The Walking Dead!

[ZOK]

The only problem I had was the problem I have with a lot of this genre, which is that the zombies aren't everywhere. "Realistically" they'd most likely be wandering all over the place as soon as he got the outskirts and not just suddenly appearing when he gets into the centre. Still, I suppose it helps with dramatic tension (and budget).

No, it makes sense imho. They are clearly giving the idea that the zombs retain some memory of human activity (door knob rattling, understanding getting in places, etc), so the majority of ex-people would have an affinity with the city, rather than wandering around the countryside.

Also, people went to the city for safety during the initial outbreak, so it makes sense that the countryside population is reduced.

[ZOK]

Day of the Egg

That's the one! I'd like to request that the thread take that as its subtitle, if I may!

[James Lyon]

That's the one! I'd like to request that the thread take that as its subtitle, if I may!

I might have gone for Dawn, but Day just seemed to fit, you know.

[lankysanchez]

Well, that first episode did it for me. I particularly liked the way the director deliberately didn't jump cut away from the zombies getting shot. Quite 'unflinching' for a TV show.

Also, it has fixed one of my major problems with the comic: that the art tended to make a lot of the human characters quite anonymous. Quite a few times when reading it, I had to try and figure out who the people were in a scene. Detracted from the emotional impact of some of the scenes, but this is much better. I'm already half-dreading some of the stuff that goes on later in the series.

Bring on episode 2!

[NecroMorrius]

I think that EGG: This Life after Death is the one you're groping for!

Oof, we have a winner.

Lincoln accent anecdote:

My girlfriend's brother and his wife live in Atlanta. They both thought he was from Georgia until I told them he was English, and they didn't believe me until they looked him up.

[PK]

I really hope this runs and runs for ages. Loved it.

[KRP]

Well, that first episode did it for me. I particularly liked the way the director deliberately didn't jump cut away from the zombies getting shot. Quite 'unflinching' for a TV show.

Yeah, I actually jumped when he shot that crawling one (which looked amazing).

[InsideOutBoy]

I am a huge zombie geek. I have Romero's autograph on my wall. From my point of view, the first episode did suffer from a lack of fresh ideas. Most of the scenes had been done in other movies/books. Shooting child zombies was done in 1978. Gore has lost its edge for me.

The difference with the Walking Dead is that they these clichés were directed and acted unusually well (for the genre). I cringe to think what the BBC would've done with the same script.

I'm optimistic but cautious for now. Having talented folks working on my favourite horror genre is a treat. I hope the show delivers on the seeds of promise. I want to be shocked and surprised by zombies again. (I haven't read the comic book).

It has slow zombies, which is essential and it did something that most zombie movies forget - it made you sympathise with the undead in one scene. The ingredients are all there, but they're not cooking yet.

I'm looking forward to episode 2. This series is either going to develop into the greatest zombie story since Dawn or the Dead... or be the biggest wasted opportunity since Land of the Dead.

[Cthulhu Steev]

I think that EGG: This Life after Death is the one you're groping for!

Oeuf, we have a winner.

Lincoln accent anecdote:

My girlfriend's brother and his wife live in Atlanta. They both thought he was from Georgia until I told them he was English, and they didn't believe me until they looked him up.

PUN OPPORTUNITY MISSED

[NecroMorrius]

Insideoutboy, don't worry dude. It quickly becomes not much like a zombie film besides the zombies. The Walking Dead's MO is to show what happens in the months and years following a zombie outbreak. It has to start somewhere though of course, so the initial few episodes (maybe even the whole of the first season) will be familiar to zombie aficionados. But it moves further and further away from that as it progresses. It's not unfair to say that the opening to TWD isn't actually that interesting, it's really standard fare, so it's good that the first episode has gotten such a good reaction. It's a bit like when you beg someone to watch a series you really love, and then they have a lukewarm reaction to the first episode because the characters haven't developed yet and the dramatic pathos hasn't really bared its teeth yet. If they adapt the comic well it will go to some very interesting places, and zombies will be the least of their worries.

It's not about the gore really, TWD is rarely if ever gory for the sake of it, though gory it is. TWD's real horror lies in the death of innocence and the loss of humanity. Whenever the comic depicts strong violence it almost always has a nastier and sadder underlying intent than the simple shock of what's occurring. Whereas Romero can't do anything more meaningful than 'hurhur lets rip out her belly button piercing' these days, the TWD comic never shies away from inflicting horrific mental and/or physical damage upon sympathetic, well drawn characters who definitely don't deserve it. It quickly establishes itself as unafraid to defy storytelling convention, and becomes very tense as a result. Whether the TV series adapts the escalating extreme events well remains to be seen, it could all fall apart once it becomes more than a standard zombie story.

And yeah, I can't even begin to imagine a BBC version

Well, that first episode did it for me. I particularly liked the way the director deliberately didn't jump cut away from the zombies getting shot. Quite 'unflinching' for a TV show.

Also, it has fixed one of my major problems with the comic: that the art tended to make a lot of the human characters quite anonymous. Quite a few times when reading it, I had to try and figure out who the people were in a scene. Detracted from the emotional impact of some of the scenes, but this is much better. I'm already half-dreading some of the stuff that goes on later in the series.

Bring on episode 2!

Totally agree with this too. The comic requires a fair amount of reader imagination, the art is barebones to the extreme on occasion. The dialogue is simplistic too, which has been greatly fleshed out in the TV show. I really liked the opening conversation between Rick and Shane, talking about the difference between a man and a woman. It had unexpected depth when Rick mentioned how he would never speak to Lori how she spoke to him that morning, however much he wanted to. It was certainly better judged than anything in the comic.

[Melon_Bread]

Totally loved it, well it's Zombies innit.

Some of the zombie make up was amazing, always loved the slow rotting Zombie look anyway.

The big chained doors in the hospital were spooky as fuck and was his escape down the stairs.

Need to read more of the comics quite fancy that big hardback box set in Forbidden Planet.

[GrannySmiths]

got to go to a free screening of this in my local cinema (got free pop corn and everything ) and really enjoyed it! I had never read the comics so didn't know what to expect. Was impressed with Andrew Lincoln's acting considering the only other thing I have seen him in is Teachers and that small role in Love Actually. There were some pretty tense moments in the episode and it made the atmosphere in the cinema great! Everyone was on the edge of their seats at times.

and I agree I felt that whole hospital scene with him wondering around was incredibly creepy.

[Ivanho]

Oh balls, totally forgot about this. Time to look for the repeat showing.

Edit: 10pm tomorrow, Sky + activated.

[Sponge]

No, I didnt find it remotely tense.

You've been watching a lot of Fringe recently so no doubt the subtle and restrained audio track of TWD completely threw you, and I suspect you've probably lost the ability to understand the emotions of a scene without awful audio cues telling you when to feel tense or relieved or sad, or slightly bored in weekly doses.

[NecroMorrius]

I like Fringe, but you're completely right, it's lowest common denominator fluff. So far TWD sits in that higher pantheon of AMC/HBO classics, which provide the audience with something to really engage with properly and then gives them the time and space to do so. Whether it'll fall from grace or not, we don't know. It's not the most sophisticated story in the world, but the comics really commit to a vision and I suspect the series is set to do the same.

[son_of_helvetica]

Fucking brilliant. More please.

[Kinketsu]

Wow, Episode 2 was great too! They've got a nice balance worked out between character moments and zombie action. I think I may have actually liked this episode more than the first a bit. Parts of it reminded me of Dead Rising 2

Some of the zombie action had a smile on my face like

the zombie that gets the shovel across the gob, the running headshots down the alley and the fireaxe straight down the middle of the dome near the end

. One of the lines made me lol as well such as when

Glen said "He's an organ donor"

.

Now I'll be waiting all the next episodes for Rick to

use the grenade!

[Yiggy]

Watched Ep1 last night.

Really loved it. My break down would be that the first Half up to the point where the dude is doing the shooting from the window was brilliant. Really tense, atmospheric and tightly directed.

From that point on it fell down a little. It became cliched and the tension/excitement dropped. The bit where it introduced another group, getting his steed and then riding into town was a little meh. His stupidity was annoying me in that last scene. Darabont directed the first one but different people do the rest (although he is still technically in charge) so it's going to be interesting to see how tight they can keep it but I have everything crossed. Sunday nights are gonna be fun again. Makes a change to costume dramas!

[The Sarge]

Ep 2 - GUTS - is now available to download from the usual sources.

[Rudi von Starnberg]

Wow, Episode 2 was great too! They've got a nice balance worked out between character moments and zombie action. I think I may have actually liked this episode more than the first a bit. Parts of it reminded me of Dead Rising 2

Some of the zombie action had a smile on my face like

the zombie that gets the shovel across the gob, the running headshots down the alley and the fireaxe straight down the middle of the dome near the end

. One of the lines made me lol as well such as when

Glen said "He's an organ donor"

.

Now I'll be waiting all the next episodes for Rick to

use the grenade!

Yeah, great episode. I did make the mistake of watching it while having breakfast, though - felt a bit queasy at that scene.

I was on the edge of my seat throughout a lot of it. The relatively low body count surely can't last... and that's definitely Chekov's grenade, yes.

[GODZOOKI]

Fab 2nd episode, this is hotting up.

[NecroMorrius]

Watched Ep1 last night.

Really loved it. My break down would be that the first Half up to the point where the dude is doing the shooting from the window was brilliant. Really tense, atmospheric and tightly directed.

From that point on it fell down a little. It became cliched and the tension/excitement dropped. The bit where it introduced another group, getting his steed and then riding into town was a little meh. His stupidity was annoying me in that last scene. Darabont directed the first one but different people do the rest (although he is still technically in charge) so it's going to be interesting to see how tight they can keep it but I have everything crossed. Sunday nights are gonna be fun again. Makes a change to costume dramas!

You've got to remember that people aren't clued up on zombies in zombie fiction, and they make all the silly mistakes. That series of (and other) fuck ups are Rick's trial by fire, he learns quickly by making mistakes. But yeah, the first ep peaked with the bedroom shooting.

[Wickedkitten]

Absolutely love it, they could have kept it like the comic but I think it actually worked better the way they did it. Michael Rooker was as awesome as ever.

[Capwn]

'Not read comic' NRC, can that be a new term we use?

Anyway, episode 2 was great.

Though I do worry it's becoming a bit '24 with zombies'. Want to see more of this character development that the comic is praised for, so far all I can see is a cliché soap Oprah style love triangle, a sisters reunion that I get a feeling will be resolved within a few episodes with no back story to make the audience care and am guessing the naughty racist guy will somehow escape and hunt down the others for revenge (I don't want to know)

The father/son from first episode is perhaps have the most interesting story so far but even that is a bit of a cliché for zombie stories isn't it? Anyway, regardless of the story it's being done really well so far. I think in years to come people will see this first short season as trying to be too much like the source material but once they really start to experiment and work out what suits television it will be it's own thing that serves more as a compliment to the comic series rather than a direct adaptation.

[Yiggy]

You've got to remember that people aren't clued up on zombies in zombie fiction, and they make all the silly mistakes. That series of (and other) fuck ups are Rick's trial by fire, he learns quickly by making mistakes. But yeah, the first ep peaked with the bedroom shooting.

Ah so we assume that nobody in zombie fiction has ever heard of a zombie before. Hence they are refered to a 'walkers'. That's an interesting way to look at it. I really loved it though. I see there is already suggestion that the 2nd season has been picked up which is ace.

[NecroMorrius]

Pretty much. Shaun of the dead is the only exception I think of. Sometimes they refer to them as zombies and sometimes something else, but it's common in the genre that when the zombies rise, no-one has a fucking clue what's going on or what they are. This requires a little suspension of disbelief, but it's no stranger than the characters having intimate knowledge of how to tackle the threat with info gleaned from zombie movies etc.

Adam, in truth it's all a bit standard until they reach a certain location, which will probably take them the whole of the first series to get to. The smaller stories and situations will easily carry it through until then, but I think season 2 will be where it gets really interesting, like you say.

[Wickedkitten]

Hmm If you mean to COMIC SPOILER

The Prison

then they are going to need to cram a hell of a lot into the next 4 episodes because this season is only 6 episodes long

[NecroMorrius]

Yeah I know, but I'm pretty sure Darabont said somewhere that they find it in the last episode of season 1. It's been repeated in this thread a couple of times too.

[Pistol]

Heh, it's a difficult dilemma now - prior to the TV series, if anyone had said to me "I've not read TWD" my immediate reaction would have been "Read it NOW! (If you can hack it.)"

Now, though, I think it would be a real shame to spoil the surprises in store by starting to read the comics.

That's actually going to be an ongoing dilemma, too - I can't imagine the series will ever catch up to the comics, unless it goes on for a very looong time (which hopefully it will!)

Only watched ep 1 so far, but I'm loving the little differences and extrapolations they've added. Really well done.

[ZOK]

Regarding people in zombie films etc not knowing what zombies are, by logical extension that means that when the zombie apocalypse inevitably comes in real life, as we already do know what zombies are, we won't make any mistakes and will trample on their undead faces with gay abandon.