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The Walking Dead

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Devious Viper:
I don't know about the rest of you, but if you are anything like me you too will suffer the problem of too-many-channels-not-enough-hours. There is so much eye-fodder on offer that I end up maxing the HDD on my box without even trying (top tip - never record the HD channels, you only get about 30 hrs of TV as opposed to normal channels which will fill the same space with 200 hrs...) Then every so often I have to have a marathon viewing and/or purging session. Which brings me to The Walking Dead on AMC.*

I was going to watch it as it aired, then didn't get the time, so recorded it, and then decided, heck it's only 6 episodes, I'll save it until I can sit down and watch the whole lot in a one-r.

Which was yesterday.

So, was it worth it? Well, the production values were impressive, and you couldn't really fault the sfx. Superficially, you couldn't fault it.

But, if you've also seen it, did you - like me - come away from the experience thinking, well, not only have I seen it, but I've seen it all before? A dozen times?

Watching it was like watching just about every other zombie-apocalypse show/movie that had gone before. Often, I could even name the source of each scene - Shaun Of The Dead here, Resident Evil there, etc. It was a satisfying experience only so far as take-out food is a food group: convenient, a little trashy but overall a lazy option and hardly nutritious...

Season 2 is lined up for 13 episodes; I can't see how they can possibly drag 13 shows' worth of material out of the zombie genre unless they can actually break some new ground. If they can't then it will be as painful to watch as Prison Break seasons 3 and 4, and that's saying something. And talking of PB, they need to kill off/recast the Lori Grimes character: Sarah Wayne Callies has got to be one of the worst actresses I've had the misery of enduring. Her performance in TWD was basically a reprise of her role in PB, which itself was wooden, uninspired and frankly depressing.

I can almost** predict two major story arcs for next season -
[#]one of the group will become infected but survive, having some innate immunity/resistance
[#]the group will encounter a community, probably set up by some ex-government/state officials, which at first appears to be Shangrilah but has a sinister secret

Both of which are fail. I want something new, not a rehash of shows-of-yesteryear.

Anyway, did you watch it? If so, opinions? And also, what storylines would you like to see in season 2?

A fun recap of "some" of the zombie-kills (they claim it's all of them, but it isn't - completely missing out, for example, the dozens shot dead in the hospital during Shane Walsh's flashback to the outbreak.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hd4sAiwgtcM

* It was on cable in North America - I don't know if it has aired in the UK or Europe yet. If you have a North American IP you can catch up on the shows on the AMC site.
**These balls are just meat, not crystal =)



 Edit:remembered a whole truckload of kills they missed

Devious Viper:
Meh, I feel short-changed now. I just looked up the inspiration for TWD, which is Robert Kirkman's comic book series also called TWD. (No, I won't call it a "graphic novel" - that's a marketing ploy to persuade adults that they're not actually buying and reading comic books. Which they are, and heck, so long as they're entertaining why the hell not?) Although Kirkman, a producer for the TV version, has said that season 2 won't strictly follow the comic books, I did see that at some point they variously encounter several "communities" including one led by:


--- Quote ---...an insane man calling himself the Governor. The Governor runs his local city, Woodbury, Georgia, like a dictator... They are eventually recruited to stay in a secluded and secure township on the outskirts of Washington DC. Each person tries to find a semblance of real life, but Grimes doesn't trust the leader of the town, a former US Congressman. (taken from wikipedia)
--- End quote ---

So that's prediction number 2 settled already =/

They don't seem to have already used the "pre-existing immunity" storyline in the comic books, so I'm gonna bet you a beer that will pop up.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a hater of TWD, I just want them to do something new and original. Tired old zombie clichés are just that - tired, old and clichéd: "overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect, rendering it a stereotype, especially when at some earlier time it was considered meaningful or novel." And the survivor aspect was done, fairly well, only a couple of years ago in the BBC's Survivors.*  It is rare that a TV show comes along that offers a new look at an old concept, and I'm fingers-crossed that AMC uses its current popularity to do something daring and fresh.

*In case you didn't catch it yet, Survivors:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYS54Ydtfao

Nina:
Im still waiting for something better than Shaun of the dead. Cant beat that IMHO  :-D

Devious Viper:
Intriguing news for writers (and bad news for some writers) -  Frank Darabont, the guy in charge of The Walking Dead, has fired the entire writing team and is instead using freelancers for season 2. Grab your pencils and pads!

Azurahn:
Personally worth watching. Not as good as Ramero sp? But Damn good anyhow.

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