one of my most uncomfortable moments watching something was when the sister was bitten at the camp, and her sister (dont know the names) was just looking at her crying for what felt like forever. there were a couple moments like this where i felt like a scene went on too long. I wanted to either fast forward it or just give up. definitely way too much blah-blah-blah.
I never read the comic. I don't own a TV. I watched all 6 episodes back to back on my laptop.
I think the show is pretty damn fun actually.
- Cheesy B movie Zombies.
- Zombies look just about as good as any Romero movie.
- There are no major actors, but some pretty decent acting overall.
It overall feels like Zach Snyder's Dawn, but a little bit better done.
My only complaint: The Zombie mythology has already been established and embedded in American culture. They really aren't treading any new ground or being very original with it. However, I much prefer the tone of this over some bullshit like ZOMBIELAND or Left 4 dead.
After reading this thread, What the hell are you people expecting?
i read the comic book regularly (off a soulstrut recommendation a couple years back)
and i watched all the shows faithully.
im not a big tv viewer...i watched the wire, some sports here and there and thats it. so i cant really compare the quality of walking dead to other shows (and it wouldnt be fair to compare it to the wire)
i had some complaints, but overall...i liked it. my least favorite episode was the fifth, where they deal with the funerals and grieving. i agree that some of it was drawn out. but the comic and show arent really about zombies and hacking shit up....its just a human soap opera under extenuating circumstances. so in 6 episodes, they tried to delve in to character develpment more than action.
i think a lot of the acting was above grade for horror genre. Shane was great. the doc at the end was real good. Rick is fine by me. the two rednecks and TDog arent in the comic and i wsa skeptical about their early cliched racial unharmony scenes, but ive come around. especiall the two rednecks.
where is merle? is as good a cliffhanger as any. i'll be tuning in again next season.
keep in mind, im not one of those people that watches shit and puts on their siskel and ebert uderwear and starts bothering the people around them how its unrealistic, poorly cast or should have been done differently. im there to suspend disbelief and enjoy myself. any shortcomings, i let my imagination compensate for.
zombies are awesome!
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tripledouble said:
i had some complaints, but overall...i liked it. my least favorite episode was the fifth, where they deal with the funerals and grieving. i agree that some of it was drawn out. but the comic and show arent really about zombies and hacking shit up....its just a human soap opera under extenuating circumstances. so in 6 episodes, they tried to delve in to character develpment more than action.
This is pretty much my feeling as well, probably a common reaction amongst fans of the comic. I came in resigned that it wouldn't live up to the comic and it really doesn't. BUT, going back and re-reading the comic I realized that a word-for-word adaptation of the comic to screen would have been really bad as a motion picture, there's just too much dialog in the comic. I would have been happy if there was zombie mayhem in every episode, but then again putting demands for specific activities on a show will result in something as formulaic as the A-Team where you could set your watch by the plot points (Mr. T welding? it must be 43 minutes after the hour).
They started production of the show with a contract for only one season. This is probably the main reason why they rushed so much of the character development. Its been renewed for two more seasons i think, that means a lot more time to develop the story and bring the zombie carnage.
How many comics are there?
Is there book compilations available??
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badder_than_evil said:
How many comics are there?
Is there book compilations available??
I think they're up to issue 79 in the book, there's 13 6-issue Trade Paperback volumes covering up to issue 78 (Which is how I've been following the book) and then there's several compendia/omnibus/hardcover editions that have more issues per volume. Compendium One is a pretty satisfying arc covering the first 8 volumes of the Trade paperback for a reasonable price if you'd like to dip your toe into the series.
I enjoy this show. Zombies are always a plus. I liked the episodes where they went into downtown Atlanta the most. I don't mind the banter either when they're back at camp. Sometimes it goes slow, but there's usually a payoff later on.
They started production of the show with a contract for only one season. This is probably the main reason why they rushed so much of the character development. Its been renewed for two more seasons i think, that means a lot more time to develop the story and bring the zombie carnage.
but its also important to keep in mind that the book is hardly non stop zombie fest. theres a lot of dialogue and soap opera shit. i am into it and i think the book reads real well...but theres issues of the monthly with nary a zombie.
that said, the show made some new things up with the vatos and the trip to the cdc, but it hasnt got into hardly any of the solid gold plot lines from the book. some of the best characters havent popped up yet. so theres lot of room for improvement and i agree with what you said about them playing it for a 6 issue series...hopefully the longer runs will let them unfold plots better and dig into the real good shit
sorry, but this show kinda sucks. I've watched all 6 episodes, and I wanted to like it, but it's just not very good and seems to be getting worse with each episode. I liked the first couple well enough but it got more and more LOST-like with each episode and the finale in the CDC building was like one of those old episodes of Fantasy Island where they would try to get all serious/sci-fi and it would just be embarrassing. acting is weak, characters are dull and zombies are often scarce.
I haven't given up on it completely, it held my interest but it really wasn't doing much for me at all. it seemed like they took what appeared to be a revolutionary concept for a TV series and turned it into a standard network TV drama.
It definitely did drag in the last few episodes but I'm hoping season 2 comes back with a bang(and a bigger budget).
It is worth sticking with..
I haven't read the comics yet though...
billbradleyYou want BBQ sauce? Get the fuck out of my house. 2,914 Posts
sorry, but this show kinda sucks. I've watched all 6 episodes, and I wanted to like it, but it's just not very good and seems to be getting worse with each episode. I liked the first couple well enough but it got more and more LOST-like with each episode and the finale in the CDC building was like one of those old episodes of Fantasy Island where they would try to get all serious/sci-fi and it would just be embarrassing. acting is weak, characters are dull and zombies are often scarce.
I haven't given up on it completely, it held my interest but it really wasn't doing much for me at all. it seemed like they took what appeared to be a revolutionary concept for a TV series and turned it into a standard network TV drama.
Please to recommend some good zombie movies for a newbie...? Thanks!
i personally ride for either the Campy Zombie movies or the funny ones.
Shaun of the Dead is in my opinion, one of the best zombie movies i have ever seen. I also dug Zombieland that came out last year. Both have plenty of gore (which is a great thing in any zombie movie) but the humor makes it more digestible for me.
This thread reminds me of why I like to use message boards. In real life.. I don't know anyone who would ever take 5 minutes with me, and have a serious debate about a fucking zombie flick. I can't think of any other forms of communication or a better topic that deeply connects all the weirdos together.
example:
"ZOMBIES DON'T RUN!
I know it is absurd to debate the rules of a reality that does not exist, but this genuinely irks me. You cannot kill a vampire with an MDF stake; werewolves can't fly; zombies do not run. It's a misconception, a bastardisation that diminishes a classic movie monster. The best phantasmagoria uses reality to render the inconceivable conceivable. The speedy zombie seems implausible to me, even within the fantastic realm it inhabits. A biological agent, I'll buy. Some sort of super-virus? Sure, why not. But death? Death is a disability, not a superpower. It's hard to run with a cold, let alone the most debilitating malady of them all.
- Simon Pegg waxing poetic on the rules of Zombie"
I wholeheartedly agree.
- spidey
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SPlDEY said:
"ZOMBIES DON'T RUN!
I know it is absurd to debate the rules of a reality that does not exist, but this genuinely irks me. You cannot kill a vampire with an MDF stake; werewolves can't fly; zombies do not run. It's a misconception, a bastardisation that diminishes a classic movie monster. The best phantasmagoria uses reality to render the inconceivable conceivable. The speedy zombie seems implausible to me, even within the fantastic realm it inhabits. A biological agent, I'll buy. Some sort of super-virus? Sure, why not. But death? Death is a disability, not a superpower. It's hard to run with a cold, let alone the most debilitating malady of them all.
- Simon Pegg waxing poetic on the rules of Zombie"
I wholeheartedly agree.
- spidey
It's hard to argue with a statement as well crafted as Simon Pegg's. Particularly when it acknowledges the biggest objection to the Fast Zombie debate, that they are fictional characters and their capabilities are arbitrarily assigned. And while I mostly agree with the sentiment, I don't have strong reservations about fast zombies. It's a different flavor of monster mayhem than the Romero shambling zombie and I like both kinds. 28 Days Later is a very good Sci-Fi/Action flick, and the first ten minutes of the Dawn of the Dead remake are as entertaining as any 10 minutes in any zombie film (too bad the movie totally peters out). It should be pointed out that these two films are not the first to feature running zombies, the Return of the Living Dead from 1985 had fast ghouls and I'm sure there are more examples.
Actually, now that I'm at it there is one thing from Return of the Living Dead that bugs me way more than the fast zombie thing. I hate the whole Zombies prefer brains trope. First of all, I prefer that zombies are mindless ghouls intent on consuming the flesh of the living indiscriminately. Having a food preference makes the zombies seem too intentional. Second, I can actually believe a zombie can sprint a couple of steps before I'm willing to accept that they can talk. Moaning "Brrraaaiiiinnnnnnsssss" or anything else takes me out of the movie.
[/ ]
Actually, now that I'm at it there is one thing from Return of the Living Dead that bugs me way more than the fast zombie thing. I hate the whole Zombies prefer brains trope. First of all, I prefer that zombies are mindless ghouls intent on consuming the flesh of the living indiscriminately. Having a food preference makes the zombies seem too intentional. Second, I can actually believe a zombie can sprint a couple of steps before I'm willing to accept that they can talk. Moaning "Brrraaaiiiinnnnnnsssss" or anything else takes me out of the movie.
I agree, and so does George Romero:
Vanity fair: Zombies have a weird fixation with eating human flesh and brains. What is it about being undead that makes somebody so ravenous?
George Romero: First of all, why does everybody say that zombies eat brains?
Vanity fair: Because??? it???s true?
George Romero: I???ve never had a zombie eat a brain! I don???t know where that comes from. Who says zombies eat brains?
Vanity fair: I remember brains being a big zombie menu item in Return of the Living Dead back in the mid-80s, but I???m not sure if that???s where it started.
George Romero: Whenever I sign autographs, they always ask me, ???Write ???Eat Brains???!??? I don???t understand what that means. I???ve never had a zombie eat a brain. But it???s become this landmark thing.
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tripledouble said:
dont front
"Well Sue Dolkes, you rascal. I thought you were dead."
Please to recommend some good zombie movies for a newbie...? Thanks!
Big tits Zombie
Blindness (This is not a zombie movie, there are no zombies, but it's TOTALLY a zombie movie in TONE. It is my favorite zombi-"like" movie ever. You're not fooling me Meirelles)
Blue sunshine
City of the living dead
Dawn of the dead (GOAT)
Other Romero must sees: Night of the Living Dead (OG), Day of the Dead, Land of the Dead (Cheesy, but DENNIS HOPPER!!), You should skip that Zack snyder POS, and watch the Crazies remake instead, Return of the living dead (hilarious)
Dr. Satan y la magia negra
Fido
I walked with a zombie
Lifeforce (vague space vampire zombies)
Mangue Negro
Night of the creeps
no profanar el sue??o de los muertos (aka Don't Open the Window aka The Living Dead aka Weekend with the Dead aka
Let Sleeping Corpses Lie)
IMO most of the Japanses zombie movies pretty much suck. Versus is the only one really worth spending the time to watch.
Bam.
- diego
Wild Zero has about 20/30 mins of entertainment, the rest is a snooze. Like most Asian zombie movies, it promised much but failed to deliver. Tokyo Zombie is meant to be funny, but Japanese humour is just bizarre, so I got bored pretty quickly. Bio Zombie (1998), Junk (2000), Stacy (2001), ???Sars Wars??? (Thai 2004), The Girls Rebel Force of Competitive Swimmers (2007), ???Onechanbara??? (2008) were all pretty lame. Haven't seen Big Tits Zombie as I got tired of being let down by Asian zombie movies.
Wild Zero has about 20/30 mins of entertainment, the rest is a snooze. Like most Asian zombie movies, it promised much but failed to deliver. Tokyo Zombie is meant to be funny, but Japanese humour is just bizarre, so I got bored pretty quickly. Bio Zombie (1998), Junk (2000), Stacy (2001), ???Sars Wars??? (Thai 2004), The Girls Rebel Force of Competitive Swimmers (2007), ???Onechanbara??? (2008) were all pretty lame. Haven't seen Big Tits Zombie as I got tired of being let down by Asian zombie movies.
sorry, but this show kinda sucks. I've watched all 6 episodes, and I wanted to like it, but it's just not very good and seems to be getting worse with each episode. I liked the first couple well enough but it got more and more LOST-like with each episode and the finale in the CDC building was like one of those old episodes of Fantasy Island where they would try to get all serious/sci-fi and it would just be embarrassing. acting is weak, characters are dull and zombies are often scarce.
I haven't given up on it completely, it held my interest but it really wasn't doing much for me at all. it seemed like they took what appeared to be a revolutionary concept for a TV series and turned it into a standard network TV drama.
I wouldn???t go as far to say that it sucks - but I agree with all of your points. I just finished the series on DVD last night and this is my rant
Firstly weak characters and bad acting don???t really bother me in zombie films. I'm there for the zombies, the gore and the comedy - and this is what the series really lacked - especially in the final 3 episodes.
There are so many scenes where they are in highly populated areas, or ???hot zones??? and the zombies are few and far between. If they are some of the "last people left" why aren't their hungry zombies at every corner? Why can they just hop skip and jump around Atlanta and abandoned military faculties willy nilly while remaining relatively unharmed.
The CDC episode was a total waste. It felt way, way too early to be going into the "this is the end of man kind" shit.
If a group as poorly equipped and as rag tag as the group we are following has survived the way they have thus far, there should be loads more humans out an about in various forms. - Lone-wolves, roaming gangs, scared kids, ex-military psychos, good guys etc. Run-ins with these kind of people would be much more entertaining than the love triangle/ego farce that is happening between the three main characters. Its not a drama ??? don???t make it one.
Hopefully they have learned their lessons and the second season delivers on the gore, the fear and the comedy.
i know people like to be critics and of course to each his own, bu i wasnt mad at the series.
im a fan of the comic and its a faithful adaptation of the feel of the book. they deviate quite a bit with the story and characters...adding new elements like the CDC, the Rican old folks gang, the rednecks, TDog. but i thought the special effects left nothing to be desired and that the actng was pretty damn good for a horror thing.
so anyway...dont expect too much in the way of comedy or reduced human soap opera...thats what the book is all about. its basically, what would people do under extenuating circumstances. for real though, two of the best characters are yet to come onto the scene, one bad one good.
Comments
I wanted to like this show but it was pretty infuriating, for reasons already addressed in this thread.
more of this
less of this
I think the show is pretty damn fun actually.
- Cheesy B movie Zombies.
- Zombies look just about as good as any Romero movie.
- There are no major actors, but some pretty decent acting overall.
It overall feels like Zach Snyder's Dawn, but a little bit better done.
My only complaint: The Zombie mythology has already been established and embedded in American culture. They really aren't treading any new ground or being very original with it. However, I much prefer the tone of this over some bullshit like ZOMBIELAND or Left 4 dead.
After reading this thread, What the hell are you people expecting?
Do you people even like Zombies?
- spidey
and i watched all the shows faithully.
im not a big tv viewer...i watched the wire, some sports here and there and thats it. so i cant really compare the quality of walking dead to other shows (and it wouldnt be fair to compare it to the wire)
i had some complaints, but overall...i liked it. my least favorite episode was the fifth, where they deal with the funerals and grieving. i agree that some of it was drawn out. but the comic and show arent really about zombies and hacking shit up....its just a human soap opera under extenuating circumstances. so in 6 episodes, they tried to delve in to character develpment more than action.
i think a lot of the acting was above grade for horror genre. Shane was great. the doc at the end was real good. Rick is fine by me. the two rednecks and TDog arent in the comic and i wsa skeptical about their early cliched racial unharmony scenes, but ive come around. especiall the two rednecks.
where is merle? is as good a cliffhanger as any. i'll be tuning in again next season.
keep in mind, im not one of those people that watches shit and puts on their siskel and ebert uderwear and starts bothering the people around them how its unrealistic, poorly cast or should have been done differently. im there to suspend disbelief and enjoy myself. any shortcomings, i let my imagination compensate for.
zombies are awesome!
This is pretty much my feeling as well, probably a common reaction amongst fans of the comic. I came in resigned that it wouldn't live up to the comic and it really doesn't. BUT, going back and re-reading the comic I realized that a word-for-word adaptation of the comic to screen would have been really bad as a motion picture, there's just too much dialog in the comic. I would have been happy if there was zombie mayhem in every episode, but then again putting demands for specific activities on a show will result in something as formulaic as the A-Team where you could set your watch by the plot points (Mr. T welding? it must be 43 minutes after the hour).
Is there book compilations available??
I think they're up to issue 79 in the book, there's 13 6-issue Trade Paperback volumes covering up to issue 78 (Which is how I've been following the book) and then there's several compendia/omnibus/hardcover editions that have more issues per volume. Compendium One is a pretty satisfying arc covering the first 8 volumes of the Trade paperback for a reasonable price if you'd like to dip your toe into the series.
but its also important to keep in mind that the book is hardly non stop zombie fest. theres a lot of dialogue and soap opera shit. i am into it and i think the book reads real well...but theres issues of the monthly with nary a zombie.
that said, the show made some new things up with the vatos and the trip to the cdc, but it hasnt got into hardly any of the solid gold plot lines from the book. some of the best characters havent popped up yet. so theres lot of room for improvement and i agree with what you said about them playing it for a 6 issue series...hopefully the longer runs will let them unfold plots better and dig into the real good shit
like....
I haven't given up on it completely, it held my interest but it really wasn't doing much for me at all. it seemed like they took what appeared to be a revolutionary concept for a TV series and turned it into a standard network TV drama.
It is worth sticking with..
I haven't read the comics yet though...
http://www.deadline.com/2010/12/the-walking-dead-lets-go-of-writers-considers-no-writing-staff-for-season-2
More on that here:
http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/12/walking_dead_writers_fired.html
cos
i personally ride for either the Campy Zombie movies or the funny ones.
Shaun of the Dead is in my opinion, one of the best zombie movies i have ever seen. I also dug Zombieland that came out last year. Both have plenty of gore (which is a great thing in any zombie movie) but the humor makes it more digestible for me.
example:
"ZOMBIES DON'T RUN!
I know it is absurd to debate the rules of a reality that does not exist, but this genuinely irks me. You cannot kill a vampire with an MDF stake; werewolves can't fly; zombies do not run. It's a misconception, a bastardisation that diminishes a classic movie monster. The best phantasmagoria uses reality to render the inconceivable conceivable. The speedy zombie seems implausible to me, even within the fantastic realm it inhabits. A biological agent, I'll buy. Some sort of super-virus? Sure, why not. But death? Death is a disability, not a superpower. It's hard to run with a cold, let alone the most debilitating malady of them all.
- Simon Pegg waxing poetic on the rules of Zombie"
I wholeheartedly agree.
- spidey
It's hard to argue with a statement as well crafted as Simon Pegg's. Particularly when it acknowledges the biggest objection to the Fast Zombie debate, that they are fictional characters and their capabilities are arbitrarily assigned. And while I mostly agree with the sentiment, I don't have strong reservations about fast zombies. It's a different flavor of monster mayhem than the Romero shambling zombie and I like both kinds. 28 Days Later is a very good Sci-Fi/Action flick, and the first ten minutes of the Dawn of the Dead remake are as entertaining as any 10 minutes in any zombie film (too bad the movie totally peters out). It should be pointed out that these two films are not the first to feature running zombies, the Return of the Living Dead from 1985 had fast ghouls and I'm sure there are more examples.
Actually, now that I'm at it there is one thing from Return of the Living Dead that bugs me way more than the fast zombie thing. I hate the whole Zombies prefer brains trope. First of all, I prefer that zombies are mindless ghouls intent on consuming the flesh of the living indiscriminately. Having a food preference makes the zombies seem too intentional. Second, I can actually believe a zombie can sprint a couple of steps before I'm willing to accept that they can talk. Moaning "Brrraaaiiiinnnnnnsssss" or anything else takes me out of the movie.
[/
I agree, and so does George Romero:
"Well Sue Dolkes, you rascal. I thought you were dead."
Big tits Zombie
Blindness (This is not a zombie movie, there are no zombies, but it's TOTALLY a zombie movie in TONE. It is my favorite zombi-"like" movie ever. You're not fooling me Meirelles)
Blue sunshine
City of the living dead
Dawn of the dead (GOAT)
Other Romero must sees: Night of the Living Dead (OG), Day of the Dead, Land of the Dead (Cheesy, but DENNIS HOPPER!!), You should skip that Zack snyder POS, and watch the Crazies remake instead, Return of the living dead (hilarious)
Dr. Satan y la magia negra
Fido
I walked with a zombie
Lifeforce (vague space vampire zombies)
Mangue Negro
Night of the creeps
no profanar el sue??o de los muertos (aka Don't Open the Window aka The Living Dead aka Weekend with the Dead aka
Let Sleeping Corpses Lie)
The Serpent and the rainbow (voodoo)
Sexy nights of the living dead (yup its a porno)
Shaun of the dead (no brainer)
The grapes of death
Thriller (Most popular Zombie film of all time?)
Tokyo Zombie
Veerana
Versus
White Zombie
Wild Zero (GAME CHANGER!!)
Fulci! (Zombi 2)
*yawn*
- spidey
Ban.
- diego
BOOOOO
- spidey
I wouldn???t go as far to say that it sucks - but I agree with all of your points. I just finished the series on DVD last night and this is my rant
Firstly weak characters and bad acting don???t really bother me in zombie films. I'm there for the zombies, the gore and the comedy - and this is what the series really lacked - especially in the final 3 episodes.
There are so many scenes where they are in highly populated areas, or ???hot zones??? and the zombies are few and far between. If they are some of the "last people left" why aren't their hungry zombies at every corner? Why can they just hop skip and jump around Atlanta and abandoned military faculties willy nilly while remaining relatively unharmed.
The CDC episode was a total waste. It felt way, way too early to be going into the "this is the end of man kind" shit.
If a group as poorly equipped and as rag tag as the group we are following has survived the way they have thus far, there should be loads more humans out an about in various forms. - Lone-wolves, roaming gangs, scared kids, ex-military psychos, good guys etc. Run-ins with these kind of people would be much more entertaining than the love triangle/ego farce that is happening between the three main characters. Its not a drama ??? don???t make it one.
Hopefully they have learned their lessons and the second season delivers on the gore, the fear and the comedy.
im a fan of the comic and its a faithful adaptation of the feel of the book. they deviate quite a bit with the story and characters...adding new elements like the CDC, the Rican old folks gang, the rednecks, TDog. but i thought the special effects left nothing to be desired and that the actng was pretty damn good for a horror thing.
so anyway...dont expect too much in the way of comedy or reduced human soap opera...thats what the book is all about. its basically, what would people do under extenuating circumstances. for real though, two of the best characters are yet to come onto the scene, one bad one good.