The Walking Dead Season 2 Discussion *Spoilers*

[the G-man]

Santeria wrote:

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And in possession of uber magic technology that neuters the threat. And for when that fails (which it does) there's a highly organized, super-equipped task force at the ready to step in. Neither of which exist in The Walking Dead.

Is that clearer?

If the Walking Dead has magitech collars and a megacorporation with super soldiers available for immediate deployment at every population center, then sure, Fido would be a decent reference. But it doesn't. Nor will it ever. Especially the magic collar bullshit.

You're missing the point about references to Fido.

You have argued that TWD universe is never going to find a way to adapt. That there is no hope. You have implied, if not outright said, that a society would never be able to adept to a zombie virus.

Others have pointed out that certain measures could, over time, allow society to reestablish itself. Among the measures would be learning how to prevent reanimation by specific post-mortum actions (head trauma, etc.) and setting up organizations to contain any new outbreaks before they can spread.

In reference to this possibility, one of the examples cited by people, myself included, is the film Fido.

Fido takes place a few decades after a zombie apocalypse and, while parts of the world are still "hell on earth", in other ways society has found methods to adapt. One of the ways they've adapted is very specific funeral arrangements to avoid reanimation. Another is the development of trained experts/technicians who can be called in to neutralize the threat.

Yes, a third way in that film is the "magical collar" that turns zombies into pets. But even if you discount that part of the story, it is still about people adapting in ways that aren't outside the possibility of the TWD universe. It is those other adaptions in Fido that we are discussing.

[Derishton]

I'd add again that human societies adapting to a zombie apocalypse are actually very nearly the norm right now: there are fewer and fewer films/books about the actual apocalypse, and more and more about how we'd manage to survive. It's a really interesting phenomenon. I only listed a few in the post above, but there's far more than that. The tagline for Walking Dead is something about it taking the end of the world to learn how to live; that alone implies that the series is about survival and adaptation.

[Santeria]

the G-man wrote:

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You're missing the point about references to Fido.

No, you're completely and utterly missing my point. If Rick tells the others what the CDC guy told him, which is likely that everyone is infected, that group will lose all hope of a better tomorrow.

I'm not saying that it's completely impossible for humanity to recover. That has fuck-all to do with the series. The series is about this small group of people who's only hope is to survive and maybe one day see a better tomorrow.

Non-existent magical collars and non-existent super soldiers are going to save the day for these people. Nor is some comedy about a WWII atomic (I'm sorry, a "space radiation") fallout where they have these things and still have a shitty imprisoned existence. Fido has fuck-all to do with what I'm talking about. Ditto for their salvation through "shooting everyone who dies in the head." Those things aren't hopeful for Rick's group.

[sojourner]

^Ah the moving of the goal posts.

[PsychoPere]

We now have a piece of huge casting news for season three...

David Morrissey will be The Governor!

For those who aren't familiar with the original comics, expect some serious shit to go down in season three if the series continues to follow the roadmap. The link does give very minor spoilers as to how the character fits in, but I don't think it would be an issue for most people.

(For those who are familiar with the comics, if we're going to discuss this casting news in any detail in this particular thread, please remember to use spoiler code. We don't want to ruin the intensity for those people!)

[P0sitr0nic]

Im pretty sure society in TWD will survive.

After all, all they have to do is outlive the zombies, who, at some point, will rot and wither to the point they are no longer animate. Add to that death preperations, funeral procedures (burn all bodies) and other precautions, it simply becomes yet another disease we as humans live with daily.

[Silvercrest]

PsychoPere wrote:

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For those who aren't familiar with the original comics, expect some serious shit to go down in season three if the series continues to follow the roadmap.

The world has been destroyed! How much more serious can you get????

(Speaking as a non-reader of the comics.)

[scnj]

There's some stuff that happens in the comic that I think they'll deviate from in the show. The Governor is one of my favourite characters though.

[Dream]

scnj wrote:

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There's some stuff that happens in the comic that I think they'll deviate from in the show. The Governor is one of my favourite characters though.

The stuff the Governor does in the comic is too hardcore even for this show. They'll tone down most of the things he does.

[scnj]

Dream wrote:

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The stuff the Governor does in the comic is too hardcore even for this show. They'll tone down most of the things he does.

Plus, one of the things that happens has already happened in the show.

[Dorian Thompson]

Wow, they're going British again with the casting. I wonder how Morrissey's American accent will fare. Lincoln does a pretty good job hiding his. I've never read the comics. I take it this Governor is sadistic?

[Temis the Vorta]

No, you're completely and utterly missing my point. If Rick tells the others what the CDC guy told him, which is likely that everyone is infected, that group will lose all hope of a better tomorrow.

It's possible that the group would react much worse to this news than we are. They're in the middle of a mind-bendingly hellish situation, and we're just typing away from the comfort of our parents' basements, without so much of a waft of ice-hot zombie breath on our necks...so we can afford to be pretty blase. What's their problem, humanity has survived worse, get a grip you wimps.

But here's the problem: the storyline is not being judged by how the characters react, but what the audience thinks of it. If the audience sees a plot twist and thinks, pfft who cares, then it's a bad plot twist.

If that plot twist turns out to be true, it's got two strikes against it: the audience has already figured it out (some surprise) and has already found reasons to reject it.

Part of a storyteller's job is to know how the audience will react to a story - and hopefully to come up with twists the audience cannot predict.

[the G-man]

Dream wrote:

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The stuff the Governor does in the comic is too hardcore even for this show. They'll tone down most of the things he does.

Yep.

[PsychoPere]

Dream wrote:

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The stuff the Governor does in the comic is too hardcore even for this show. They'll tone down most of the things he does.

Yeah, I imagine several of the "bigger" things he does will be "shown" off-screen - implied, rather than actively depicted.

Dorian Thompson wrote:

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I take it this Governor is sadistic?

Very much so.

[the G-man]

As I've said before, there are certain realities of TV production that are going to require significant deviations from what I understand to be the comic book storyline.

One is that Carl is going to have be recast, written out or the entire show subject to a time jump.

Another is that, given the budget constraints on the show as is. For example, I doubt the producers are going to want to go the time and expense of having a lead character played by

an actor with two hands

spend the rest of the series

without a right hand

, though I could be wrong.