The Walking Dead
 

http://www.watchseriesonlinenow.com/...ead-online.jpg

The Walking Dead is a cable television series on AMC based off the incredible comic series of the same name. Who else is watching?

Spoiler alert:

Will Shane try to kill Rick like he did in the comic?

I was just talking about this today, so great to see the thread. Also for such a zombie fan its amazing I've never seen the series or read the comic! I have most of the comics and yet to read them and season one of the series I can rent from a local shop.

Which should I do first, read the comics or watch the series?

Also really want to see peoples opinions on here about it.

The comics and the TV series are different enough to enjoy in their own right individually. The first series of the show is only six episodes long, and the second season in progress now is about the same length thus far so you could catch up pretty quickly.

Ok and what's your opinion on how the TV series relates to the comics, which is better or has a better feel? The series is set in Atlanta right?

I've watched the series, but I can't help with the comics. Its definitely a great show. As for Conan's question it looks like Rick is gonna leave him for dead in the upcoming show. We'll see how it plays out, but i'm assuming to throw a curve in they will have rick save him from certain doom. Great show though, very well written, acted, and filmed. Checks it out for sure.

Conan is right, the series diverts from the comics enough that they stand to each their own. Personally, I enjoyed the comics a bit more than the series, and not simply because one doesn't follow the other. The first season of the series was kind of slow and not as fun to follow as the comic. The second season however is picking up big time. And in answer to your question Conan:

It started out moving along nicely but the show is crawling so god damned slowly. The actors are all good the story is good, the zombies are good, but it just needs to progress a little faster. I mean half the episode is relatively unimportant conversations in the house.

I mean the idea of zombies leaves a massive window of things that could happen in the world around them.

Something I don't like so much about The Walking Dead is how incredibly "american" the production is. Everyone's really sentimental about everything, talk whether or not stuff was meant to happen and have these little emotional personality clashes all the time. Their feelings and actions seem to be less realistic and more obviously belong to characters in a play which sort of mimics real life, but not perfectly by a long shot. The drama moves along way too slowly and, in my opinion, really is not that interesting. The zombies are cool, though, and I wish they'd speed it up a bit. 5 or so episodes into season 2, it just feels like a show that's going nowhere.

Am I the only one that wishes Lori would I don't know, fall in a hole and die ? Get eaten ? Get massacred by guys with machetes (like iirc in the comic) ? She's seriously spoiling my otherwise decent to quite good zombie experience with all the whining and unnecessary drama. It's a zombie show, not a soap opera ffs...
I actually like Shane, i feel he could be the group's greatest asset, but .. he's in love with the whiner and because of that, once they do kill him (Spoiler alert: apparently it will happen around the season's end) I don't think I'll miss him that much.
Another one that should imo bite the bullet or sth is the old man Dale. Maybe in the beginning he was some sort of a moral compass for the group, but now the compass is broken and only whines.

Anyway, if you read the Zombie Survival Guide, feel warned this show is .. let's say "silly". I was hoping for a show that would be serious and logical, a show where actions have consequences, a real fight for survival. What I got is a soap opera with walkers. Everybody loves somebody, it's like there was a stupidity virus released along the zombie one ...
Yac.

I'm personally fine with the drama. It's the characters that make it interesting, not so much the zombies... the zombies are just a background for the character development.

On that note, I pretty much assume everyone will die. A few will slowly start to die off, starting with Shane, then maybe Glenn... then I think Lori. It'll be one, maybe two at the most, per season.

Then in the season finale they all die suddenly and with little warning, ending with Rick either making a heroic one-man face off against a horde of zombies, or seeing everyone he knows and loves getting massacred, so he holes up in a closet that is threatening to collapse under all the walkers, and shoots himself. One or the other.

Anyway, Shane looks like he's on the edge of death, which is great with me. He's an *******.

Lori is whiny, but not too terrible a character.

Bottom line. Everyone dies, I am tired and rambling.

i agree with most of the criticisms here

more zombies, less talky feely

i got Season 1 but my attention already waned by the fouth episode

i don't really think i'll be getting Season 2

it's like the survivors' normal often boring life, then a zombie attack, then rewind, ad nauseaum

I personally think the character development is the show's greatest asset. There's plenty of mindless zombie gore out there, but in how many zombie flicks do you actually worry about the characters when they're put in these impossible situations? I feel like I'm watching Lost in the post-apocalypse and it's really compelling. I don't want these characters to die but deep down I know that in The Walking Dead, no one can live forever.

I do think they've lingered around the farm too long, a bit like they lingered around the hatch during Lost second season. As for Lori, her and Shane handled Rick coming back like a couple of Jr. High schoolers. I have a feeling it would have been much easier for the both of them to tell Rick if Lori wouldn't have been so pissy about Shane "lying" to her about Rick being dead. I'd have said the same thing if I were in Shane's position. I mean, last time he saw him he was in a coma with no medical staff around and an army of flesh eating dead people engulfing the hospital.

I don't know, there was an obvious contrast between Rick and Shane at the start of the show but as it developed I now fail to see the light between the two, they both annoy the hell out of me and have me rooting for the zombies :( a bit like having another Jack instead of John Locke.
I see Dale as the their polar opposite and would rather see him have more of a say into what goes on.

There's just nothing interesting going on in the world of The Walking Dead besides zombies. The characters are not in a terribly interesting place, they are not trying to get somewhere, we don't know what happened to government, we've not seen any other interesting groups of people who are getting by somehow. I don't find the guys at the farm very interesting.

The major drama where I'm at is :

The major going-ons just don't seem terribly interesting, but perhaps they would be if the writers were good. But, I felt none of those things have been handled in a way that makes it particularly entertaining to watch and overall, I feel the zombie apocalypse should have more to offer when it comes to entertainment.

I've just watched episode 1 of the 1st season and first impressions! Well I was initially disappointed that they used the start of 28 Days Later with the main protaganist waking up in a hospital and no idea what had happened, the usual format then of meeting some friendly characters and then quickly leaving them was very predictable, as was the familiarity the zombies had with their previous life (the wife trying to open the door of where she used to live). Good points though, I thought the action scenes very spontaneus and the gory stuff done well. I really liked when Mr.Sherriff got surrounded by zombies and then when his doom was nigh quickly slipped beneath the tank and then when there was no hope of escape, slipping into the service entrance of the tank! I like the idea that they are using a city like Atlanta too and especially the shot when riding on a horse down the freeway to the city.

Reading about the series, I read the series creator wanted to base the style of the series on the first Romero flick "Night of the Living Dead" meaning a heavier focus on some of the characters and based on flicking through these posts some don't seem too pleased on how this has been done.


The bottom line for me though, is that I'm a sucker for zombie flicks and even a medicore story will still keep me interested and I'm making sure I don't read any spoilers on the thread.

^The opening follows the comic which it is based on. It follows it pretty well in the beginning, but less so the further into the show you get.

Have the comics but so much else to read so have left them, so decided to watch the series.

Have just seen episode 3 of season 1 and gotta say really loving the show.

Resident Evil 2 ripped off that intro as well

I didn't like a lot of the dialogue and drama in the first season either. The actor they chose for the Sheriff doesn't seem... rugged enough for the role. He looks like an art teacher or something and I just don't buy it when they have him act tough. Wish they would go more into all of the other character's history. They killed um off too quickly. Haven't read the comics (didn't know it was based on a comic, I've got quite a stack to get through first anyways though) and I watch TV via streaming on Netflix so I'll have to wait 'till the second season is over before I can watch any of it. :{

But Resident Evil 2 was out a bit before 28 Days Later.

^^then vice versa

The comic and those films came out so close to each other I doubt there was any plagiarism.

I've just finished season 1 and loved every single episode, the sentimentality that a lot on here seem to dislike is something I really dig, we here in the UK don't really do it that well, so I always enjoy seeing it in a US series and I really like the characters as well. I'm also glad they didn't spend too much time in the underground complex as that would've been boring.

I hoping one handed Merle returns in season 2, I guess he does, as the actor that plays him Michael Rooker was the only actor that I knew quite well, these series always need a badass one-handed redneck to really ignite some tension:laughing:

I've missed out on a lot of the posts here, as I'm sure thery're full of spoilers on season 2.

But is it done well? Perhaps norwegians are not a particularly sentimental people, but I can't help feeling that it's not realistic. Would people really react this way emotionally and behaviourally to the situation/environment they're in? I can't help feeling it just seems fake.

The characters in the british Dead Set miniseries actually seemed more real to me.

Did you have any examples that you were referring to?

Never seen Dead Set but have made a note of it.

It's in the details of how the characters interact, like how emotionally loaded things are, and so there would be examples in every episode. It's not an obvious thing, but more like something that's slightly "off". I definetly feel it has most to do with Rock, Lori and Shane. I don't remember the dialogues in my head so it's hard to remember a specific example. Rather, I notice it as I watch, but I could find an example of what I mean had I had the episodes on the computer. My comp broke down some time ago, though, so I don't have them.

If I get them, I'll try and remember to find a specific example ;) I guess I should watch the rest of season 2 .. Just in case it picks up towards the end.

I'm guessing things would be very emotionally loaded if the dead were really walking. To have ex-family and friends seeing you as the main course must be very unnerving:laughing: If human beings were really put into this situation I'd expect them to behave in a similiar manner, its kind of like one of these reality shows where a bunch of people (often strangers) have to interact with one another to survive and they often end up spilling out their live stories to each other. If a zombie outbreak really did occur in real life, I'd expect things to go like so, with all trhe best and worst human qualities coming out.

As for the characters you've mentioned, that can often be a weakness in the actors themselves rather than the script.

In regards to the zombies and related trauma, it sometimes seems emotions are underplayed rather than exaggerated while people are really quick to jump the gun if there's any social drama going on, like a reaction to criticism. I've also noticed that the characters have no humour which is one of the most basic human coping mechanisms. I've seen dead people as I've been in a search and rescue group and you can bet there was a lot of humour going on during those searches.

It's like the characters only have a very few sides to their personalities. Rick is only ever brooding and contemplative. When he's angry, he's always keeping the lid on in this strained, dramatic way. The other characters are more or less fake in the same way. Everyone's dead serious all the time, no nuances.

Sure when in traumatic situations, emotions can come across as exaggerated whether in a just manner or in a form of seeking attention for the person' s situation, but then again do we really want to be watching a series with people wailing and screaming all through the episodes? I think the exaggeration of human emotions being underplayed is a positive for the series (though I can see people criticizing that for being maybre unreal)

I do agree about the lack of humour though, to be honest I never even noticed the lack of it in the series until you just mentioned it, so I guess for me its not a problem.

Not necessarily, but I do like characters that seem like they are real. They are relatable. If they scream and wail, you may understand why that is. If they laugh out of despair, perhaps you understand why that is. If they get into a heated argument, that's perhaps also something you can understand. All the characters in this show do seem to be brooding about stuff, like there's a ****load of tense drama going on that never quite reaches the surface. It sounds exciting, but it makes the whole thing less relatable and frankly becomes a bore.

Of course, this is just my opinion, but I feel like the characters in Dead Set, although it was only 5 episodes, express a wider variety of feelings and personality than the cast of Walking Dead which seem more like characters from a comic than real humans beings.

Oh wow. Latest episode is every reason I enjoy this show. Really complex web of drama and incredibly tense zombie scenes, including some of the darkest material they've yet to do.

Yeah, that was a great episode. I was really hoping Maggie was going to kick Andrea's ass though. That would have made the episode just that much better.

Honestly, I was expecting (and kind of hoping) that Maggie's blonde sister (whatever her name is) was going to end up dying. I also expected (and was definitely hoping!) that Shane was going to be left in the bus, but somehow makes it out alive anyway... only to come back and cause problems for everyone else later.

It was a good episode, but NOTHING got accomplished. Sister is still alive, as she was. Rick and Shane are back to having an awkward, tense relationship. Kid who they rescued may or may not be killed... it's all how it was at the start of the episode.

That said... it was still good. I was squirming through the whole thing, waiting for the zombies to attack, and the zombie scenes were excellent.

I wouldn't say nothing got done. Rick and Shane's partnership is seemingly on the mend after Rick risked everything to save Shane.

Anyone else think that T-Dog is absurdly underused on the show? Ever since he cut his arm he's been barely there at all. He wasn't in this episode at all and the past few episodes he's mostly been in the background with only a line or two per show. It's bizarre. They need to give the guy conflict of some kind.

Yeah, it is strange. He's hardly part of the show. I can't remember when he was useful for anything.

Just saw episodes 6 and 7 from season two. The latter was quite exciting, more so than the previous ones I thought. Hoping it keeps up until the season's end!

I've noticed it as well. He sort of served as an important device to demonstrate Daryl's difference from his brother, but beyond that he's just sort of been hanging around and cleaning up bodies every now and then. I think him and Daryl could have an interesting dynamic, but it seems thus far it's all been about the (totally unexpected) relationship between Daryl and Caroline.

I was just thinking about that. My personal opinion is that if the writers don't give him something to do in the story, he's going to be killed in some way.

The problem is he has no purpose story-wise. He doesn't have any romantic interest, he doesn't really interact with anyone... if he, Daryl, and Caroline had a love triangle going... that would at least give him something to do.

So I just saw season 2 episode 10, and I enjoy that the action has picked up a little. But what I really came here to say is that I was astounded and highly pleased that they used a clip off the new Wooden Shjips album West, at the 8:00 marker for those unsure. Not to give anything away, it's the first time you see the guy with headphones on. They use 3 different songs, and I'm not sure what the other two are, but I noticed it right off ... took me about 2 seconds to go "I have that song! That's Wooden Shjips from San Francisco!"