"The Walking Dead" - Frank Darabont, AMC (1 Viewer)

[Todd H]

I couldn't resist and took a peek at the first episode. My review? Awesome.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

I Seasoned Passed it on Itunes for my Apple TV, I don't get AMC in HD on Direct TV, so even 720p will be a joy compared to SD. So I wait till Monday.

 

[Joe_H]

A very good start. I haven't read the comics, but I very much enjoyed this.

The beginning was very reminiscent of 28 Days Later, so I think it'd have had more of an effect had I never seen that movie, but other than that I thought it all worked really well. (And yeah, I'm sure that 28 Days Later probably took it from the comic of this anyway, but it just isn't as powerful having seen something very similar before.)


Only nitpick I had... and it's more of slight confusion than any sort of problem with the show...


At the very beginning before the opening credits, he runs out of gas in his car and goes to a gas station... which ends up not having gas. But then later on, we see him run out of gas at the farm, from which he takes the horse. I'm assuming that the first instance happens chronologically before the time at the farm, but then that doesn't give any explanation of how he somehow managed to find gas and continue on.


Though come to think of it, he didn't seem to have his weapons from the station in the opening sequence either, so maybe it occurs after Atlanta.


Doesn't really matter, it's just hard to figure when that was supposed to have taken place in the timeline.


Still a very good premiere, regardless.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Thought it was okay, but I'm not one to get all excited about the zombies genre, which seems to be en vogue among my facebook brethren. Maybe if they flipped the script and made zombies somewhat intelligent and actually communicated between one another, it would be more interesting, but do we need yet another drama where all the danger is all related to a zombapocalyptic world, with soap opera-ish love triangles and the all too staid "I gots to get back to my family" plots? It just feel like a mash-up of "been there, done that" type of storylines.

 

[TonyD]

Agree with Patrick, whats the attraction to zombies anyway.


always the same thing, they walk slow and want to eat you. blah.

PLus they aren't even saying zombie, calling them "walkers" snooze.

Also the kid is weird, just bugs me.

 

[brentl]

Also the kid is weird, just bugs me.

Sure, but he's got the start of one great fro


I'll say I was more than a little impressed for a TV production, ESP for Amc, the first and best channel for mis-cropping movies.


I wonder if this will have any staying power, how much can you do with a zombie?? They don't dance very well


I was very impressed with the make-up and prosthetics.


Brent

 

[SteveGon]

To answer Joe's question, Rick may not have been completely out of gas when he went to the gas station.

Patrick: there really isn't much of what you describe in the books. Rick finds his family in the first few issues (or, as it looks like, the next episode of the show) and the triangle between him, his wife and his partner is quickly resolved. The books really aren't that soap opera-ish, being more a tale of survival and the lengths people will go to in order to go on living. In this world there isn't time for sudsy romance. Food is scarce, the survivors stink from infrequent bathing, there's constant danger from the zombies and predatory humans, etc. There have actually been issues where you don't even see any zombies! Sad to say that most of the nastiness in the books comes from human on human violence. The series is very much in keeping with George Romero's films though the books rely less (if at all) on social satire. And intelligent zombies kinda goes against the concept don't it?


I guess the attraction to zombies is that they are a reflection of us. Vampires too, but they've been romanticized to the point where they're pretty much a joke. And as you may or may not know, The Walking Dead title refers to the human survivors, not the zombies.

 

[joshEH]

Glad I paid attention to the fact that the HD feeds are EST. Well done, Mr. Darabont. We're off to a great start.
They had me at, "Zombie-kid-picks-up-her-teddy-and-then-gets-shot-in-the-head." Best pilot since Lost.
(...Like I wasn't already sold.) It's funny -- AMC went balls-out with the gore in this, but two hours before, they premiered Snyder's ReDawn, and cut out every little snippet of blood and gore they could find. I'm glad they gave it an hour-and-a-half. That extra bit of character/world development allows for more momentum/action in the next five episodes. And the half-woman in the park was just so beautifully done. Seeing that half-zombie reaching upwards...I didn't expect the show to be so poignant. Providing this gets a longer second season, and seasons beyond that, this could be a fantastic slow-burn type of show, watching society and sanity slowly ebb away in the face of impossible odds. Loved seeing legit Atlanta city scenes, and the horse-feast was brutal. I never thought I'd see a zombie apocalypse TV series...this is life in marvelous times (if tomorrow's mid-term elections don't ruin everything). I hope ratings warrant a nice, long run for this show. PLEASE last long enough for the prison storyline -- I want to see if Darabont has balls that huge.

 

[Quentin]

wow. I'm impressed they stayed so dark. I honestly don't know how you keep a series going that is so dark and maintain any sort of audience. It will be interesting to see if this works.


Being an unabashed zombie fanatic, I will be watching at all times. Just wish D* would get AMC HD.

 

[Greg_S_H]

The opening was a misstep--they should have just opened with the lunch conversation--but I guess Darabont wanted to get some zombie action in for the ADD crowd. I was confused as hell, since the book opens with the shootout. I figured AMC had accidentally played a scene out of order. Once it really got going, it was great. I felt really bad for the horse.

(And yeah, I'm sure that 28 Days Later probably took it from the comic of this anyway, but it just isn't as powerful having seen something very similar before.)

Actually, the movie came first--a few months first in America, and a year in advance in the UK. Kirkman has unwaveringly maintained over the years that he has never seen the movie and that it was a coincidence. I tend to believe him. He has also said he has pretty much stopped watching or reading zombie material in order to not unconsciously swipe from it.

but do we need yet another drama where all the danger is all related to a zombapocalyptic world, with soap opera-ish love triangles and the all too staid "I gots to get back to my family" plots? It just feel like a mash-up of "been there, done that" type of storylines.

Way too early to say that. The show probably won't change your mind, but the source material veers pretty far away from the standard zombie fare.


The shot of Rick entering Atlanta on the horse with the clogged lane of traffic will linger in the mind for a long time. AMC was smart to make it their poster image. Iconic.


I hope this isn't spoilerish. Morgan and Duane became fan-favorites and people clamored to see them again for years. They were awesome last night and I predict the same reaction from fans. I wonder if they'll give in and show them again or leave them back in the small town.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

It cannot possibly stay this good!


That was the best damn pilot to any show that I've seen in a while and, based on this one episode alone, was the greatest piece of zombie entertainment this fan has ever seen. It had everything that I love about Romero's earlier zombie works but without his underlying disdain for his human characters, for once we've got a great zombie story where the zombies aren't favored by the filmmakers, that's one thing I've always hated about Romero.


Zombie's are the only thing left in horror that truly frighten me to the core, something about knowing that these were human beings once and then seeing them attacking the living after death is my own idea of hell, the nightmarish world they inhabit is something straight out of a horrible nightmare.


That opening with the little girl zombie set the tone for what we were in for wonderfully, I feared that this being cable TV they would shy away from the red stuff but that fear was quickly put down, much like that zombie, and I can now rest easy. As for the half female zombie that we see early on, that might be the most impressive zombie I've seen in awhile, hell I want a prop of her to put on my lawn for next Halloween lol. The show also achieved something that no other zombie story has, for the first time ever I felt real empathy for a zombie, seeing her crawling along like a worm that had been cut in two was horrible and if the scene had went on for another minute I might have felt a tear begin to swell.


I don't count 28 Days as a zombie film because the infected in that film were very much alive but infected with a virus that drove them mad so I had no problem with the opening of this show being similar to that, 28 Days had a hell of a first act that was all ruined the moment they reached that mansion.


Like I said in another thread I'm not into comics so I can't get excited about the books for this show, they simply don't hold the same appeal to me as a live-action work does as I am a visual person. I saw them in Borders Books and scanned through them and they just don't do it for me, this show does, though, in spades. I'm telling you this because when I come here to talk about the show from week to week I won't be able to participate in the comparing and contrasting of the show VS the books.


Anyway, enough rambling, I fucking loved this pilot and hope that it can maintain what was established in it for it's run.


Romero, eat your heart out, you've lost your edge, THIS is how zombies should be done.

 

[SteveGon]

I hope ratings warrant a nice, long run for this show. PLEASE last long enough for the prison storyline -- I want to see if Darabont has balls that huge.

I was thinking the same thing, though I imagine casual viewers may be turned off after seeing Rick's wife and her baby get gunned down. One of the saddest and most shocking moments in the comics.



I hope they go back to Duane and Morgan too, as they did eventually do in the comics. Poor Duane!




I don't watch much television at all and haven't for years, but this will have me watching regularly!

 

[WillG]

I want to see if Darabont has balls that huge.

If you've seen "The Mist" you've got the answer to your question.

 

[ChadMcCallum]

Yeah, as others have said the zombies are not the main focus or threat, its all about how humans survive in a world where every day is a struggle and how this changes them. The humans Rick and co face while trying to survive are far more deadly than any zombie.


I think you need to give the show a bit of time before you really get into it. It doesn't get really intense until you start caring about the characters and worrying about whether or not they will live. People die in this series, people you wouldn't expect to see get killed and some of them are killed in horrible, unexpected ways. I fear the last page of every issue of the comic since that's usually when a character is killed. Give it time and I'm sure you new fans will have a similar reaction to the tv series.


Overall I really enjoyed the pilot. I really liked the new stuff with Morgan's wife and inter-cutting him trying to shoot her with Rick putting the legless zombie out of its misery was the highlight of the show for me.


There were a few things I didn't like, though. In the comic Rick keeps acting like this is a temporary situation, he tells Morgan that we will be back to get the rifle he loaned him once this get sorted out and tells him to take care of the house they're staying in for the previous owners until they return. I liked that Rick was very naive at first and I missed that in the pilot.


I also didn't like that they showed his wife and son early. In the comic the fact that they're still alive and that Rick found them so soon (he meet's them at the end of issue 2) was a pretty big shock. Lori's affair wasn't revealed until later too. I think it would have been better had they followed the comic since it keeps the audience on their toes. You expect the series to revolve around Rick's search for his family but they pull the rug out from under you, which is fun.


These are minor complaints though. They've done the comic justice with the pilot and I suspect the rest of the episodes will be just as good. It looks like a lot of new stuff has been added, there was a lot of stuff in the trailer I didn't recognize, but I look forward to seeing what they add to the story.

 

[Lucia Duran]

I went to a viewing party at a local indy theater. A good crowd showed up and during each commercial break, they did trivia questions about the show and the comics and gave away prizes. While I did enjoy the show, it really dragged for me. I think the zombie makeup was amazing and there were quite a few scenes that I just loved, but overall the show just didn't move along like I hoped it would. I still plan on watching as I am really into this genre and am hoping that it picks up momentum and keeps it.


After the viewing everyone that stayed got a free first issue of the Walking Dead comic.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

I meant to mention, Rick running into the undead hoard in Atlanta just might find it's way into my subconscious while I sleep tonight, been awhile since a zombie attack made me tense up and feel very much afraid.

 

[Chuck Anstey]

I enjoyed the show although it isn't really any different than other post-apocalyptic zombie tales. If the argument is that it isn't about the zombies but survival, that has been done a lot too. I was excited that someone finally showed that shooting a gun in an enclosed space is really loud and disorienting. Now if they would give a plausible explanation how zombies get energy to keep moving around for so long in their zombie universe it would be perfect. In the "real" world, zombies would all be 100% dead after about 60 days and cannot be truly "reanimated dead people" but rather infected living people where the virus destroys the brain to all but the most basic needs of autonomic functions and eating/drinking.

 

[ChadMcCallum]

Originally Posted by Chuck Anstey

I enjoyed the show although it isn't really any different than other post-apocalyptic zombie tales. If the argument is that it isn't about the zombies but survival, that has been done a lot too. I was excited that someone finally showed that shooting a gun in an enclosed space is really loud and disorienting. Now if they would give a plausible explanation how zombies get energy to keep moving around for so long in their zombie universe it would be perfect. In the "real" world, zombies would all be 100% dead after about 60 days and cannot be truly "reanimated dead people" but rather infected living people where the virus destroys the brain to all but the most basic needs of autonomic functions and eating/drinking.

The Walking Dead doesn't really do anything new but it does do everything incredibly fucking well. At least its not another cop/lawyer/doctor show, right?


Don't hold your breath for any explanation for the zombies. They take the Romero approach of never explaining why they're there or how they work. Plus the characters aren't scientists or doctors so they wouldn't know how they work or even really care. All they know is that the zombies kill and really, that's all that matters.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

In a real world situation I know that I wouldn't give a shit why these dead people are up and walking around, all that would matter to me is killing them...again lol.

 

[SilverWook]

Originally Posted by Inspector Hammer!


This show already gave me nightmares. Watching it alone late at night didn't help, as someone with heavy footsteps was walking up and down my street during one of the zombie scenes! Damn good looking FX too. Do they hold up in High Def?