The Walking Dead Season 2

[Krynn72]

then why arent you watching Walking Dead Squirrels instead? why watch TWD at all? for example I dont like Dancing with the Stars at all but since I dont watch it, it doesnt bother me

Because A) Nobody makes Walking Dead Squirrels unfortunately, and B) everyone says this show is good, and I'm trying to find out why.

they did a whole episode around getting guns. and stopping off at every grocery store would get boring fast. survival doesnt mean finding food it means not becoming food

Survival is more than not being eaten. The only episode I remember they doing about getting guns was "herp lets get that whole bag of guns I pre-prepared but dropped". It wasn't compelling at all.

also what romance? besides the rick/wife betrayal (not even romance but the opposite of romance) there's no romance.

Fine, then it focuses on "OH SHIT I ****ED A DUDE NOW HE IS ALL ANGSTY CUZ MAH HUBBIES BACK". Its semantics. This is also not compelling. Like I said, so far the only "theme" that can be considered compelling at this point is the issue of suicide, but that's run it's course already.

Its a boring, lame, uncompelling, unoriginal show. Are you seriously saying that wanting a show to NOT be those things is having too high of expectations for an AMC show costing 3.2 million dollars per episode and garnering the attention of 7+ million people? Yeah, excuse me for expecting it to be at least decent. Jericho and its post apocalyptic setting was a thousand times more compelling this show.

 

[Yuri]

im all for most of what you're saying, krynn, but do you really hate all zombies that are slow? when used properly they are pretty damned terrifying, if you ask me. the dawn of the dead remake was great.

 

[morgs]

I love slow zombies, they're not supposed to be hard to beat, especially when there are thousands/millions of them and only a few of the living.

 

[Raziaar]

The show gives my zombie brain something to watch and pass time with, there I said it.

 

[Ennui]

im all for most of what you're saying, krynn, but do you really hate all zombies that are slow? when used properly they are pretty damned terrifying, if you ask me. the dawn of the dead remake was great.

... Dawn of the Dead 2004 had fast zombies.

 

[Krynn72]

im all for most of what you're saying, krynn, but do you really hate all zombies that are slow? when used properly they are pretty damned terrifying, if you ask me. the dawn of the dead remake was great.

No, I don't hate slow zombies. I just hate when they're so weak as to not even be able to defend themselves. You're not supposed to be able to just slash their neck, or jam a normal sized screwdriver in their eye and be done with it. They're supposed to still be agressive and since they don't feel pain, or need any of their organs except for their brains basically, they should be doing everything they can be to be chomping at their arms and shit. And that problem is compounded by the fact that there's been like two times where they've had to defend themselves while being outnumbered. I mean, ffs, 80% of the encounters (and by that I mean where the zombies notice them) the humans actually out number the zombies like 3:1 at least. What kind of zombie apocalypse is this?

But I'll admit, slow zombies in general are not as good. I can't get any sense of urgency or intensity from something I know could be out maneuvered by someone doing this:

 

[morgs]

Yeah, it would be good to see less zombies standing looking stupidly at them as the approach and more 100% focus on eating them.

 

[CptStern]

Because A) Nobody makes Walking Dead Squirrels unfortunately, and B) everyone says this show is good, and I'm trying to find out why.

it is good ..for a mainstream show; the fact that so many people watch is proof that's it's aimed at a mainstream audience.

Nancy deWolf Smith from The Wall Street Journal said that the "pilot episode [is] so good that it has hooked even a zombie hater like me."

it's no seinfeld or Mash or all in the family but really think of all the science-fiction/fantasy on tv and compare it to that; compared to all the crap sci-fi we've had over the years it's actually pretty good

Survival is more than not being eaten.

the rest of it is mundane. "ok we're going on a water run to the lake. hey lets go chop some firewood. oh look we're running low on ho-hos"

The only episode I remember they doing about getting guns was "herp lets get that whole bag of guns I pre-prepared but dropped". It wasn't compelling at all.

because if you stop to think about guns should be everywhere. it is america after all. so they had to make it difficult to obtain because that makes for conflict and drama

Fine, then it focuses on "OH SHIT I ****ED A DUDE NOW HE IS ALL ANGSTY CUZ MAH HUBBIES BACK". Its semantics. This is also not compelling.

they've hinted it here and there. and shane isnt all angsty just because of that but rather for a myriad of reasons; one's got to be guilt for leaving him behind, thinking that rick is putting them in unecessary risk etc. also wouldnt you be miffed if the only decent looking woman alive went back to her husband?

Like I said, so far the only "theme" that can be considered compelling at this point is the issue of suicide, but that's run it's course already.

because it's either you kill yourself or you do not there is no in between

Its a boring, lame, uncompelling, unoriginal show. Are you seriously saying that wanting a show to NOT be those things is having too high of expectations for an AMC show costing 3.2 million dollars per episode and garnering the attention of 7+ million people?

but you just shot your point in the foot by saying 7 million viewers tune in each week. that's pretty compelling evidence that people dont find it boring

Yeah, excuse me for expecting it to be at least decent. Jericho and its post apocalyptic setting was a thousand times more compelling this show.

yet it was cancelled after the first season due to poor ratings and even when it was resurrected it failed to find a following and was cancelled again after only 7 episodes. you might have found it compelling but no one else did. at least not in the numbers needed for it to be renewed. my point is that in the end tv shows are made as a way of generating revenue not producing works of art. moreso if it's on a big network and not independently produced (which would still necessitate workign it in such as way to make it marketable and profitable). studios/networks dont like taking chances on an unproven IP

 

[Yuri]

... Dawn of the Dead 2004 had fast zombies.

aw **** it im remembering it wrong, it's been a long while. i just remember loving that damn movie

but yeah krynn i see what you're saying now. but the horror doesn't come from fighting a single one of them. even if you can kill one with a screwdriver, you wouldnt be able to kill TWO with a screwdriver. and if you can kill three with a knife, you wouldn't be able to kill six, because they would overcome you. the church scene in TWD seems to bother you, but remember that there was one person per zombie in that scene.

it's not always fighting in a bright sunny day in the middle of an open field, either. at night, it might be easier to end up in the middle of a crowd, or if you're enclosed in a room, you'll have no where to run to... which would be rather impossible with even a small group of zombies. i think what's terrifying is the overconfidence you might see the characters grow, the same overconfidence you seem to have. but when they are faced with a crowd or are snuck up on, they get ****ed. crowds in general are an unpredictable and ominous thing, so i think it plays off of that inherent uncomfortable fear.

all im saying is, when used well, walking zombies can be pretty intense and lead to very terrifying effect. but i agree, this show doesnt really pull that off as well as it could. however, i would complain more about how their sense of smell... went away... than the ease in which a few of them were killed.

but you just shot your point in the foot by saying 7 million viewers tune in each week. that's pretty compelling evidence that people dont find it boring

while its compelling evidence that 7 million people dont find it boring, that in no way should prove to krynn that he cant find it boring himself.

 

[hool10]

This show has grown on me, or should I say, infected me? Seriously though E-MO-TEP:

[video=youtube_share;TAiiJYeUwfM]http://youtu.be/TAiiJYeUwfM[/video]

 

[CptStern]

while its compelling evidence that 7 million people dont find it boring, that in no way should prove to krynn that he cant find it boring himself

I didnt say he cant find it boring. I find firefly boring (or pretty much anything ever written by joss whedon) but other people dont. the sticking point is that he said "it's boring" and not "I think it's boring". sure it's semantics and he could easily justify it by saying that's what he meant but the point is that they're doing something right if millions of people tune in each week

expanding on that: Dancing with the Stars has millions of viewers each week. however had they made it "Tap Dancing with the Stars" they wouldnt get nowhere near as many viewers. while techincally tap dancing is much more difficult a skill to master than ballroom dancing it just doesnt have the appeal of ballroom dancing because visually to the untrained eye it's more appealing. same goes for sceinece fiction on tv. pretty much every sci-fi tv show could be stripped of the sci-fi and it would still work because hard sci-fi does poorly because the audience is a fraction of what say soap opera/mysticism bullshit that is star wars has. Star tyrek is essentially a western set in space (more so the original). the terminator is basically a slasher film, Outland is High Noon in space, Blade Runner is hard boiled detective film noir etc

 

[Raziaar]

This show has grown on me, or should I say, infected me? Seriously though E-MO-TEP:

[video=youtube_share;TAiiJYeUwfM]http://youtu.be/TAiiJYeUwfM[/video]

Ha-men-tho-tep! Ha-men-tho-tep! Hamenthotep!

 

[Lucid]

****, the writers of this show could seriously learn from the Jericho writers.
That show had survival down to a T.

 

[Krynn72]

****, the writers of this show could seriously learn from the Jericho writers.
That show had survival down to a T.

Thank you. That baloney "7 million people can't be wrong" crap is proved irrelevant when Jericho did all this better thank TWD does, and it pulled in more viewers than TWD does. Things don't have to be good to be popular. Things don't have to be bad to be popular. So how many people watch it is irrelevant.

 

[CptStern]

it's not at all irrelevant when it comes to being renewed or not. dont think jericho got those viewer numbers or it wouldnt have been cancelled. jericho got 9 million viewers over it's first year run whereas TWD got half that on the pilot alone

On October 16, 2011, the season two premiere set a new record of 7.3 million viewers making it the most watched drama in the history of basic cable television. The episode also set new records for the most viewers in the 18–49 and 25–54 demographics, with 4.8 million and 4.2 million viewers respectively. The original broadcast and the two subsequent encore presentation of the episode drew a collective total of 11 million viewers

jericho got 9.24 million viewers over 22 episodes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Jericho_episodes

 

[Krynn72]

Wow, you just stopped reading the second you found something that looked like it supported your claim, huh? If you look down like 2 inches on your monitor, you'll realize that that was the AVERAGE over the whole season. If you want accurate comparisons, then the same number for TWD would be 5.235 million. The pilot episode of Jericho got 11.66 million viewers, compared to TWD's 5.35 million. In fact, even Jericho's crappy second season has a higher average viewership than TWD's first season. TWD has yet to air any episode that received as good of ratings as any episode of Jericho's first season. Looks like that ruins your theory.

 

[CptStern]

ok fair enough. no need to be rude. jericho aired on CBS compared to amc which is a specialty cable channel so that could be the difference. in any event Jericho was cancelled due to poor ratings. so obviously 8-10 million viewers per episode isnt enough to get renewed. in comparison Lost had around 18 per million in it's first season which put it in 15th place in the neilsen ratings

 

[Krynn72]

I'm always rude when I'm right.

 

[CptStern]

heh but you're not right <runs>

 

[Kadayi]

I'm interested to see where the show goes now that Frank Darabont has been kicked off, however I'm concerned that the comic book writer Kirkman is now a regular writer. I've read the first few books of TWD and albeit initially I thought they were well done, in retrospect I kind of think that the entire premise jumped the shark after

Spoiler

Rick loses his hand yet continues to dodge death at every opportunity

, and the series descended into a protracted soap opera, with people not talking to each other, losing their shit (which normally involves death threats), saying they are sorry, then rinse repeating, and then every so often someone dying before fresh meat is discovered down the road. Of all last seasons episodes, the Mexican standoff (which Kirkman is credited with writing) came off as the weakest inho. I honestly think Kirkman lacks the imagination and intelligence to write anything beyond the most hackneyed plotting. One thing I thought was particularly telling was that Darabont thought up the idea of using a crossbow to take down zombies silently, and (by his own confession) at no point during the life cycle of the comic book series had Kirkman remotely thought along those lines.

 

[Lucid]

A show's quality counts more than viewer ratings in my eyes.

Hell, the best shows are usually the ones that get cancelled. (Firefly, Angel, Veronica Mars, Rome, Jericho, etc)

 

[CptStern]

A show's quality counts more than viewer ratings in my eyes.

agreed however we werent equating ratings with quality. the point was that 7 million plus people didnt find it boring

Hell, the best shows are usually the ones that get cancelled. (Firefly, Angel, Veronica Mars, Rome, Jericho, etc)

all shows get cancelled. also ugh joss whedon

 

[Krynn72]

all shows get cancelled.

The Simpsons doesn't.

 

[Remus]

The Simpsons doesn't.

**** The Simpsons, "the Young and the Restless" doesn't get cancelled.

OH GAWD WHY WONT IT END?!

 

[morgs]

The Simpsons doesn't.

Actually they're on the verge, unless all the voice actors take 40% pay cuts.

 

[Ren.182]

The show gives my zombie brain something to watch and pass time with, there I said it.

This

Sure it has inconsistencies. Sure it's not the best show out there. But I love me some Zombies and this is all the zombies I'm getting at the moment.

I actually quite enjoyed the first episode.

 

[CptStern]

The Simpsons doesn't.

in a world where Full House lasted 8 seasons I'm ok with that

 

[Lucid]

Wow, that entire clusterf*ck at the end probably could've been avoided had they bothered to check the god damned ambulance that was right next to them.

 

[Dog--]

lmao me and my brother said the exact same thing when we seen that.

 

[CptStern]

Wow, that entire clusterf*ck at the end probably could've been avoided had they bothered to check the god damned ambulance that was right next to them.

Spoiler

they were looking for specific items related to the operation. the fat guy held up an instrument that's used in opening up the chest cavity; not likely something they'd have in an ambulance. ems dont do surgery

episode was slow. needed more zombies. the redneck is quickly becoming my fave character but they'll probably do something to screw that up

 

[<RJMC>]

Spoiler

I find it kinda funny when the old man sayd he was a veterinary,also I bet otis will die due to some asthma attack or something,and probably after they save the kids live shane will change his mind about leaving probably cuz "he felt he was needed" or something like that,anyway I havent read the comics and is supposed that almost everyone dies so well I dont know

also I dont know about but it seems that now the people "discover" the zombies while these are closer like in the previous episode whit the horde that was very near when they spotted them....

 

[Raziaar]

I have to say I'm glad that they didn't just have the fat guy die at episode's end and have rick alone. It would have been all too easy and lazy writing just to have him be a throwaway character, which he seemed to be, and very well might still be.

Oftentimes in movies and shows they introduce somebody and you just know right off the bat that the person is going to die, sooner than later.

 

[Yuri]

this show isnt very good, but that last episode just plain sucked.

and im with last-week krynn here for the most part. it's a sad world when a zombie show must be this shitty in order to actually get viewers.

 

[Stigmata]

I'm convinced it's a symptom of most people with taste having moved on from cable/satellite subscriptions.

 

[morgs]

I'm really enjoying it, I find it pretty easy to overlook the downsides.

seems like the show's been given a third season after the premier ratings went through the roof.

 

[CptStern]

this show isnt very good, but that last episode just plain sucked.

gotta wonder why you keep watching it. masochist? I dont like Dancing with the Stars. unfortunately there are forces that attempt to compel me to watch it but I resist that temptation and dont watch it. DAMN YOU FATES MUST I GOUGE OUT MY EYES?!?

and im with last-week krynn here for the most part. it's a sad world when a zombie show must be this shitty in order to actually get viewers.

I find it especially admirable how it gets so many viewers that hate it despite watching it every week. that's gotta be one heck of an achievement

"I know. we'll suck so much even the viewers who hate our show will watch it"

"you're a genius!"


disclaimer: liberties have been taken in the name of sarcasm. not to be taken as a serious commentary on the state of The reanimated deceased genre of tv shows of which TWD is it's only entry

"they're setting back zombie tv shows 20 yars bygolly"

 

[Yuri]

oh lol i never actually posted my last post, here it is:

I'm convinced it's a symptom of most people with taste having moved on from cable/satellite subscriptions.

But AMC has both Breaking Bad and Mad Men, which are phenomenal, among other shows I haven't seen which have reputation.

Walking Dead's acting, pacing, storyline, and most of all, writing, is just godawful. I am at this point convinced that it was a very clever idea by someone who wanted to make a shitload of cash, though:
--Use lowest-common-denominator writing, acting and structure to ensure everyone can follow and you can grab the primary viewer base
--Put in zombies to snatch up the nerds, thus getting widespread exposure for uniqueness and throughout the internet
--profit profit profit profit profit profit profit

I think I've explained this a few times already, but I love the zombie effects, which are excellent and entertaining enough for me to justify watching it. Usually I don't mind the crap as I expect it, but I only commented this week because this past episode was particularly bad.

That little quote-thing you did is exactly what I was talking about in my previous post, too. Us nerds and people with taste like to watch the show because it's the only zombie show, like, ever, and the effects are incredible. So we watch it even though it's not very good because it is entertaining. Every once and a while, though, there's an episode like this past one...

 

[Stigmata]

Hah, you might be on to something. Like the Gawker+whatnot articles written to elicit nerd-rage for massive hits via Reddit. Tolerable writing plus a singular audience draw plus vulgarity equals popularity.

It just makes me sad, really. BB barely broke four million in its fourth season with TONS of hype, catch-up reruns, and nuanced, heavily researched screenwriting; while TWD manages to net 10 million in its second season without giving a shit about the quality of anything but special effects. Which I still question on the basis of the S2 trailer's squishy rock

 

[CptStern]

Hah, you might be on to something. Like the Gawker+whatnot articles written to elicit nerd-rage for massive hits via Reddit. Tolerable writing plus a singular audience draw plus vulgarity equals popularity.

It just makes me sad, really. BB barely broke four million in its fourth season with TONS of hype, catch-up reruns, and nuanced, heavily researched screenwriting; while TWD manages to net 10 million in its second season without giving a shit about the quality of anything but special effects. Which I still question on the basis of the S2 trailer's squishy rock

they were going to use a real rock but that put them over budget

also not suprising TWD has a bigger audience than BB. I mean if BB latched on to a popular trope they might have a bigger audience by default;

The Breaking Dead

Dancing with the Bad

the Breaking Bad Factor

American Junkie Idol

 

[eQUIV]

The comic is so great that I will watch this show as long as it's on tv. But I actually enjoy the show alot. I'd say right now my top 3 shows in order of preference 1. Breaking Bad 2. Louie 3. The Walking Dead. Any comic fans? I just made this Michonne / Kill Bill mash-up fanart... http://www.memedreamer.com/michonne-killbill.jpg . What looks better.. Color or B&W?