The Walking Dead!

[KrauserKrauser]

I'm surprised that no one has started the thread for this show.

The Walking Dead is on AMC on Sundays at 11PM and the Halloween premiere episode was quite good.

If my wife can get into a zombie drama, they must be doing something right.

Did anyone else get a chance to catch this?

[Mr. Coffee]

I thought it was pretty good. Good amount of gore, but not to splattery. Good drama to it, none of the preachy society is fucked up subtext you get out of Romero. Pace was a little slow at times, and I loved the ending.

The "Hey, you... Hey, Dumbass!" bit was hilarious.

[Ghost Rider]

Good adaption, so one will see. I really wonder if they will go deep into how fucked both the people and world are, and I mean far more so then what they showed in the first episode. The latter books get far more into you think it's as bad as it can get, there is always worse.

[Kyler]

DVRed it last night, watched when I got home. I thought it was pretty good, definitely have to see the next episode.

[FSTargetDrone]

Having never read the comics and not being interested in zombie stories in general, the advertising and word-of-mouth eventually got to me and I checked it out on OnDemand.

I liked the episode a lot. But a few things I'm wondering about... The main character couldn't have been in that hospital much more than a week. Assuming the IV sustained him for a few days before he finally woke up, how much time passed between him being admitted and the bulk of the infection starting? The guy in the neighbor's house told him while they were in the police station that the gas had been off for "about a month." So, how many days did the deputy stay with the boy and the father?

I wonder who put the gurney in front of his room door.

Another thing, what, did he crawl into a small boat in the city? The interior of the tank seemed a bit too big!

Remember the dark and long-haired zombie in the suit who came out of the bus? I know this won't happen, there is no reason for it to happen, but I want to see that same zombie at the very end of the series, whenever it occurs. Hell, somehow, I want that same zombie to pop up now and then as the story goes along.

Why don't the zombies act more cannibalistically or at least fight with each other? Hell, even in Left 4 Dead you will sometimes see 2 zombies beating on each other.

[KrauserKrauser]

I can get some of those.

He was in the hospital for a few weeks. You are going to have to use your SOD on this one as my wife picked out this one really quickly. Anyone in a coma-like state for a week+ is going to have some sort of IV feeding tube or a PIC line that will make getting up and walking, forgetting not starving/dehydrating due to inattention, hard to do in the best of circumstances. Let's just say his body made him wake up or die and leave it at that.

I blame the zombies for the gurney. You can blame them for everything, isn't it great!

The tank is an invention for TV. The comic went right from horse being eaten to running into the Asian guy you see in the previews that talks to him on the radio at the end of the episode.

That would be neat. It looks like they are departing a bit from the comic and expanding on his time in the city before he meets the camp where his wife is. Originally he just meets the Asian guy and they run away together. The zombies in the comic are nameless faceless hordes, it might be fun if they keep that guy around as a walking easter egg. Find Fred the Zombie!

Zombies in this universe have perfect FvF transponders. There hasn't been any Zombie on Zombie action that I can remember in any of the stories.

[FSTargetDrone]

He was in the hospital for a few weeks. You are going to have to use your SOD on this one as my wife picked out this one really quickly. Anyone in a coma-like state for a week+ is going to have some sort of IV feeding tube or a PIC line that will make getting up and walking, forgetting not starving/dehydrating due to inattention, hard to do in the best of circumstances. Let's just say his body made him wake up or die and leave it at that.

Given the overall premise of the story, I can accept that.

The tank is an invention for TV. The comic went right from horse being eaten to running into the Asian guy you see in the previews that talks to him on the radio at the end of the episode.

No different really from vehicle sets that seem to be over- (or under-scale) in various TV shows and movies. I just thought it was slightly amusing that he seemed to pop up into such a spacious interior.

That would be neat. It looks like they are departing a bit from the comic and expanding on his time in the city before he meets the camp where his wife is. Originally he just meets the Asian guy and they run away together. The zombies in the comic are nameless faceless hordes, it might be fun if they keep that guy around as a walking easter egg. Find Fred the Zombie!

As soon as I saw that guy leave the bus and then again later by the tank, I thought of that. I want to see him again! Yellow-eyes...

Zombies in this universe have perfect FvF transponders. There hasn't been any Zombie on Zombie action that I can remember in any of the stories.

Also, there seem to be few children so far, other than that apparent flash-forward at the start of the show. To be honest, that was the scene that I found to have the most tension. Zombification aside, it's disturbing to see a child shot in the head.

Nice touch with the use of the splatter shield when they first leave the house.

Effects are quite good. I agree with what was said earlier: the gore looks realistic and not too silly or over-the-top.

I really don't want to see a conflicted-feelings-for-my-husband-who-is-back-and-his-friend-who-supported-me situation, with Grimes, his wife and Shane Walsh (assuming it goes that way).

Curious about the helicopter Grimes briefly saw in the reflection of the high-rise windows. It didn't look military (unlike the Hueys on the ground).

Am wondering if the Walkers will simply keep on walking and shuffling about until they simply fall apart. However, if they are decaying (as they seem to be), where are all of the flies that should be surrounding them in clouds? Only true corpses seem to attract flies so far.

The crawling woman at the end that Grimes finished off, was I the only one who thought she was reaching up to him not to attack or grab, but to communicate in the only way she could? There didn't seem to be any aggression there, but a sense of asking for "help." So, maybe the Walkers (or Crawler, in this case!) aren't totally mindless all of the time. Especially considering how the child bothered to pick up the stuffed toy earlier (later) and that Morgan's wife was apparently mouthing something by the door. There was evidently recognition of specific places and items. The wife was trying to look though the door and she was merely twisting the handle. She "remembered" how to use the door knob. She wasn't mindlessly swatting at or banging on it. Hell, she managed to stay in the area in general and didn't just wander off with the crowds.

Where are the dogs, cats and rats? This many weeks along, we should at least see rats. We saw birds picking at the corpse on the tank. Increasingly feral cats and dogs may find dead (really dead) flesh distasteful, but eventually they will get desperate. Can the infection spread to non-human animals?

I wonder if the infection has spread world-wide? Also, how fast it takes hold of its victims? Air travel would presumably have been halted, especially if planes land with obviously-infected passengers. It would be kind of cool to see foreign naval ships off the coast launching helicopters once they realize they aren't hearing from North, Central and South America any longer. I'm assuming it's world-wide, however.

This all may well be covered in the comics, but I'm not at all familiar with that.

[spaceviking]

I wonder if the infection has spread world-wide? Also, how fast it takes hold of its victims? Air travel would presumably have been halted, especially if planes land with obviously-infected passengers. It would be kind of cool to see foreign naval ships off the coast launching helicopters once they realize they aren't hearing from North, Central and South America any longer. I'm assuming it's world-wide, however.

Kind of an aside, but would this make North Korea the safest place to be. Isolated, government with power and attitude to make ruthless decisions. Only problem is proximity to China.

[Fire Fly]

Can we have no spoilers that goes beyond what has been aired for the people who haven't read the graphic novel yet?

[Stofsk]

I am really interested in this show. They've gone with the shambling zombies which aren't really that scary, until you come across a crowd of them.

Poor horse.

[Minischoles]

I am really interested in this show. They've gone with the shambling zombies which aren't really that scary, until you come across a crowd of them.

Poor horse.

I liked that line from the guy he met, something like 'Alone they're not too much trouble, but get em together, all riled up and hungry' - I loved the look on his face as well as he goes riding off around the corner right into a horde of zombies, that OH shit look.

[Stofsk]

Yeah I was totally not expecting it. I knew that something would happen though but the way he blunders right into them felt really well done.

[Azazal]

Over all I did enjoy the show, god adaption of the comic, add some extra stuff to flesh things out, but not so much as to bog things down. Adding in the info on the infect wife was a nice touch, it helps to inform Grimes and viewers on the general situation, without going to some much detail as to bore or kill the setting.

I liked and disliked the little girl scene at the beginning. I like that it showed that no punched would be pulled, and that Grimes knew that. However, it kills some of the early story suspense for people not familiar with comic. We know he gets out of town from the beginning of the story, kills the tension the was building up when he was in the house with the father and son.

I also like that they did not try to go for a cheap scare when he was walking down the stairwell lighting matches. I was half expecting a zombie to magically show up behind him while he was lighting a new match. Or have one of the bagged bodies outside stand up after he walked by it and it shuffled after him.

Over all I give it a solid 9 out of 10

[Gil Hamilton]

Saw it on Hulu just now and wasn't THAT impressed. It's a Zombie Apocalypse show and didn't really do anything new or different than what we normally get. It even straight up lifted the gimmick of having the main character be the Last Man On Earth directly. It felt like the deputy should have been shot, then the message 28 Days Later flashes on the screen, and then he wakes up in the hospital which has been abandoned.

That's the thing, it had all the standard plot holes and gimmicks that like every other Zombie Apocalypse has. The Zombies are everywhere, mysteriously conquering the world with no real adequate explanation regarding how the zombies won in such a short amount of time.

I haven't read the comic, but I'll make some predictions about the upcoming plot.

-The person on the radio is going to turn out to be a kid with Awesome Street Smarts. They'll team up and meet up with the survivors from the sheriff's town. After all, the deputy HAS to meet up with the survivors now that we know that his partner is boning his wife.
-They are going to do a "The Real Monster is Man" episode or series of episodes where some lowlife insane jackass has taken over a town and is doing all the shitty things he wants to now that Society Has Fallen. Said jackass will attempt to rape the deputies wife at some point, with a last minute rescue.
-If there isn't a lowlife jackass, it will be a rich politician Who Knew and survived along with the very wealthy by throwing the rest of us under the Zombie Bus. He'll die by being consumed by a bunch of zombies that break into his fortress.
-Probably a female doctor who used to be part of the CDC trying to find a Cure. She'll fail to do so after some promising false starts.

[The Grim Squeaker]

-The person on the radio is going to turn out to be a kid with Awesome Street Smarts. They'll team up and meet up with the survivors from the sheriff's town. After all, the deputy HAS to meet up with the survivors now that we know that his partner is boning his wife.

Yup

-They are going to do a "The Real Monster is Man" episode or series of episodes where some lowlife insane jackass has taken over a town and is doing all the shitty things he wants to now that Society Has Fallen. Said jackass will attempt to rape the deputies wife at some point, with a last minute rescue.

Not exactly, Spoiler

it's more like a psychopath has been made mayor of a rival town and wants to kill the "good guy" survivors.

-Probably a female doctor who used to be part of the CDC trying to find a Cure. She'll fail to do so after some promising false starts.

Spoiler

None of those in the comic. Closest is a red herring based on that .

[Steel]

It even straight up lifted the gimmick of having the main character be the Last Man On Earth directly. It felt like the deputy should have been shot, then the message 28 Days Later flashes on the screen, and then he wakes up in the hospital which has been abandoned.

The opening to the comic graphic novel is the same as the opening to 28 days later, however the comic was written before 28 days later was released, so neither of them are being ripped off.

[Gil Hamilton]

The opening to the comic graphic novel is the same as the opening to 28 days later, however the comic was written before 28 days later was released, so neither of them are being ripped off.

28 Days Later opened in 2002. The Walking Dead was released the next year, in fact, a few months after the american release when 28 Days Later was very popular. I'm not saying that the guy ripped Danny Boyle off, but alot of the same elements in 28 Days Later pop up, basically in the same order, as they do in 28 Days Later. Guy gets put into a coma in a hospital, wakes up about a month later (with no explanation how he survived for that time) and everyone is gone, wanders around until he encounters zombies (complete with a giant ominous message painted on the wall before hand to let the audience know that shit is going down) and freaks out, is rescued by two survivors who provide the exposition to explain what is going on and what the rules are for zombies. It was even a father and child who lost their mother in the Zombie Apocalypse, something that the main character of 28 Days Later does end up encountering.

This is where The Walking Dead doesn't work for me. Everything in it has been pretty well done to death (pardon the pun) already. The moment they showed that camp with survivors in it lead by his deputy buddy, I KNEW that (A) the wife and kid were still alive and (B) that the deputy was boning the wife. When he headed for Atlanta, I knew that there wasn't going to be a survivors camp there where people are holding things down and working on a cure, because that ALWAYS turns out to be bogus in these stories (hey, it was in 28 Days Later too). The military isn't allowed to win, and it came up here to the point that the zombies managed to zombie up a tank. Not that zombies can get in a tank to do anything to the crew since a tank is functionally invincible to zombies and even if they run out of ammo they can always drive over the zombies, it's just the way zombie stories go.

It begs the question of why they didn't try something new. I know it's an adaption to a comic, but it's, what, 7 years later when zombies have been done to death?

[Wing Commander MAD]

Eh, I'm not overly impressed so far, as Gil Hamilton said its all pretty standard. What bugs me the most is how he got into the tank. I find it hard to believe that they have a hatch underneath that leads directly to the crew compartment, and that it'd be open. Now only if we had someone who'd know such a thing (trys to summon Shep). That said I did like the point they made of emphasizing that a gunshot in small largly enclosed space is deafening.

I am I the only one who thought it odd/funny that he basically lied to the horse to try to get it to "assist" him, with the whole they'll be other horses in Atlanta(?). Really, the poor thing woud've been better off it just threw him. Though this does show that the zombies will eat more than just people, if they can somehow manage to catch them. I imagine zoos would be interesting, as zombie\small group of zombies vs lion, elephant, or any large dangerous animal that is still healthy or hungry is bound to have some entertaining results.

[Gil Hamilton]

Actually, the bottom hatch really is there in that tank. I believe it was an M60 Patton that he crawled into, which does have a bottom escape hatch (Abrams don't). The only problem is that the US doesn't have any Pattons in service anymore except as museum pieces and it's not like zombies are capable of destoying enough modern tanks that it would be an issue. I mean, what is a zombie horde going to do to an Abrams other than possibly gunking up its treads?

[[R_H]]

I mean, what is a zombie horde going to do to an Abrams other than possibly gunking up its treads?

Get it dirty.

I watched part of first episode. I watched up until the zombie kid got her brain splattered, which was really unnerving, and then I stopped watching it.

[aieeegrunt]

I enjoyed the show and will continue watching, but it really does follow the classic zombie stereotype storyline pretty closely. My buddy and I concluded that the Deputy guy must have at least a 10 Luck Stat in Fallout terms to have survived the first episode.

Why oh why is Left 4 Dead the only "mainstream" zombie story to have figured out that having the zombification virus be airborne with a variable incubation period, plus having immune carriers to keep re-infecting safe pockets is a much better way to have a believable zombie apocalypse? Bite only zombie outbreaks, well that would go down like Shaun of the Dead. A day or so of chaos, government gets organized, bang bang bang no more zombies.

An airborne vector would explain stuff like how the tank crew got zombified, or how large bulk populations like the entire city of Atlanta got totally zombified.

[SylasGaunt]

Regarding the zombie spread in Walking Dead.. Spoiler

It isn't a 'bite only' outbreak in the comics. A bite just kills you faster.

[Gil Hamilton]

Spoiler

It isn't a 'bite only' outbreak in the comics. A bite just kills you faster.

Spoiler

Yeah, I looked on the wiki. They're pulling a Romero here where ANY death causes zombification and the bite just gives you a lethal plague. It still doesn't explain the tank crew or why all civil authority was powerless to stop zombies anywhere.

[FSTargetDrone]

However the tank crew got infected, a hatch on the turret was open when Grimes found it and there was just the one body inside (not counting the driver, whose compartment wasn't seen) and I think just the one on top that the birds were picking at (and he was dead-dead). There should be at least two other crew members in the fighting compartment of the "Abrams" (one of which, mentioned before, who attacked Grimes inside) so one is evidently missing. Either they drove into town with the hatches open or they attempted to get out after seeing things fall apart around them. The body inside the tank wasn't wearing any kind of NBC gear, either.

[Zixinus]

Watched it. Will wait to see where this will go, but unlikely to be impressed. Keep hoping that someone will think over the situation in more detail, but so far, its only the usual idiots.

Everything so far is standard, if well-executed. I sort of like the deputy and imagery is great. However, I really wish that some nice extra twists and stuff would start coming in.

I liked the horse. It was a relatively good idea. It doesn't need gas and it can tell you when it senses undead. And, as demonstrated, it has the added bonus that it may distract if left behind. Going to the city of course wasn't a good idea.

You know, I get that people don't usually think about this first, but... doesn't it ever occur to them that their wife/husband would think them dead and thus move on to a different person? Because we saw this situation and know that it will go bad, we know that it will go bad in the worst moment possible.