AMC zombie series from Frank 'Majestic' Darabont - The Walking Dead

i gotta say the standards for tv-14 are getting stretched to the limit here imo

Don't understand how they got away with some of this stuff but edited the Friday the 13th movies down so much.

How long was Rick in a coma?

my guess is probably 28 days?

kinda surprised at the positive reactions here. maybe I've seen too many innovative zombie flicks in the past year (and there have been a bunch recently) but the walking dead didn't bring one new thing to the table. every aspect of the zombies seem to be lifted from romero, coma guy waking up to the apocalypse is from 28 days later, even the "living with your loved ones as zombies" stuff is in the dawn of the dead remake.

I guess all that wouldn't matter as much if the characters were interesting, or the script was on point, but everything seemed workmanlike and perfunctory. my wife's verdict at the halfway point was "this is neither interesting nor scary". then she fell asleep.

the sexism in the opening scene was kinda o_O. you can say, hey they're smalltown cops, but guess what, smalltown cops tend to be kinda racist, too. and later the same character has to talk some sense into a hysterical women, so it seems like the show's totally down with lol dumb broads...

coma guy waking up to the apocalypse is from 28 days later Day of the Triffids "28 Days Later" didn't exactly invent this gambit.

The opening scene, IMO, was just a clumsy setup for some misdirection. (At least for those who are watching this without having read the comics.) Shane talks about his arguments with his wife, then later on you see him arguing with this woman and figure, "Hey, at least he got away with his family," then they show LOL IT WAS RICK'S WIFE ALL ALONG U N00BZ!

I guess my expectations were lower? I'm happy to watch a series-long version of boilerplate zombie tropes.

Zombies are zombies...the tropes are tropes bc they're zombies, it's not like they can be not undead. It's how they are used, it's only 1 episode and so far its creepy, bloody and interesting enough to keep me interested

true, and if the walking dead borrowed from a semi-obscure 60s monster movie I'd be more forgiving, but it's borrowing from one of the most famous zombie films of the past decade so

xxp

i think romero-style zombies are a generic, public domain archetype at this point.

exactly

"so it seems like the show's totally down with lol dumb broads..."

well, the show is making the male chauvinist police partner out to be a bad guy so there's that.

the main character doesn't seem like a male chauvinist so much as he seems like a semi-flawed human that has adapted to the behavior/bigotry of his partner to the point where he can laugh at the sexist remarks put forth in the women rant (during the exorcist metaphor). the main character admits his lady problems but refrains from making any sexist remarks. instead he opens up about how he felt when his wife said "you don't care about us" in front of the kid. I think that because his partner is a sexist small town cop, the main character can be open about his relationship problems - which actually feels therapeutic whenever he feels silenced by his wife. and when his partner says that main character is having "problems that every couple goes through" - this is just more therapeutic chit-chat

I wasn't offended by how the main character acted (he wasn't perfect but who is). the main character is flawed and at the same time he tries to explain that he is trying to make the marriage work and that his wife isn't the kind of person that "leaves the switch on"

Regarding the "28 Days Later" opening, Kirkman:

"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. Yeah. It was a little annoying. But great minds think alike, right"

and when his partner says that main character is having "problems that every couple goes through" - this is just more therapeutic chit-chat

i just assumed the partner and dude's wife were already sleeping together at this point

The ratings were very very strong, btw.

Zombies are zombies...the tropes are tropes bc they're zombies, it's not like they can be not undead.

this is the type of thinking that produces a boring zombie movie! I dunno, we were talking about this on the post-2005 horror thread, the genre is getting tired, especially when movies like pontypool, deadgirl, les revanants, the signal, and the end of the line have shown there are still interesting places to take the zombie/apocalypse film.

I was hoping that if AMC took the trouble of mounting an entire TV series with a name hollywood director, they might stretch the borders of the zombie genre or at least present some new angle, but instead it comes off as a by-the-numbers derivative. which wouldn't mean much if it had some striking, memorable characters or was scripted with flair, but this thing is so damn flat and earnest.

5.3 million. RIP Rubicon.

and I'm not saying "romero should sue!"

more like come up with an interesting angle, even the dawn of the dead remake had better tricks up its sleeve

Maybe they will introduce some new ideas in one of the many other episodes.

Poly otm. Don't think you can bury the series for it's failure to burst through the zombie genre on the back of one episode. And why can't it be a good story within the confines of the genre...seeing it before doesn't mean you've seen *this* before. I get the criticism I just think it's premature

and I'm not saying "romero should sue!"

If it weren't for Romero, "Plants vs. Zombies" would be called "Lawn of the Dead", which is obviously much more awesome.

the main character doesn't seem like a male chauvinist so much as he seems like a semi-flawed human that has adapted to the behavior/bigotry of his partner to the point where he can laugh at the sexist remarks put forth in the women rant (during the exorcist metaphor). the main character admits his lady problems but refrains from making any sexist remarks. instead he opens up about how he felt when his wife said "you don't care about us" in front of the kid. I think that because his partner is a sexist small town cop, the main character can be open about his relationship problems - which actually feels therapeutic whenever he feels silenced by his wife. and when his partner says that main character is having "problems that every couple goes through" - this is just more therapeutic chit-chat

But that led to the worst of the dialogue there, which was that he says that the true difference between men and women is that he could never say anything that hurtful to his wife, much less in front of his kid. Women be heartless.

I think we're putting too much emphasis on the "difference between men and women" line tbh.

maybe the character is sexist.

I look forward to the denunciation in the Guardian.

One of the many reviews of this I read noted how different it would be if for once the characters were presented with the zombiepocalpse and sort of knew what was going on. Learning and going over "the rules" every time (and this goes for vampires, werewolves, etc., too) seems to be a structural must at this point, but all these monsters are such templates that the expected audience has gotta know, right? "Aim for the head!" etc. The zombie genre's kind of ripe for a self-aware deconstruction, which we've never really seen before.

"Zombieland" was kind of like that

i see what you mean, but the 28-x movies were already kind of deconstructive -- "omfg, they're RUNNING!!" -- so maybe some uhh zombie classicism is in order

i only saw parts of this but i thought it was ok enough.

I like how they didn't say zombie once the entire episode

That's kind of a zombie movie rule, you're not allowed to say zombie.

x-post to Melissa, my friend and I were texting during the show and he groaned that there was some "Men are from Mars" content there. There were a few mildly redeeming moments regarding that dynamic, but I thought that conversation was as cringe-worthy as relationship material on television gets.

Now I remember the corresponding bit: the father character was saying that his wife was clinging to impractical things like photo albums instead of putting together clothes and gear, but later in the episode, he's sitting and crying over photos.

I think it's a heavy-handed "men emote differently, yet as complexly, as women" point they were going for, but it was dickish.

the only question that matters is are they believable as characters. it's a tv show, not a sermon from deep into our future utopia.

the only question that matters is whether or not I care if he gets eaten by a zombie.

speak for yourself.

None of the characters really make me want to cheer them on, tbh

not fussed in 'emotional investment' if 'larger themes' about 'the human condition' are tackled.

also gore :D

I just want a tv show about zombies to be a tv show about zombies. I dont want it to be Beckett. (Though that would be cool if it was)

x-post "Return of the Living Dead" was kind of deconstructive, in that it takes place in a universe where the characters have seen "Night of the Living Dead" and sort of know the drill, except that the "real" zombies deviate from said "fictional" account of a real zombie outbreak. But zombie flicks I suppose aren't ultimately that different from superhero flicks and their redundant origin myths. None of these things ever "end," per se, so the movies inevitably focus on the beginning.

Be funny if there were a show/movie that started out almost entirely from the zombie perspective, and just went on for, like, an hour before the scared and scarred survivors made an appearance.

I just want to watch characters that I don't want to die try not to die.

sometimes watching characters you want to die think they aren't going to die, but then die, is more fun

maybe the main character will become more likable in the next few episodes

Maybe he gets hip to bell hooks.

Be funny if there were a show/movie that started out almost entirely from the zombie perspective, and just went on for, like, an hour before the scared and scarred survivors made an appearance.

― Josh in Chicago, Monday, November 1, 2010 5:50 PM (54 minutes ago)

hey, I was just thinking the same thing after talking about zombies in the 1977 horror poll! a zombie movie completely from a zombie's POV.

Funny you should mention it.

So what’s the movie about? It’s about a regular joe named Colin (Alastair Kirton) who, at the start of the movie, has just received a zombie bite. He wards off his already-zombified roommate (Leigh Crocombe) and descends into zombiehood overnight. By morning, he’s a stiff and shuffling corpse, emptied of all but the most rudimentary intelligence, and he goes out wandering aimlessly.

prejudging prejudices itt

Aside from the special effects this completely sucks. Horrible acting, characters you couldn't possibly give a shit about... it felt like a bad Stephen King adaptation mini-series. Having read and hated a few of the books I can only assume it's going to get ever more corny, melodramatic and godawful.

The zombie genre's kind of ripe for a self-aware deconstruction, which we've never really seen before.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, November 1, 2010 8:34 PM (1 hour ago)

Shaun Of The Dead does this wonderfully.

ya i just watched shaun of the dead last night and then this... and tho it's not fair to compare, one thing "shaun" did really well was fuckin' around with the cinematic action/horror movie tropes/ideas/expectations. like way more than you'd expect any comedy to do. this show, from a 'cinematic' point of view is totally fuckin' dead in the water, with the one notable exception of that very nice and creepy crawling in the grass scene. like every time you see zombies en masse it's all oooh shakey cam... and that fuckin' blurry slow-mo when the gun goes off in the tank... or when he's about to shoot himself and then notices the open hatch, that didn't play AT ALL... it just felt super-super-TV

hatch/gun bit didn't play, you're right. didn't think there was much super-shakey cam though.

I didn't notice shaky cam either, and that's usually a big peeve of mine.

I don't see the problem with it being "tv" though?

i just mean it reminds of cheap vancouvery crappy syndicated sci-fi shows

shakey mo camollier was most evident in "POV in hospital bed" scene and "gunshot in tank" scene. but also all the shots of the crowds of zombies were very hand-held "freaky" style which i find lame