The Walking Dead tap dances onto AMC for Season 4

[CeeKay]

Because they taste awful?

how do you know?

besides, they probably have a nasty aftertaste in their mouth all the time anyways.

[CeeKay]

proof that zombies can taste good.

[CeeKay]

a new promo moonwalks onto AMC.

[Turtle]

Because it would defeat the purpose of whatever made them to keep spreading?

[CeeKay]

some impressions from IGN stroll in from NY Comic con

[Moliere]

even Zombies need government permits.

The National Park Service says it has no permit filed for zombie activity at the Lincoln Memorial Tuesday morning by AMC, a posse of zombies, or anyone else.

If the zombies are planning a "demonstration," they would need a permit -- if the group of un-dead numbers 26 or more. A group of 25 or fewer zombies would not need a permit for a "demonstration," Terry Adams, public affairs officer of the National Park Service explains to WaPo TeamTV's Mall bureau chief David Montgomery.

If the Zombies visit is a "special event" instead of a "demonstration," they would need a permit, no matter how small the group, Adam adds.

[envy24]

damn it...i just realized that this starts on sunday... we are moving into our new place saturday and wont get cable til the 4th!!!!! DAMN IT!!!!  stoopid u-verse taking forever to get an appointment.

[morlac]

damn it...i just realized that this starts on sunday... we are moving into our new place saturday and wont get cable til the 4th!!!!! DAMN IT!!!!  stoopid u-verse taking forever to get an appointment.

I'm sure it will be avaialble online somewheres.

[PeteRock]

I was a huge zombie fan as a kid, but as I've gotten older I've lost my obsession with the genre.  Primarily the horror genre in general, as I just don't handle scares like I did as a kid.  However, after reading Patient Zero by Jonathan Maybery and keeping an eye on buzz surrounding The Walking Dead, I am hoping to catch the premier Sunday night.  Knowing that it is being directed by Darabont of Shawshank Redemption fame and seeing the dramatic elements featured in recent ads, this could be a series that keeps me watching.

[CeeKay]

damn it...i just realized that this starts on sunday... we are moving into our new place saturday and wont get cable til the 4th!!!!! DAMN IT!!!!  stoopid u-verse taking forever to get an appointment.

don't worry, I'll watch it for you.

[Blackjack]

They're also airing Zack Snyder's "Dawn of the Dead" remake just before this premieres Sunday. I'd rather see Romero's original, although I quite enjoyed Snyder's take too.

In college in 1987 I got to take a "Horror Fiction" English class that was just too much damn fun. We even watched Night of the Living Dead on a VCR in class and wrote essay papers on it.   The teacher was a nice woman who specialized mostly in Shakespeare and feminist literature, and I never quite understood where she got into horror so much too (we read both classic and contemporary for the class). That and a Science Fiction class I took were definitely my favorites.

I think the tricky thing with zombie flix is making the survivors flawed but appealing. If you just make them jerks screaming bad dialogue (Romero's "Day of the Dead" comes to mind), in the end you just don't care if the survivors live or die or become sausage links.   I enjoyed Zombieland because it was both funny and scary, but also because I liked most of the survivors enough to root for them.

btw, I hate AMC for turning me into a couch potato watching various terrible slasher films the last couple weeks.  I stayed up until midnight watching Halloween II even though I darn well know how it ends. I guess I was hoping a horde of zombies would charge in and eat Michael Myers at the end, and save the day. 

[Blackjack]

Hey that Hero Complex blog that had the big Batman 3 movie title scoop also has an interview with the lead actor, and apparently they'll have some more leading up to The Walking Dead's debut Sunday. He's British btw, though I assume he doesn't use that accent in the show.

I guess if you want to go into the show knowing nothing about it, don't read these things. It only got me more keen about the show. 

‘Walking Dead’ star Andrew Lincoln aims for Gary Cooper in zombie hell
http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2010/10/26/walking-dead-star-andrew-lincoln-aims-for-gary-cooper-in-zombie-hell/

A.L.: The thing that I hope for the series is that people don’t see it necessarily as a genre piece. I hope people have the same reaction that I did when I first read the pilot. The overriding thing that I really got from the script I was just surprised, it surprised me and it felt new. And it keeps changing, the show, which was really impressive. I loved the way every episode kind of kept moving on and shape shifting.

[CeeKay]

Got my dvr all set to go.

[Blackjack]

A CNN interview with the comic book's creator Robert Kirkman, who apparently also did the screenplay for (I think) episode 4:
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/showbiz/2010/10/28/natpkg.the.walking.dead.cnn?hpt=Sbin

Once it airs, I'm waiting for someone to do a Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Rubicon, The Walking Dead mash-up.   It'll be the best-dressed, conspiracy theorist, drug dealer zombie show ever. 

[Blackjack]

Not sure if someone else already linked this, there's a fun, timed Survival Test at the official site:
http://www.amctv.com/originals/The-Walking-Dead/survival-test

My score was "Alpha Male."   You get to see some cool images from the show in the course of taking it.

[Ironrod]

"Hillbilly Survivalist".

I'm not much into the zombie schtick but will instruct the DVR to record this anyway. Looks like it could be funny.

[Blackjack]

Hey the premiere is 90 minutes. Try to stick it out til the end. :-) Among other things, they show highlights from the season (which is only six episodes, but I guess maybe each is 90 minutes or thereabouts. AMC always has too many damn ad breaks imho, but they seemed less for this).

It's mostly dead serious and sad. If you watch it expecting Zombieland or Shaun of the Dead, you'll be disappointed. Some serious gore, albeit in small doses. I found the first half a bit pokey at times, but I stuck with it. 

[PeteRock]

Hey the premiere is 2 hours long.

It's mostly dead serious and sad. If you watch it expecting Zombieland or Shaun of the Dead, you'll be disappointed. Some serious gore, albeit in small doses.

Actually it's only 90 minutes, but commercials were few and far between and the pacing felt just right.  That 90 minutes goes by pretty quickly.

In terms of the humor of Zombieland or Shaun of the Dead, I expected a very serious, suspenseful story about the impact such a global disaster will have on humanity, survival instincts, etc.  I got exactly what I was expecting and hoping for. 

For those who may have missed it, they've got two more encore presentations of the premier.

I loved the start, which was unexpected but refreshingly in-your-face and not afraid of critics or negative feedback.  The characters draw you in (the black man and his son were great and I was truly touched by the man's struggle he was going through), there is an ongoing tension throughout the show, and the final 10 minutes left me so anxious for next week's episode that I don't know how I'm going to wait. 

Spoiler tags for those who have not yet watched the first episode:

Spoiler for Hiden:

The "oh shit" moment in Atlanta when he rounded the corner in pursuit of the chopper flying by made me actually say "oh shit" out loud, and the tank sequence was tense, scary, and you really felt the lead character's time coming to a premature end.  When he apologized to his wife and son, despite knowing there would be future episodes in the series, I still felt like it was all over.  That's saying something about the direction, the acting, and the genuine feeling demonstrated by the cast.

 

Awesome.  But now I have to wait for next week.   

[Blackjack]

I was referring to Ironrod's take that he thought it would be "funny."  I corrected my 2 hour take, I just assumed maybe they had cobbled two 1-hour episodes for premiere night.

[Caine]

That was really good and despite how it breaks from the book, it does it well and is pretty well written. The gore is right on target so my expectations for later episodes is good. I do expect some heavy censoring in some later episdes, but I would never fault them for that. The story is far more dark then than in the beginning.   

[Autistic Angel]

As much as I'd like to spend time correcting Caine's assertion that the premiere departed from the book, the fact that I've never read the book or even known it existed would make it a short conversation.  We'll just have to agree to disagree, except for the part about The Walking Dead being awesome because it was.

It's interesting that the zombies retain little shreds of who they used to be.  The 28 Days Later and World War Z variety are easy to put down because they're nothing but soulless, ravenous monsters in the shape of people.  The George Romero type, though: the ones who still recognize toothbrushes and telephones and who gravitate towards places that were important to them in life -- I think that glimmer of humanity makes them that much more horrible.  The little girl clutching the teddy bear is always harder to shoot in the face.

-Autistic Angel

[PeteRock]

I was referring to Ironrod's take that he thought it would be "funny." 

Ah, I had forgotten he mentioned that.  I wasn't expecting any humor, although I think with how "heavy" the material is, they may have to break up the tension and seriousness at least on occasion with a little humor.  Otherwise I fear the show will be a bit too serious.  I'm not looking for slapstick nonsense (such as Michael Jackson dancing through the electrocution scene in Return of the Living Dead), but I think an occasional hint of humor will briefly lighten the mood to give us a short reprieve from the weight of the situation. 

Still, that is an extremely minor gripe (if you can even call it that), and overall the pacing felt decent, except I felt they could have dealt a little more with Rick's mental adjustment to dealing with the world he woke up to.  After being in a coma for.........do we know how long he was out?.........he wakes up to borderline Armageddon.  The dead are walking and feeding on the living, the world is in chaos, humans are few and far between, and he learns a quick, disjointed summary from the man and child he initially meets.  References to "the fever", transmission of the virus through bites, but there is obviously SO much more that must have taken place.  What about government, other areas of the world, other areas of the country, other areas of the state, etc?  Rick missed a whole hell of a lot, and he's only briefly told that the dead are walking and he should avoid being "bit."  He asked few to no questions and merely accepted the fate of the world as it stands.  I'd expect any one of us in a similar situation to ask a shit-ton of questions.  But he saddles up and heads for Atlanta. 

Outside of how quickly Rick is to accept the world he woke up to, the show itself tells a compelling story, the "oh shit" moments are genuinely frightening (not in terms of silly scares, but the magnitude of how much danger the characters are in), and I'm anxious to see how things develop once Rick meets up with more survivors. 

The tank sequence was just too cool. 

[Nonnahob]

Two thumbs up. I really enjoyed it. I'm already drawn in with the main character and his family / best friend.

I laughed my ass off at the end

Spoiler for Hiden:

when the guys like "hey dumbass, yeah you in the tank"

.

Can't wait for next week... am I right in hearing that a "season" will consist of six episodes though? That seems really short.

[Crawley]

This turned out a lot better than I thought. I've read the first three "books" in the series and overall thought the books were just ok. So the series was a nice improvement adding some new scenes and situations. Hopefully they can keep it up.

The last 5 minutes or so were when it took a dive for me. It basically turned in to the a-typical zombie horror flick with the moaning and the chomping on guts and what not. Wish they had done something unexpected or new there rather than same old same old. Then to follow that up with an odd music montage kinda turned me off.

But up until that point I was really enjoying what was there.

[Blackjack]

This turned out a lot better than I thought. I've read the first three "books" in the series and overall thought the books were just ok. So the series was a nice improvement adding some new scenes and situations. Hopefully they can keep it up.

The last 5 minutes or so were when it took a dive for me. It basically turned in to the a-typical zombie horror flick with the moaning and the chomping on guts and what not. Wish they had done something unexpected or new there rather than same old same old. Then to follow that up with an odd music montage kinda turned me off.

But up until that point I was really enjoying what was there.

Interesting. I was going to say some of the pilot episode struck me as pokey in pacing at times (I guess a lot of it is necessarily gabby exposition that might be handled by narrative caption balloons in a comic), and sometimes I was yawning and saying, "Is this the right show? Are there any zombies in this show?" And then my jaw dropped later in the episode, and I thought "I hope the rest of the series is more like this." Hopefully the show can balance those sorts of expectations.  

In a way, it seemed odd to segue into something more deliberate and mood-setting like The Walking Dead by showing Zak Snyder's hyper-adrenalized "assault you from the first 5 minutes" Dawn of the Dead remake right before it. I enjoyed The Walking Dead and I'll be watching it every Sunday. It's just the juxtaposition of those two drastically different takes on zombie-dom was jarring, if still fun.

On the end...

Spoiler for Hiden:

I was kind hoping he's get on the .50 cal. gun and do some serious zombie clearing. 

And I wonder if the interior of an M-1 tank really looks like that?  

[Caine]

If it's only going to be 6 90 minute episodes, it will be a long time before the show catches up with the novels. By my estimate, the premiere covered about the first third of the first book. Not complaining btw. It means they will have lots of time to flesh out the story. I like the expanded sequences so far

[Ironrod]

I was referring to Ironrod's take that he thought it would be "funny." 

Ah, I had forgotten he mentioned that.  I wasn't expecting any humor, although I think with how "heavy" the material is, they may have to break up the tension and seriousness at least on occasion with a little humor.  Otherwise I fear the show will be a bit too serious.  I'm not looking for slapstick nonsense (such as Michael Jackson dancing through the electrocution scene in Return of the Living Dead), but I think an occasional hint of humor will briefly lighten the mood to give us a short reprieve from the weight of the situation. 

I find zombies inherently absurd, so I'm probably not going to like this show if it takes itself too seriously. The only zombie movie I ever enjoyed was Shaun of the Dead. I did record the pilot and will eventually watch it, even knowing that it's not tongue-in-cheek. I'm less thrilled about AMC being one of those double-digit SD channels...maybe blurry zombies will be scarier than HD zombies. 

[Blackjack]

I don't know if each episode is 90 minutes or if that's just the pilot. You'd think that would be easy enough to find out, so far I haven't. 

Ratings were apparently pretty awesome for an AMC show -- 5 million viewers, which is bigger than the premiere for any of their other original shows. Hopefully that wasn't strictly a Hallloween-night viewing spasm, and the ratings will keep up.

*THE Q&A LINK BELOW HAS SPOILERS, if you didn't get around to watching your DVR or whatever*
EW has a Q&A with the comic book creator Robert Kirkman:
http://popwatch.ew.com/2010/11/01/walking-dead-amc-pilot-kirkman/
I'm snipping a few interesting points that don't go into plot points:

It was always a question as to how much of that they were going to show, and AMC has surprised us with everything that they’re allowing us to do. There was a plan at one point to shoot a lot of gore—which is what we did—but the original plan was to have re-edited versions of the episodes, that would go on DVD. But at this point, AMC hasn’t really made us pull anything.

[PeteRock]

For those who have free On-Demand services with their cable company (we do with Cox cable) the first episode is already available, both in standard definition as well as high definition.  I am guilty of forgetting about our free On-Demand service and often find myself browsing the same channels over and over again wondering when something worth watching will be on TV.  Every once in a while I'll remember On-Demand and find something I've been meaning to catch up on, such as Top Chef, or Glee ( ).  I'm seriously considering watching the first episode of The Walking Dead again to pay closer attention as during the premier I was trying to work on review problems for my upcoming chemistry exam while also watching the show. 

It's worth checking out for those who may have missed the first episode or for those who would like to see it again at their convenience.   

[joeyjazz]

Can't wait for next week... am I right in hearing that a "season" will consist of six episodes though? That seems really short.

This first season is 6 episodes, they're planning for all future seasons to be 13 episodes.

[Punisher]

I don't know if each episode is 90 minutes or if that's just the pilot. You'd think that would be easy enough to find out, so far I haven't. 

Ratings were apparently pretty awesome for an AMC show -- 5 million viewers, which is bigger than the premiere for any of their other original shows. Hopefully that wasn't strictly a Hallloween-night viewing spasm, and the ratings will keep up.

*THE Q&A LINK BELOW HAS SPOILERS, if you didn't get around to watching your DVR or whatever*
EW has a Q&A with the comic book creator Robert Kirkman:
http://popwatch.ew.com/2010/11/01/walking-dead-amc-pilot-kirkman/
I'm snipping a few interesting points that don't go into plot points:

It was always a question as to how much of that they were going to show, and AMC has surprised us with everything that they’re allowing us to do. There was a plan at one point to shoot a lot of gore—which is what we did—but the original plan was to have re-edited versions of the episodes, that would go on DVD. But at this point, AMC hasn’t really made us pull anything.

They mentioned this in Comic Con... They were all real surprised at how much AMC has let them get away with.... Now they have to think of other things for the DVD special..

[rickfc]

Finally finished watching it early this morning, and it was fantastic.  Well acted and directed.  I'm looking forward to the rest of the season.

[rickfc]

It's worth checking out...for those who would like to see it again at their convenience.   

You could also use one of them doohickies - digital video recorder things.   

[PeteRock]

It's worth checking out...for those who would like to see it again at their convenience.   

You could also use one of them doohickies - digital video recorder things.   

Not if you don't have one.  I was suggesting an option that didn't require the purchase/rental of additional cable equipment.

[rickfc]

It's worth checking out...for those who would like to see it again at their convenience.   

You could also use one of them doohickies - digital video recorder things.   

Not if you don't have one.  I was suggesting an option that didn't require the purchase/rental of additional cable equipment.

Totally un-fabulous.

[kratz]

Bah... there is a spot for this to be on our on demand menu... but no show... just a few clips.

It seems my most reasonably timed time to view this before the second episode is out is tonight. At midnight.  Ugh.  We'll see...  I sure wish it was on demand.

[msteelers]

You can watch the whole episode on their website.

[Blackjack]

I hope the show doesn't wander into an indoor mall setting. So passe now. It's gotta be some upscale mega-strip shopping complex or "Town Center" development (all the rage here in Virginia) or just a huge big box store.  

Since it's a "slow Romero zombie" series, they gotta rely on claustrophobia or just sheer numbers to scare you. So I'm eager to see what kinds of environments we'll see in the rest of the episodes.

[kratz]

You can watch the whole episode on their website.

Oh, sweet. Thanks!

[theohall]

It's also available on Hulu.