The Walking Dead tap dances onto AMC for Season 4

[Isgrimnur]

I agree That the guts thing was new and created some of the most tense moments I have ever experienced in a television, once i stopped laughing at sausage links hanging around their necks

You do know that sausage casings are made of intestines, right?

[morlac]

I'm Polish so that is learned at birth.  They just looked like sausage links hanging from the necks and not intestines. 

[Crawley]

I agree That the guts thing was new and created some of the most tense moments I have ever experienced in a television, once i stopped laughing at sausage links hanging around their necks

I dunno. That seemed familar to me. Either something I read or had seen in another zombie movie where that was tried. The blending in thing certainly has been done going way back to Invasion of the Body Snatchers. But for whatever reason it didn't seem a new concept to me. I'm probably just geeking out on zombie lore knowledge.

As for the moral dilemma that would have probably worked better if the guy wasn't such a threat. He was ready to fight and potentionally kill others. If he was released that likely would have happened again so why let them go? If the person was someone who was weak, confused and in need of assistance it would have been more impactful. I think they missed the mark on it.

[morlac]

As for the moral dilemma that would have probably worked better if the guy wasn't such a threat. He was ready to fight and potentionally kill others. If he was released that likely would have happened again so why let them go? If the person was someone who was weak, confused and in need of assistance it would have been more impactful. I think they missed the mark on it.

Yea probably, but he was the end of the slippery slope that the others started on by just leaving him there to starve and rot.  Sure he was easy to leave but the next decision won't be so easy and the next and next, etc.  look at the refugee camp, they had an argument about trying to go and help the scavanger crew or just leave them to their own fate.  Having not read the comics I get a feeling that the willing lose of ones own humanity in a world that has little left is going to be a central theme.  Survival of the fittest and all but at the cost of what makes human beings well human.  Giving that up to breathe another day just makes you like the souless zombie.  It should be more interesting then the blind consumerism theme of other zombie flicks.  Of course I am most likely looking to deep into this but it's fun.  Zombie face   

[joeyjazz]

I agree That the guts thing was new and created some of the most tense moments I have ever experienced in a television, once i stopped laughing at sausage links hanging around their necks

I dunno. That seemed familar to me. Either something I read or had seen in another zombie movie where that was tried. The blending in thing certainly has been done going way back to Invasion of the Body Snatchers. But for whatever reason it didn't seem a new concept to me. I'm probably just geeking out on zombie lore knowledge.

They did the guts thing in the comic, it was also pretty similar to the scene in Shaun of the Dead where they "acted" like zombies to be able to walk among them unnoticed or how BM got around in Zombieland.

[joeyjazz]

Having not read the comics I get a feeling that the willing lose of ones own humanity in a world that has little left is going to be a central theme.  Survival of the fittest and all but at the cost of what makes human beings well human.  Giving that up to breathe another day just makes you like the souless zombie.  It should be more interesting then the blind consumerism theme of other zombie flicks.  Of course I am most likely looking to deep into this but it's fun.  Zombie face   

Yeah, scene after scene of people just trying to evade zombies wouldn't make for a very interesting or long running series without a strong focus on human interaction and all the drama included in that.  This series is definitely going to sink or swim depending on how well they handle that, so far it is not disappointing. 

[Daehawk]

OMG..Just watched this back to back..pilot plus 2nd ep. Wife and I love it. Can't wait to see what happens next. first time I've seen zombies eat more than human. rat was awesome *cough* Love the show.

I also loved seeing and hearing the Challenger car in the ep. that car oozes badass and all it gets is bad press. I'd trade my Mustang for it.

[CeeKay]

awesome that this got renewed!

[Daehawk]

Can someone tell me the time that Rick was in a coma? I thought it was 3 weeks but after seeing some stuff Im wondering if it wasn't longer.

And umm even if it was 3 weeks shouldn't he have pooped and pissed himself beyong measure in thhat bed? You'd think he would have died of thirst or hunger man.

[CeeKay]

a little bummed they didn't keep the longer format myself.  the haven't wrapped up the first book either.  so far, this is really looking like a good series so i hope it does well enough to get another season. 

yeah, 90 minute episodes would have rocked.

[Daehawk]

http://www.amctv.com/originals/The-Walking-Dead/survival-test

did the test. got the pic of Rick..Natural Leader...cant seem to link the results. I'm NOT a Facebook or Twitter person!!

[CeeKay]

I was surprised at how well the acting was.  That and the writing/pacing just drew me right in.  Wife and I both loved it.  I dreamed of zombies after watching it so you know it's good!

they didn't half ass it, that's for sure.  Darabont can be a pretty big gun.

[Moliere]

When you say you loved the final scene, are you referring to the Dodge commercial?  

It made me want to go out and buy one.

Edit to add, don't car alarms stop when the engine is started? Also, a screwdriver in the ignition? Seriously, that's all it takes to steal a Dodge Challenger?

[Blackjack]

Can someone tell me the time that Rick was in a coma? I thought it was 3 weeks but after seeing some stuff Im wondering if it wasn't longer.

And umm even if it was 3 weeks shouldn't he have pooped and pissed himself beyong measure in thhat bed? You'd think he would have died of thirst or hunger man.

Dae, a review of The Walking Dead compendium about the comic books mentions:
http://www.bookalicious.net/?p=1098

It’s the zombie apocalypse and you wake up abruptly into it after a month in a gunshot wound induced coma only to find your wife and son gone with your lovesick police partner to a camp just outside Atlanta, which has rapidly descended into a city for those walking dead.

Now I'm not certain that's spelled out specifically in the comic or if the compendium just is generalizing about the coma length. But it is an "official" compendium by Image Comics.

I try to assume that the IVs stuck on him took care of his nutrients. He might have had a catheter draining out his urine. I assume nurses, up to a point, were taking care of his bedpans. We're not really given any insight on knowing at what point the hospital staff abandoned the hospital or were all just plain eaten - maybe they were cleaning him up right up until a day or two before he wakes up. Or maybe his hospital bed was full of poop for all we know -- I'd just as soon that not be illustrated.  
----------

As far as the Challenger goes, I would assume hotwiring the engine to start it as opposed to using the properly encoded "Sentry key" (a feature most Challenger models apparently now have) would not shut off the alarm automatically. Even if that's not true, lets just assume it so people don't stay awake all night wondering why the alarm continued.  

Read about the Challenger here:
http://www.dodge.com/en/2010/challenger/performance/engine/
Supposedly it can go from zero to 100 back to zero in 17 seconds. I think I might throw up if I did that.  

[morlac]

I also loved seeing and hearing the Challenger car in the ep. that car oozes badass and all it gets is bad press. I'd trade my Mustang for it.

Living in Atlanta I have dreamed of doing exactly what happens at the end numerous times. I-285 just does this giant loop around the city. 

[joeyjazz]

I try to assume that the IVs stuck on him took care of his nutrients. He might have had a catheter draining out his urine. I assume nurses, up to a point, were taking care of his bedpans. We're not really given any insight on knowing at what point the hospital staff abandoned the hospital or were all just plain eaten - maybe they were cleaning him up right up until a day or two before he wakes up. Or maybe his hospital bed was full of poop for all we know -- I'd just as soon that not be illustrated.  

The comic doesn't mention a specific length of time.  We learn from the father/son he meets upon going home that the radio stopped broadcasting about 3 weeks after the outbreak and later from his wife learn that they decided to head to Atlanta after he had been in the coma for about 3 weeks.  Figuring for some overlap and however long it's been since the radio went out we can guess he was in a coma for 4-6 weeks.  There's also mention in the comic that hospital staff were going to stay and take care of patients for as long as they could, but there's no indication of how long that ended up being.

He didn't remove a catheter when he woke up in the TV series but they have rather poor attention to detail so I wouldn't look into it too much as this series seems to focus more on the human interaction than any sense of realism.  The abandoned tank he got into in the street was a British model that wouldn't be there under these circumstances, doesn't have a bottom hatch and wouldn't have that much internal space unless you removed the engine.  You have to wonder how that large group of mostly inept people safely got into the building they were in when he met up with them...  Fantastic series so far despite little things like that.

[morlac]

The mostly inept crew were lead by the best 'scavanger' they had.  Also, the lead guy made the situation much more diffilcult due to all the noise he made.  Ienpt crew snuck in quitely as oppesed to guns blazing galloping down the street yelling 'Hiyo silver!'

[rickfc]

We learn from the father/son he meets upon going home that the radio stopped broadcasting about 3 weeks after the outbreak and later from his wife learn that they decided to head to Atlanta after he had been in the coma for about 3 weeks.  Figuring for some overlap and however long it's been since the radio went out we can guess he was in a coma for 4-6 weeks.

If that's indeed the case,

Spoiler for Hiden:

his wife had to have been cheating on him with his partner since before the shooting.  You don't go from losing your spouse to shacking up with someone else like that in that short period of time.

[Daehawk]

I should not over think it. Just enjoy it.

And rick on the spoiler...yes that's what my wife pointed out to me.

[CeeKay]

I need to make it a point to watch the first two episodes tonight finally.

[rickfc]

And rick on the spoiler...yes that's what my wife pointed out to me.

Yeah, my wife and I were discussing it after the first episode, but it became much clearer after the opening scene in the woods.  Granted, without a clear timeline of how long it's been, there really is no way to tell.

[joeyjazz]

The mostly inept crew were lead by the best 'scavanger' they had.  Also, the lead guy made the situation much more diffilcult due to all the noise he made.  Ienpt crew snuck in quitely as oppesed to guns blazing galloping down the street yelling 'Hiyo silver!'

They also chose to bring with them a meth-addled redneck who took the first chance he got to do some shootin' off the roof and was excessively aggressive towards the rest of the group.  I can understand why they'd do it to introduce all the characters in an easier to digest manner instead of having 2+ episodes of one or two people and then all of a sudden here's a dozen more, but it just seems like they were too willing to put themselves into a situation that was destined to blow up well before they could accomplish anything.

And yeah, Rick has a lot to learn about living in a zombie infested post apocalyptic world still.  It also kind of bothers me that upon waking up he made no effort to get dressed or grab an actual motor vehicle.  At the very least, given the condition of the hospital, you'd probably at least want something on your feet.

[rickfc]

And yeah, Rick has a lot to learn about living in a zombie infested post apocalyptic world still.  It also kind of bothers me that upon waking up he made no effort to get dressed or grab an actual motor vehicle.  At the very least, given the condition of the hospital, you'd probably at least want something on your feet.

I can pass this off as him being completely disoriented from coming out of a coma.  When he gets to his house, he collapses on the floor and starts telling himself to wake up.  Some of the other stuff you mentioned, yeah, it's pretty ridiculous. Then again, it's a zombie TV show. 

[joeyjazz]

lol, yup, that was the point I was trying to make by pointing out a lot of mistakes and whatnot in the production of the show... "the TV series has rather poor attention to detail so I wouldn't look into it too much as it seems to focus more on the human interaction than any sense of realism."

One thing I like about the Day to Day Armageddon books is how much work the author puts into making everything that happens feel real and possible depsite the fact that the world is filled with re-animated corpses.  I certainly don't expect it from every zombie themed media I come across and am definitely loving The Walking Dead in spite of any faults it may have along those lines.

[cheeba]

I also loved seeing and hearing the Challenger car in the ep. that car oozes badass and all it gets is bad press.

Huh? It's gotten good reviews.

[morlac]

The mostly inept crew were lead by the best 'scavanger' they had.  Also, the lead guy made the situation much more diffilcult due to all the noise he made.  Ienpt crew snuck in quitely as oppesed to guns blazing galloping down the street yelling 'Hiyo silver!'

They also chose to bring with them a meth-addled redneck who took the first chance he got to do some shootin' off the roof and was excessively aggressive towards the rest of the group.  I can understand why they'd do it to introduce all the characters in an easier to digest manner instead of having 2+ episodes of one or two people and then all of a sudden here's a dozen more, but it just seems like they were too willing to put themselves into a situation that was destined to blow up well before they could accomplish anything.

Good point. Though he was the 'muscle' and had guns (and knew how to use them, recall the only other one packing heat did not know about the saftey), which they most likely thought they needed since the were upping the ante by trying to do a big scavenge instead of a one man show. Plus I'm not sure they knew he was a meth head, though they knew he was a wild card.  Also he didn't start shooting until the place was pretty well surrounded thanks to them rescuing the guy out of the tank.  Of course he went bat shit insane at that point prolly thanks to a fix from his meth pipe

[Punisher]

We learn from the father/son he meets upon going home that the radio stopped broadcasting about 3 weeks after the outbreak and later from his wife learn that they decided to head to Atlanta after he had been in the coma for about 3 weeks.  Figuring for some overlap and however long it's been since the radio went out we can guess he was in a coma for 4-6 weeks.

If that's indeed the case,

Spoiler for Hiden:

his wife had to have been cheating on him with his partner since before the shooting.  You don't go from losing your spouse to shacking up with someone else like that in that short period of time.

Possible Major spoilers

Spoiler for Hiden:

IIRC, in the comics, it is explained more like a heat of the moment/survival thing... Rick has been in a coma for a while prior to the outbreak... Then when it happens, they can't take him and head to Atlanta. They don't get to drive all the way to Atlanta, they have to work part of the way and are in survival mode... Rick's wife becomes closer to Shane, however, it is Shane that pushes the issue.. At some point during the travels they hook up as a human comfort type thing and they suspect that Rick is gone for good due to the condition of the world during their travels. (When they left Rick, they really thought it was going to be all OK and that the shelter would be fine... they had no idea how screwed up everything really was.) Shane has been into Rick's wife for a while however and sees this as his opportunity....

[Blackjack]

AMC won't renew Rubicon:
http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2010/11/11/amc-cancels-rubicon/

Which just makes me think, if all of AMC's shows had zombies in them, wouldn't they all have better ratings? Ya know, if all the guys Brian Cranston's character had to kill came back to try to eat him, and his killed brother-in-law DEA agent came back to life to try to eat him, wouldn't Breaking Bad be that much better?   And maybe I could finally get into Mad Men if everyone was a well-dressed hungry zombie instead of a well-dressed, sex-obsessed ad agency employee...

[joeyjazz]

Possible Major spoilers

Spoiler for Hiden:

IIRC, in the comics, it is explained more like a heat of the moment/survival thing... Rick has been in a coma for a while prior to the outbreak... Then when it happens, they can't take him and head to Atlanta. They don't get to drive all the way to Atlanta, they have to work part of the way and are in survival mode... Rick's wife becomes closer to Shane, however, it is Shane that pushes the issue.. At some point during the travels they hook up as a human comfort type thing and they suspect that Rick is gone for good due to the condition of the world during their travels. (When they left Rick, they really thought it was going to be all OK and that the shelter would be fine... they had no idea how screwed up everything really was.) Shane has been into Rick's wife for a while however and sees this as his opportunity....

Spoiler for Hiden:

Yeah, they're handling that whole situation different in the TV series and I'm not really enjoying those changes at all.  You can actually kind of empathize with her in the comic since she regrets what she did and genuinely and truly loves Rick, saying that they're perfect for each other.  In the TV series so far she's just a cheating bitch.

[rickfc]

Possible Major spoilers

Spoiler for Hiden:

IIRC, in the comics, it is explained more like a heat of the moment/survival thing... Rick has been in a coma for a while prior to the outbreak... Then when it happens, they can't take him and head to Atlanta. They don't get to drive all the way to Atlanta, they have to work part of the way and are in survival mode... Rick's wife becomes closer to Shane, however, it is Shane that pushes the issue.. At some point during the travels they hook up as a human comfort type thing and they suspect that Rick is gone for good due to the condition of the world during their travels. (When they left Rick, they really thought it was going to be all OK and that the shelter would be fine... they had no idea how screwed up everything really was.) Shane has been into Rick's wife for a while however and sees this as his opportunity....

Spoiler for Hiden:

Yeah, they're handling that whole situation different in the TV series and I'm not really enjoying those changes at all.  You can actually kind of empathize with her in the comic since she regrets what she did and genuinely and truly loves Rick, saying that they're perfect for each other.  In the TV series so far she's just a cheating bitch.

This.  What sealed it for me was the scene in the woods with the necklace.   

[Blackjack]

Spoiler for Hiden:

How exactly do you "cheat" on someone you assume is already dead? I'll grant that it's tasteless to be doing that so presumably soon, but I don't venture to guess how anyone would react under "zombies take over the world and I left my husband in a coma in a zombie-overrun hospital" circumstances. Chances are, one's value system would get pretty screwed up imho. And the screenwriters want to build conflict, etc., so now we get to see how the deputy takes all this.

Ironically, Stephen King's "The Mist" has a sex tryst scene in the grocery store that reminded me of episode 2's opening sex scene, and I remember reading it in The Mist and thinking "WTF are these people doing screwing like jack rabbits in a grocery store surrounded by monsters?" Screenwriters seem to like to assume people will do that to work off stress, find some physical comfort, etc. under duress.

Me, I just play videogames for comfort when I'm surrounded by monsters or zombies.  

It's a shame we don't seem to have a single female GT member who can ever give a different viewpoint on these kinds of things.

[rickfc]

Spoiler for Hiden:

How exactly do you "cheat" on someone you assume is already dead? I'll grant that it's tasteless to be doing that so presumably soon, but I don't venture to guess how anyone would react under "zombies take over the world and I left my husband in a coma in a zombie-overrun hospital" circumstances. Chances are, one's value system would get pretty screwed up imho. And the screenwriters want to build conflict, etc., so now we get to see how the deputy takes all this.

Ironically, Stephen King's "The Mist" has a sex tryst scene in the grocery store that reminded me of episode 2's opening sex scene, and I remember reading it in The Mist and thinking "WTF are these people doing screwing like jack rabbits in a grocery store surrounded by monsters?" Screenwriters seem to like to assume people will do that to work off stress, find some physical comfort, etc. under duress.

Spoiler for Hiden:

To me, it's not that she's cheating after the fact, but that she already seems to be so emotionally involved with Shane after  (presumably) only a few weeks.  Yes, you don't know how people would react under such conditions, so I'll judge with the conditions I know - and being that it looks like she's emotionally involved, they were probably fucking behind his back before he got shot.

[Daehawk]

I agree

Spoiler for Hiden:

We think this was going on long before the outbreak of world ending zombies. The kid may not even be Rick's. She is a bitch. They leave him in the hospital and forget him to go off in the woods and bump uglies. I hope he leaves her but can stay close to them for his son's sake. I think his friend is an asset to the cause even if he is a weasel.

Ok these zombies. They have to be alive some how. They have a hunger for flesh. So what happens when the flesh is all gone? Either the survivors can hold them off or all survivors and animals are dead and gone. How long can the zombies subsist on nothing?

And just how did this one start? And where? Is it nationwide, worldwide, or just statewide?

[CeeKay]

It's a shame we don't seem to have a single female GT member who can ever give a different viewpoint on these kinds of things.

we got rick.

[joeyjazz]

Ok these zombies. They have to be alive some how. They have a hunger for flesh. So what happens when the flesh is all gone? Either the survivors can hold them off or all survivors and animals are dead and gone.  How long can the zombies subsist on nothing?

The zombies are dead, reanimated corpses.  Definitely not alive.  They "consume" flesh in that they bite and chew it, but there is no digestion taking place as they are lifeless rotting corpses.  Remember the one they decapitated where the head was still trying to bite and chew?  They aren't subsisting on anything so we can presume that they'll last until they decay to the point that they fall apart, however long that will take.  Every zombie world has it's own reasons and rules for why and how the zombies work and they may or may not explain what those are to the viewer.  Some are implied, some are discovered and some will always remain a mystery.  One thing is for certain, the survivors have to outrun, avoid and outlast the zombies before they get killed and/or become zombies themselves.

And just how did this one start? And where? Is it nationwide, worldwide, or just statewide?

All questions that may or may not get answered as we follow our survivors on their journey.  Keep in mind that the comic this is based on has been going on for 7+ years and some of your questions may not even be answered in it yet.  To date, the TV series hasn't progressed through the very first issue of the comic.

[Caine]

max brooks explores the eating aspect in world war Z.  basically, it's a shred of humanity that remains and manifests as the upper functions of the zombie brain are destroyed, leaving the baser instincts.  attacking prey and "feeding" on their kills. he even goes to describe what happened to some zombies where it ate enough to push rotting meat through the gi tract and deposit it into their pants.

[CeeKay]

just a heads up AMC is repeating the first 2 episodes Sunday starting at 8pm, leading up to the newest episode at 10.  I'm not sure how they plan on stuffing the 2 and a half hours it took to originally air them into 2 hours though.

[Blackjack]

So what did you guys think about #3? It was a little heavy on the soap opera for me, though I guess necessary for character development. Still, I wanted...

Spoiler for Hiden:

more zombies!

The soap part was...
The deputy's not really dead!
Did the wife just assume he was dead or, oh no, his best friend told the deputy's wife he was dead, but he wasn't!
Do they tell him they're fooling around, or not?
Do they save the bigot on the roof or not?
Does he saw off the chain, or his arm? [We probably all saw that coming from a mile away]

At the end, I'm figuring Michael Rooker's character fashioned a tourniquet from his belt and then did his Saw impression.

I was torn at the end between rooting for the deputy's best friend to beat the crap out of the abusive guy, and fearing what he might do if he directs that anger at Deputy Grimes or his family out of resentment/envy. Maybe that tension's there on purpose. If those two got in a fight, that would be interesting.  

They only have 3 episodes left. I hope there's more left to their travels than "leave Atlanta, go back to Atlanta, leave Atlanta, go back to Atlanta, lather, rinse repeat."  

I still found it gripping, and it's fun to have something on TV that I rush to the couch to watch.  

EW has a *SPOILER* recap, and then a funny interview with Kirkman:

Spoiler for Hiden:

http://popwatch.ew.com/2010/11/15/walking-dead-robert-kirkman-frogs/

Kirkman did the screenplay for episode 4 so that'll be fun to see how that plays out.

[rittchard]

Spoiler for Hiden:

How exactly do you "cheat" on someone you assume is already dead? I'll grant that it's tasteless to be doing that so presumably soon, but I don't venture to guess how anyone would react under "zombies take over the world and I left my husband in a coma in a zombie-overrun hospital" circumstances. Chances are, one's value system would get pretty screwed up imho. And the screenwriters want to build conflict, etc., so now we get to see how the deputy takes all this.

Ironically, Stephen King's "The Mist" has a sex tryst scene in the grocery store that reminded me of episode 2's opening sex scene, and I remember reading it in The Mist and thinking "WTF are these people doing screwing like jack rabbits in a grocery store surrounded by monsters?" Screenwriters seem to like to assume people will do that to work off stress, find some physical comfort, etc. under duress.

Me, I just play videogames for comfort when I'm surrounded by monsters or zombies.  

It's a shame we don't seem to have a single female GT member who can ever give a different viewpoint on these kinds of things.

Since I'm the closest thing to a female GT member (other than CK), I'll just say this should have been handled with.... a 3-way!  Yeeeehaaaawwww!!!  You go girl!!!!

OK, but seriously....

Spoiler for Hiden:

I did the math too and no matter how you slice it it doesn't come up good for our hero.  Either the affair began before the shooting, or after she found out he was dead, she got over her grief in the matter of days/weeks - not to mention with their son, a constant reminder of her "dead" husband sleeping in the tent next to her.

That said, I kind of have to agree with BJ's analysis.  The fact is no one knows how people would react in a zombie apocalypse scenario.  If you're on the run, terrified, knowing every minute you may have your brains eaten by a zombie, maybe the hyper stress and adrenaline would make you insanely horny too.  So if some piece of hunky beef throws himself at you, why not?  I think part of the fun/interest/difficulty in these types of doomsday scenarios is portraying how different people will act/react, whether it's with anger, fear, depression, or horniness.

Or maybe it was just that Sarah Wayne Callies had it in her contract that she was not gonna wait 3 years to get laid (see Prison Break  ).

[Blackjack]

Don't forget about the Dead! About a half hour away.

I believe this (Episode 4) is the episode written by the comic's creator Robert Kirkman, and he promised (in interviews) that it has a little bit of everything that the first three episodes had.