"The Walking Dead" TV series

[thanoson]

New favorite series.

[B A D]

5.3 million Viewers, beat Mad Men, beat Football, beat everything.

Kirkman's  gonna be able to afford a new  chin.

[lugaru]

The person I was watching it with kept wanting to pretend she was not interested but around the middle she was like "this is so incredibly cool, I need to re-watch the first half".

As a regular walking dead reader I could not be happier... not just because I like the series but also because adaptations tend to decompress things a little and create many more oportunities for dialog. I like the little exchanges that are not in the comic, although it is messing with the rule of only following the protagonist, but at the same time the side stuff it has shown me (like the neighbors) has been great.

[murs47]

Effin brilliant. I'm all in.

[Mr. Hamrick]

Ok, I will chime in. 

I liked it.  And I am incredibly proud of my friends who worked on this project on the crew (and the ones who were zombie extras) and I am even proud of the colleagues who are not friends and who I generally can't stand to be in the room with for more than an hour or so at a time with who worked on this thing. 

[UnkoMan]

So, I love this comic... And now it's on TV. And the first episode? Well I liked it. I am definitely going to be following this. Thumbs up from me. Agreement to Lug's comments.

[laughing paradox]

It was really, really good.

I religiously follow the comic so I had very high expectations that were actually exceeded. Sunday night can't come soon enough.

[ubergreendragon]

 

[crimsonquill]

I also religiously read the comic series and was counting the days until the premiere of the show on Halloween night.. was definitely everything I hoped it would be and then some. 

- CQ

[Midnite]

I heard the first season is only 6 episodes. WTH?

[crimsonquill]

I heard the first season is only 6 episodes. WTH?

That's mostly because of the budget being set as a trial series (much like Buffy The Vampire Slayer got a smaller order of shows in the first season to see if ratings panned out) and availability of most of the cast when they set up the initial filming for Season 1. I'm sure AMC put a huge amount of support towards the show but probably couldn't work out a full 13 episode deal with such a high possibility that if the series was a ratings flop they wouldn't still have episodes left waiting to be filmed. Those 6 episodes were just enough to work with it into a mini-series if they had to edit that way for a DVD release.

I'm quite sure based on the pilot that each episode will pull in more viewers and by the time the sixth episodes airs there will be far more then enough fans and ratings to justify the show continuing on and with a full second season order to boot. When the DVD gets released in the Spring of 2011 (my guess but seems like a good target before filming for most cable shows start) then they can back up the ratings with high sales to show that a zombie series can hold up against shows like True Blood.

- CQ

[Mr. Hamrick]

From what I was told, it was being shot as a mini-series from the get-go on this end.  When the casting was posted, it was listed as a mini-series not a series.  I suspect that if the mini-series does well then a full series will be ordered.

As for the cost, the series saved a lot money by filming here in Georgia.  The money they saved was probably put back into the raising the quality of the production but nonetheless, they saved.  The tax credits here for productions rivals and arguably exceeds the credits given to production in Louisiana.  I think Louisiana may have increased theirs to compete with us but I am not sure.  California has no tax credits by comparison. 

[lugaru]

Boston has some decent credits, hence the recent movies. Mostly we steal commercial work from New York.

I think they are being conservative with the show which is smart, dole it out little by little and do a good job. Im a big fan of changing up the way that TV is done, and 6 episode seaons (or even 3) are big in the UK (not that I'm a huge viewer of brittish tv but I've watched some shows).

Quality is insane, the makeup is extremely good and if they are doing the 28 days latter trick to make the city of Atlanta look deserted they are pulling that off really well too (digitally altering the backgrounds).

Also interesting choice on the way zombies act... they seem mobile, aware but dazed. I like this... the way they seem to be drawn to old routines or places.

[MJB]

Episode 2... Lot of new characters. Most were not in the comic.

I liked the episode. Since I have read the comic series there wasn't much suspense. The new characters were ok but the ones that were in the comic stood out for me. I would be interested hearing what characters stood out for you.

[JeyNyce]

I never read the comic, so when I saw the first episode, the first thing I said was "this is just like Left 4 Dead".  Great show!  Missed yesterday episode, but I'm going to watch it on demand.

[B A D]

Not happy with the fast , climbing, rock using Zombies.

I wants my zombies to be like a force of nature, the way they are in the comic.

[thanoson]

Even way back in Night of the Living Dead, Zombies used things. The one chasing Barbara used a rock to smash the window when she crashed the car. Thought this was a good episode. The only thing I didn't like was how soft that guy that got beat up was. He just turned to jelly after that.

[crimsonquill]

Not happy with the fast , climbing, rock using Zombies.

Kirkman has said that Walking Dead in his comicverse follows the classic Romero rules and as thanoson said they have used rocks and sticks to smash things even back in original movie. Romero and Kirkman both also have agreed that older zombies move far slower then fresher ones because of rigamortis setting into the corpse as it decays. I was surprised that a few zombies could climb the fence but I guess it wouldn't be too hard for one to figure out how to scale a chain link one that wasn't very high and it was something they did a lot when they were alive to maintain the familarity of that action. They seemed very stumped with trying to figure out how to climb a fire escape ladder though. The zombies in this series are like primal versions of their old human selves with trace memories retained in their brains of familiar actions and locations.
 
- CQ

[Midnite]

AMC THE WALKING DEAD SNEAK PEAK: EPISODE 3 "TELL IT TO THE FROGS"

[MikeB7]

I was most excited to see Glenn and get our first glimpse into the mechanics of survival, with him making runs into cities for supplies.

[crimsonquill]

The best news I've come across this week... so far... This is snipped from NEWSARAMA:

After two strong weeks in the ratings, The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline.com reported Monday afternoon that AMC has officially renewed The Walking Dead for a 13-episode second season.

The news shouldn't come as a surprise: according to the network's press release, the Oct. 31 season premiere of the adaptation of the Image Comics series attracted the largest audience for an original series in AMC history with 5.3 million total viewers, and this past Sunday night's season episode held strong with 4.7 million.

The first season of six episodes is scheduled to wrap on Dec. 5. Thirteen episodes is the standard length for AMC original series such as Mad Men and Breaking Bad. AMC's senior vice president of scripted programming Sharon Tal Yguado is quoted in the release as saying, "I wish all programming decisions were no brainers like this one." (Possible zombie pun?)

[Midnite]

The Walking Dead Sneak Peek: Episode 4 - "Vatos"

[JeyNyce]

Did anybody see the episode yet?  Was I the only one?  Anyway, this was good, but it falls short compare to the other until the end.  I was not expecting that kind of ending.

[Jakew]

I thought it was pretty good, probably my second favourite episode so far ... that last zombie attack was straight out of the comic.

Maybe it's just me, but I think this series has had major issues living up to the quality of its first episode, the one directed by Frank Darabont. I'm not sure how they're going to get around that ... I haven't ever seen a show where the first episode clearly outshines the following ones.

[lugaru]

Seriosly a great episode. The acting continues to annoy me a tiny bit but that aside I liked everything else.

The "vatos" where a cool addition, mostly because something I love about walking dead are all the cities, groups and tribes and they represented a plausible group that could make it through the apocalypse... a mixture of thugs bound by family and care givers.

The zombie attack, some of the drama near the end and all that was really cool too... hopefully Kirkman will keep a close eye on the series because the "episode he wrote" was one of the best.

[JeyNyce]

I didn't like the way the "Vatos" were introduced.  They came all hardcore and ready to kill people and it seems like the director wanted you to hate them, to tell you they are the enemy.  Then, he comes back and tries to show us that they are the good guys, just misunderstood and he does by using the grandmother?!  I didn't like the way it was handle

[ow_tiobe_sb]

I have not read page one of the original comic book material for this series, though I have watched each episode as it airs.  

Spoiler

Despite my ignorance of the books, I must say that my major disappointment in this series has been the predictability of the narrative as it unfolds--until this most recent episode, wherein, IMHO, the audience finally receives a greater sense of character development amongst the other refugees (by "other" I mean other than, e.g., Shane, Lori, Rick, et al.) when the zombie threat finally reaches the refugee camp.  Until the "Vatos" episode, it seemed to me that "The Walking Dead" was willing to replace surprise with shock/gore, and I simply kept watching because A. "The Walking Dead" airs immediately after "Boardwalk Empire" () and B. I wanted to keep hope alive (as opposed to allowing it to become zombified) that the series would take a good turn (I should note that the zombie horror genre is typically not my cup of tea, and I've lost numerous points with my wife for repeatedly tuning in.).  With the unexpected addition of Jim's apparent (or coincidental) clairvoyance and the gang-defended nursing home, I feel my patience has been somewhat rewarded.

To respond to Jey, I can add that, having some personal experience working with urban youth, you may find this state of affairs--i.e., being largely misunderstood and feared--is often the case in so-called RL.  You may be right, however, that the series took a somewhat ham-fisted approach to introducing this twist.

ow_tiobe_sb
Phantom Bunburyist and Whirled Braker

[thanoson]

I liked it. I thought that most of the vato's were just fronting and playing the part of hard. It's important to have a hard face when dealing with folks that could ruin what you have built. So when grandma came in and dissolved that face, I kinda got a chuckle out of it.

[JeyNyce]

It just happen so fast, that what's bothers me.

[GhostMachine]

I didn't like the way the "Vatos" were introduced.  They came all hardcore and ready to kill people and it seems like the director wanted you to hate them, to tell you they are the enemy.  Then, he comes back and tries to show us that they are the good guys, just misunderstood and he does by using the grandmother?!  I didn't like the way it was handle

I didn't like it, either. Plus they also made a couple of them look like idiots. You don't pull a pistol on someone when they have a shotgun aimed right at your boss, or talk about going ahead and shooting people when they've got enough firepower to kill half of you dead aimed right at you.

Once they got inside and sorted everything out, Guillermo was actually likeable.

Now a few other things about this episode:

Spoiler

I knew Amy was going to die, because the preview for the episode gave that away. But I'm guessing she revives as a zombie and that's what shows those who don't already know that you need to go ahead and shoot anyone who dies in the head (or bash their head in, decapitate them, whatever) to make sure they don't come back as one.

Am glad the zombies got Ed, though.

At another board there's speculation that Merle brought the zombies to the camp as revenge. I don't see how he could have: The van is open, so he could not have driven the zombies there from the city without being attacked, and I doubt he could have led a bunch of zombies to the camp by running around in the woods then getting away once he got them close to the camp. They already found one zombie near them before (the one that ate the deer Darryl was hunting), so maybe there were more in the general area?

Only two more episodes in the season left.