't anyone notice that Rooker was coked up? Maybe he was (slightly) less of an asshole when he was straight, so they let him tag along. Solid ep after a great pilot, though it felt like Dawn of the Dead '04 as far as it was fast paced with solid action and tension with small morsels of character development smattered through out. Loved Glen though, perfect realization of the character from the comics. His "organ donor" line was pretty great.

Fear not, Wayward Woman, not only is Glen a major character, he's a lot of people's favorite. So you'll be seeing a lot of him.

EDIT: soon as I saw them smash open that Challenger, I thought Glen was gonna fire it up (he used to steal cars) and was kinda bummed he didn't. But seeing him tear ass down the highway? Hilarious.

Good to see Jim, too. Another character who's story is just as heartbreaking as Morgan and Duane's.

Not as good as the pilot but still pretty great. Looks like the next episode is also completely original. Can't wait.

The zombie gore is nothing compared to some of the shit that takes place later in the comic. And I mean NOTHING! There are human vs. human parts so gruesome that I don't think they will be able to translate it to TV.

After a shaky start the comic becomes addictive, very good stuff.

Yeah, the human on zombie violence (and even zombie on human violence) will mostly get a pass, because you can get away with more 'fantasy violence', i think. Where the show will have to pull the punches will likely be all the human on human atrocities. And like you said, some of it is pretty sickening.

Solid follow-up episode. Really love the pacing of this series.

Great to see Darabont's The Mist alumni Laurie Holden and Jeffrey DeMunn, too.

As soon as I saw Rooker I knew we were in for some good antics.

Not knowing the comic, I found myself rather sure Glen was gonna join the living dead. Then, really hoping he wouldn't. It had been a long time I think since I last cared whether a character in a horror thing survived. (Somewhat) good to know he's a major character.

I would love it if this thread had less "comic this and comic that" comments.

I think they've veered off course from the comic enough that you could say anything is possible.

Liked a lot of the episode, hardly any complaints other than the wife \ partner relationship. Loved the survival instincts of Glenn. I was a little disappointed they didn't circle back to grab the gun bag using the car as a distraction. 100% loved the trench coat zombie disguise scene \ idea, great stuff there. Favorite part of the whole episode? multiple zombies with rocks!

It's an ADAPTATION. Naturally there would be comparisonsto the source material. Especially with it being a comic. Did you guys really expect not to see any of that in this thread?

They made a very big deal of showing the tool box being knocked over when the guy was trying to get the key to Merle. I'd say we see Merle again having lived out the ending of Mad Max.

I really like that it was so different in pacing from the pilot; it gives me hope that while operating in the known tropes of an undead apocalypse, the show won't be the same every week and has the guts, ahem, to try different kinds of stories and emphases.

Was I the only Chewer who yelled, "ROOKER!" at the screen? I'm guessing not.

And I was also really glad to see Laurie Holden, whom I didn't care for one way or another in The X Files, but loved her in The Mist. I have not read the comics, nor do I want to know what happens there....but wondering if the show is setting her up as a possible romantic partner for Our Hero.

I had to turn down the Tv last night while my wife and son slept because that car alarm was so damn loud. Still was an awesome episode.

Havent read the comic either, and although it seemed that way (with the long glances towards Love, Actually) I expected something romantic to come out of her roles in both The Mist and The Shield, but it never ended up escalating to more than sexual tension.

ETA Not that that means anything, obviously...but whenever I see Holden with a male counterpart now I always assume that they'll get close to shagging but thats it.

No spoilers, but I really hope they keep Andrea's love life the same as the comic.

Actually, isn't he dressed exactly like the "slick shoes!" Asian kid from The Goonies?

Pretty cool episode. I found myself saying "They can do/say that on TV??" a lot.

I thought the quality drop from the great, great pilot was pretty steep.

I agree that this one was way more fun than the debut - due to lots of body parts being chopped off or hanging from people's clothes, a plan taken straight out of Shaun of the Dead, nice zombie chase scenes - but a lot of the dialogue and some of the acting was pretty atrocious. T-Dog and the mexican fella were awful, and while it was great to see Rooker pop up he was completely wasted on a cartoonish character.

Granted, second episodes are always tricky and this one was no exception, having to expand and populate the world that was set up in the pilot. I'm also sure that the show will have a steadier footing once the "getting to know the guys" phase is done and over with, nonetheless I expected much sharper writing from a master like Darabont.

One thing that I love, though, is that in this show the zombies are really, really frightening without being the rabid beasts introduced by 28 Days Later and the Dawn remake. They are essentially Romero zombies, even though they are a bit faster and meaner, so they still maintain that sense of "manageable apocalypse" that make George's classics so much fun. Proper fast zombies are just terrifying because you could never stand a chance against them, while the classic undead gives you the illusion that maybe you could make it in that situation and also have the satisfaction of bashing a few heads. The neat trick that TWD pulls is in giving the creatures that little bit of extra menace that makes them scary again instead of being just a mob of rotting retards bumbling about.

Surprised no one has mentioned the zombie climbing the fence yet. But only one could do it. Seems like some have more "intelligence" than others (see also: zombies with rocks). Interesting.

Same for being able to climb the ladder after our dynamic duo. They were all crowded together at the bottom like the band in the alley at the end of Animal House.

I have already seen some 'zombie purists' online complaining about the ladder climbing/rock using/fence climbing zombies. Really that's no bother to me. It just makes them more threatening.

Comic SPOILER:


My only issue with fence climbing zombie is when they eventually get to the prison (I assume season 2) how will they keep the zombies from eventually climbing the double fences?

ET add invisotext

This series has an uphill battle. For every compelling moment, there's either a goofy one around the corner, or a distracting precedent they're either riffing on or ignoring (pretending to be zombies, huh?)

But it was a lot of damn fun. I've never read the comic, so I'm going in clean (as are 95% of the viewing audience.)

I'm a little nervous that a Boondock Saint shows up next week.

On the violence tip, yeah, holy shit. Anyone else remember Romero saying back in 1985 he couldn't do Day of the Dead as an R rated film because the MPAA wouldn't let him shoot a zombie in the head?

I'm assuming it was a Short Round shout-out. Darabont has been pretty vocal in interviews that TEMPLE OF DOOM is his favorite Indy movie.

Enjoying the show immensely and can't wait to see these characters I don't care about get eaten.

Rooker up in that. Zombies up in that. Mermaid necklace up in that.

Fine by me.

I enjoyed the episode, evidenced by how fast the time seemed to fly by as I watched my recording.

Loved the guts-o-flage scene, it was intense watching them sneak through the undead. There was one part where a zombie seemed to be following behind them for a while that creeped me out pretty good. The dismemberment scene was thoroughly gruesome and hard to watch. Like others, I am amazed and delighted that they are able to get away with that on the show. Rick was pretty impressive with that axe once they were discovered.

Damn these zombies are pretty hardcore. Using rocks, climbing... and they can get swift when there's food nearby! I like that they aren't just dumb and slow, and also aren't olympians but are somewhere in between but leaning more towards the dumb and slow variety.

I didn't have any problems with the convenient inconvenience of the rain showing up when it did, since it was foreshadowed much earlier in the show as I think there was thunder in much earlier rooftop scenes. Not sure if it would have really washed the stench off them that easily, and aren't smells of everything usually diminished in heavy rain anyway?

WTF @ Rick's wife going into the woods unarmed.

Thoroughly enljoying this show, currently my favorite thing on tv. I'm super tempted to check out the comic though!

ETA: wonder if super asshole racist gets the classic "gruesomely and completely pulled apart by zombies (complete with intestinal display)" death scene that many of his kind have gotten in zombie movies?

Seemed to me more like it was them panicking that the smell might be washing off that tipped the zombies off rather than the actual smell washing off.

I kind of dig the idea of the zombies being mimics. They saw Glenn and Rick climb up the ladder, so they try it. They see them climb over the fence, so they try it. They can't come up with ideas on their own, but if they see someone else do it, something "clicks".

And Mimic.

One of the things I'm wary of that while the comic can sort of get away with riffing/ripping off other media, when they translate a riff in a comic back into live action it's little on the nose.

But that was some good choppin' and smearin'.

Zombie purists drive me nuts. Zombies should be able to do whatever creators want them to do, as long as they conform to the internal logic of the story being told. These zombies can climb and use rocks. Get over it.

I like that they call the zombies "geeks".

I prefer to root for the home team and all, but Dead Set did zombie guts re-appropriation better.

Gawrsh, officer Rick, that mermaid necklace sure is pretty!

I''m going with, the longer they are zombies, the more intellegence they lose. The fresher the zombie, the more intellegent....

That's a workable idea, methinks.

Having read the comic and keeping up to date with it, I'm kinda glad they're straying from the source material. Even though I know what happens to the main/major characters, and generally they are keeping some of the same beats, I like that it's still kind of new and I'm not knowing what will happen all the time.

Oh, and I'm not sure who all saw this, but a commercial featuring Dr Joyce Brothers aired during the show. She looks like a zombie.

I made this joke during our party's viewing last night. Got big laughs.

I don't recall anyone being smeared with guts in Shaun of the Dead. A goofy zombie imitation chorus line gag but no guts.

And yeah. Dr. Joyce Brothers should definitely cameo in this show.

Thats pretty much where I stand after this episode - lots of silliness here. The notion that smearing zombie blood on you masks your (lack of?) scent was dumb, and the idea that 30 seconds of rain washes the smell away is even dumber. I was rolling my eyes when Rick and Glen were shambling down the street.

But still, Rooker is a great addition that we hopefully get more of. And the production value continues to blow me away. That dismemberment had me cringing. Fun, but nowhere near as good as the pilot.

Well, if the zombies are coming for him, it would certainly take less time to saw through his wrist than through the cuffs.


Mad Max taught me that.

I guess I don't know what some of you were expecting. It's a show about zombies. There's some inherent silliness in there. They are going to hit some tropes. The emotions are going to be big. It's not going to be "The Wire"; it can't be. There are zombies for christ's sake.

IMO, for a TV show about zombies, it's fucking Shakespeare.

All valid! I guess ultimately the issue is it might be a zombie TV show for people who haven't seen every goddamn zombie movie out there.

Edit: My complaints have all been about the storytelling, not "why did character X do that??" I guess I was expecting some new ground from Darabont (and am still hopeful!).

agreed. Besides what you pointed out, if every character acted as if they knew about zombie lore, and acted 100% logical in every problem they encountered, what would be the point of watching the show?

I swear that some of you guys must live in a bubble, the world is filled with people making "stupid" decissions every day, to have these people complete every task to perfection, man, this show would boring.

Oh, I get it. I just don't know how one could surprise a zombie fan at this point.

One thing I'm really enjoying about this show is that, so far, it's direct. What you see is what you get. I was getting real tired of the post X-Files genre show staple of obtuseness. I'm tired of characters withholding information from each other just for the sake of maintaining the show's mystery (Lost, I'm looking at you). The only mystery here is how the zombies came to be, and we'll see how interested Darabont is in solving that.

oh, btw Lori is a flipping C U Next Tuesday... man, I hate her...

I really like the departure from the comics tho in her case. I want to hate her. I think the show knows that if they followed the comic plotline, the whole "ya know" then the later "ya know" might still be too Tabboo for TV, if the series makes it that far. I actually thought the comic was a little lazy when the whole prison thing happened. They built up to that point, then end it really quick.

I think for now, the best tact for the seasoned zombie fan is to enjoy the nuances. For instance, I don't recall anyone ever escaping a zombie horde by hiding in a tank, finding a zombie soldier in the tank, then being momentarily deafened by having to shoot the zombie soldier in the tank. I could be wrong tho.

Given time though I think Darabont will pull some big surprises.

Awesome.

They did finally pull a jump scare with the rat-eating zombie in the sewer, but even that was well done in that they'd avoided jump scares so heavily in the pilot that it sort of turned off my expectations of one coming. And the slow build of the zombies recognizing something wasn't right with their disguises was nicely done.

This is silly. The fact that 9 zombie movies out of 10 are written by imbeciles doesn't mean that you shouldn't hope for reasonably crafted dialogue and characters when a genuinely great filmmakers take a stab at the genre. Their pedigree dictates the expectations.

It is true that certain cliches are unavoidable when tackling this kind of story, but that's not the problem. While a long running zombie story will have to use the classic "under siege in an enclosed space with a bunch of strangers" scenario at one point or another, what matters is that the writer needs to populate it with interesting characters.

When you start putting in there stock characters like the cartoonish racist asshole and the "hell naw" black dude with a nickname and have your lead man whip out rubbish like "When I find my family I'm gonna tell them about this guy", it seems to me we may have a problem. A lot of the dialogue in this episode seemed to come straight out of some stupid early 90s adventure show. That can't be good.

Is it totally unreasonable to expect a guy like Darabont to rise above this kind of stuff, zombies or no zombies?

This probably comes out as overly harsh, as I said "Guts" was an enjoyable hour of horror television, it's just that the pilot promised something more.

I guess I'll have to watch it again, because I certainly don't remember being appalled at any atrocious dialogue. I didn't find any of it any worse than some of the corn found in The Shawshank Redemption.

Let's not go that far, Singer. It's at least better than Shawshank.

Yeah, I'm not saying the dialog should be "dumbed down" to typical zombie movie levels, and I don't think it is. This is a show about an apocalypse. It's about big conflicts, big emotions; it's opera. I personally think Darabont is good with "big emotion", I think it's why he gets Stephen King and why Shawshank works for so many people.

Basically I think a zombie show written by Aaron Sorkin would be terrible, that's what I'm saying. I disagree that the dialog is bad.

The new guys were all stiff, including Rooker, but especially the actor who played Glen. I was watching people awkwardly going through their lines, not actual characters. And I groaned at the organ donor line.

Glen's joy of speeding was unearned from an audience perspective. I shrugged -- OK some random dude is driving. I know this is supposed to be cool and fun but I don't know him. I never felt his cramped isolation in the big city. Every scene, especially the racism and rain, just felt like items on a to-do list. Whereas the pilot humanized the zombies by showing the halfling in the park and staring into the eyes of the undead wife, this episode does the opposite of show, don't tell.

The pilot was good; it had cliches but at least presented them in a compelling way. This was just amateur.