The Walking Dead Season 3

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by Gotham Central, Jul 14, 2012.

  1. Mark_Nguyen

    Mark_Nguyen Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Apr 24, 2006
    Location:
    Calgary, Alberta
    The longer-lasting zombie franchises tend to do so IMO because they don`t delve into the WHY of the undead, just that they ARE, and dealing with the human drama that comes as a result of the apocalypse. I always figured that Romero would have faded into obscurity long ago if his second or third movie were about a team of scientists trying to find a cure, or at least figuring out how the things move and moan. I mean, we don`t really KNOW how the warp drive or transporters work, right?

    Here, we had the CDC but that mostly served to identify the cause as a virus (and ultimately to confirm that everyone HAS it), but that`s it. Our heroes don`t have the means to do anything more beyond survive and that`s what we hope we`ll be enjoying hopefully for at least a few more seasons* .

    Mark

    *sixseasonsandamovie
     
  2. Scout101

    Scout101 Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Aug 21, 2003
    Location:
    Rhode Island, USA
    They generally do so because it's over a shorter time span, though. When you just need to show the infection and then a week or a month of running panic, the long-term issues don't come up. And you usually just either kill off the main characters, or the surviving 2-3 head off into the distance in a car, or a boat, or whatever. It's somewhat rare that you're dealing with a situation several months, or in the case of TWD, about a year after the initial event.

    You're right, though, usually a lot of hand-waving about the How and Why of it. Resident Evil took about as good a crack at it as any, but even then, it gets pretty fuzzy when there's a large group of zombies that should have to eat, but don't want to eat each other. They had the virus re-energizing the cells, which in the short term, is fine.

    With TWD, you've got the long time frame, and even seasonal changes to deal with. Starts getting tougher to ignore those sorts of things in the long term. Maybe they can go a month without food by burning through every reserve in the body, but a year later? You show the zombies decomposing a bit, but in the Gerogia summer heat, with the decomposing gases and no way to cool? BLAM!

    I appreciate what we've been getting (minus the season long 'search' for the girl on the farm that just DRAGGED), but I wouldn't mind more mythology on this one. I ENJOYED the CDC part. For the most part, we've stayed with Rick's perspective, so we don't know much of anything about what happened, how it happened, if there's anyone anywhere able to do anything to help. We woke up in Zombieland, fully established. I'd like at least some more bits and pieces filled in at some point, even if we don't get the full story.

    Things like warp drive are easier to gloss over, it's basically just magic because you don't know anything about any of the components (and believed to be physically impossible, give or take, so you can just push the 'i believe' button and move on). With this, you know what the human body is made of, how it reacts to various conditions, what it takes to fuel it, heal it, rest it, etc. It's a tougher leap of faith, because it isn't asking us to believe in magic, it's asking us to ignore things we actually KNOW stuff about.

    It's cool if you show zombies having to eat the flesh of the living to gain energy and survive. And maybe there's something there that they can't get from other dead people, which is why they don't eat each other. But then you gotta show them eating, can't leave them dormant, or wandering around a pharmacy for a year without consequences. Can't bake them in the sun without cooling off, sweating, or drinking water/blood, and then not have them looking like a squishy mummy later on.

    I'm enjoying the show a lot, and know they're stuck with certain premises that they're playing to, just saying it's harder to suspend disbelief when the subject is something we know more about. Zombies are a great horror subject (and why the Borg were so great when they came out originally), but just don't hold up to a long-term project without more explaination or eye-rolling disbelief.
     
  3. Sindatur

    Sindatur The Gray Owl Wizard Admiral

    Joined:
    Jan 2, 2011
    Location:
    Sacramento, CA
    Searching for Sophia was only half a season, we saw her running around lost for the first episode (or was it 2), then the search for 4 or 5 episodes, and then the reveal in Episode 7

    Regarding the "sitting Zombies", we honestly have no way of knowing how long they were sitting there. For all we know, when we see a new one, they could've been survivors who only just died this morning or yesterday of Starvation. Every survivor will be come a Zombie when they die, so, as long as there are survivors, there are new Zombies waiting to be born.

    So, yea, maybe a bit much to still have packs of 100s a year into the outbreak, and certainly I can't argue with you about the Heat and decomposition, but, the sitters and the continued prescence of Zombies isn't so unbelievable. And let's not forget, they do partake in 4 legged animal flesh (Rick's horse and the cow Dale found, for example)
     
  4. PsychoPere

    PsychoPere Vice Admiral Premium Member

    Joined:
    May 25, 2002
    As in the comics, the show seems to be taking the approach that zombie movies are not a "thing" in their universe. So, no, these characters would not have watched these sort of events on tv. Still, it was short-sighted of Herschel not to take the precaution to stab that body, though we can chalk that carelessness up to panic over Maggie.

    It's not the first time we've seen a walker that had simply stopped.

    In the season two finale, Rick revealed that Jenner had told him that every living person was infected. Anyone who dies, even if they haven't been bit or scratched by a zombie, will turn. The only exception is people who have suffered brain damage as cause of death.

    Rick has admitted that he wasn't a particularly good law enforcement officer, and they aren't near the small town in which he and his family lived. Why would he bother knowing where prisons halfway between Atlanta and Fort Benning are, except for when he needed that information?
     
  5. Gotham Central

    Gotham Central Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    May 15, 2001
    Location:
    Chicago, IL
    Actually the reason that there are so many zobies wandering around is because survivors keep making noise.

    In the comic they explain this pretty clearly. Roamers will keep moving in the direction of noise until something new attracts their attention. Given that the world is ALOT quieter post apocalypse, sound will travel much further and attract more Zs than would normally be the case. Everytime the survivors fire an unsilenced bullet they attract more Zombies. Before long you've got a herd. The noise from Daryl's chopper would have added to the problem.

    Noise is also why settlements inevitably attract roamers. Civilization means noise, which will in the long run produce a herd. I think that it would have been better for the show to have pointed out that all of that target practice and wasting bullets early in season 2 did more to attract the herd to the farm than the helicopter and that final bullet that killed Shane.

    On the weather, in the comics the first winter was supposed to be VERY cold. Its not stated why, but the book World War Z gives a plausable explanation in that all of the fires started as civilization fell produced enough smoke to block out enough sunlight to bring down global temperatures (sort of like a Nuclear Autumn/Winter). Consequently, things should have been easier on the surviors during the winter. The Zs would not die but they should slowdown and possible freeze if it got cold enough. Finding places that are warm, zombie free and have access to sufficient food and clean water is what should have been the biggest challenge.
     
  6. DarthTom

    DarthTom Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Apr 19, 2005
    Location:
    Atlanta, Georgia
  7. Gotham Central

    Gotham Central Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    May 15, 2001
    Location:
    Chicago, IL
    :eek: Seriously, you're arguing about the scientific plauseability of ZOMBIES :rofl:

    Dude don't do that. Tehz Magik!

    Zombies are automatically exempt from any known laws about temperature and decomposition because by definition, dead things don't get up an walkaround without some serious external intervention that changes the rules.
     
  8. Cutter John

    Cutter John Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Hmmmm, in which case I may have to add "hang a bunch of pots and pans in a tree before heading off in another direction" to my zombie survival tips list.
     
  9. Sindatur

    Sindatur The Gray Owl Wizard Admiral

    Joined:
    Jan 2, 2011
    Location:
    Sacramento, CA
    That would be a great strategy, unless they're coming from the direction you run off in, in which case, you just rang the Dinner Bell :eek:

    If you know exactly where all the Zombies in your negihborhood are though, it could be very effective
     
  10. Mark_Nguyen

    Mark_Nguyen Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Apr 24, 2006
    Location:
    Calgary, Alberta
    I think another element that differentiates this episode with all the others that come before it, is that the group is actually on the offensive for the first time in the TV show. They've had reasons to head into the jaws of the horde before, but this is the first time they have been actively engaged in killing zombies for a purpose, rather than offing the ones that get in the way of a respirator or pregnancy test or missing girl or whatever. Having a goal like that makes us sympathize with them and want to see them win, in a more visceral, kinetic way than we have thus far. It's quite a change, actually; one we'll see more of later (per the comics) and something I hope they can keep up with believable quality as we see here.

    Mark
     
  11. RJDiogenes

    RJDiogenes Idealistic Cynic and Canon Champion Premium Member

    Joined:
    Jun 11, 2003
    Location:
    RJDiogenes of Boston
    Yeah, exactly. Whatever is animating them is also preserving them. That's how I see it, too.
     
  12. MPH

    MPH Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Aug 15, 2001
    Location:
    United Kingdom of Great Britain
    Been about a year now since the zombie outbreak the corpses should be rotting now and think the series probably only has 2 seasons left before it starts getting implausible.
     
  13. sojourner

    sojourner Admiral In Memoriam

    Joined:
    Sep 4, 2008
    Location:
    Just around the bend.
    I'm going with part of the virus's changes is to make the zombie body more resistant to decomposition.
     
  14. Mark_Nguyen

    Mark_Nguyen Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Apr 24, 2006
    Location:
    Calgary, Alberta
    Remember that there are most likely multiple forces at work here. Many in the comics fandom like a theory that a zombie bite contains and transfers some incredibly rapid and resilient bacteria or virus that will kill you very quickly via fever, etc. Then, ANOTHER virus already present will activate upon death (or possibly cessation of brain/neural activity), resulting in reanimation. It's a one-two punch.

    Mark
     
  15. SG-17

    SG-17 Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Nov 28, 2008
    I also think that the virus releases a toxin into the saliva of its hosts so bites become fatal. Like Komodo Dragon's but much more severe.
     
  16. propita

    propita Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 9, 2001
    Location:
    fresno, ca, us
    Something's gotta be pretty resilient if the dead are still walking around!

    What if it's closer to the Vashta Nerada idea? A bacteria that infests every cell and forces the movement? But you'd still have the problem of feeding the bacteria...if there's no fresh food and it can't eat itself (or the dead), why doesn't the bacteria die? Maybe the sitting zombie was dormant (that is, the bacteria inside the zombie was dormant making the zombie dormant), but then wouldn't more of the zombies be dormant by now?
     
  17. the G-man

    the G-man Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 22, 2010
    Location:
    to your immediate right
    Yet we see decomposition, going all the way back to the first episode and "bicycle girl."
     
  18. Caligula

    Caligula Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Dec 26, 2001
    Location:
    Knoxville, TN USA
    Something I've been thinking about ever since "Better Angels".... Excusing for a moment what would surely be continuously escalating hostility in the Rick/Lori/Shane triangle, I wonder if much of what is to come in Season 3 would still go down if Shane had survived up to this point.

    Note: I still think he died at exactly the right point in the series, from a dramatic standpoint, and in one of my favorite episodes thus far, but I can't help speculating on what his approach to the situation would be, and if certain characters' deaths would be prevented with Shane's presence.
     
  19. Scout101

    Scout101 Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Aug 21, 2003
    Location:
    Rhode Island, USA
    Lame copout at best. If they just started flying, you'd have a problem with it, so there IS a limit to what you'll accept as 'normal' when it comes to this already imaginary creature. Seems my limit is just a little closer to what actually exists, whereas your limit involves more 'magiks' from the get-go. Certain conceits are required, I just like it to make a little more sense, I guess.

    From what you're saying, though, you'd have no leg to stand on if you bitched when they started flying...
     
  20. Cutter John

    Cutter John Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    I like Max Brooks explaination that along with jellifying the victims blood, the 'zombie virus' toxifies the victims cells, rendering it toxic to living creatures including flies, and the bacteria that causes decomposition.
     
    Last edited: Oct 17, 2012