AMC's "The Walking Dead"

[Colly]

Ta, we get it Fridays so I'll look in here on weekends...

I got my girlfriend the compendium volume 1 for Christmas for quite a nice low price which is issues 1-48 it covers the whole Governor thing http://www.amazon.co.uk/Walking-Dead-Compendium-1/dp/1607060760/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1329780247&sr=1-1

Theres nothing quite as effective to put you off a book purchase than the most recent review starting 'it was a grate read'. I know comics are a completely legitimate literary and art medium, but plainly there's still people just looking at the pictures!

[Maxx]

So, as much as I love the show, I've realized what my problem with it is. There isn't a sense of danger, and if there is, I don't care enough about any of the characters for it to matter. I compare this to Sons of Anarchy, where I care about all those characters. I know they're not going to kill off Jax in a random midseason episode, and yet when he's in a dangerous situation, that disbelief gets suspended and it feels like it is possible, so the danger factor is that much more effective. Plus, again, I like all those characters and don't want to see something bad happen to them.

With Walking Dead, I never get the sense that the main characters are in any danger, which is sad, considering they live in a world filled with flesh eating undead monsters. The last episode was an improvement, certainly the most tension in an episode since the freeway scene, but it still doesn't feel like it's particularly dangerous. I can't tell if it's just because the directors aren't as good as building tension and suspense, or if it's just because I don't care about any of the characters. I like Glenn, I like Daryl and I like Shane. Everyone else either has an annoying character or hasn't been fleshed out enough to care about. I wouldn't mind at all if Rick and Lori died, which is sad, because I really like their characters in the comics. Then you've got Herschel's extended family(aside from Maggie), who haven't been fleshed out at all, and I already assumed they were just going to end up as zombie chow anyways. So if zombies overrun the farm, I'm not going to be worried about the main cast, because they've yet to kill off anyone with any relevancy, and there's plenty of background character appetizers for them to snack on instead.

I guess it's a bit of both, poor job creating a sense of danger, and that I'm not invested in the characters. It's becoming a show I watch because I like zombie movies, instead of one I watch to see what happens to the main characters. Which is okay, I guess, but I don't think that's what they've been shooting for.

[Lint]

Well, It hink part of it is because their shown on SoA that they aren't afraid to kill off a main character, so if any of them get put in a life or death situation, you actually believe they might kill them.

Sons of Anarchy spoiler

Piney, Half Sack, Kozik, and to a lesser extent Opies wife Donna, where well established characters that you felt an emotional connection with. I sat there almost speechless when Clay shot Piney.

Alot of the characters in Walking Dead that had been killed off, you knew next to nothing about. They had been treated more as secondary characters. Thats actually the reason I"m surprised T-Dog is still around. HE just seems like zombie fodder who will go at any time. The situations he's been in, its seemed like its less "Oh man, they might kill T-Dog" and more "Oh they've finally decided to kill him"

When Carl was shot, that was a "Holy shit" moment. You knew Carl, you knew Rick, you had an emotional attachment to them. When Jacqui died at the end of season one, it was just "Meh.."

[King.]

But I feel like that sort of thing needs to just be accepted with episodic dramas. CSI, NCIS, Law & Order, etc. The main characters get in to these dangerous situations, and in the back of your mind you can't help but always know they're going to get out in the end. It's the Superman effect. No matter how much kryptonite Lex Luther chained Superman up with, we just knew that Superman was going to escape some how. And in the comics, when Superman was finally killed (in one reality) it was a "holy shit" moment, because it meant that much more. Same thing with CSI, and the rest of the shows. Plus, we're now in an age where all the behind the scenes dealings are almost always public knowledge. The fans know who has signed on for more than a season, who's holding off, who's unhappy, etc. For instance, Andrew Lincoln signed on for something like five seasons of The Walking Dead, if it goes that long. Well, we know Rick isn't going anywhere for five seasons. Now The Walking Dead is a unique situation because it also has the source material readily available for public knowledge, the graphic novel.

Granted, Kirkman has said many times that he doesn't mind them straying from the source material while writing the show, and the TV writers love doing it. But think about how many story arcs we're already able to spoil for ourselves. There's no guarantee that they'll hit and follow each and every one of them, but it gives us a chalk-written timeline to follow.

To give you an example about the era we're living in, they spoke about on The Walking Dead how the finale (or last few episodes) of the season is going to contain...

A zombie attack, or some sort of attack on the farm, where several of the big characters are going to get killed. And because of the graphic novel, and just the relationship of characters to the show, we know it's not going to be Rick, Carl, Glen, Dale, Lori, or Andrea. We KNOW it won't be Daryl because we KNOW by all the interviews and news items that are readily available that they love his character, and Norman Reedus has signed on for more seasons. So now we're only left with Carol, T-Dog, and every member of the Greene family. Shane, if you've read the graphic novel, has one of the most important deaths in the story. So important, and so iconic with the series, that we know it's gotta be done that way on the TV show.

Season 3 is going to be the start of, in my opinion, everyone being "fair game".

[Benji]

The note about Rick not dying (spoiler about the comics within)...

... just because he's signed on for five seasons, doesn't mean he's not dying. Anyone could become delusional and start seeing him as a hallucination, just like he hallucinates stuff in the comic. Fuck, I'd love it if they killed him off and did a Dexter-esque use of him like Harry for Carl.

[Maxx]

Yeah, but what I'm saying is that the Superman effect isn't there for Walking Dead. It rarely ever enters my mind that the characters are actually in danger. Meanwhile, in something like Justified, they manage to get me to suspend disbelief and actually think for a second something bad might happen to the main character. Walking Dead just isn't achieving that for me.

[zero]

MAJOR book spoilers regarding deaths:

At this point in the comics, the only original members of the group that are left are Rick, Carl, Andrea, Glenn and Sophia... at least I think Sophia's an original member of the group. And Maggie's the only one left from the farm.

So with that in mind, I don't think they're going to hold back on killing people, but the show moves so much slower than the books, it would be a bit much to kill them off as fast. They don't want to veer into 24 or Rescue Me territory where they're killing off characters just for the sake of killing off characters.

[Kane's Mullet Slacker]

MAJOR book spoilers regarding deaths:

At this point in the comics, the only original members of the group that are left are Rick, Carl, Andrea, Glenn and Sophia... at least I think Sophia's an original member of the group. And Maggie's the only one left from the farm.

So with that in mind, I don't think they're going to hold back on killing people, but the show moves so much slower than the books, it would be a bit much to kill them off as fast. They don't want to veer into 24 or Rescue Me territory where they're killing off characters just for the sake of killing off characters.

Yes Sophia is part of the original Atlanta survivors. The big shocker of course was when he killed Lori AND the baby. I wonder if they'll go that route in the show. We'll just have to wait and see.

Edited February 22, 2012 by Don Ready Slacker

[Maxx]

But even if they do, I'm only going to care about one or two of the deaths, and that's the failing of the series.

[King.]

But even if they do, I'm only going to care about one or two of the deaths, and that's the failing of the series.

For you. I'd care. Series is doing just fine in my opinion.

[Maxx]

Yes, obviously it's for me. I started this little rant out by saying "This is why the show isn't working for me" I want to watch it because I want to care about the characters and what they're going through. Instead I'm watching it because yay zombies.

[Herr Matzat]

MAJOR book spoilers regarding deaths:

At this point in the comics, the only original members of the group that are left are Rick, Carl, Andrea, Glenn and Sophia... at least I think Sophia's an original member of the group. And Maggie's the only one left from the farm.

So with that in mind, I don't think they're going to hold back on killing people, but the show moves so much slower than the books, it would be a bit much to kill them off as fast. They don't want to veer into 24 or Rescue Me territory where they're killing off characters just for the sake of killing off characters.

Yes Sophia is part of the original Atlanta survivors. The big shocker of course was when he killed Lori AND the baby. I wonder if they'll go that route in the show. We'll just have to wait and see.

The problem is that Lauri is just terrible compared to the books. I actualy want to see her riped apart.

I like the compareison to SoA someone made above. Esp. the last Season of SoA was absolutely amazing and clearly shows you what TWD is missing on more than just one level. I am at a point were i am just watching it on the side as a habit born by my love of the comic book. If this was any unrelated show i would have long stoped watching it...

[AnnIQ Edison]

I think the lack of a sense of danger comes from them being on a farm. They have acres of land that had been previously cleaned out by Herschel's family and the only way they can find zombies is by purposefully going outside the farm's boundaries and looking for it (so to speak). I think once they leave the farm, the sense of danger will return.

[Herr Matzat]

Well, it´s the zombie apocalyps. It´s always about finding some place save. It´s just that in the comic...

...the survivers had to moved on a lot faster. There were no big subplots besides the barn and glen/Maggie AFAIR and Hershel kicked them of his land fairly fast. - Than later with the prison you had a much bigger sense of Danger because of the prisoners and the sheer size of the place.

Was the smal town they tried to settle in before or after they got to the farm?

[AnnIQ Edison]

Well, it´s the zombie apocalyps. It´s always about finding some place save. It´s just that in the comic...

...the survivers had to moved on a lot faster. There were no big subplots besides the barn and glen/Maggie AFAIR and Hershel kicked them of his land fairly fast. - Than later with the prison you had a much bigger sense of Danger because of the prisoners and the sheer size of the place.

Was the smal town they tried to settle in before or after they got to the farm?

I'm not 100% sure but I think it was before.

And also, obviously it moved faster. The show will probably have one place per season and that makes perfect sense.

[Summers]

Dunno if this has been mentioned. It revolves around someone from the show potentially being in Darabont's new TV Pilot. The person is still part of the show, so it's a possibly death spoiler, you'd imagine.

Well, Variety reveals that Jon Bernthal, who stars as Shane on The Walking Dead, is in "early conversations" with TNT to star in L.A. Noir, in the role of Joe Teague. Teague is an LA cop and the central character in the period piece, set in the 1940s an 50s. [L.A. Noir is based on the book of the same name, and not the video game LA Noire, though both share the same setting and time period.] Bernthal presumably had a long-term contract with The Walking Dead, so the only way he'd be available to star in another pilot (which of course could turn into an ongoing series) in a non-guest capacity is if his commitments to The Walking Dead were over. This potential spoiler is an unfortunate side effect of casting news for new TV projects – actors need to work after one role ends for them, after all. Last year, a similar scenario occurred when a certain lead actor from Game of Thrones signed onto a role in a new ABC pilot, before the first season of Game of Thrones had even finished airing. Variety stresses that discussions have only just begun between TNT and Bernthal and there is no certainty a deal will be finalized. But again, just the fact that Bernthal is having the talks at all make it difficult not to come to certain conclusions… The Walking Dead -- which is already renewed for Season 3 --- returns for the final six episodes of Season 2 on February 12th.

[Herr Matzat]

Dunno if this has been mentioned. It revolves around someone from the show potentially being in Darabont's new TV Pilot. The person is still part of the show, so it's a possibly death spoiler, you'd imagine.

Well, Variety reveals that Jon Bernthal, who stars as Shane on The Walking Dead, is in "early conversations" with TNT to star in L.A. Noir, in the role of Joe Teague. Teague is an LA cop and the central character in the period piece, set in the 1940s an 50s. [L.A. Noir is based on the book of the same name, and not the video game LA Noire, though both share the same setting and time period.] Bernthal presumably had a long-term contract with The Walking Dead, so the only way he'd be available to star in another pilot (which of course could turn into an ongoing series) in a non-guest capacity is if his commitments to The Walking Dead were over. This potential spoiler is an unfortunate side effect of casting news for new TV projects – actors need to work after one role ends for them, after all. Last year, a similar scenario occurred when a certain lead actor from Game of Thrones signed onto a role in a new ABC pilot, before the first season of Game of Thrones had even finished airing. Variety stresses that discussions have only just begun between TNT and Bernthal and there is no certainty a deal will be finalized. But again, just the fact that Bernthal is having the talks at all make it difficult not to come to certain conclusions… The Walking Dead -- which is already renewed for Season 3 --- returns for the final six episodes of Season 2 on February 12th.

Comic related opinion.

If you consider the buildup they have don on the TV Show and what happens in the comic you might think that Shane dies as a cliffhanger to this season (or he goes bonkers and gets killed in the season 3 premier)

On the other hand, twd is only filmed a small part each year. I bet it would be easy to fit another 10-15 Episode Show... if they have Shane bite it already they would not have been true to the plan to keep him around longer than in the comic.

Shane was killed before the group tried to settle in the neighbourhood. (so it was before Hershel) - Since this was cut he had only been alive one "arc" longer which in comic book terms would be only very few books.

I wonder how they will conclude the farm arc. Right now Hershel dos not seem more like he feels Rick was right, so no throwing out for the barn shooting?

I don´t know about the need to film in one location for a season. Something like the "neighbourhood" would feel a lot more like a good "one Episode only" Show than let´s say the episode "vatos". And being on the road seeking for shelter (and also failing while doing so, learning to be saver ect.) is an important part of the comic book.

Also, there is some new info on the Video game out. The website launched a week ago and there is some video talk about the game, the comic and other stuff.

http://www.telltalegames.com/walkingdead

[Johnny Latino Heat]

Possible spoilers regarding Season 3:

David Morrissey (State Of Play) has landed one of the most anticipated roles on AMC's The Walking Dead. The British actor is set to join the megahit zombie drama as a new series regular in Season 3, playing The Governor, a popular character from Robert Kirkman's graphic novel that serves as the basis for the AMC series. The Governor is the leader of Woodbury, a small settlement of survivors, and becomes the chief antagonist for The Walking Dead's lead Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and his group. Morrissey, repped by The Collective and Troika in the UK, recently wrapped Welcome to the Punch opposite James McAvoy and Mark Strong.

EDIT: Forgot to add source.

Edited February 24, 2012 by Johnny Latino Heat

[GoGo Yubari]

Not... what I was expecting, casting-wise.

[TKz]

Fucking awesome to hear that's where the story is going though. Hope they go to the Prison as well. Hopefully this also means two of the characters we haven't met yet will pop up.