AMC's The Walking Dead Season 1 Discussion & Spoilers

[USS Avenger]

Tulin wrote:

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Seriously?



Really?!?


Hear that sound?

That's the sound of NOBODY caring!!!

I didn't say anyone else had to care. Its something I noticed, and even mentioned, that I am personally a bit anal about. So at least one person cares, me.

Actually there are quite a few others who care as well. After a quick look at some other (weapons related) forums chatting about this show, I see that there are others discussing the very same issues. Granted this being a Sci-Fi forum those issues are not typically at the forefront, but I thought I would bring it up. Just because you don't care, doesn't mean a rude response is required.

[Dream]

If this had been on HBO, it definately would have been TV-MA. Just imagine it. Topless zombie women!

[USS Avenger]

Topless zombies, zombie strippers, and in the hospital scenes the hero wouldn't have been wearing his boxers

I really hadn't noticed the rating thing, I guess I never really pay any attention to it. The show was on late enough to keep the kiddies from seeing any gore. Unless you want your kids to see the blood, in which case DVR it!

[Admiral_Young]

I watched it this morning and absolutely loved it, and I'm not a zomie fan. I felt much like "Zombieland" did "The Walking Dead" chooses to focus on characters who the audience can feel an emotional attachment to and follow through the series and really the zombies are secondary. They're cool and all but Darabont and his team are obviously wanting us to focus and care about Rick and his family, and the other characters who are connected with them. Awesome show. I'll be watching this.

[USS Avenger]

I have not read the comic that this was based on, but from what others have told me that is the focus there as well. The zombies are the background, the ever present threat tht brings these characters together and it is their relationships that are at the forefront. I don't know if thats true or not, but it seems to be the way this series is headed and I like it.

[Caliburn24]

I liked the show and will be sticking with it.

But nitpicking is fun so lets do that!

My first would be that our hero decides to carry something like five shotguns with him. Really? Shotguns are one of the most reliable types of weapon but they are heavy. Why carry so many weapons instead of more ammunition? I carried one weapon at a time in Iraq, but you better believe that weapon was clean, functional and had a whole lot of bullets.

Next, the tank was clearly a mock-up, it did a poor job of looking like an Abrams, and the inside was entirely too spacious. They also do not have escape hatches on the bottom since that would make it more vulnerable to mines.

Finally, will the survivors be smart enough to use suppressed and silenced weapons later on in the series? Heck, even bows and crossbows would work. And there are all shorts of make-shift silencers that could work, a potato strapped or duct-taped to the muzzle of a weapon can be an effective one shot silencer.

But again, that is part of the fun of survival type shows, thinking what you would do in the place of the heroes.

[USS Avenger]

I though the same thing about the shotguns. Carry one, maybe two for spare parts or if the primary is lost or destroyed, and just carry more ammo. Could be he is bringing the extra guns to arm any other survivors he meets? Crossbows would work great!

[Dream]

Admiral_Young wrote:

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I felt much like "Zombieland" did "The Walking Dead" chooses to focus on characters who the audience can feel an emotional attachment to and follow through the series and really the zombies are secondary.

I loved Zombieland. I agree that one of the main reasons it did so well was that it was so funny and we actually cared about the main characters. Hopefully this is will become like that too. The father and son relationship already looks promising. Now we just need some kickass female characters!

[sidious618]

Loved it. Really great stuff.

[PsychoPere]

Caliburn24 wrote:

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Finally, will the survivors be smart enough to use suppressed and silenced weapons later on in the series? Heck, even bows and crossbows would work. [...]

Improvised weapons became common in the comics as the series progressed. I'd be very surprised if the tv series doesn't end up using some as well, especially since the show has already made a point of Rick addressing the issue of ammunition.

Dream wrote:

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[...] Now we just need some kickass female characters!

Frank Darabont has discussed the possibility of introducing a character in season 2 from the comics named Michonne, which would actually bring her into the tv series much earlier than she debuted in the comics (issue #19). With her katana, I can guarantee she'd fit your hope quite well.

[Gotham Central]

Given that civilization has collapsed, I would not expect them to be using potatoes for silencers if only because they'll probably need them for food. Silencers would be good...though they still make a noise and we have no idea how zombie "hearing" works.

As for the crossbow, how good are those with head shots? A crossbow may not do enough damage to the brain to be effective. The other problem with the crossbow is the limited amount of ammo that you can carry at any given time...especially compared to a gun. Cross bows are great for distance shooting and sniping but in a street fight give you'd be better off with some form of automatic weapon.

[nx1701g]

Well I officially have a new favorite show. This is the first time I've found zombies frightening since I first watched Night of the Living Dead.

Earlier in the thread someone asked why zombies don't attack each other. In several of the books related to the genre it was always suggested that it was because of the smell that zombies gave off. Others suggested that it was because of phereomones given off by living humans.

[Zachary Smith]

T'Baio wrote:

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See, you lost me right there.

I pity the fool . . . Uuhhhnnnn!

[startrekwatcher]

Jax wrote:

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Seems you were hoping for action over plot, no thanks.

Oh this tired old refrain again I see....You know where I criticize a show and the retort is that I must not have liked it because it didn't have any action or not enough VFX or whatever. No, I actually prefer character-drama with a nice bit of plot--I certainly don't need action in my entertainment--quite the opposite.

Most shows or films these days are nothing more than an overdose of action, VFX sequence with no story or characters to connect with--that *is* why I am so down on most series/films. And while I've long lamented the ridiculously fast pacing of tv shows and films where everything is a blur I also don't want the pacing to be as slow as molasses either.

But at the same time just because there is no action or plot and you have pretty much nothing but two actors on screen sharing dialog also doesn't make great tv either if it isn't compelling--a lesson Caprica, Rubicon etc didn't learn.

I'm sorry but I found none of the characters the least bit interesting and with very little entertaining plot to compensate for that the show already lost me. I need to connect with the characters and without that I'm not interested. And it also didn't help that this show didn't exactly tread any fresh ground--all of this is pretty standard zombie/apocalyptic fare.

[Zachary Smith]

nx1701g wrote:

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Well I officially have a new favorite show. This is the first time I've found zombies frightening since I first watched Night of the Living Dead.

Earlier in the thread someone asked why zombies don't attack each other. In several of the books related to the genre it was always suggested that it was because of the smell that zombies gave off. Others suggested that it was because of phereomones given off by living humans.

The reason zombies don't attack one another is because their bodies are biologically inactive and composed of dead, rotting and corrupted tissue and therefore lacking in the ability to provide the undead with the energy needs they desire. Though their bodies don't require food for survival, but they crave energy (i.e. "food") on an instinctive level.

The mechanism by which they became reanimated is low-powered and incomplete; which is why they move slowly and are relatively weaker than living humans. Their systems recognize their physiology is underpowered compared to what it is designed for and so they naturally crave the energy of the much high metabolic systems of living humans. Their primitive brain mis-translates this low-powered state and desire for more energy as a form of intense "hunger" and manifests as a solution a severe craving for the much more energetic, biochemically powered metabolism of the living humans. And, of course, in life the "undead" gained energy from the environment just as we all do, from eating. Therefore, the zombie's instinctive solution to solving the energy issues of its own low-powered, "starving" metabolism is by trying to obtain the energy of the biochemically powered metabolism of living humans by eating them. Of course, it doesn't work because you basically have a NEW mechanism functioning which reanimates the dead on a cellular level but their organ-based biological systems are inoperative and thus the "hunger" is never abated. BTW, the means by which humans (and all other known creatures) are defined as "living" and the mechanism by which the zombies are reanimated are mutually incompatible. They are NOT "alive" by any known medical or scientific definition as the means by which they are reanimated is not biochemical in nature and the function of their bodies is not organ-based. In the zombie, you have a creature which is being "powered" by a process its body never evolved to handle; which results in a lot of mis-communication and mixed signals within the system.

Incidentally, the lack of intelligence, awareness and general "personality" of the zombie is not a failure of the reanimation process but a consequence of the physical destruction of neurons of the brain which occurs in the relatively narrow window between the "death" of the living human and the "reanimation" of the undead zombie. The neurons of the brain, mostly lacking in glycogen, reserves are physically disrupted by the hypoxic/anoxic conditions in the brain that occur following the cessation of heart/respiratory functions and prior to the actual mechanism of reanimation. Higher brain functions, and therefore intellect, personality and self-awareness, are essentially destroyed at this time and do not recover following reanimation due to the physical disruption/destruction of the neural network of the brain.

It is possible, BTW, in rare instances where, for one reason or another, reanimation occurred more quickly than usual or if the body was very cold thereby limiting the physical damage to the brain, the reanimated specimen might exhibit some slightly higher quality of mental function or intelligence and display some dim familiarity with or memory of locations, people or objects. Some may even engage in habitual rote-memory behaviors they performed in life, but this is essentially reflexive and not conscious activity.