TWD TV SHOW--Offical Discussion Thread 4 4

[BigLeagueCHEW]

i tivo'd the first episode, but the reviews have been so horrible i haven't even bothered to watch yet. not sure if i want to now.

 

Don't pay so much attention to the reviews whether good or bad. Watch it and judge for yourself. The show rocks IMO.

 

This!

 

Even my wife likes it, and she's not at all into zombie movies.

 

Same here, I like it, she likes it,

[crnbrd]

I feel like everyone I've talked about it to thinks it is 'just some stupid zombie tv show'. They don't realize how much it has to do with the characters. Tonight's episode was a perfect example due to the fact that there were hardly any zombies in the episode until the very end. I think I even have my mom coming around.

[MagnetoWasRight]

Its ashame that people can't take the time to really look into something. Zombies are the backdrop...they sit in the background where they belong for a reason.

 

IMHO, this story is about humanity, and how it all goes to when structure and order are removed...how people deal with tragedy and loss and change as the world they know around them disappears. The show isn't about zombies...its about basic human survival.

 

I think its one of the reasons why the comic book is done in black and white...no color allows the reader to focus on the story and characters, not the blood and guts of it all. Anyone who takes the time to truly grasp this will love what Kirkman and his crew are doing. I LOVED the fact that we didn't see a zombie in this episode until right at the end...that makes me feel like the show is heading in the same direction as the comic...not about zombies, about human struggle and survival.

 

I enjoyed episode 2 a lot.

[BigLeagueCHEW]

Its ashame that people can't take the time to really look into something. Zombies are the backdrop...they sit in the background where they belong for a reason.

 

IMHO, this story is about humanity, and how it all goes to when structure and order are removed...how people deal with tragedy and loss and change as the world they know around them disappears. The show isn't about zombies...its about basic human survival.

 

I think its one of the reasons why the comic book is done in black and white...no color allows the reader to focus on the story and characters, not the blood and guts of it all. Anyone who takes the time to truly grasp this will love what Kirkman and his crew are doing. I LOVED the fact that we didn't see a zombie in this episode until right at the end...that makes me feel like the show is heading in the same direction as the comic...not about zombies, about human struggle and survival.

 

I enjoyed episode 2 a lot.

 

well said (nods)

[Darkmind]

Just started watching it now.

 

 

 

Really like the guy they picked to play Hershel.

[Darkmind]

Maggie is nice and cute.

[Darkmind]

I feel like they are spending to much time on this carl deal, but there may be a reason that I don't know about yet.

[Darkmind]

And WTF is with Andrea???? They better be building her up to be a badass!

[Darkmind]

Damnit, I hate when they end like that!

[USArmyParatrooper]

I feel like they are spending to much time on this carl deal, but there may be a reason that I don't know about yet.

 

I'm betting he is revived in the next episode, but by the time they find that girl they have to hit her over the head - and it's all dramatic and emotional.

[USArmyParatrooper]

Its ashame that people can't take the time to really look into something. Zombies are the backdrop...they sit in the background where they belong for a reason.

 

IMHO, this story is about humanity, and how it all goes to when structure and order are removed...how people deal with tragedy and loss and change as the world they know around them disappears. The show isn't about zombies...its about basic human survival.

 

I think its one of the reasons why the comic book is done in black and white...no color allows the reader to focus on the story and characters, not the blood and guts of it all. Anyone who takes the time to truly grasp this will love what Kirkman and his crew are doing. I LOVED the fact that we didn't see a zombie in this episode until right at the end...that makes me feel like the show is heading in the same direction as the comic...not about zombies, about human struggle and survival.

 

I enjoyed episode 2 a lot.

 

Well said.

 

They do a really good job portraying humanity. Like Rick's best friend, for example. He's not (all bad). He's done some bad things, even thought about whacking Rick. But he's also really being there for him in his time of need, and risking his life to extremes trying to save Carl.

 

Hero or villain? He's neither, and both. He could be chocked up to being a generally good guy who's been pushed over the edge by the world falling apart.

[comix4fun]

Its ashame that people can't take the time to really look into something. Zombies are the backdrop...they sit in the background where they belong for a reason.

 

IMHO, this story is about humanity, and how it all goes to when structure and order are removed...how people deal with tragedy and loss and change as the world they know around them disappears. The show isn't about zombies...its about basic human survival.

 

I think its one of the reasons why the comic book is done in black and white...no color allows the reader to focus on the story and characters, not the blood and guts of it all. Anyone who takes the time to truly grasp this will love what Kirkman and his crew are doing. I LOVED the fact that we didn't see a zombie in this episode until right at the end...that makes me feel like the show is heading in the same direction as the comic...not about zombies, about human struggle and survival.

 

I enjoyed episode 2 a lot.

 

Well said.

 

They do a really good job portraying humanity. Like Rick's best friend, for example. He's not (all bad). He's done some bad things, even thought about whacking Rick. But he's also really being there for him in his time of need, and risking his life to extremes trying to save Carl.

 

Hero or villain? He's neither, and both. He could be chocked up to being a generally good guy who's been pushed over the edge by the world falling apart.

 

 

True, or Shane's utterly wracked by guilt to the point of doing something this crazy to atone for it.

 

Amazing that Daryl is the moral/heroic center. If this were a Stephen King novel, he'd be the first to go.

[Baron]

I feel like they are spending to much time on this carl deal, but there may be a reason that I don't know about yet.

 

I'm betting he is revived in the next episode, but by the time they find that girl they have to hit her over the head - and it's all dramatic and emotional.

 

I can't believe they're stretching the missing Sophia girl for at least 3 episodes now. Now both kids are in dire circumstances. Guess it's not too hot to be a pre-teen on the WTD show (or a baby, per the scene of the bloody car seat...ack)!

[comix4fun]

I feel like they are spending to much time on this carl deal, but there may be a reason that I don't know about yet.

 

I'm betting he is revived in the next episode, but by the time they find that girl they have to hit her over the head - and it's all dramatic and emotional.

 

I can't believe they're stretching the missing Sophia girl for at least 3 episodes now. Now both kids are in dire circumstances. Guess it's not too hot to be a pre-teen on the WTD show (or a baby, per the scene of the bloody car seat...ack)!

 

 

And it will depend on how close to the book the show stays when they get to the prison.

[wolverinehurdler]

I really hope they resolve the whole Shane thing soon...I do hope they go into the development where theres a ridic amount of zombies. That was one of my fav parts in the comics

[FlyingDonut]

From Grantland. I agree 100%.

 

Some might argue that the great gift cable television has given storytellers is the lack of limits: Freed from network standards and practices, showrunners are free to lard their adult-themed hours with rivers of blood, rails of crystal meth, and, when all else fails, some totally non-gratuitous sexposition. I would argue the reverse to be true: It’s the limits that have made the shows better, specifically, the limited number of episodes. The foreknowledge that any given season is going to consist of a set number of hours and that all of them will air, even if literally no one is watching (I see you, Lights Out! I mean, I didn’t watch you, but I see you), allows writers and producers to take the time to consider their craft. If done correctly, every season can have a stated purpose and a beginning, middle, and end. It was a lesson that extended past the premium channels with Lost: By the third season the characters were running in circles, creatively and literally. When they were given an end date, they were also given a destination. (That the destination was a hug-filled heaven is infuriating but irrelevant.)

 

And so it was particularly disheartening to see The Walking Dead get Lost so quickly in its sophomore season. After a bold and body-filled premiere, the second episode remains, quite literally, stuck in traffic: a ponderous, weepy depressing of the pause button while characters are broken up into manageable groups and big-picture plotting is ignored in favor of the present crisis. Of course, the present crisis is a big one: After a flashback detailing Lori’s muted reaction to news of her husband being shot (Really? No interest at all in where he was shot?), we cut to Rick’s desperate run across a meadow carrying his equally shot son, Carl. Fortunately for Carl, he’s the beneficiary of some serious TV Luck: First, the bullet was slowed down considerably as it passed through its true target, the giant buck. Second, on the other side of the woods is a safe destination, what appears to be Colonel Angus’s mansion, only the good colonel is now a kindly cornpone doctor. Soon Carl is being tended to by a bevy of hot sister-nurses and Rick is being pumped for both his (conveniently!) matching blood-type blood and the roiling emotions Lori once felt he kept buried. No longer!

 

The pitiable sight of poor Carl in agony, being harvested for bullet fragments, is much harder to watch than any supporting player being snacked on by a hundred undead extras. Rick and Sugar Shane share some extremely intense feelings with one another, sweating into each other’s necks about responsibility and whether all of this has just been a “sick joke.” (The other people in the room, presumably, quietly look away or pretend to play Angry Birds on their non-functioning iPhones.) Eventually, a plan is hatched: One of the Sister Nurses will ride a horse into the woods to find Lori (sure) while Shane and Otis, the portly farmhand who accidentally plugged Carl (played by the dependably excellent Pruitt Taylor Vince), will venture off to the local school in search of some operating equipment. Otis’s farewell — with the wifely weeping and the promises of returning Rick’s gun to him — was almost Kenny-esque in its foreshadowing. The big lug might as well bring along a roasting spit and carry an apple in his mouth for flavoring.

 

Meanwhile, a whole lot of other stuff doesn’t happen. Back on the highway, Dale notices two important developments: one, T-Dog is in very rough shape due to an infection in his badly sliced-up arm. Two, T-Dog’s name is T-Dog. I was certain it was T-Bone! This is both a very embarrassing gaffe on my part and kind of a larger indictment of the show and how little time it’s spent characterizing its one African-American member. And, for the briefest of moments, it seems like T-Dog might be the slightest bit self-aware: “I’m the last black guy,” he fumes. “You know how precarious that makes my situation?” Yes, we do, T-Dog! Does this mean you’ve actually seen movies before — perhaps even one with zombies in it? That there could be the slightest wink of meta-consciousness at work? But, no. The Ol’ Dog just means that everyone else remaining is a nominally racist cracker. It’s just a fever, folks! Nothing insightful to see here.

 

Out in the woods, the rest of the gang wander aimlessly in search of Sophia but soon worry for Rick and Carl takes over because, after all, they are the main characters. Leave it to Daryl to be the voice of optimism, telling Carol point-blank “we’re gonna locate that little girl. Am I the only one Zen around here? Good lord!” Wait a second ... despicable bad boy with a thing for showing his arms suddenly transforming into a bad- quip machine with a heart (and mane) of gold? Somebody stop him! He’s Sawyering too soon!

 

Still, the nature walk does provide the hour’s one truly haunting moment when Andrea, separated briefly from the group, continues a one-sided conversation with someone walking alongside her. Someone who is no longer alive. But one gasp isn’t enough to allay the overall concerns: Eventually the show is going to run out of cool ways to do gross things and an overall point or goal — be it geographic or metaphorical — will have to emerge. Because a successful season of television can’t be paced like a video game — running blandly from crisis to crisis, from boss level to boss level. Shane and Otis’s suicide medical run at the end of the episode was gripping but bloodless: There’s an objective, an obstacle, and some bad odds. The effect is like watching someone else play Resident Evil. At a certain point The Walking Dead is going to have to start heading toward something instead of always running away.

[USArmyParatrooper]

A wonderfully observant critique! Still, he left out a final verdict. Two and a half stars? Thumbs up?

 

All in all I still found it very enjoyable, if imperfect.

[N/A]

From Grantland. I agree 100%.

 

Some might argue that the great gift cable television has given storytellers is the lack of limits: Freed from network standards and practices, showrunners are free to lard their adult-themed hours with rivers of blood, rails of crystal meth, and, when all else fails, some totally non-gratuitous sexposition. I would argue the reverse to be true: It’s the limits that have made the shows better, specifically, the limited number of episodes. The foreknowledge that any given season is going to consist of a set number of hours and that all of them will air, even if literally no one is watching (I see you, Lights Out! I mean, I didn’t watch you, but I see you), allows writers and producers to take the time to consider their craft. If done correctly, every season can have a stated purpose and a beginning, middle, and end. It was a lesson that extended past the premium channels with Lost: By the third season the characters were running in circles, creatively and literally. When they were given an end date, they were also given a destination. (That the destination was a hug-filled heaven is infuriating but irrelevant.)

 

And so it was particularly disheartening to see The Walking Dead get Lost so quickly in its sophomore season. After a bold and body-filled premiere, the second episode remains, quite literally, stuck in traffic: a ponderous, weepy depressing of the pause button while characters are broken up into manageable groups and big-picture plotting is ignored in favor of the present crisis. Of course, the present crisis is a big one: After a flashback detailing Lori’s muted reaction to news of her husband being shot (Really? No interest at all in where he was shot?), we cut to Rick’s desperate run across a meadow carrying his equally shot son, Carl. Fortunately for Carl, he’s the beneficiary of some serious TV Luck: First, the bullet was slowed down considerably as it passed through its true target, the giant buck. Second, on the other side of the woods is a safe destination, what appears to be Colonel Angus’s mansion, only the good colonel is now a kindly cornpone doctor. Soon Carl is being tended to by a bevy of hot sister-nurses and Rick is being pumped for both his (conveniently!) matching blood-type blood and the roiling emotions Lori once felt he kept buried. No longer!

 

The pitiable sight of poor Carl in agony, being harvested for bullet fragments, is much harder to watch than any supporting player being snacked on by a hundred undead extras. Rick and Sugar Shane share some extremely intense feelings with one another, sweating into each other’s necks about responsibility and whether all of this has just been a “sick joke.” (The other people in the room, presumably, quietly look away or pretend to play Angry Birds on their non-functioning iPhones.) Eventually, a plan is hatched: One of the Sister Nurses will ride a horse into the woods to find Lori (sure) while Shane and Otis, the portly farmhand who accidentally plugged Carl (played by the dependably excellent Pruitt Taylor Vince), will venture off to the local school in search of some operating equipment. Otis’s farewell — with the wifely weeping and the promises of returning Rick’s gun to him — was almost Kenny-esque in its foreshadowing. The big lug might as well bring along a roasting spit and carry an apple in his mouth for flavoring.

 

Meanwhile, a whole lot of other stuff doesn’t happen. Back on the highway, Dale notices two important developments: one, T-Dog is in very rough shape due to an infection in his badly sliced-up arm. Two, T-Dog’s name is T-Dog. I was certain it was T-Bone! This is both a very embarrassing gaffe on my part and kind of a larger indictment of the show and how little time it’s spent characterizing its one African-American member. And, for the briefest of moments, it seems like T-Dog might be the slightest bit self-aware: “I’m the last black guy,” he fumes. “You know how precarious that makes my situation?” Yes, we do, T-Dog! Does this mean you’ve actually seen movies before — perhaps even one with zombies in it? That there could be the slightest wink of meta-consciousness at work? But, no. The Ol’ Dog just means that everyone else remaining is a nominally racist cracker. It’s just a fever, folks! Nothing insightful to see here.

 

Out in the woods, the rest of the gang wander aimlessly in search of Sophia but soon worry for Rick and Carl takes over because, after all, they are the main characters. Leave it to Daryl to be the voice of optimism, telling Carol point-blank “we’re gonna locate that little girl. Am I the only one Zen around here? Good lord!” Wait a second ... despicable bad boy with a thing for showing his arms suddenly transforming into a bad- quip machine with a heart (and mane) of gold? Somebody stop him! He’s Sawyering too soon!

 

Still, the nature walk does provide the hour’s one truly haunting moment when Andrea, separated briefly from the group, continues a one-sided conversation with someone walking alongside her. Someone who is no longer alive. But one gasp isn’t enough to allay the overall concerns: Eventually the show is going to run out of cool ways to do gross things and an overall point or goal — be it geographic or metaphorical — will have to emerge. Because a successful season of television can’t be paced like a video game — running blandly from crisis to crisis, from boss level to boss level. Shane and Otis’s suicide medical run at the end of the episode was gripping but bloodless: There’s an objective, an obstacle, and some bad odds. The effect is like watching someone else play Resident Evil. At a certain point The Walking Dead is going to have to start heading toward something instead of always running away.

 

So do you just agree with the statement in bold? If so I would agree that the challenge of the show and the comic is to maintain the drama without needing to head toward something.

 

Other then that this critique seems like it's written by someone who read the plot summary rather than watched the show. He critiques the use of common dramatical elements and tools while condemning the show for attempting new unexplored areas.

 

He essentially talks himself in a circle all while maintaining a general dislike for the show. If this is his standard format I'm not quite sure why he's employed for this (assuming he is)

[comix4fun]

From Grantland. I agree 100%.

 

It's funny, even if high on the snark-per-line quotient.

 

But it reads like someone who hasn't seen the last season or the first Ep. of his season.

 

 

 

After a flashback detailing Lori’s muted reaction to news of her husband being shot (Really? No interest at all in where he was shot?),

 

 

I didn't have a problem with this. She asked "is he alive?" and got an answer of "he's in surgery.", and that he was shot....at that point she's got the best information outta Shane she's gonna get.

 

What's the reviewer hoping for here? That Lori is going to get a "Gray's Anatomy" diagnosis? "Well, Lori, ya see...he done been shot in tha Gizzard."

 

 

Rick is being pumped for both his (conveniently!) matching blood-type blood

 

The odds are amazingly high that father and child will share blood type, especially if the Mother is O. Then the child will carry whatever the father's type is.

 

 

Eventually the show is going to run out of cool ways to do gross things and an overall point or goal — be it geographic or metaphorical — will have to emerge. Because a successful season of television can’t be paced like a video game — running blandly from crisis to crisis, from boss level to boss level. Shane and Otis’s suicide medical run at the end of the episode was gripping but bloodless: There’s an objective, an obstacle, and some bad odds. The effect is like watching someone else play Resident Evil. At a certain point The Walking Dead is going to have to start heading toward something instead of always running away.

 

 

Wasn't it the first five minutes of the first episode that they said they were heading to Fort Benning?

[FIREFLY]

And WTF is with Andrea???? They better be building her up to be a badass!

 

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing, but it rocks how they are building her up. Eventually, she will get over the fact that she's in the suck and snap into her character. I'm waiting for it since she's my favorite character besides Rick. Great build up. (thumbs u