The Walking Dead | Don't be an idiot

Spoony Youngblood · 6th December 2010, 22:25

First was good but I thought the 5th was pretty dark. This as you said was too melodramatic. All we really care about is watching zombies getting splattered not a pathetic love triangle story, a nihilistic scientist or a seedy old bloke trying his best to get into a younger woman's knickers(heh he's trying!)

Leg-End · 7th December 2010, 01:09

Spoiler

Wibble · 7th December 2010, 01:19

6 episodes seems too short given the lose ends of various characters who we saw for 1 episode and never since. 13 episode second series apparently.

Wibble · 7th December 2010, 01:21

All shot on 16mm apparently. Some of the special effects are a bit dodgy but I'm still enjoying it even of episode 5 was a little pedestrian.

niMic · 7th December 2010, 05:49

Spoiler

jveezy · 7th December 2010, 06:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by niMic

Spoiler

niMic · 7th December 2010, 07:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by jveezy

Spoiler

I didn't actually consider that, but when you put it like that.. it might

Mockney · 7th December 2010, 07:32

Thing is, everything that happened in that episode had no real baring on what's gone before...and therefore no stakes, and therefore no interest (for me at any rate)

Spoiler

They introduced this place at the end of the last ep, and only really the beginning of this, so blowing it up was just a bit 'meh' (plus the way it progressed was just dumb "hey what's this big countdown clock about?" - "Oh this, yeah I'm blowing everything up in 5 minutes...Good thing none of you slept in ey?")..It's like if they'd blown up the hatch in Lost at the beginning of the 2nd season when they first went in, rather than at the end of the season, when it was sort of kinda a main base..Writing 101 - Build stakes an attachment before you destroy or kill..

Then you've got Truman's mate and the black lady who both stayed behind to die...Well again, meh, him we only met an episode ago and he's completely humourless, and the lady, well I've no idea who the fuck she is cos no one's spent any time exploring her character at all...she's just there. Now she's not. Meh. Writing 101 again.

As someone mentioned above, the really interesting characters (Lenny James, hick with one hand) were just dumped after one episode...(obviously they'll come back but....) as if the writers couldn't fit more than one interesting character into each episode at a time and felt they just had to focus on the lead guy, his expressionless wife and one note best friend....Except that nothing then happend. At all. Neither the story nor the characters moved forward. Both physically or mentally for any of them (bar one)

They've focused on these 3 characters for the whole series and they're still dull as ditch water and there's been little progression or reason to like them/want to watch them....They sat in the woods for 3 episodes doing fuck all whilst we sort of got a little bit of 2D cliche character expo on some other people ("I beat my wife yup yup" "I'm a nice sweet girl who loves her daddy ...and have got a sort of spooky lesbian thing going on with my sister") who were going to die eventually in an attempt to build some drama for the periphery characters...But that's it really.

It's been a real let down for me...The early action has been sacrificed for character development, but the character development has been slow and only really applied to one person (Shane) in 6 episodes, which, IMO, is bad writing... I simply don't care about any of them, and I've spent most of the time watching them talk.

Some people were comparing it to LOST on the other page jokingly, well I'll tell you what (yup yup) LOST knew how to develop and present more than one interesting character at a time and over 6 episodes had not just packed in more story, but 10 times the character expose and attraction to them...Zombies or no zombies, the writing has floundered. Which is such a shame because the beginning was so good. But it's the only ep I'd watch again.

niMic · 7th December 2010, 08:26

Well, it's funny that you bring up Lost, because that whole deal actually reminded me a bit about Lost.

Spoiler

I still like the show, though. It's got potential, and I haven't been outright bored yet, even though they could have taken it in better directions.

Cina · 7th December 2010, 12:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mockney

Thing is, everything that happened in that episode had no real baring on what's gone before...and therefore no stakes, and therefore no interest (for me at any rate)

Spoiler

They introduced this place at the end of the last ep, and only really the beginning of this, so blowing it up was just a bit 'meh' (plus the way it progressed was just dumb "hey what's this big countdown clock about?" - "Oh this, yeah I'm blowing everything up in 5 minutes...Good thing none of you slept in ey?")..It's like if they'd blown up the hatch in Lost at the beginning of the 2nd season when they first went in, rather than at the end of the season, when it was sort of kinda a main base..Writing 101 - Build stakes an attachment before you destroy or kill..

Then you've got Truman's mate and the black lady who both stayed behind to die...Well again, meh, him we only met an episode ago and he's completely humourless, and the lady, well I've no idea who the fuck she is cos no one's spent any time exploring her character at all...she's just there. Now she's not. Meh. Writing 101 again.

As someone mentioned above, the really interesting characters (Lenny James, hick with one hand) were just dumped after one episode...(obviously they'll come back but....) as if the writers couldn't fit more than one interesting character into each episode at a time and felt they just had to focus on the lead guy, his expressionless wife and one note best friend....Except that nothing then happend. At all. Neither the story nor the characters moved forward. Both physically or mentally for any of them (bar one)

They've focused on these 3 characters for the whole series and they're still dull as ditch water and there's been little progression or reason to like them/want to watch them....They sat in the woods for 3 episodes doing fuck all whilst we sort of got a little bit of 2D cliche character expo on some other people ("I beat my wife yup yup" "I'm a nice sweet girl who loves her daddy ...and have got a sort of spooky lesbian thing going on with my sister") who were going to die eventually in an attempt to build some drama for the periphery characters...But that's it really.

It's been a real let down for me...The early action has been sacrificed for character development, but the character development has been slow and only really applied to one person (Shane) in 6 episodes, which, IMO, is bad writing... I simply don't care about any of them, and I've spent most of the time watching them talk.

Some people were comparing it to LOST on the other page jokingly, well I'll tell you what (yup yup) LOST knew how to develop and present more than one interesting character at a time and over 6 episodes had not just packed in more story, but 10 times the character expose and attraction to them...Zombies or no zombies, the writing has floundered. Which is such a shame because the beginning was so good. But it's the only ep I'd watch again.

Bang on the money Mockney. Darabont obviously feels the same way, seeing as he got rid of all the writers. I don't feel any connection to any characters, I loved Lenny James, because well, it's Lenny James, but he wasn't in it nearly enough. Everyone else ... meh.

CassiusClaymore · 7th December 2010, 12:24

Gotta agree with the consensus on this.

After a promising start it didn't really go anywhere. I can't say that I cared for any of the characters.

That said, I'll still be back for the second season though and hope that a longer run and a new bunch of writers can turn it around.

golden_blunder · 7th December 2010, 12:31

people need to keep in mind that it is based on comics

That being said, i enjoyed eps 1 - 5

ep 6 was a bit disappointing, its like they didnt know how to finish the season. Put them in a building for a day, then have the drama of them trying to escape the very next day.
If the CDC guy knew that there was only enough fuel for 1 day why did he even bother to open the door in the first place? Meh

Mockney · 7th December 2010, 13:26

Yeah I get that they couldn't really do anything with the story I suppose...But the fact that none of us give a shit about any of the characters, especially the three main ones they've practically forced us to spend countless hours of screen time watching talk to each other in woods ...you'd think that has to be a flaw in the writing somehow?....Or perhaps the acting? but I can't really fault the acting, other than the wife's face doesn't move and there are about 3 of them I want to punch.

I can't really put my finger on what it is...it's just not gone anywhere for me. I'm fine with Character > Action, but in 6 hours of television how have they managed to get so little exposition out of or sympathy/affection for anyone!! ....I mean how?

Devils Advocate · 7th December 2010, 13:36

I've got one episode left to watch of this, downloading today, thought the pilot was pretty good and it's rocketed downhill from that point.

Terrible dialogue and a complete void of interesting characters has made me just want the zombies to kill them all tbh and I was hoping this would be really good.

In the end I've felt as though it's a zombie edition of Home and Away, it's been that bad. It's selling point, I presume, was that it would be a proper TV zombie series which gives them the time to develop characters and dramatic storylines that isn't normally possible when making a film. They've failed miserably IMO.

Hectic · 7th December 2010, 13:39

They should never have moved on without Lennie James. He was the most interesting character!

golden_blunder · 7th December 2010, 13:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hectic

They should never have moved on without Lennie James. He was the most interesting character!

gah... they're following the books man!

golden_blunder · 7th December 2010, 13:47

I suppose the question is, how much character development could they realistically fit in considering they probably knew they were writing for 6 episodes tops?

I wish they'd maybe dragged out the storyline a bit more with the lead character searching for his wife. They could have run a parallel story with the rest of the caravan group.

Eriku · 7th December 2010, 13:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by Devils Advocate

I've got one episode left to watch of this, downloading today, thought the pilot was pretty good and it's rocketed downhill from that point.

Terrible dialogue and a complete void of interesting characters has made me just want the zombies to kill them all tbh and I was hoping this would be really good.

In the end I've felt as though it's a zombie edition of Home and Away, it's been that bad. It's selling point, I presume, was that it would be a proper TV zombie series which gives them the time to develop characters and dramatic storylines that isn't normally possible when making a film. They've failed miserably IMO.

You need to revisit Home and Away mate... talk about exaggeration

Hectic · 7th December 2010, 13:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by golden_blunder

gah... they're following the books man!

Good point

Devils Advocate · 7th December 2010, 14:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eriku

You need to revisit Home and Away mate... talk about exaggeration

honestly, it's not far off - the character interaction and the general 'dramatic' storylines are bloody awful. it's a shame as i thought this would be a good series but with each passing episode it seems to have got worse and worse.

Devils Advocate · 7th December 2010, 14:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by golden_blunder

I suppose the question is, how much character development could they realistically fit in considering they probably knew they were writing for 6 episodes tops?

I wish they'd maybe dragged out the storyline a bit more with the lead character searching for his wife. They could have run a parallel story with the rest of the caravan group.

yeah i agree with that. I haven't read the comics so not sure how closely they follow but I'd have made the first 6 episodes about him looking for his wife and kid, that was all done in about 2 episodes and has left it being like a bad soap opera since.

it's just not been dark enough for me and there's been too many characters introduced too quickly which makes it difficult to create enough empathy for their situation. add the bad dialogue into the mix and it's been a big disappointment for me.

bill.s.preston · 7th December 2010, 14:21

I've quite enjoyed it. It has its faults, but it's still worth a watch.
It has done well enough to earn a longer second series, so they might have a bigger budget for special effects. This could mean a bit more action and the longer series might have scope to throw more character development into the mix.

I would fully expect Merle and the Father and Son to reappear in the future.

Mockney · 7th December 2010, 14:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by golden_blunder

I suppose the question is, how much character development could they realistically fit in considering they probably knew they were writing for 6 episodes tops?

Loads!...6 episodes is more than enough. A good film can get you caring about a character and their arch within an hour and a half...A good show within 2 or 3.

This has had 6 hours (SIX!) and only one character has done any developing (Shane) and that's just getting slightly angrier. And we still don't care about anyone..

I know it's following the books, but someone must be doing something wrong if the consensus is "I don't give a shit about these people" surely?

Cina · 7th December 2010, 14:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mockney

Loads!...6 episodes is more than enough. A good film can get you caring about a character and their arch within an hour and a half...A good show within 2 or 3.

This has had 6 hours (SIX!) and only one character has done any developing (Shane) and that's just getting slightly angrier. And we still don't care about anyone..

I know it's following the books, but someone must be doing something wrong if the consensus is "I don't give a shit about these people" surely?

Yeah exactly, look at British Shows like The office, and more recently Misfits, they've only had 6 episodes, and fairly large casts, and still managed to develop characters brilliantly.

It's the fact that the characters all seems so drab and dull and stereotypical and etc etc that's why I don't like them, and that's down to poor writing.

That scene in episode 4 with the 2 blondies on the boat was some of the most dire writing I've seen in a big budget TV show for a fair while.

Mockney · 7th December 2010, 14:42

...yeah that scene was dire. It didn't help that I hated both of their faces though tbf

Spoony Youngblood · 7th December 2010, 17:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mockney

Loads!...6 episodes is more than enough. A good film can get you caring about a character and their arch within an hour and a half...A good show within 2 or 3.

We don't need to be spoonfed either. My gripe wasn't with a lack of character development, to be honest (and thankfully we only saw one flashback) . I just wanted the series to be packed full brainless action. That said, I did like the dark undertones of the penultimate episode, and they did it without getting too melodramatic - I liked seeing humans transform into zombies....and it was interesting seeing what they may have thought before the impending metamorphosis was completed.

jveezy · 7th December 2010, 17:40

So consensus is that the show needs more Lennie James and Michael Rooker? Not exactly a surprise there.

maldini · 7th December 2010, 18:01

and more Jerry.

Jerry Seinfeld, that is.

Devils Advocate · 8th December 2010, 18:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eriku

You need to revisit Home and Away mate... talk about exaggeration

Ok fair play, just watching a few mins of home and away out of curiosity - walking dead isnt that bad! I'm sure home and away was a bit better 15 years ago.

Anyway, saw the last ep today of walking dead, still really disappointed with it, the pilot and the next ep were a solid start - i'd probs give those episodes an 8/10. It went horrendously downhill from when he (simon from teachers) got back to the forest camp and from then on it'd have got about 3/10 from me, it was so dull and the characters so 2D.

With the exception of shane (simon teachers 'mate') i cant even remember the characters names and i watched each episode. Actually, i think the dead blonde lass was called amy, that's about it though. Doesnt say much about a series when that happens.

If this had been a drama series set in a post apocolyptic world then it'd have been slated for being terminally dull and vacuous. It's only cos it has a zombie theme that i can see why people are saying it's better - and they dont even feature that much!

It's a real shame as the pilot was very promising as was the general premise of the show.

Spammy · 8th December 2010, 19:59

I enjoyed it, it's mainstream tele - some of you seem to forget that. Over here we're stuck with shit like Spooks and Holby City. It ended just as it seemed to pick up pace though.

FreakyJim · 10th December 2010, 22:58

Just watched the last episode and liked that bit

Spoiler

Overall, it's watchable. It could've been way better but the writing is average (as most of you've pointed that out already) and the cast is questionable at best. The cop's wife is terrible. I've hated her face since Prison Break.

RedSky At Night · 5th January 2011, 14:27

Enjoyable but got worse as the season progressed, was able to watch all 6 within a few days of one another so at least I didn't have to wait around.

Spoiler

I am really amazed though that here they are next to a massive city with lots of provessions and yet they decide to camp in a forest RIGHT next to the trees. Allowing the dead to walk straight into camp! Jeez, use your ruddy sense, at least chop down some of the trees. Also why didn't they drive the car with the alarm a few miles away with a car in support. So they could then take all they need drive back to camp knowing that the cars alarm would have sent the zombies miles away, rather than right in the middle of their camp...

Dresilved · 5th January 2011, 15:24

Decent guess

Quote:

Originally Posted by RedSky At Night

Spoiler

RedSky At Night · 6th January 2011, 10:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dresilved

Decent guess
[/spoiler]

Spoiler

olesmyhero · 6th January 2011, 13:38

I was talking to my friend the other day and realized that while it's a well made tv show, I really don't care for any of the characters or what happens to them. If they all turned into zombies, I'd be fine with that.

Burndogg · 7th January 2011, 03:24

I bet merle has a fucking stinker of an infection in season 2.

And they better explain the numbers and why Walt was special.

brad-dyrak · 7th January 2011, 07:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spoony Youngblood

First was good but I thought the 5th was pretty dark. This as you said was too melodramatic. All we really care about is watching zombies getting splattered not a pathetic love triangle story, a nihilistic scientist or a seedy old bloke trying his best to get into a younger woman's knickers(heh he's trying!)

There you go. Why tune in to some show about the end of the world and zombies only to have to follow some hackneyed plot involving the living? If I want to watch an irritating woman I don't need a TV. Zombies on the other hand are harder to come by.

More focus on the day to day foraging and tactics would be a good watch. More wierdos wouldn't hurt either. If they must have love interests, they should leap that living-dead barrier.

Dresilved · 7th January 2011, 18:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by RedSky At Night

Spoiler

Yes to all that

pauldyson1uk · 1st February 2011, 17:37

first 3 eps are ok , the love triangle is very cheesey.
And you just knew the guy on the roof had got away.

Snow · 2nd February 2011, 02:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mockney

Thing is, everything that happened in that episode had no real baring on what's gone before...and therefore no stakes, and therefore no interest (for me at any rate)

Spoiler

They introduced this place at the end of the last ep, and only really the beginning of this, so blowing it up was just a bit 'meh' (plus the way it progressed was just dumb "hey what's this big countdown clock about?" - "Oh this, yeah I'm blowing everything up in 5 minutes...Good thing none of you slept in ey?")..It's like if they'd blown up the hatch in Lost at the beginning of the 2nd season when they first went in, rather than at the end of the season, when it was sort of kinda a main base..Writing 101 - Build stakes an attachment before you destroy or kill..

Then you've got Truman's mate and the black lady who both stayed behind to die...Well again, meh, him we only met an episode ago and he's completely humourless, and the lady, well I've no idea who the fuck she is cos no one's spent any time exploring her character at all...she's just there. Now she's not. Meh. Writing 101 again.

As someone mentioned above, the really interesting characters (Lenny James, hick with one hand) were just dumped after one episode...(obviously they'll come back but....) as if the writers couldn't fit more than one interesting character into each episode at a time and felt they just had to focus on the lead guy, his expressionless wife and one note best friend....Except that nothing then happend. At all. Neither the story nor the characters moved forward. Both physically or mentally for any of them (bar one)

They've focused on these 3 characters for the whole series and they're still dull as ditch water and there's been little progression or reason to like them/want to watch them....They sat in the woods for 3 episodes doing fuck all whilst we sort of got a little bit of 2D cliche character expo on some other people ("I beat my wife yup yup" "I'm a nice sweet girl who loves her daddy ...and have got a sort of spooky lesbian thing going on with my sister") who were going to die eventually in an attempt to build some drama for the periphery characters...But that's it really.

It's been a real let down for me...The early action has been sacrificed for character development, but the character development has been slow and only really applied to one person (Shane) in 6 episodes, which, IMO, is bad writing... I simply don't care about any of them, and I've spent most of the time watching them talk.

Some people were comparing it to LOST on the other page jokingly, well I'll tell you what (yup yup) LOST knew how to develop and present more than one interesting character at a time and over 6 episodes had not just packed in more story, but 10 times the character expose and attraction to them...Zombies or no zombies, the writing has floundered. Which is such a shame because the beginning was so good. But it's the only ep I'd watch again.

LOST had no interesting characters. One of the worst shows I've seen. Don't know how I made it through 2 seasons of nothing happening. Talk about meh writing. How many people where on the island that didn't do shit and just stood and watched like (pun coming up) zombies.

At least blowing the science labbie thingie takes away all the hope from the characters. Everyone will end up as a zombie, no cure, no one working on one etc.

Isn't this a comic after all? The origin of meh writing?

7th December 2010, 01:09	#162 (permalink)
Leg-End First Team Sub Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: "SAF - you're an old dick - but I respect you." Posts: 8,770	Spoiler Pretty obvious finale, which was disappointing in execution and setting up season 2. So really we go into season 2 (im assuming there is one) back at square one with them on the run with no place to go. They really need to kill off half the gang or at least split them into different storyline arcs, and bring back the interesting characters that they really did very little with such as Morgan with his kid and Merle with his one hand.

7th December 2010, 05:49	#165 (permalink)
niMic may peace and blessings of God be upon me Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: And I'm all out of bubblegum. Posts: 10,781	Spoiler Am I right in thinking that they actually lost practically all their stuff at the end there? So they're actually much worse off than when they came in, if a little cleaner.

7th December 2010, 08:26	#169 (permalink)
niMic may peace and blessings of God be upon me Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: And I'm all out of bubblegum. Posts: 10,781	Well, it's funny that you bring up Lost, because that whole deal actually reminded me a bit about Lost. Spoiler As in, they introduced something new, which was then used as the main point of the finale. Obviously it's different, since here it's a matter of two episodes, and it's more like two seasons in Lost, but it definitely reminded me of it. In Lost practically the entire finale and all the 'explanation' that was done in that was based on something that was introduced several seasons into the show. On an unrelated note, it struck me as slightly odd that the bloody CDC wouldn't have enough juice to run longer than it did, particularly when for most of that time there was only one person, assuming he wasn't leaving all the lights on. On a second unrelated note, I was entirely convinced we'd see something of the guy with the kid from the pilot. I just thought they'd have to find some way of putting actual zombies in the episode, since that is the entire theme of the show. And I didn't think it was likely they'd find any inside. I still like the show, though. It's got potential, and I haven't been outright bored yet, even though they could have taken it in better directions.

10th December 2010, 22:58	#191 (permalink)
FreakyJim Reserve Team Player Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: SolarX Posts: 3,698	Just watched the last episode and liked that bit Spoiler when the doc whispered something into the main character's ear who went from looking scared to devastated , as if all hope was lost...or so I thought at the moment, might have been bad acting or something else Overall, it's watchable. It could've been way better but the writing is average (as most of you've pointed that out already) and the cast is questionable at best. The cop's wife is terrible. I've hated her face since Prison Break.

5th January 2011, 14:27	#192 (permalink)
RedSky At Night RTA waiting to happen Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Nottingham Forest (in Soccer Manager League) Posts: 16,567	Enjoyable but got worse as the season progressed, was able to watch all 6 within a few days of one another so at least I didn't have to wait around. Spoiler Surely the wife is pregnant with the best mates baby, he took blood samples and would probably tell the husband in secret considering he was the only one to reach out to him and connect on a personal level. Hence why he looked devastated. I am really amazed though that here they are next to a massive city with lots of provessions and yet they decide to camp in a forest RIGHT next to the trees. Allowing the dead to walk straight into camp! Jeez, use your ruddy sense, at least chop down some of the trees. Also why didn't they drive the car with the alarm a few miles away with a car in support. So they could then take all they need drive back to camp knowing that the cars alarm would have sent the zombies miles away, rather than right in the middle of their camp...

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6th December 2010, 22:25	#161 (permalink)
Spoony Youngblood Wants to be more like Top Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: RIP Sydney Youngblood, who died in a tragic go-karting accident in 2007. RIP my cat 2001-09. iRIP Steve Cunting Jobs Posts: 42,368	First was good but I thought the 5th was pretty dark. This as you said was too melodramatic. All we really care about is watching zombies getting splattered not a pathetic love triangle story, a nihilistic scientist or a seedy old bloke trying his best to get into a younger woman's knickers(heh he's trying!)

7th December 2010, 01:19	#163 (permalink)
Wibble Ingadus Speramus Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: Centre Back Posts: 49,870	6 episodes seems too short given the lose ends of various characters who we saw for 1 episode and never since. 13 episode second series apparently.

7th December 2010, 01:21	#164 (permalink)
Wibble Ingadus Speramus Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: Centre Back Posts: 49,870	All shot on 16mm apparently. Some of the special effects are a bit dodgy but I'm still enjoying it even of episode 5 was a little pedestrian.

7th December 2010, 07:32	#168 (permalink)
Mockney Only poster to be named Poster of the Year twice Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Bangerang.net Posts: 24,967	Thing is, everything that happened in that episode had no real baring on what's gone before...and therefore no stakes, and therefore no interest (for me at any rate) Spoiler They introduced this place at the end of the last ep, and only really the beginning of this, so blowing it up was just a bit 'meh' (plus the way it progressed was just dumb "hey what's this big countdown clock about?" - "Oh this, yeah I'm blowing everything up in 5 minutes...Good thing none of you slept in ey?")..It's like if they'd blown up the hatch in Lost at the beginning of the 2nd season when they first went in, rather than at the end of the season, when it was sort of kinda a main base..Writing 101 - Build stakes an attachment before you destroy or kill.. Then you've got Truman's mate and the black lady who both stayed behind to die...Well again, meh, him we only met an episode ago and he's completely humourless, and the lady, well I've no idea who the fuck she is cos no one's spent any time exploring her character at all...she's just there. Now she's not. Meh. Writing 101 again. As someone mentioned above, the really interesting characters (Lenny James, hick with one hand) were just dumped after one episode...(obviously they'll come back but....) as if the writers couldn't fit more than one interesting character into each episode at a time and felt they just had to focus on the lead guy, his expressionless wife and one note best friend....Except that nothing then happend. At all. Neither the story nor the characters moved forward. Both physically or mentally for any of them (bar one) They've focused on these 3 characters for the whole series and they're still dull as ditch water and there's been little progression or reason to like them/want to watch them....They sat in the woods for 3 episodes doing fuck all whilst we sort of got a little bit of 2D cliche character expo on some other people ("I beat my wife yup yup" "I'm a nice sweet girl who loves her daddy ...and have got a sort of spooky lesbian thing going on with my sister") who were going to die eventually in an attempt to build some drama for the periphery characters...But that's it really. It's been a real let down for me...The early action has been sacrificed for character development, but the character development has been slow and only really applied to one person (Shane) in 6 episodes, which, IMO, is bad writing... I simply don't care about any of them, and I've spent most of the time watching them talk. Some people were comparing it to LOST on the other page jokingly, well I'll tell you what (yup yup) LOST knew how to develop and present more than one interesting character at a time and over 6 episodes had not just packed in more story, but 10 times the character expose and attraction to them...Zombies or no zombies, the writing has floundered. Which is such a shame because the beginning was so good. But it's the only ep I'd watch again.

7th December 2010, 12:24	#171 (permalink)
CassiusClaymore First Team Regular Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: The Democratic Republic of Congo Posts: 10,401	Gotta agree with the consensus on this. After a promising start it didn't really go anywhere. I can't say that I cared for any of the characters. That said, I'll still be back for the second season though and hope that a longer run and a new bunch of writers can turn it around.

7th December 2010, 12:31	#172 (permalink)
golden_blunder Manager Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: In the shadows fighting e-crime Posts: 63,899	people need to keep in mind that it is based on comics That being said, i enjoyed eps 1 - 5 ep 6 was a bit disappointing, its like they didnt know how to finish the season. Put them in a building for a day, then have the drama of them trying to escape the very next day. If the CDC guy knew that there was only enough fuel for 1 day why did he even bother to open the door in the first place? Meh

7th December 2010, 13:26	#173 (permalink)
Mockney Only poster to be named Poster of the Year twice Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Bangerang.net Posts: 24,967	Yeah I get that they couldn't really do anything with the story I suppose...But the fact that none of us give a shit about any of the characters, especially the three main ones they've practically forced us to spend countless hours of screen time watching talk to each other in woods ...you'd think that has to be a flaw in the writing somehow?....Or perhaps the acting? but I can't really fault the acting, other than the wife's face doesn't move and there are about 3 of them I want to punch. I can't really put my finger on what it is...it's just not gone anywhere for me. I'm fine with Character > Action, but in 6 hours of television how have they managed to get so little exposition out of or sympathy/affection for anyone!! ....I mean how?

7th December 2010, 13:36	#174 (permalink)
Devils Advocate Reserve Team Player Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 1,504	I've got one episode left to watch of this, downloading today, thought the pilot was pretty good and it's rocketed downhill from that point. Terrible dialogue and a complete void of interesting characters has made me just want the zombies to kill them all tbh and I was hoping this would be really good. In the end I've felt as though it's a zombie edition of Home and Away, it's been that bad. It's selling point, I presume, was that it would be a proper TV zombie series which gives them the time to develop characters and dramatic storylines that isn't normally possible when making a film. They've failed miserably IMO.

7th December 2010, 13:39	#175 (permalink)
Hectic Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Mike Phelan WILL kill you. Posts: 6,845	They should never have moved on without Lennie James. He was the most interesting character!

7th December 2010, 13:47	#177 (permalink)
golden_blunder Manager Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: In the shadows fighting e-crime Posts: 63,899	I suppose the question is, how much character development could they realistically fit in considering they probably knew they were writing for 6 episodes tops? I wish they'd maybe dragged out the storyline a bit more with the lead character searching for his wife. They could have run a parallel story with the rest of the caravan group.

7th December 2010, 14:21	#182 (permalink)
bill.s.preston First Team Sub Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 7,495	I've quite enjoyed it. It has its faults, but it's still worth a watch. It has done well enough to earn a longer second series, so they might have a bigger budget for special effects. This could mean a bit more action and the longer series might have scope to throw more character development into the mix. I would fully expect Merle and the Father and Son to reappear in the future.

7th December 2010, 14:42	#185 (permalink)
Mockney Only poster to be named Poster of the Year twice Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Bangerang.net Posts: 24,967	...yeah that scene was dire. It didn't help that I hated both of their faces though tbf

7th December 2010, 17:40	#187 (permalink)
jveezy Coach Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Rancho Cordova, California, USA Posts: 14,268	So consensus is that the show needs more Lennie James and Michael Rooker? Not exactly a surprise there.

7th December 2010, 18:01	#188 (permalink)
maldini Banned Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Canada Posts: 1,113	and more Jerry. Jerry Seinfeld, that is.

8th December 2010, 19:59	#190 (permalink)
Spammy Being watched; will learn to post in the correct forum Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Gloves are worn for traction primarily. Someone like Evra needs them for good throw-ins when it's raining or snowing or the ball is damp. Kaka, might wear them because he get's fouled a lot. Scraping and cutting his hands on frozen pitches Posts: 27,288	I enjoyed it, it's mainstream tele - some of you seem to forget that. Over here we're stuck with shit like Spooks and Holby City. It ended just as it seemed to pick up pace though.

6th January 2011, 13:38	#195 (permalink)
olesmyhero Emmy Moses Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: 4000+ miles west of old trafford Posts: 23,461	I was talking to my friend the other day and realized that while it's a well made tv show, I really don't care for any of the characters or what happens to them. If they all turned into zombies, I'd be fine with that.

7th January 2011, 03:24	#196 (permalink)
Burndogg Magic Meat Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Viva La Soviet Union Posts: 16,916	I bet merle has a fucking stinker of an infection in season 2. And they better explain the numbers and why Walt was special.

1st February 2011, 17:37	#199 (permalink)
pauldyson1uk First Team Regular Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 14,150	first 3 eps are ok , the love triangle is very cheesey. And you just knew the guy on the roof had got away.