off topic The Walking Dead

[Stoner]

TWD creeping into popular culture a bit:

 

[Stoner]

High ratings for TWD finale:

 

http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2010/12/07/the-walking-dead-finale-breaks-ratings-records/?hpt=T2

[BuffaTB]

I'm STILL very interested as to how they will re-introduce Merle. Pretty good show IMO.

[darksabre]

I'm STILL very interested as to how they will re-introduce Merle. Pretty good show IMO.

 

Same here. Dude can't be dead. So where is he?

 

I'm curious as to when they realize they need to start collecting gas Mad Max style. And if it were me, I'd be heading towards the great lakes or somewhere with fresh water and good hunting. Heard all the first season writers got fired though so we'll see how things turn out for next season.

[bunomatic]

Merle will come back as some quasie Zombie that has evolved to Zombie status but with a functioning brain and he will organize the Zombies into his personal army...oh, and he'll have a hook.

[cdexchange]

Heard all the first season writers got fired though

 

 

Really? Why?

[nobody]

Really? Why?

 

 

To save money.

[X. Benedict]

Zombies are walking the earth and that is the issue you have? :lol: How about a guy being left alone in a hospital for god knows how many days or weeks with no food or water and can still walk home moments after he wakes up.

 

Right now they are about introducing characters. They have yet to get into the meat of the story.

 

The ratings were really good. 5.3 million viewers for the first episode. They had 4.7 million last Sunday. Good enough for AMC to green-light a 13 episode 2nd season. I hope every sticks around to let the story develop and keep the show going.

 

because of your thread I've been watching.

 

Why is it the Zombies get to throw as many people over the boards as they like? If you ask me it doesn't look like anybody is calling the game at all.

 

I enjoyed it, but I had a hard time with Noah Emmerich being cast as the last living Government Employee/Scientist. BTW...Jeff Demunn who plays the old guy and is a great character is from Buffalo.

[Stoner]

because of your thread I've been watching.

 

Why is it the Zombies get to throw as many people over the boards as they like? If you ask me it doesn't look like anybody is calling the game at all.

 

I enjoyed it, but I had a hard time with Noah Emmerich being cast as the last living Government Employee/Scientist. BTW...Jeff Demunn who plays the old guy and is a great character is from Buffalo.

 

Sounds a little creepy, but I can't see the old guy without seeing Jim Kelley.

 

I believe this actor also was in a Stephen King miniseries -- maybe "The Stand."

[X. Benedict]

Sounds a little creepy, but I can't see the old guy without seeing Jim Kelley.

 

I believe this actor also was in a Stephen King miniseries -- maybe "The Stand."

 

I don't know about The Stand, but I'm pretty sure he was in the Green Mile.

[deluca67]

To save money.

That shouldn't be a problem going forward. They had 6 million viewers on the last episode and and crushed the important 19-49 demographic. Something like $3.5 million I believe.

[Claude_Verret]

If you don't like spoilers, then don't read the Walking Dead thread over on the stadium wall. There is a guy there that has read the books that the series is based on and he gave many potential future plot twists away.

[X. Benedict]

If you don't like spoilers, then don't read the Walking Dead thread over on the stadium wall. There is a guy there that has read the books that the series is based on and he gave many potential future plot twists away.

Thanks for that.

[cdexchange]

To save money.

 

That's weird. Huge hit, great ratings, money rolling in, so fire all the writers? :blink:

 

Here's something that always bugs me about all these zombie-apocalypse movies/shows: there is no freaking way that a bunch of zombies, no matter how many there are, could overrun and defeat our military on any large scale. I can't think of any possible scenario where that makes sense. It doesn't seem like it would be all that difficult to set up secure zones and guard the perimiters 24/7 with snipers. They could easily transport personel/supplies/ammo in and out via armored trucks or even tanks. Hell, just outfit trucks with battering rams and plow right through the sumbitches. I know it's a plot device but it's totally unrealistic to think that zombies could ever wipe out 99.9999% of the population, there's just no way.

[Stoner]

That's weird. Huge hit, great ratings, money rolling in, so fire all the writers? :blink:

 

Here's something that always bugs me about all these zombie-apocalypse movies/shows: there is no freaking way that a bunch of zombies, no matter how many there are, could overrun and defeat our military on any large scale. I can't think of any possible scenario where that makes sense. It doesn't seem like it would be all that difficult to set up secure zones and guard the perimiters 24/7 with snipers. They could easily transport personel/supplies/ammo in and out via armored trucks or even tanks. Hell, just outfit trucks with battering rams and plow right through the sumbitches. I know it's a plot device but it's totally unrealistic to think that zombies could ever wipe out 99.9999% of the population, there's just no way.

 

But notice how few survivors there are. Apparently the vast majority of the population, including the military, are dead or undead. What I find strange is that not everyone who dies from the disease comes back to "life."

[Robviously]

That's weird. Huge hit, great ratings, money rolling in, so fire all the writers? :blink:

The show is a big hit because of the concept (which is great, and the only reason I keep watching) and the strong pilot episode. The actual writing has been terrible.

 

Can anyone relate to any of these characters? Officer Rick just wanted to find his wife and son...and then he did....and then he abandoned them one episode later to go back into a city with millions of zombies. Andrea's only personality trait so far is that she really likes pointing a gun at other survivors, along with the baffling decision to hang out with her dead sister until she came back to life as a monster so that she could shoot her in the head. Merle, his brother, and Ed are all southern white guys so naturally they were all various degrees of racist hillbillies who hit women. T-Dog is a black guy so the only personality trait the writers could come up with for him was to have him named "T-Dog." They gave the black woman character about 1 line per episode before randomly having her decide she didn't want to live anymore. Oh, OK.

 

Then there's the part where nothing on the show makes sense. A bunch of hispanic guys decided to pretend they were gang members so that they could protect an old folks home in the middle of a city full of millions of zombies??? And somehow they're doing fine but the military was completely overrun? That big zombie attack on the campsite where the younger sister died -- did every character on the show forget they were living in a post-apocalyptic zombie nightmare? They were all just sitting around a campfire waiting to get attacked. Also, the first couple shows made a big deal about how sound attracts more zombies but the writers apparently forgot about that a few shows later. None of the gunshots from the campsite zombie attack seemed to attract any more zombies, nor did Andrea idiotically shooting her sister in the head the next day. And none of the characters even expressed any concern about that noise. Oh well.

 

Lastly, this show may have finally ruined slow zombies for me. I know they went out of their way to not have the running zombies from the 2004 Dawn of the Dead or 28 Days/Weeks Later but the zombies on this show are so slow that it's impossible to imagine them overrunning any law enforcement or military group. We saw some military guys bite it in the flashback at the start of the season finale when one guy was standing with his back to a door that a zombie burst through (he then accidentally shot his friends when attacked). Assuming the rest of the world's military is smart enough not to stand with their backs to doors in buildings full of zombies, I think I'd put my money on the living. At least running zombies make a rapid outbreak/fall of society seem plausible (see opening to 2004 Dawn of the Dead or all hell breaking loose in 28 Weeks Later).

 

Maybe the new writers can make this thing work. The first batch definitely didn't.

[Stoner]

SNR,

 

It was also odd how the old dude didn't seem to care about saving the black lady before the "air caught fire."

 

Re: Andrea and her sister. Andrea felt guilty about missing so many of her little sister's birthdays/special moments in general. So staying with her made sense. If she hadn't, we would have missed the one scene so far that really creeped me out: when Andrea appeared to be willing to let her zombie sister bite her face off.

 

I think these "yell at the TV" moments are deliberate, meant to get us emotionally involved and tuning in.

 

The one scene I really hated was when a walker was being, uh, incapacitated and some goo splashed onto the camera. Not sure why you'd want your viewers to be reminded that it's just a movie.

 

I wonder if the producers would think of this first season as basically an extended pilot. Now that it's been picked up for a full season, we might see some improvements in writing, storyline, production, etc.

[Assquatch]

7 Scientific Reasons a Zombie Outbreak Would Fail (Quickly)

 

Whew~!

 

Plus, if we look at zombies as a species, they are pretty much designed for failure. Their main form of reproduction is also their only source of food and their top predator. If they want to eat or reproduce, they have to go toe to toe with their number one predator every single time. That's like having to fight a lion every time you to want to have sex or make a sandwich.

[cdexchange]

7 Scientific Reasons a Zombie Outbreak Would Fail (Quickly)

 

 

Good stuff.

 

#1 is exactly what I was talking about, but all 7 are pretty much right on. :thumbsup:

[bunomatic]

That's weird. Huge hit, great ratings, money rolling in, so fire all the writers? :blink:

 

Here's something that always bugs me about all these zombie-apocalypse movies/shows: there is no freaking way that a bunch of zombies, no matter how many there are, could overrun and defeat our military on any large scale. I can't think of any possible scenario where that makes sense. It doesn't seem like it would be all that difficult to set up secure zones and guard the perimiters 24/7 with snipers. They could easily transport personel/supplies/ammo in and out via armored trucks or even tanks. Hell, just outfit trucks with battering rams and plow right through the sumbitches. I know it's a plot device but it's totally unrealistic to think that zombies could ever wipe out 99.9999% of the population, there's just no way.

no disrespect intended but for starters we are talking about zombies which don't exist which makes this a fantasy/sci-fi/horror series which has absolutely no basis in reality so to argue that zombies couldn't over run your military is about as crazy as the plot. Nothing makes sense and everything makes sense,its escapism and its really not meant to make you think. Of course the Zombies could over run your military because the writers wrote that into the plot. Take Merle for example. He cut his hand off to escape the Zombies but he can't get past the zombies at the rooftop door so how does he get off the 10 story building? Does he climb down with his one good hand and his stump?

[cdexchange]

no disrespect intended but for starters we are talking about zombies which don't exist which makes this a fantasy/sci-fi/horror series which has absolutely no basis in reality so to argue that zombies couldn't over run your military is about as crazy as the plot. Nothing makes sense and everything makes sense,its escapism and its really not meant to make you think. Of course the Zombies could over run your military because the writers wrote that into the plot. Take Merle for example. He cut his hand off to escape the Zombies but he can't get past the zombies at the rooftop door so how does he get off the 10 story building? Does he climb down with his one good hand and his stump?

 

 

Yeah of course I know that, it was more of an observation than a criticism. Just fun to talk about in an (obviously) hypothetical sense. I still like the show and am looking forward to the second season. Anybody know when it is slated to return?

[X. Benedict]

no disrespect intended but for starters we are talking about zombies which don't exist which makes this a fantasy/sci-fi/horror series which has absolutely no basis in reality so to argue that zombies couldn't over run your military is about as crazy as the plot. Nothing makes sense and everything makes sense,its escapism and its really not meant to make you think. Of course the Zombies could over run your military because the writers wrote that into the plot. Take Merle for example. He cut his hand off to escape the Zombies but he can't get past the zombies at the rooftop door so how does he get off the 10 story building? Does he climb down with his one good hand and his stump?

 

They only show the slow Zombies in Walking Dead. In England the Zombies are much faster. Atlanta has slower Zombies. They talk slower there too. It's more polite. We can't assume all Zombies are like Atlanta Zombies.

[Robviously]

no disrespect intended but for starters we are talking about zombies which don't exist which makes this a fantasy/sci-fi/horror series which has absolutely no basis in reality so to argue that zombies couldn't over run your military is about as crazy as the plot. Nothing makes sense and everything makes sense,its escapism and its really not meant to make you think. Of course the Zombies could over run your military because the writers wrote that into the plot.

The problem is that the show's logic doesn't work in its own universe. You know it's a show about zombies going in, so if you're watching it, your brain is not going to reject the idea that zombies could be real. But once you're watching it, you'll notice the zombies are all extremely slow and your brain is going to point out that these zombies really couldn't take over the world.

 

So the show wants us to buy that zombies destroyed most of the world and killed most of its population, but then they gave us zombies that really don't seem up to the task.

 

TV shows don't need to be realistic to be good, but they do need to make sense.

[bunomatic]

Yeah of course I know that, it was more of an observation than a criticism. Just fun to talk about in an (obviously) hypothetical sense. I still like the show and am looking forward to the second season. Anybody know when it is slated to return?

I agree. I'm also looking forward to the second season and it'll be interesting to see where they go with the plot. It's a lot better than watching all the reality crap thats thrown at us.

[Claude_Verret]

The problem is that the show's logic doesn't work in its own universe. You know it's a show about zombies going in, so if you're watching it, your brain is not going to reject the idea that zombies could be real. But once you're watching it, you'll notice the zombies are all extremely slow and your brain is going to point out that these zombies really couldn't take over the world.

 

So the show wants us to buy that zombies destroyed most of the world and killed most of its population, but then they gave us zombies that really don't seem up to the task.

 

TV shows don't need to be realistic to be good, but they do need to make sense.

 

I won't ruin it, but that spoiler thread over on the stadium wall gives some information that could clear up why 'slow' zombies could take over and even defeat a modern military.