Spoilers Tales of the Walking Dead discussion = spoilers

[Morpheus 02]

I actually have NOT watched an episode yet and do not have AMC+ so I haven't seen it as of this posting.

But I am surprised no one posted a thread (as far as I can see).

But would love to discuss people's thoughts on it.

I just ask that no spoilers from AMC+ people. @TREK_GOD_1 has done a good job writing thoughts on advance episodes without spoiling it.

THIS seems like the best option as a spinoff... I personally would have called it World of the Walking Dead...but a variation was taken.

It would have been cool to see episodes by people of different countries... not sure how compatible they Korean style Zombie works with the one introduced in World Beyond....but wonder how else the show could be done.

I am going out of town this week so it might be a minute before I respond...but hope there is discussion and to see if this furthers the franchise or feels like a falling apart like World Beyond.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

I will try to catch the pilot soon.

 

[The Wormhole]

The premiere was okay. Nothing too great, but not bad either. Terry Crewes and Olivia Munn certainly provided memorable performances as two lonely survivors who miraculously cross paths. Terry Crewes in particular, who is perhaps best known for his over the top comedic roles actually did a really good job with some serious and emotional material, such as the opening sequence with him and his dog.

The story was rather predictable, and the ending can be seen from a mile away, but the performance and interplay between Crewes and Munn salvage the average storyline and make it a somewhat engaging hour. Not the best television I've watched, but certainly not the worst either. And certainly some of the plot information known about the upcoming episodes certainly sound like interesting story ideas. I am at the moment optimistic about this series.

 

[crookeddy]

572k for the premiere. That's... not good. If there were plans for season 2, it might still happen for AMC+ content filling, but not because of success on TV.

World Beyond debuted with 1.595 million. Ended with 428k.

 

[crookeddy]

So we can talk about the current episode out on AMC, right?
Tagging just in case.

Spoiler

I actually did NOT expect the happy ending. This is Walking Dead. If the good guys look like they're winning, it usually means that they are dead. But this is simplified Walking Dead where love wins in the end... Not sure how I feel about it

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Tales of the Walking Dead -
Season 1, Episode 1: "Evie / Joe"

After years of fans tossing the idea of an anthology series out in the winds in the hope that AMC would go that route, their dreams have finally been fulfilled. The fan belief was that the anthology format would open up possibilities for a more interesting story that the long-running arcs with long-in-the-tooth characters. I'd say their reasoning was sound just considering the concept, but the pilot episode--"Evie/Joe" was hitting story beats anyone would know was trying to steer clear of TWD formula--in other words, unlike many of TWD's webisodes, it was not going to end in tragedy. While that's a format-breaking positive, what we--as the audience--were supposed to get out of this is not known.

The leads--Terry Crewes (Joe) & Olivia Munn (Evie) were trying so hard to deliver ultra-positive characters that did not leave the audience wishing they were killed off, but in portraying characters in that way, there was not much to make me care about their journey or fate.

Problems: Both Joe and Evie are fully aware / surviving in the ZA, so they're not naive newbies given to mistakes. If that's the case, who would leave a couple of very secure shelters for a cross-country road trip knowing full well about the living (e.g., the guy who stole Joe's motorcycle) and dead dangers they would face? Joe losing his dog (who didn't see that coming?), leads him to seek out Sandra--but not before meeting his "opposite" in New Agey stereotype Evie--was Overused Plotting 101, and you just knew that from the way Joe & Evie met (Evie taking him hostage / cultural differences) that they were going to end up as (what is assumed to be) permanent residents in each other's lives. Well...what did it all mean?

Series co-creator Scott Gimple (being so connected to the franchise) should have known this concept was not strong enough to be a sustainable series,, as the episodes are so random and inconsequential (including E2, which I will get to, eventually). Perhaps he was aware, hence the reason E3 will take a trip down memory lane to follow the further misadventures of younger Alpha and Lydia--two prominent WD characters, but isn't that just a desperation move--already admitting they cannot create new characters with no connection to the parent series?

Then, there's Terry Crewes. The man cannot act. He chops through his dialogue, sounding substantially more artificial than online language translation programs. Honestly. He's been in the acting profession since 2000, and he has not progressed to the point of delivering fluid lines like anyone having a normal conversation. Sheesh. The most refreshing part of Munn's Evie was her being a religious counterpoint to TWD having yet another atheistic character going on about their lack of belief in anything / it being BS sniping. Her knowing Capoeira was a nice touch, more for the fact Evie studied a martial arts form rarely used / added as a skill in most media.

Overall: Eh. Its a new Walking Dead series, but it was not an impressive start at all, as I do not really care how the leads reacted to events we have watched stronger characters endure in far superior screenplays.

Grade: D+.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

Are we sure we watched the same thing? I've not watched The Walking Dead since season 8 and Fear the Walking Dead since season 5 out of boredom but decided to try Tales. It didn't blow my socks off, but it was entertaining (if a little predictable). Terry Crewes and Olivia Munn and even the actress playing Susan? Sheryl? were likeable to watch. It didn't drag as bad as a random TWD episode with Tara and Daryl or Rick and Eugene Wandering Through the Woods Episode #67 would.

My major gripe is, as much as people shit on Rick Berman's sonic wallpaper background music, The Walking Dead franchise's music SUCKS. Like, your typical TNG or VOY episode is a bombastic John Williams score compared to this crap.

I'm interested in the next few episodes because I like Parker Posey and Anthony Edwards and of course, A-Train himself, Jessie T. Usher

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Are we sure we watched the same thing? I've not watched The Walking Dead since season 8 and Fear the Walking Dead since season 5 out of boredom but decided to try Tales. It didn't blow my socks off, but it was entertaining (if a little predictable).

Therein rests the problem: predictability: one would believe that producers of a segment set not long after the start of the ZA would find endless stories to tell (because real world individuals have unique experiences / viewpoints) that do not play/read like other "unlikely allies" stories already used on the other WD series. It reminded me of the worst of fan films, where the writers are trying to hit known beats of what came before (from the source) because they do not have a clue how to create their own voice. Again, I have to wonder what did it all mean as a WD story?

My major gripe is, as much as people shit on Rick Berman's sonic wallpaper background music, The Walking Dead franchise's music SUCKS. Like, your typical TNG or VOY episode is a bombastic John Williams score compared to this crap.

Sheesh--a series' music must occupy the very bottom of a toilet if the horrible, lifeless Berman-Trek music has any advantages over it. TWD's scores were better, and truly supported the trials of the characters in earlier seasons (listen to the score for "The Grove" from S4, for one example), but since the early days, I agree that the music is just there because someone said episodes needed a score. Nothing distinctive.

 

[The Wormhole]

My major gripe is, as much as people shit on Rick Berman's sonic wallpaper background music, The Walking Dead franchise's music SUCKS. Like, your typical TNG or VOY episode is a bombastic John Williams score compared to this crap.

Eh? While the music of the Walking Dead franchise has never been what one might call a Tier One Score, it's still much much better than the auditory wallpaper that much of Rick Berman's Star Trek had.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

Sheesh--a series' music must occupy the very bottom of a toilet if the horrible, lifeless Berman-Trek music has any advantages over it. TWD's scores were better, and truly supported the trials of the characters in earlier seasons (listen to the score for "The Grove" from S4, for one example), but since the early days, I agree that the music is just there because someone said episodes needed a score. Nothing distinctive.

I thought TWD had really good music in the first few seasons. At least until they left the prison and had a massive influx of new characters. Then, the music seemed to take a steep nosedive. Maybe it was me focusing more on the music to take my mind off the fact they were wandering around AGAIN in the damned woods

Maybe Scott Gimple has a similar philosophy to Richard Berman that music shouldn't be intrusive and just be background noise

 

[The Wormhole]

So the second episode, Blair/Gina is, meh? Basically The Walking Dead does Groundhog Day though with no real explanation as to why these two characters are reliving the same day over and over, though I guess we're meant to infer by the end it's Fate trying to get the tanker to that spot on the highway overpass in time to save the people being chased by the walker hoard. Described on the Talking Dead preview special as a "dark comedy" there wasn't really anything funny about this episode, though this episode did seem somewhat tonally confused at points in that it didn't seem they were sure they wanted to be lighthearted or just plain irreverent, regardless the result was still unfunny. Like last week, this episode is carried largely on the performance of the leads, though in this case it took a while to warm up to Parker Posey and Jillian Bell.

So, it got okay by the end, but still not the most enthralling hour of television I've spent. I'd rate this on the lower end of average.

 

[Morpheus 02]

FInally saw them (without the wife,who fell asleep 5 minutes into the premiere).

yeah, @TREK_GOD_1 , this most certainly did NOT ful fill the potential i had hoped.

I mean, we have good actors cast (from these 2 +#3), but the stories didn't serve them. It felt more like celebrities who always wanted to be on the show get an episode so they can be part of it.

Terry Crews and Olivia Munn FIT the characters created for them... but as said, the story was predictable.

Now, this "happy ending" is just 1 year into the Zombie Apocalypse. THIS is before the Civil Republic and the Commonwealth got strong control. I forget exactly where they are... Ohio? So there is plenty of time for them to die.

If they wanted a sequel , they can find the husband and have the predictable love triangle.

This episode also felt like a Covd-friendly episode made during that time.


#2 i guess kinda felt like Z-Nation.... but more like a Twlight Zone set in the Walking Dead world....I thought i i read a clickbait ariticle which said that Robert Kirkman had 2 other concepts that he wanted to integrate into the TWD world...so i guess this time travel was one of them?


My grade at this point is like C+ to B- or so. We will see how next week goes.


Oh, by the way... House of the Dragon (the Game of Thrones prequel) opened last night 8pm CST -- SAME TIME as Tales of the Walking Dead. So if rating dip... THAT could be why (in addition to lack of a great premiere)


One of my hopes would be we could get creations from around the world.... and with the end credit scene of World Beyond, the modern Korean Style Zombie might actually work.

For episode 3, gong back to the origin of Alpha.... i don't think that is necessrily bad, especially if 1 or 2 episodes out of 6 touch on familiar characters...that's OK. If it can fill in some blanks/expand on a character we don't know much about.... THAT can work for me as part of ananthology.

With all the complaining of the end of the MCU.... TWD franchise will die much more quickly with shows like this, even with the Darryl and Rick Miniserieses

 

[Orac]

Rick Berman shit in my bed!

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Tales of the Walking Dead -
Season 1, Episode 2: "Blair / Gina"

So the second episode, Blair/Gina is, meh? Basically The Walking Dead does Groundhog Day though with no real explanation as to why these two characters are reliving the same day over and over, though I guess we're meant to infer by the end it's Fate trying to get the tanker to that spot on the highway overpass in time to save the people being chased by the walker hoard

...and in the end, Blair & Gina's story meant what? Ultimately, "correcting" their time-looped actions to end up on the overpass in order to set a handful of walkers on fire was not some monumental event for Blair, Gina, or the group of people they saved. It was as though the writers were overdosing on TNG episodes (not a good thing to do) which is completely out of place in the kind of world TWD established, and again, they saved a group of people, but Gina will never make it see her family, which was her entire drive in this episode, so on the personal level, she's failed.

At this point, Gimple, et al., are attempting the equivalent of a half-assed cardiac massage on a heart that's no longer responding. In other words, they're trying to keep this franchise going as long as possible, even when its so worn down. On that note, my hope for Fear the Walking Dead is that the P.A.D.R.E. conflict and resolution will wrap up in the next season, with one TV movie ending the series with no Plot Convenient connections to anything in Tales.

 

[Tom]

Saw all three. Not that good IMO. Good to see Alpha again but even that story was not that good. To quote someone from above it felt like and Asylum series.

 

[Starbreaker]

I loved the first two episodes. I wish there were already 100 of these. TWD and FTWD collapsed under their own weight. It's refreshing to just see some comedy episodes that don't take themselves serious at all.

 

[crookeddy]

I loved the first two episodes. I wish there were already 100 of these. TWD and FTWD collapsed under their own weight. It's refreshing to just see some comedy episodes that don't take themselves serious at all.

Except they're not very funny, and add nothing to the universe. If they didn't have "Walking Dead" in the title I would guess even fewer of us would be watching.

Some hope though - episode 3 has by far the highest rating of the 3 on IMDB, so maybe there is a quality jump. I don't have AMC+ so will be watching on Sunday or after.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Saw all three. Not that good IMO. Good to see Alpha again but even that story was not that good. To quote someone from above it felt like and Asylum series.

Personally, Alpha was not a favorite villain, and no amount of backstory will make her "complex" to justify how she ended up (a mass murderer).

I loved the first two episodes. I wish there were already 100 of these. TWD and FTWD collapsed under their own weight. It's refreshing to just see some comedy episodes that don't take themselves serious at all.

The first episode was not supposed to be comedy...but Terry Crewes' attempt at acting might be seen as comedic. If E1 is being read as comedy, then it was a failure, since it was a standard "dissimilar types ultimately come together" plotting trope.

 

[crookeddy]

The first episode was not supposed to be comedy...but Terry Crewes' attempt at acting might be seen as comedic. If E1 is being read as comedy, then it was a failure, since it was a standard "dissimilar types ultimately come together" plotting trope.

I don't think it was meant as full-on comedy. It was more like a not-fully serious survival horror.

 

[crookeddy]

So much excitement for this week's episode! Don't all post at once now, you hear?

Anyway, the last episode of Tales narrowly avoided a franchise low AMC viewership. 0.448, which is a bit higher than the series low for World Beyond which was 0.431. Lets see what next week's Alpha bump is.