The Walking Dead!

[Sea Skimmer]

Do they ever bother to explain just how the zombies attacked the camp? I specifically remember they had the camp ringed with wire and bottles that made noise - what, did the zombies crawl under it?

Nope zombies just come out of the bushes and start eating people while everyone is talking around a fire, except one guy sleeping alone, and thus have no night vision or ability to hear anything coming easily. No alarms, no lookouts no abatis no nothing. The same episode all teaches us that the main characters can walk from the city back to the camp in a long afternoon, meaning the zombie risk has always been absurdly high. Why the fuck they wouldn’t move up into the proper mountains in the first place… ugh. I lost all interest in the series after that scene frankly, but now that the future is going to be open to different writers Ill certainly give it another shot.

[Gunhead]

Do they ever bother to explain just how the zombies attacked the camp? I specifically remember they had the camp ringed with wire and bottles that made noise - what, did the zombies crawl under it?

(I haven't seen Episode 05 yet)

It failed by the power of plot. Or it was sabotaged by Mr. one hand, who will exact elaborate and sadistic revenge sometime in the future.
Oh, general stupidity helped and was the major cause of death among the survivors.

-Gunhead

[Stofsk]

Do they ever bother to explain just how the zombies attacked the camp? I specifically remember they had the camp ringed with wire and bottles that made noise - what, did the zombies crawl under it?

Nope zombies just come out of the bushes and start eating people while everyone is talking around a fire, except one guy sleeping alone, and thus have no night vision or ability to hear anything coming easily. No alarms, no lookouts no abatis no nothing. The same episode all teaches us that the main characters can walk from the city back to the camp in a long afternoon, meaning the zombie risk has always been absurdly high. Why the fuck they wouldn’t move up into the proper mountains in the first place… ugh. I lost all interest in the series after that scene frankly, but now that the future is going to be open to different writers Ill certainly give it another shot.

Yeah that bugged the fuck out of me too. Losing their van to the one-armed bandit was asinine in more ways than one; they returned to the camp in only a few hours of hoofing it. I thought that the camp was a fair distance away from the city.

To be fair the location is pretty good due to there being a water source which even has fish in it. But their situation was compromised by several basic precautions which just makes this show stupid. Hell even the end of episode two was stupid as the asian kid kept driving with a high-pitched car alarm going off and nobody thought to pull over to see if they could disable it. No, instead they drive all the way back to the camp in episode 3 with the alarm blaring. Man this show went from pretty cool to downright stupid at an impressive pace.

[Vympel]

I have to say that everyone acting like stupid retards is quickly killing my interest in this show. The grimdark aspect of this is also getting overblown, like the sister pulling a gun on Rick, Shane pointing his gun at Rick (what is this, The Let's Point Our Guns at Rick the Sheriff Show?) and a lot of other crap like the entire CDC being completely empty except for one guy who's lost his marbles. It's also sadly predictable, like Shane going 'this is all your fault' to Rick because he went back to the city to get a bag of guns and to recover someone they left behind there - when it was really Shane's fault for not having people on watch.

Seriously I can't get over how fucking stupid the last episode was. It's a shame because the series started off so promising, but when your plot can only happen because every character is careless and stupid, your story's got problems. The thing I hate the most is Rick's usually right in every decision he makes, but everyone just wants to argue about it.

Just saw Episode 05 today - I don't think its actually possible to have a zombie show's 'grimdark aspect' be overblown, and whilst that idiot woman pulling a gun on Rick was stupid, Shane aiming at Rick made perfect sense in the context of what's happened in the past, and I enjoyed it.

I don't think the CDC guy (who appears on Cracked.com's Top 20 "That Guy" list that they just brought out, which is hilarious) has "lost his marbles". He's just alone and he's lost all hope, and as such, he's talking to himself. Thats to be expected. Why not consider suicide? I certainly would, if I was as lonely as him.

But yeah, they might be setting up his character to try and infect one of Rick's group so he can get fresh samples ...

[Stofsk]

Just saw Episode 05 today - I don't think its actually possible to have a zombie show's 'grimdark aspect' be overblown, and whilst that idiot woman pulling a gun on Rick was stupid, Shane aiming at Rick made perfect sense in the context of what's happened in the past, and I enjoyed it.

i thought we established ages ago your taste in films/tv is highly dubious

I don't think the CDC guy (who appears on Cracked.com's Top 20 "That Guy" list that they just brought out, which is hilarious) has "lost his marbles". He's just alone and he's lost all hope, and as such, he's talking to himself. Thats to be expected. Why not consider suicide? I certainly would, if I was as lonely as him.

Well they say the first sign of madness is talking to yourself.

But yeah, they might be setting up his character to try and infect one of Rick's group so he can get fresh samples ...

It wouldn't surprise me.

[aieeegrunt]

The main reason the camp got eaten was that the only two people with functioning brains, namely Darryl and Glenn, were in Atlanta. The rest struck me as typical citiots, you should expect them to die like flies in any end of society scenario like this. The comic book, having somewhat competent writing, actually took the time to explain why they had their camp so close to "Deadlanta"; the last instructions from the government told people to assemble in the big cities. They're waiting for the authorites to appear and magically make everything better.

As far as where the zombies came from, I assumed they followed the noise of the car alarm. Given the general level of incompetence of the survivor group, I doubt that the "tin can perimeter defense" actually surrounds the whole camp.

The writing quality of this show is declining fast, I'm assuming this week's episode is going to be mad scientist infecting blonde lawyer chick so he can replace his precious samples.

[Solauren]

Also, trip-wires are horrible alarms unless attached to something really loud, or something right next to the guards. Tin-cans are not really loud.

Trenches / Ditches would have been much better. Hell, going back in groups of four, going to the outskirts of all the cars on the highway, steeling them, and then parking them in a large perimeter would have been a good idea as well.

[Gunhead]

Grunt hit a good one there which I think should have been picked up by anyone who knows anything about humans in disaster situations. Yes, most of them are city people, but they've already passed the biggest hurdle. That's to survive long enough to re-establish themselves and get "zombie savvy", they know how to kill them, the situations where the zombies are most dangerous, what attracts the zombies, they got a camp set up, they're numerous enough to keep watch and defend it against small hordes and are in a place where they have access to drinking water. Yes they're also lucky, but most of the just lucky are ones who are dead. This gets blown to the wind when our newcomer leaves.

Right. Not buying this. People are creatures of habit and once a pattern is established people follow it, even sometimes to their detriment. Thing is they're not facing an opponent that can or will exploit any weaknesses in that pattern so it's alright to just keep doing it. It's easy to go "oh, but they're not the military, they have no training etc." but thing is they've got something better, experience. Now if they'd have someone with leadership training / experience the only real difference would be he'd know how and when to break routines to avoid mindless repetition and how to pace work and play so people don't go bonkers.

-Gunhead

[Fire Fly]

Well that was a wasted episode. The plot wasn't advanced, nothing was resolved, we got a lot of melodrama and to top it off, we have to wait until next fall to watch season 2. I'm not sure if I want to keep watching. I am glad, however, that evil looking scientist didn't turn out to be evil in the end. One really nice thing about the episode that was enjoyable was the flashback. The show could use a lot more of that sort of stuff.

[weemadando]

I heard (on the Gamespy Debriefings podcast) that the whole writing staff for Walking Dead was given the arse. Perhaps this will lead to better episodes.

Wait. No, that'll never happen. It'll just get dumber.

[Meest]

I'm in the same boat, still can't get past the stupidity. CDC guy had access to M4 or M16 either from an armoury or scavenged from outside, so when he went all thermobaric why the hell wouldn't you ask or grab all that shit. Seems guns and food aren't on their priority list, the show needs more tension and urgency. Also the question and answer period with the scientist was terrible, it turned into some philosophy debate and social commentary "why the world runs on fossil fuels" after mentioning France held out the longest when they use something like 80% nuclear.

They give him attitude and didn't drill him on what their options are, or like say hey let's make this fortress a base and go out and raid supplies. Good thing they got there in time for power to run out, and they never ask how or what they can do to help. Think that's the general problem it's too one dimensional I'm missing some sub plots or something. They just ignore too many in your face logical details. I honestly would have left it at CDC runs out of power and have their supplies low so they have to go out or those supplies get "decontaminated" not the whole place but leaves them in a rough spot.

[Stofsk]

Actually not a bad episode. I know I was harshing on it before but I actually didn't mind this episode that much. I knew someone put the gurney in front of Rick's room at the hospital.

[Zixinus]

Don't you think that the American CDC wouldn't have used nuclear? Or that the CDC wouldn't draw from nuclear power plants? They obviously didn't have such a generator.
More could have been done, but it was obvious that the doc was too depressed to care, hence why he "forgot" to mention why there was a countdown. Otherwise he could have formulated plans (zombies don't care about guarding gas stations). Which also explains why he overestimated the defense of the glass (yeah, it was bulletproof, but even that can shatter with enough force).

What was a let-down was that we never learned anything substantial about the disease. Yeah, it restarts the brainstem, but that much was obvious. What was bad that he couldn't answer whether the thing was viral or bacterial or parasitic or what. Considering how long he has been working on the tissue samples, that is a bit weird.

Also, there was no guarantee that the CDC was stocked with guns. The doc may have only picked one up from one of the many soldiers.

Overall, not as bad season as some point it out as. Too bad that it will get very, very stupid from now on.

[Gunhead]

For a season finale this was pretty weak. Nothing new was revealed and as a "Survivors are safe" bait it failed totally. Not to mention the totally ridiculous thermobaric trap. I mean having dangerous diseases is one thing, but blowing up the whole fucking building.... Come on. It gets even more stupid when it's revealed the self destruct is tied to a timer and cannot be overridden by the people in the building. Who the fuck designed this place? Dr. Evil?
Now of course it's possible the Dr. Deranged didn't know how to do that, but the fact the self destruct is initiated by the fucking computer with no human supervision is just fucking pants-on-head retarded.

Well, considering the total +-0 of the first season, I doubt I'll be watching the second. I'd rather occupy my time watching good stuff, like Boardwalk Empire by HBO, which is now entering it's second season.

-Gunhead

[Zixinus]

Actually, out of curiosity, does anyone know what protocols the CDC actually has?

EDIT: Also, what was he talking about when mentioning how they protected the nation from stuff like weaponized smallpox?

[weemadando]

Actually, out of curiosity, does anyone know what protocols the CDC actually has?

EDIT: Also, what was he talking about when mentioning how they protected the nation from stuff like weaponized smallpox?

Weaponised smallpox sounds more like a USAMRIID thing than CDC, though there'd be a lot of crossover between the two.

[Skylon]

For a season finale this was pretty weak. Nothing new was revealed and as a "Survivors are safe" bait it failed totally. Not to mention the totally ridiculous thermobaric trap. I mean having dangerous diseases is one thing, but blowing up the whole fucking building.... Come on. It gets even more stupid when it's revealed the self destruct is tied to a timer and cannot be overridden by the people in the building. Who the fuck designed this place? Dr. Evil?
Now of course it's possible the Dr. Deranged didn't know how to do that, but the fact the self destruct is initiated by the fucking computer with no human supervision is just fucking pants-on-head retarded.

I didn't mind the treatment of the survivors (though Andrea is probably the most annoying of their number). But the portrayal of the CDC was fucking stupid, and possibly some of the worst anti-science shit I've seen in awhile. The lone scientist, who is now convinced "there is nothing wrong with death" and is living alone with his HAL 9000 computer, which is suicidal.

[FSTargetDrone]

I saw the first three episodes so far, but that's been it. Those may have been the highlights, given what's been discussed here so far. I skimmed through the posts here since I last watched and now I'm even less inclined to fire up OnDemand and see how it's going. Frankly, it sounds like Left For Dead has a more compelling storyline. Perhaps this would have been better as a limited- or mini-series. I was willing to live with the inherent absurdity of the zombies as a concept, but Characters Doing Dumb Things Just Because is not what I want to waste any time with. Other humans and feral packs of dogs (which apparently do not exist) should be a bigger threat to our survivors at this point, with the lingering danger of the Walkers omnipresent in the background. A post-apocalyptic series can be interesting, but this isn't the one for me. I can't recall the last series I gave up on (in general) so quickly other than Voyager. I'm not willing to invest the time anymore. If I hear things have improved, I may be back, but that assumes I even bother to check. The pilot had a lot of promise, but, well, here we are.

Anyway, Ars Technica's take is available, if anyone is interested.

[Azazal]

Now that it's all said an done.. eg, not overly impressed. It started out so strong with the first 2 episodes, but after that....

I really hope they respond to the fan base and go back to surviving zombies and not melodrama for the sake of melodrama - Don't nBSG our zombie apocalypse damnit. There is so much potential for them to do, but they seem pretty ball-less to do so.

[Akhlut]

Now that it's all said an done.. eg, not overly impressed. It started out so strong with the first 2 episodes, but after that....

I really hope they respond to the fan base and go back to surviving zombies and not melodrama for the sake of melodrama - Don't nBSG our zombie apocalypse damnit. There is so much potential for them to do, but they seem pretty ball-less to do so.

The comic itself is pretty melodramatic itself, so it depends on how closely they cleave to it.

Although, one could arguably make a good drama series from a zombie-apocalypse, since, frankly, zombies are going to be a low-level, background threat in places that aren't necropolises. No, your main problems are going to stem from other people, especially people in your group (Shane, for instance!).

Also, I might be the only one to argue it, but I do see some sense in making the CDC go klabooey, given that it was repeatedly stated to be what amounts to an anti-terrorist measure. Not only do you have the horrific diseases themselves to contend with, but if they did, in fact, have weaponized smallpox on site and computer files telling you how to modify your own batch of it into a weapon, then it'd be prudent to completely eliminate both the samples of disease and the computers themselves (to keep dedicated terrorists from grabbing the harddrives and trying to recover whatever data they can, even from an erased harddrive).


To critique the series, though: good job on throwing out characters who have no characterization so we don't have to think about them! It sure helps out to not have to worry about the token black woman so I can focus on all the white people and the two remaining token minorities!

[Meest]

I just find it funny how the ratings have climbed when I thought each episode slipped down and down, really just surprised me that it's the one breakout show. It's good don't get me wrong but the ratings are making it out to being the best basic cable show and it's getting better and better. It's also doing well in key demos and mainstream audiences, seems to be the new couples show, it's holding male and female viewership. That said they tossed the writing team so it's just a weird way to treat a hit.

[weemadando]

Did you consider that it may have been a hit in spite of the writers and that it getting dumber may well be the cause of mainstream success?

After all the most successful new show of this season has been the execrable Shit My Dad Says.

[aieeegrunt]

Try as I might to rationalize the finale, that whole CDC thing was still pretty fucking stupid. Even in an America that gave us shit like the TSA I can't see that much life and death authority being openly granted to a computer program with no possibility of human override.

That CDC building, and the others like it around the world (even in France apparently) would have been the perfect place to start humanity's rebound from this so called "extinction event". It's a zombie and casual bandit proof fortress. It appeared to be stocked with food. It appears to have it's own water treatment/filtration capability, since the public utilities are long gone and people were still showering and whatnot; this is far more important for any sort of medium or long term habitation than food. There will be a supply of medical equipment, and medical knowledge amongst the surviving staff.

All that is needed is periodic sweeps for supplies, to locate and rescue survivors, and to refuel the generators. Using the building initially as a base, you could over time accumulate people and supplies, start working on a safe zone, etc. But instead we'll have some ridiculously simplistic computer routine that blows the whole building up as soon as the generators run dry.

[Wing Commander MAD]

Now that it's all said an done.. eg, not overly impressed. It started out so strong with the first 2 episodes, but after that....

I really hope they respond to the fan base and go back to surviving zombies and not melodrama for the sake of melodrama - Don't nBSG our zombie apocalypse damnit. There is so much potential for them to do, but they seem pretty ball-less to do so.

The comic itself is pretty melodramatic itself, so it depends on how closely they cleave to it.

Although, one could arguably make a good drama series from a zombie-apocalypse, since, frankly, zombies are going to be a low-level, background threat in places that aren't necropolises. No, your main problems are going to stem from other people, especially people in your group (Shane, for instance!).

Also, I might be the only one to argue it, but I do see some sense in making the CDC go klabooey, given that it was repeatedly stated to be what amounts to an anti-terrorist measure. Not only do you have the horrific diseases themselves to contend with, but if they did, in fact, have weaponized smallpox on site and computer files telling you how to modify your own batch of it into a weapon, then it'd be prudent to completely eliminate both the samples of disease and the computers themselves (to keep dedicated terrorists from grabbing the harddrives and trying to recover whatever data they can, even from an erased harddrive).


To critique the series, though: good job on throwing out characters who have no characterization so we don't have to think about them! It sure helps out to not have to worry about the token black woman so I can focus on all the white people and the two remaining token minorities!

Actually it isn't anti-terrorist. Note what happened to the lab the guy was in when he spilled the acid. It's Hollywoods take on quarantine of highly dangerous substances. Hell, we had the exact same thing in Michael Chriton's The Andromeda Strain (at least the movie version), with the facility set to sterilize itself with thermobaric devices in the event of possible release of the what's being studied.

[Akhlut]

Actually it isn't anti-terrorist. Note what happened to the lab the guy was in when he spilled the acid. It's Hollywoods take on quarantine of highly dangerous substances. Hell, we had the exact same thing in Michael Chriton's The Andromeda Strain (at least the movie version), with the facility set to sterilize itself with thermobaric devices in the event of possible release of the what's being studied.

I meant for the full-facility explosion, as the doctor explicitly said as much ("those doors are meant to withstand rocket launchers!"), which might be a bit more of a fictional Cold War relic (akin to the Dr. Strangelove Soviet doomsday device which would automatically destroy the world) which would automatically self-destruct to keep the Russkies from getting sensitive information and dangerous bioweapons. This is all speculation, though, and I can see the other side, though. Point is that it doesn't harm my SoD enough to make me give up on the series, since I can see a plausible explanation for it.

The decontamination thing was pretty stupid, though, as was his reaction when he spilled the acid on the sample. I work at what is just a regular chem lab, and we wouldn't dunk our hands into that much acid, even with gloves on. Further, I'd expect the decontamination procedure to be more akin to spraying down the lab with lysol, then water, then UV radiation. That would usually be enough to kill damn near everything in the lab. If they wanted to be absolutely positive not a microbe survived, then they could substitute sodium azide solution for lysol. No need to use the CLEANSING FIRE.