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

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.

It turns out I have read the comic (when the show cut to the camp, I was like "Whoa, why is this so familiar?" Duh), and stopped after the first trade because I hated the way all the female characters were written.

So here's hoping somebody gets hip to bell hooks, though I'd settle for Camille Paglia, even. I just remember the book being really reactionary. (NB it's been four or five years since I read it.)

Extremely well-done, for what it is. What it is is a comic book.

And please let's not have the Mad Men argument again. I'm perfectly able to sympathize and even empathize with characters who are not perfect.

Well done... for a comic book?

If you're trying to say that comic books generally aren't done well, I assure you there are tons of them that are way way better than The Walking Dead.

Don't get me wrong. I know there's better, and that comics are a format and not a genre, and etc. But out of what tends to be adapted to moving pictures, this is on the top shelf, imo.

Plus, I have come to expect a bit of material that offends even me from comics.

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

UN report declares a quarter of the worlds women never, ever put out the dung fire.

I'm perfectly able to sympathize and even empathize with characters who are not perfect a bunch of wooden drips

these guys' biggest character flaw is terminal blanditude

I'm just saying, let's not go nuts focusing on the sexism. Not about this. It's mild at worst, and probably irrelevant altogether given the context.

Call me a cad, but I'm far more worried about the facts that: 1) the lead actor is not a very good actor, and 2) the violence and gore is some of the best I've ever seen, and easily the best I've ever seen on television.

Yay! Yes! this! ^^^^

agree the effects are awesome

here's a time lapse of bicycle girl getting done up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa0tRQ2Q0Wk

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.

i cannot even imagine how you would think this. how is that movie anything but an overt and joyful deconstruction of the genre? i mean if "shaun" doesn't qualify what does??

also i can't beleive an entire argument has evolved from that lame stand-up routine "women be like THIS and guys be like THIS" scene

Whoa, that video was coooool. Props to that chick, all that makeup & latex & sitting around for hours, crikey.
<3 Nicotero for all time.

Wasn't the comic book a little more oblique about wifey and best friend hooking up, revealing it further on, after he's in their camp?

Careful not to spoil, plz.

1) the lead actor is not a very good actor

fuck this! this guy has 20 years experience of being a terrific tv lead. problem is that its cunty ooooh crying men films frank darabont in charge. if they gave it to someone like marti noxon (of buffy/mad men fame) this would be AWESOME.