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

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

I thought the first episode was cinematic *enough* to feel a little different to other current tv shows. How cinematic does it have to be? Is the zombie thing creating a heightened expectation, or Darabont, or what? I don't get how it could be so disappointing when it pretty much is what it says its going to be.
Not trying to be a shit-stirrer, just surprised by some of the reactions

i don't think it wasnt cinematic enough, i just think that it was not very well-directed from a cinematic point-of-view. i dont want pyrotechnics but the sorta cheap foursquareness of it was disappointing

also i didnt like the big emotional shooting his wife scene... we havent spent nearly enough time with these dudes to get away with such major melodramatics

also main dude is kinda boring & i fear for the show because of that. can't think of one good show where the lead didnt grap me from the first ep

I know what you mean about the main dude...but I think having super-awesome dude *and* zombies *and* end of the world, it could get a bit too Snake Plisskin. Normal dude trying to get his head around crazy problems is a good way to ease ppl into that world. Hopefully he'll start to embrace butt kicking & bring a bit more Raylan Givens to the party. But yeah, he's a bit robo-Sherriff right now.

ya i dont necc mean he's not BADASS enough - he's just not grabbing me as a screen presence nahmean?

^ exactly what I thought from the moment he was first onscreen. said to my gf something like "this isn't the lead is it? I don't want to hang out with this guy at all!"

he's a bit blank, yeah.

also i didnt think that first scene was indicative of like any wild sexism, just really boring character-building

the title might actually be a reference to the lead character

ayooooooooo

i hope when he meets his deputy buddy and finds the dude's boning his wife he's all 'hey it's cool i used to be into my best bro's wife so i know where you're at man'

Hahah

Perving on Keira Knightley

agreed. this was an okay first episode, but i enjoyed reading TWD more than watching it. i think truly innovative TV dramas like 'Breaking Bad' and 'Lone Star' (R.I.P.) have spoiled me for a show with such a conventional narrative style. TWD impressed me as more compelling than innovative, and the series seems to be following suit. i understand that it won't be following the book all that closely, so i'll probably keep tuning in to see if it develops into its own entity. as noted, the staging isn't much better than Garris' hackwork on any SK miniseries, but the sound design and FX work are quite impressive - for TV or otherwise.

how can you have already written this off after 1 episode? 1st ep of Breaking Bad wasn't that great, and Lone Star mostly just showed potential.

one thing i liked about this was how it generally refrained from super quick cuts and jerking the camera around, so i'm not really getting the TOO MUCH SHAKY CAM angle. they used it when guy was mobbed and his horse fell over, but that was kind of it. the camera is stationary in that hospital scene. i guess the 5 seconds of the camera swaying when guy fires his pistol in the tank kind of count, but it's not exactly used egregiously here.

xpsts

this was only really interesting when no1 was talking

we havent spent nearly enough time with these dudes to get away with such major melodramatics

this was my problem with the comic, unearned melodrama.

are you kidding?! Breaking Bad hit the ground running. so did Lone Star. in both cases, these shows grabbed me from the proverbial get-go and announced that they were something special. unfortunately, i can only imagine what would have become of LS, but BB has repaid that investment of good faith at least fifty-fold. with TWD, knowing Kirkman's book, i see all the same shortcomings, often amplified. the forced melodramatics, the languid/hectic pacing, the bland lead character. it's that much worse writ large (small?) on screen.

sort of a minor nit to pick, but after they've spent the entire episode shooting guns without ear protection, including a hunting rifle in a bedroom - only when he shoots the guy in the tank does it hurt him?
I'm fine with the movie convention of gunfire not hurting, but keep it consistent.

Breaking Bad had an alright first season, but it spent most of the time finding it's footing and feeling out what kind of show it wanted to be. First episode was fine but not amazing. It didn't really hit it's stride until season 2.

eh, maybe. but it didn't take two seasons for BB to establish itself as a true original. i'm less optimistic about TWD. believe me, i've read or watched every zombie/survival variant there is, and TWD does not do enough to break away from the very large pack. when it tries, as when the characters of Michonne and The General are introduced (and interact), it usually just comes off as juvenile.

I don't see anything in the pilot that makes me think that TWD will be one of the greats either, but I also didn't in the pilot of BB. This show is hampered by a genre, which means if it is better than 'what it is' it will take longer. Any decent pilot deserves at least 5 episodes imo.

bb first ep was amazing

sort of a minor nit to pick, but after they've spent the entire episode shooting guns without ear protection, including a hunting rifle in a bedroom - only when he shoots the guy in the tank does it hurt him?

i would think firing a weapon inside of a small metal box would amplify the sound significantly.

also i didnt think that first scene was indicative of like any wild sexism, just really boring character-building

It's rather more worrying if it wasn't meant to indicate sexism on the part of the character? If the writer just thought that was character-building, that's...troublesome. Rather have Rick and sidekick turn out to be card-carrying misogynists than have writers who think that that conversation was totally normal and not fucked up at all.

Rick could have said all that shit he said about his wife without tarring half the human race with the same brush, I mean.

I really think it's bad writing tbh. Deputy Dude tries bro down with his bud with classic "what's the deal with women and the lights, ya know?" chat and then Rick turns the previous joviality into a serious statement by using the clunky 'women/men divide' device. I don't think it's coded misogyny or anything.

main dude is kinda boring

Yeah I actually like this a lot but I have to agree. Really needed someone with a bit more character. Can we cancel Hung so Tom Jane can take it over?

I always though the dialogue of the books was pretty corny, in a 17-year old "heavy" sort of way. Immature is the wrong word for it, but it just doesn't feel terribly adult. So maybe the disconnect ports to the show?

x-post As savvy as "Shaun of the Dead" was, it was hardly a deconstruction of the genre. It was clever and fun from an audience perspective, yeah, but the characters live in a universe where apparently zombie movies and their tropes don't exist. That's cool, though. "Shaun of the Dead" is brilliant all the same.

Just finished "Dead Set" and thought it a pretty impressive recasting of the "Day of the Dead" scenario. Pretty viciously gory, too, and perhaps the only show/film of its kind to deal with the practicalities of where/when the characters will go to the bathroom. It's got fast, mean zombies, for those who care, but I didn't mind. The (inevitable?) pessimistic ending made me consider that "World War Z" may be the only zombiepocalypse story that actually sees the crisis through.

I don't think it's coded misogyny or anything.

Wasn't arguing that there was anything coded about it.

ok then there's nothing overtly misogynist about it.

also, Nick Frost does say "Zombies" in Shaun and then is quickly shushed and told not to use the "Z" word.