The Walking Dead

I realize this is for "misc movies" and not TV shows but this seems to be the best match.

I've been a fan of The Walking Dead comic book for about a year now. Sometimes in life, a comic book will come along that's subjected to so much love, hype and adoration that it inevitably sucks. This is basically anything Geoff Johns ever wrote.

But other times? A comic book comes along with so much crazy praise going for it, you go in EXPECTING it to be an epic letdown... but when you finally read it, if anything you realize that it's somehow still underrated.

And that's basically what The Walking Dead is. No matter how good you've heard it is, it's better than that. Seriously now. How often can you say that about ANYthing in life? You know?

And I'm sorry but those are pretty effin' high expectations to lay on any adaptation of anything. Somehow, don't ask me, but somehow? The show delivers. Oh yeah, we've only had three episodes. And, to be sure, there have been a few deviations from the comics. But (A) they're nothing major and (B) said deviations are intended to be deepen the story or the characters. And so far, said deviations succeed wildly on those fronts.

More and more, I'm starting to think you're never going to top a fictional property in its native habitat. The best Superman movies (or shows) simply don't hold a candle to the best Superman comics. The best film adaptations (usually) don't stand up to the original novel (although Forrest Gump had nowhere to go but up). Audio books somehow just lose something when they're recorded. I can't imagine a Buffy movie (even if it brought the original cast back together) could ever match the Buffy show (the comic books thereof absofrigginlutely sure don't).

On and on and on.

Is The Walking Dead comic better? Well, yeah, but even so The Walking Dead TV series lives up to the comic book that inspired it. Even under the worst of occasions, it still adheres to the Hipocratic oath- do no damage.

Yes, it's still early in the game. Yes, anything could still derail The Walking Dead show (that's my prediction, actually; nothing gold can stay). But as it stands right now, it's a fine comic book adaptation that I place alongside the best we've had in any medium.

If you're not watching it, you SHOULD be. And you definitely need to pick up those Walking Dead trades.

I never read the series. But been watching the show. It seems pretty good. Solid cast, good acting. The zombies/gore is pretty neat. Glad its doing well for amc. And even though season one is only 6 episodes long. Season two will have 13.

I've watched all three episodes so far, and haven't been disappointed.

I actually picked up the first three graphic novels at a Barnes & Nobles a few years back, and they were VERY good. Just wish I knew where they were now... But still, it keeps the same "tone" as the books, and there is no denying that fact. Characters act like the characters in the books, zombies are zombies, and the biggest "threat" comes from within.

My ONLY complaint is the black guy in the group. He's not how he is in the book for the most part.

Other than that, they have me hooked.

As for this:

thec0l0rsblend wrote:I realize this is for "misc movies" and not TV shows but this seems to be the best match.

Just make a suggestion, and I'll change things.

Like I did here.

Tonights episode was pretty solid. So sad that one lady had to kill her sister that got turned. Also that one guy who was bitten being left so sad for him. The ending was pretty good too.

Most of episode 4 was pretty much original. The last act or two of episode 5 was likewise mostly original. I don't mind deviations from the comics... except when it becomes difficult to understand why they're doing it and where they hope to go with the plot and characters.

Apart from that, the episodes themselves are good. If I have a criticism at all of this series, it's that season 1 consists of only six episodes. If you're familiar at all with the comics, there's a moment coming soon that's a sort of natural season finale. But given the deviations that they've gone through up to now, I have to wonder how organically they can reach that point. Trying to avoid spoilers here but if you've read the first trade, you can probably guess the moment I'm talking about here. We'll see how it goes.

But, again, this is one of the best shows going on TV as far as I'm concerned.

It is a pretty good show. I guess the added stuff is to help stretch the show more so they dont use all the comics stuff to fast.

writing staff let go?:
http://tv.ign.com/articles/113/1137550p1.html

webhead2006 wrote:It is a pretty good show. I guess the added stuff is to help stretch the show more so they dont use all the comics stuff to fast.

His point was that there are ONLY six episodes. Not a lot of need for "padding".

webhead2006 wrote:writing staff let go?:
http://tv.ign.com/articles/113/1137550p1.html

I like his idea though. Cuts down on things becoming "stale", and is a template shows like Smallville would have benefited from.

Apologist Puncher wrote:I like his idea though. Cuts down on things becoming "stale", and is a template shows like Smallville would have benefited from.

It may work for The Walking Dead as Darabont and Kirkman both clearly want to be as hands-on as possible. But I don't think a similar approach would work for Smallville. In fact, I don't think a similar approach did work for Smallville, as this was the basic method back in season 1. If I've got my SV history right, they didn't have a dedicated writing staff back in those days. Instead, Al and Miles would do the rough draft of each episode and hand 'em off to a freelancer to refine. If memory serves, that's why that first season was so formulaic. After the second season greenlight came down the line, they went ahead and put together a pool of writers.

As it goes for The Walking Dead though, again, Kirkman and Darabont both seem in love with the material and Darabont clearly has a real vision for it. I don't see what harm this could possibly bring with Kirkman around to keep him honest.

thec0l0rsblend wrote:It may work for The Walking Dead as Darabont and Kirkman both clearly want to be as hands-on as possible. But I don't think a similar approach would work for Smallville. In fact, I don't think a similar approach did work for Smallville, as this was the basic method back in season 1. If I've got my SV history right, they didn't have a dedicated writing staff back in those days. Instead, Al and Miles would do the rough draft of each episode and hand 'em off to a freelancer to refine. If memory serves, that's why that first season was so formulaic. After the second season greenlight came down the line, they went ahead and put together a pool of writers.

As it goes for The Walking Dead though, again, Kirkman and Darabont both seem in love with the material and Darabont clearly has a real vision for it. I don't see what harm this could possibly bring with Kirkman around to keep him honest.

I don't know, Season 4 and 5 had some god-awful writing and episodes....

Well the season finale aired a little while ago. I thought it was pretty good. Lots of twits and drama in the episode. Very good directing and acting around. Sucks season two isn't likely to show up to late next yr.

Apologist Puncher wrote:I don't know, Season 4 and 5 had some god-awful writing and episodes....

True... and the writing staff wasn't too much different from what it had been up to that point. Season 4 was plagued with a piss poor story arc so naturally it'll have more lousy episodes and season 5, apart from Thirst and a few other odds and ends, didn't have a vastly higher ratio of bad to good episodes from the good seasons up to then.

As for The Walking Dead finale... meh. I dunno. I'm a comics guy. That's probably the worst kept secret around here. But if you've read the first hardcover collection/first 12 issues, you know there were two, arguably three, logical "finale moments" you could've chosen from. One in particular was established pretty clearly in Episode 05. Don't want to spoil anything for those who haven't read the stuff but read or reread the first twelve issues and you'll see what I mean.

You could argue that translating the comics to screen requires changes. But (A) I've never entirely bought that argument and (B) the change made in this case -- the ending of season 1 -- is an anti-climax, esp compared to three available finales the production could've chosen. As it stands, prolonging any of those conclusions until the end of season 2 is going to be a kinda tough sell. The entirety of Episode 06 is pretty much completely original and did not occur in the comics.

Worse, nothing major happened at the beginning of the episode, nothing major happened at the end of the episode and during the episode itself... nothing major happened. Nothing about this serves as a bookend for season 1. In fact, by my reading of the upcoming plot points (based upon the comics), you could've skipped pretty much everything that happened in episode 4, 5 and 6 and been none the worse for wear. They don't add up to anything big in the storyline and ultimately fulfill nothing.

A shame, really. Part of me thinks that Darabont may have made a big mistake in letting the writing staff go because he wrote Episode 6. As good as it is as a character piece and whatnot, sooner or later you've got to advance/cap the fucking plot, and he didn't. Didn't. Did not. We've had tons of "character moment" bullshit this season (half the fucking season, by my count) and we're not much further along now than we were at the end of episode 3.

Strange. On the one hand, I want to award high marks because of the wonderful performances from all the actors and the strong writing (based on its own merits). But on the other hand, I want to dock points for the non-climax climax we got. And on the, um, other hand, I want to dock even more points since three different (and obvious) conclusions from the 1st first trade were available at a moment's notice to use, and intentionally got ignored for a zombie version of the last few minutes of Outbreak.

MAJOR disappointment.

Was reading the other day producer gale hurd states the writing staff firing was bs.

thecolorsblend wrote:As for The Walking Dead finale... meh. I dunno. I'm a comics guy. That's probably the worst kept secret around here. But if you've read the first hardcover collection/first 12 issues, you know there were two, arguably three, logical "finale moments" you could've chosen from. One in particular was established pretty clearly in Episode 05. Don't want to spoil anything for those who haven't read the stuff but read or reread the first twelve issues and you'll see what I mean.

I actually thought they were going to end the season with the "big bang" from early in the story.

You could argue that translating the comics to screen requires changes. But (A) I've never entirely bought that argument and (B) the change made in this case -- the ending of season 1 -- is an anti-climax, esp compared to three available finales the production could've chosen. As it stands, prolonging any of those conclusions until the end of season 2 is going to be a kinda tough sell. The entirety of Episode 06 is pretty much completely original and did not occur in the comics.

It almost felt like a whole lot of nothing happened in the episode.

It definitely wasn't a BAD episode, but really, not what you look for in a season finale.

Apologist Puncher wrote:I actually thought they were going to end the season with the "big bang" from early in the story.

If I were a betting man, based on episode 5, I would've thought that's where things were going! But... well, obviously it never happened.

It definitely wasn't a BAD episode, but really, not what you look for in a season finale.

Seriously. I mean, you don't want to call it a "dud" exactly but... I dunno. Just felt like it was exposition for the REAL season finale.

A disappointment made all the more bitter by the fact that we've just less than a year until the season premiere.

thecolorsblend wrote:
If I were a betting man, based on episode 5, I would've thought that's where things were going! But... well, obviously it never happened.

Nope, it didn't.

Why not? I have NO idea.

Seriously. I mean, you don't want to call it a "dud" exactly but... I dunno. Just felt like it was exposition for the REAL season finale.

A disappointment made all the more bitter by the fact that we've just less than a year until the season premiere.

Yeah, if they had actually learned more than "The world is f*cked up", I would have thought it was better. But really, wasn't it obvious to them that things were screwed?

I certainly hope he is only JOKING:

WeMakeALotOfShitUp.com

MTV: Any other "The Walking Dead" news you want to drop for everyone looking forward to Season Two?

KIRKMAN: [Laughs] Actually, I feel bad because I didn't give you enough top-secret info for "The Walking Dead" Season Two... so here's an extra tidbit:

Spoiler:

MTV: You heard it here first, folks!

...

Seriously? There's NOBODY out there who can do better? Rob Liefeld is sincerely the best guy they can find for the job?

I hope, I pray, I BEG for this to be a joke.

http://www.amctv.com/the-walking-dead/videos/the-walking-dead-season-2-trailer-from-comic-con

A fairly long "trailer" for the second season. I'd embed here, I can't, don't have the code, blah blah blah.

thecolorsblend wrote:...

Seriously? There's NOBODY out there who can do better? Rob Liefeld is sincerely the best guy they can find for the job?

I hope, I pray, I BEG for this to be a joke.

I read in EW that 'The Governor" isn't even in Season 2, so we're safe....

Hopefully.

That's good news. A LOT of stuff happens before the Governor is even supposed to show up (some of which could've been addressed in season 1 but nooooooooooooooooooo).

Anyway. Looking forward to season 2.

thecolorsblend wrote:That's good news. A LOT of stuff happens before the Governor is even supposed to show up (some of which could've been addressed in season 1 but nooooooooooooooooooo).

TNT's 'Falling Skies' has decided to copy 'The Walking Dead's "formula", and it lost me.

Having said that....

Anyway. Looking forward to season 2.

I am too.

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/50567

I am – Hercules!!

Frank Darabont is stepping down as mastermind of AMC’s zombie series “The Walking Dead,” according to Deadline Hollywood.

It's unclear whether he'll continue to be actively involved in the series at all.

I have a really bad feeling about this.

Glen Mazzara, the "Shield" vet who was showrunner on the disastrous first season of Starz' "Crash" series, was hired as Darabont's second-in-command at the start of "Dead's" second season. Starz wisely replaced Mazzara with the infinitely more talented Ira Steven Behr for "Crash's" second season.

I recall Darabont's alarmed tone in a November email when he denied rumors that the second season would begin production February 2011. (Season-two filming actually began last month.)

A brilliant and experienced big-screen writer-director ("The Shawshank Redemption," "The Green Mile," "The Mist") but a first-time showrunner, he sounded plenty frazzled by the six first-season hours he wrote and/or rewrote -- and I wondered at the time how he was going to handle a 13-episode second season.

"Walking Dead" is by far AMC's most popular series ever.

Hmmmm....