The Walking Dead

[MadMan]

Season = 13 to 20+ episodes.
Series = 6 - 8 episodes.

Dr. Who (the new show)'s series are always longer than 8 episodes, that's for sure. I call them series only because that's what the British call the seasons of their TV shows, no matter how long they are.

[[ETM]]

With British TV, there's no pressure to deliver a season of a show every year - that's why it's a "season" in the US. Brits just make a series whenever they have material that's worth it. Doctor Who has an annual cycle that's close to what we're used to from the US, but it's still not set in stone.

[MadMan]

Even though that's meant certain British shows I love (Luther, Life on Mars for example) either have short shelf lives or they have really short series. But I don't mind that, overall. I loved 24, but the seasons always were too damn long-and Lost benefited from having shorter 4 and 5 seasons.

[Lucky]

Wow, the numbers this show got are unbelievable. AMC is breaking the ice to become more relevant than NBC these days.

[Ezee E]

Wow, the numbers this show got are unbelievable. AMC is breaking the ice to become more relevant than NBC these days.

What's the word on AMC anyways? Didn't Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and Walking Dead put them so over budget that they're either going to have to sell one off, or do shit shows afterwards?

[Irish]

What's the word on AMC anyways? Didn't Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and Walking Dead put them so over budget that they're either going to have to sell one off, or do shit shows afterwards?

Things I have read:

- They pretty much pumped all their money into Mad Men, but delayed it for a year.
- Subsequently, they gave Darabont et al a lot of static over budgets for Walking Dead.
- They gave Vince Gilligan the run around during negotiations for next season. They were pretty hard line about it, which is .. strange.
- AMC brass has no idea how to handle this level of success.

My guess is that their ad rates are screwy, and they don't have enough money to go around. This is why they make moves like delaying production on full seasons of critically acclaimed and popular shows (like they did with Breaking Bad and now Mad Men.)

Edit: The Walking Dead numbers are bizarre, though. Not only did they blow the network shows out of the water, they doubled their viewship from last season. Who's watching this show now, that wasn't interested last year?

[number8]

People who caught it on Netflix in time for the premiere.

[sevenarts]

Well that was... really not so good. The actual zombie action and suspense is great. The zombies look and act creepy as hell, and there are some wonderfully tense sequences, like the herd scene. (Though yeah, as someone else said, it was pretty funny when they showed the wide shot - did the zombies suddenly materialize out of thin air?) But everything else about the show is pretty weak - the characters are thin, the dialogue is all awkward speeches and monologues, and the pacing is really uneven.

The funny thing is, the comics, which I love, are also prone to speechifying and overly wordy monologues, but it doesn't bother me in that case because 1) the characters are much more richly depicted and varied in the comics; and 2) the form of comics means that even Robert Kirkman's clunkiest monologues aren't as momentum-halting and painful as the bad dialogue on the show. They're different forms, and the showrunners don't seem to have realized that while Kirkman can get away with some speechifying and word-balloon-heavy pages in the comics, the effect doesn't work nearly as well on TV. On the show, almost every time someone opens their mouth everything grinds to a halt so someone can spill their guts or make a Big Moral Point or tell a forced story about their past.

I liked some of last season, even a lot of it, but the show's worst tendencies seem to be getting more overwhelming rather than being fixed. I really want to love this show, I want to be as excited about a weekly TV zombie fix as I am about my monthly comic zombie fix, but it's just mostly not working so far. I want to care about these characters the way I care about the huge cast that has been in Kirkman's series over time, but they're not giving me much to work with there either.

[Dukefrukem]

I thought the episode was crap too. Diverted from the main story and felt like a side story- something that Lost would do all the time that irritated me.

[Irish]

The funny thing is, the comics, which I love, are also prone to speechifying and overly wordy monologues, but it doesn't bother me in that case because 1) the characters are much more richly depicted and varied in the comics; and 2) the form of comics means that even Robert Kirkman's clunkiest monologues aren't as momentum-halting and painful as the bad dialogue on the show. They're different forms, and the showrunners don't seem to have realized that while Kirkman can get away with some speechifying and word-balloon-heavy pages in the comics, the effect doesn't work nearly as well on TV. On the show, almost every time someone opens their mouth everything grinds to a halt so someone can spill their guts or make a Big Moral Point or tell a forced story about their past.

This killed me. The episode has not one but two prayer based monologues and both of them lasted more than thirty seconds. I didn't have the patience for it and fast forwarded both times.

The rest was decent, not great. The last 2 minutes was intereting, but pushed my suspension of dsbelief.

But like everything else with this show they take a premise with almost endless possibilities and do the most obvious thing with it.

[MadMan]

Tonight's episode was fairly solid, but it was really one of those "Bridge" episodes where not much happens, but its all set up for next week. TV shows would be better off limiting those, and I'm glad that a truly great show such as Community at least utilizes those episodes to feature something interesting, funny, or create something with worthy payoff.

Also wtf was with the whole race issue that the show dragged up for no reason? Of course the redneck hunter guy has all the good drugs! Wahoo!

[Sxottlan]

I thought the episode was crap too. Diverted from the main story and felt like a side story- something that Lost would do all the time that irritated me.

I think I actually like that about the first two episodes of this season, splitting the group up a bit to see some different character dynamics.

Not that Lost didn't sometimes go overboard with that. There would be stretches where I couldn't remember the last time characters saw each other.

[Thirdmango]

They used some sounds in this episode that I knew I had heard from fallout 3.

[number8]

So with Darabont fired, looks like we're never getting that Stephen King-written episode that he was planning to do.

[Dead & Messed Up]

So with Darabont fired, looks like we're never getting that Stephen King-written episode that he was planning to do.

I've seen Stephen-penned TV before. Aside from Storm of the Century, it's mostly disposable.

[number8]

I've seen Stephen-penned TV before. Aside from Storm of the Century, it's mostly disposable.

It's not like it matters, really, since it's American serial television so it's made in consensus. The only thing a writer leaves on a typical serial TV episode is dialogue (like how Kirkman's stamp was ALL OVER that first 2nd season episode, what with the verbosity), and I'm not big on King's dialogue. It's no big loss, but it would have been interesting to see how it would turn out.

[Ezee E]

Where's Mamet been anyway?

How about Mamet zombie episode? :lol:

[MadMan]

Where's Mamet been anyway?

How about Mamet zombie episode? :lol:

That would be interesting, to say the least.

[Henry Gale]

I feel like I'm in the minority considering the response I've seen with it, but this new episode might have been my favourite since the pilot.

Maybe it's just that it's been a year since Season 1, but for a lot of last week's premiere I was struggling to remember who certain characters even were, let alone why I care about them. Thankfully this week's episode gave a pretty good showcase for everyone (except for Glenn, who the writers still seem to be struggling with), pushing a lot of them to their extremes, but still spending more time effectively dealing with them for long periods of time than any episode I can recall so far. All of that while still creating a constant, intense threat of the walkers, as distant and out of sight as they are for most of the hour. I really enjoyed the episode.

I agree some of the characters make stupid decisions, but I'm not as quick to attribute that to bad writing as a lot of people online seem to. The whole show is essentially these characters in panic mode. You up those stakes even more with their children going missing or being badly injured, infected wounds, etc., as a viewer I'd be more upset if they didn't start doing questionable things.

[megladon8]

Lori has really grown to be one of the most detestable characters in modern television.

[number8]

BLUE METH!!! :lol: :lol: ritch:

[[ETM]]

What's with the recent show wife-hating?

[amberlita]

BLUE METH!!! :lol: :lol: ritch:

Holy shit. You know, I'm so used to seeing meth as blue that I didn't even blink at what was in that bag. Brilliant.

I don't understand the Lori hate either. I think she's great, a really strong female character, even if they writers did her a disservice the past episode having her give the good veterinarian such a hard time.

[Ezee E]

How funny would a crossover be where Mike takes out like 30 zombies, and then tells Walt/Jesse to get back to work.

[Dukefrukem]

I forgot to watch this off my DVR last night because I was playing Batman. :|

I think I actually like that about the first two episodes of this season, splitting the group up a bit to see some different character dynamics.

Not that Lost didn't sometimes go overboard with that. There would be stretches where I couldn't remember the last time characters saw each other.

No Lost abused this technique. There was half a season where some of the characters were stuck in cages, which is far as I can tell, the only purpose it served was to setup the love triangle between Jack, Kate and Sawyer.