Perving on Keira Knightley
― That is the stench of tyranny (VegemiteGrrrl), Tuesday, 2 November 2010 01:43 (thirteen years ago) link
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.
― babytown frolics (Mr. Hal Jam), Tuesday, 2 November 2010 01:56 (thirteen years ago) link
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.
― No Good, Scrunty-Looking, Narf Herder (Gukbe), Tuesday, 2 November 2010 02:01 (thirteen years ago) link
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
― circa1916, Tuesday, 2 November 2010 02:02 (thirteen years ago) link
this was only really interesting when no1 was talking
― Lamp, Tuesday, 2 November 2010 02:02 (thirteen years ago) link
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.
― bows don't kill people, arrows do (Jordan), Tuesday, 2 November 2010 02:03 (thirteen years ago) link
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.
― babytown frolics (Mr. Hal Jam), Tuesday, 2 November 2010 02:08 (thirteen years ago) link
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.
― boots get knocked from here to czechoslovakier (milo z), Tuesday, 2 November 2010 02:15 (thirteen years ago) link
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.
― No Good, Scrunty-Looking, Narf Herder (Gukbe), Tuesday, 2 November 2010 02:21 (thirteen years ago) link
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.
― babytown frolics (Mr. Hal Jam), Tuesday, 2 November 2010 02:28 (thirteen years ago) link
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.
― No Good, Scrunty-Looking, Narf Herder (Gukbe), Tuesday, 2 November 2010 02:35 (thirteen years ago) link
bb first ep was amazing
― candid gamera (s1ocki), Tuesday, 2 November 2010 02:36 (thirteen years ago) link
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.
― circa1916, Tuesday, 2 November 2010 02:43 (thirteen years ago) link
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.
― Melissa W, Tuesday, 2 November 2010 03:00 (thirteen years ago) link
Rick could have said all that shit he said about his wife without tarring half the human race with the same brush, I mean.
― Melissa W, Tuesday, 2 November 2010 03:02 (thirteen years ago) link
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.
― No Good, Scrunty-Looking, Narf Herder (Gukbe), Tuesday, 2 November 2010 03:11 (thirteen years ago) link
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?
― Simon H., Tuesday, 2 November 2010 03:13 (thirteen years ago) link
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.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 2 November 2010 03:14 (thirteen years ago) link
I don't think it's coded misogyny or anything.
Wasn't arguing that there was anything coded about it.
― Melissa W, Tuesday, 2 November 2010 03:16 (thirteen years ago) link
ok then there's nothing overtly misogynist about it.
― No Good, Scrunty-Looking, Narf Herder (Gukbe), Tuesday, 2 November 2010 03:18 (thirteen years ago) link
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.)
― phantoms from a world gone by speak again the immortal tale: (Jenny), Tuesday, 2 November 2010 03:24 (thirteen years ago) link
Extremely well-done, for what it is. What it is is a comic book.
― kenan, Tuesday, 2 November 2010 03:29 (thirteen years ago) link
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.
― kenan, Tuesday, 2 November 2010 03:36 (thirteen years ago) link
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.
― Hatch, Tuesday, 2 November 2010 03:41 (thirteen years ago) link
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.
― kenan, Tuesday, 2 November 2010 03:44 (thirteen years ago) link
Plus, I have come to expect a bit of material that offends even me from comics.
― kenan, Tuesday, 2 November 2010 03:45 (thirteen years ago) link
UN report declares a quarter of the worlds women never, ever put out the dung fire.
― Kerm, Tuesday, 2 November 2010 03:47 (thirteen years ago) link
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
― mr. mandelbrot flythrough vertigo, esq. (Edward III), Tuesday, 2 November 2010 03:50 (thirteen years ago) link
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.
― kenan, Tuesday, 2 November 2010 03:51 (thirteen years ago) link
Yay! Yes! this! ^^^^
― That is the stench of tyranny (VegemiteGrrrl), Tuesday, 2 November 2010 03:52 (thirteen years ago) link
agree the effects are awesome
here's a time lapse of bicycle girl getting done up
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa0tRQ2Q0Wk
― mr. mandelbrot flythrough vertigo, esq. (Edward III), Tuesday, 2 November 2010 03:54 (thirteen years ago) link
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??
― candid gamera (s1ocki), Tuesday, 2 November 2010 03:56 (thirteen years ago) link
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
― candid gamera (s1ocki), Tuesday, 2 November 2010 03:57 (thirteen years ago) link
Whoa, that video was coooool. Props to that chick, all that makeup & latex & sitting around for hours, crikey. <3 Nicotero for all time.
― That is the stench of tyranny (VegemiteGrrrl), Tuesday, 2 November 2010 04:04 (thirteen years ago) link
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?
― boots get knocked from here to czechoslovakier (milo z), Tuesday, 2 November 2010 04:29 (thirteen years ago) link
Careful not to spoil, plz.
― kenan, Tuesday, 2 November 2010 05:09 (thirteen years ago) link
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.
― O holy ruler of ILF (a hoy hoy), Tuesday, 2 November 2010 05:16 (thirteen years ago) link
also we're only one episode in. and we've had to establish the basic outline as well as the zombie world. accent isn't great though.
― No Good, Scrunty-Looking, Narf Herder (Gukbe), Tuesday, 2 November 2010 05:17 (thirteen years ago) link
instead it was a 'eh, kinda ok i guess. will download the next couple episodes but if it doesn't hook me then after that i'll forget it ever existed' pilot.
― O holy ruler of ILF (a hoy hoy), Tuesday, 2 November 2010 05:17 (thirteen years ago) link
Yeah accent wasn't great.
of course i've heard such a wide variety of batshit ridiculous southern accents in my day that they don't really bother me. i remember everyone crowing about how bad Ewan MacGregor's was in Big Fish but I've met old guys that talk just like that so I'm pretty forgiving.
― No Good, Scrunty-Looking, Narf Herder (Gukbe), Tuesday, 2 November 2010 05:18 (thirteen years ago) link
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.
You could have a point. I think he's going to be fine in the long run, and the "ooooh crying men" bits of the pilot didn't work for anyone who tried them.
― kenan, Tuesday, 2 November 2010 05:19 (thirteen years ago) link
this season is only 6 episodes so I don't see the harm in seeing it through.
― No Good, Scrunty-Looking, Narf Herder (Gukbe), Tuesday, 2 November 2010 05:19 (thirteen years ago) link
oh ok, never knew it was british tv short, will stick with it.
― O holy ruler of ILF (a hoy hoy), Tuesday, 2 November 2010 05:20 (thirteen years ago) link
Visually, I thought the pilot was very well directed. Loved the way he could generate tension just by dollying behind a tree, just a little bit too slowly.
― kenan, Tuesday, 2 November 2010 05:22 (thirteen years ago) link
The scene where the sheriff zombie gets shot, and the camera is locked, from the headshot through him falling out of frame. Nice.
― That is the stench of tyranny (VegemiteGrrrl), Tuesday, 2 November 2010 05:26 (thirteen years ago) link
I loved the hands trying to grab onto the fence in that scene.
― No Good, Scrunty-Looking, Narf Herder (Gukbe), Tuesday, 2 November 2010 05:29 (thirteen years ago) link
Yes!
― That is the stench of tyranny (VegemiteGrrrl), Tuesday, 2 November 2010 05:31 (thirteen years ago) link
Some of the visual effects were cheesy/bad CGI - the back of zombies heads exploding, etc..
― boots get knocked from here to czechoslovakier (milo z), Tuesday, 2 November 2010 05:38 (thirteen years ago) link