News AMC orders Walking Dead spin off to series

Well, maybe that was just my optimistic interpretation of the series, based on the advertising campaign. I figured "This is great -- we get to see how the world fell! Good thing they're not just making a carbon copy of TWD."

I guess I was wrong, because the world fell somewhere between episode 4 and 5, I think, and we didn't actually get to see it anyway!

 

I think the military came in around episode 3, and there was a time jump, and that was the end of that phase of the show.

 

I know. That was a big letdown. Our entire view of the world ending was seeing our main characters huddled up in a Barber Shop. Not exactly what I was looking for in the show. At least they sort of kepth things up a little with the military locking off their neighborhood but the show wasn't what I expected. Especially from that poster were you see a main character lounging in a swimming pool tube and a zombie nearby or Nick waking up in a drug house seeing a zombie and running outside into busy LA and being hit by a car. I thought those things were setting the tone of the show it was going to be.

Jason

 

Do we need another Walking Dead series? Did we need five Star Trek series? It's all about the quality. If it's good I'll watch. Right now, we really don't know much about the premise other than "there will be people in it."

The question is, are they going to have three series running concurrently or does this mean that Fear is coming to an end? Or are they planning to schedule things so that there is a new episode of something on all year round?

 

This is apparently IN ADDITiON to some kind of series of Rick Grimes movies which tells what happened for the past 5 years.

What I would LIKE to see in a "spin off" series would be "World of the Walking Dead"... where different filmmakers show what the apocalypse would look like in their homelands...what would be different , what would be similar. Also, incorporating different filmmaking styles. The show would be an anthology obviously, but flexible so that hey could be as short as 7 minutes or up to several episodes...and can take place at any time period.


Oh, and I too was expecting the 1st season of Fear at least which would show the deterioration of society from when the apocalypse wasn't really known (more like seemingly urban legends) to a world takeover. The time jump to the military camps was too quick. The camp situation should have lasted the 2nd season.


I wouldn't expect the exact origins of it (though my theory -- nanites from Revolution, activated with a worldwide signal intended for another purpose, reanimate the dead)...but showing how quickly things go sour.

 

I also saw an article, I think on Entertainment Weekly's website, about how Lauren Cohan does not consider her time as Maggie was not over, and they made it sound like there was a possibility we could end up with Maggie movies or even another series if Whiskey Cavalier (which is actually pretty great IMO) doesn't last.

 

There are two possible storylines for TWD: fighting Zombies and fighting evil humans. I never got exhausted from TOS or TNG because the storylines repeated themselves every season. Can't say that about TWD. I did eventually get franchise fatigue with DS9 and VOY, but not for the same reason.

 

Well, there could be more possible storylines than that. They just haven't done them yet because they're too busy focusing on those two.

 

They've been too busy for eight seasons focusing on the same plots?? Seriously, what else is there to do? What other story lines are left to tell?

The only suggestion I have is to end the Apocalypse. Show that people are no longer turning. Make that a new mystery to explore. THAT would change the tune of the show to something new and unexpected. I thought they would do that with Carl's bite, but no.

How will the world recover? How will they deal with others once society is re-established and Zombies are gone? A shift like that would pump new life into this zombie of a show, and would make me want to watch again.

 

Well, yeah, that's what they chose to do. For clarity's sake, I'm not saying that they were 'too busy' in that they had no choice but to focus on this kind of plot. They chose to make that sort of conflict the show's shtick and so that's what they've been doing for 8 seasons (plus however many seasons of fear).

As for what other storylines can be done: early on in the apocalypse there should be tons of potential for more general survival stories - learning necessary skills, fighting the weather, etc, none of which need necessarily involve fighting zombies or evil people. Later on in the apocalypse there's a ton of potential for things to slowly get more political in terms of establishing a society and dealing with each other, even without violence. This proposed new show certainly will have a ton of potential in that vein, though whether it will make use of it or not is uncertain.

There's also always questions of focus. IE, the show is focused on physical conflict - but it doesn't always have to be that way. One could just as easily tell stories about the challenges of raising kids in a post-apocalyptic environment without needing to have the kids kidnapped by bad guys. Or tell love stories that don't meet a tragic end because of bad guys. I mean, if you (the showrunners) just stop focusing on bad guys so much then there are tons of stories that could be told which aren't about fighting.

 

Sorry, your proposed "new show" would be a snorefest beyond belief. You want to take the viewers from violent, heroic conflicts with tangible adversaries to fighting the weather, or struggling with internal politics?

The only way to save this show from it's one-way journey is to reverse what's driving it that way. End the Apocalypse. Give hope to Humanity. Make it about why people don't turn anymore. The re-emergence of organized society in light of the chaos. Otherwise... zzzzzzzombie.

 

I wasn't proposing ideas for the exclusive core concept of a new show. I was simply pointing out that there are more possible stories that can be done in this sort of world. Stories which could be done in addition to fighting things and people so that the show doesn't feel like it's doing the same thing over and over again.

And I never said 'internal' politics - that's been part of TWD since day one. The more political view of the post apocalyptic world would be exactly what you're talking about - re-emergent society giving hope to Humanity. Except that there's absolutely no reason why such a storyline needs to be a mystery about why people don't turn anymore, or, in fact, needs to involve a world where people don't turn anymore at all. You can easily start to rebuild and recover society even if the zombie virus is an incurable plague. Once the original massive hordes have decayed so far as to no longer be a threat, the existence of zombies is an entirely manageable threat, no worse than living near large predators or in flood zones. One simply has to manage the risk responsibly.

 

This is exactly what I've wanted to see since I first saw Dawn of the Dead in 1979-- an anthology of how people all over the world react to the Zombie Apocalypse. World War Z, the novel, kind of did it.

Hopefully, they consider that a challenge.

 

I liked the first season of both the current shows, but lost interest quickly after that. I've never seen past halfway through the 2nd season of either show. And now we're getting a 3rd show and I saw where either Netflix or Amazon is coming up with a zombie series.

meh..........

 

It will deface the original...

 

Isn't that the problem with every genre? That the following two genres:

Superhero movies: most have some villain with some "ultimate, master plan" to do something evil / never seen before, and the hero or heroes have to stop it. This film sub-genre rarely moves away from this long-worn template.

Police and/or government agency TV shows: Bad individual. Terrorist. Corruption from within. Serial killers. Regular character leaves or dies. Struggles with the restraints of the job when trying to solve/end crimes.

Largely, its all rinse and repeat. You can count on one hand the number of truly original ideas that have been introduced to TV or movies that have no parallels or influences from within or outside the genre. Success only comes from playing into the natural progression of the format, where the series cannot rest on the template, but treat characters like they are real people, with no cookie cutter, Saturday morning cartoon-like expected reactions. The Walking Dead is by no means perfect (the shock death matter is not among the series' finest plotting tools) but they have taken chances, and had character suffer numerous, sometimes permanent damages to relationships (usually their own fault), and the fact that the protagonists are not bulletproof, or capable of winning the day. TWD--despite its fantastic story--at least plays in a more realistic manner than many TV series and movies.

 

One thing these other shows have is access to everyday life situations in them. Can't go on vacation this week or visit the libary "Walking Dead" no matter where you go your always in the end times. Which means you also always need constant danger on the show. Also it's hard to bring in new guest characters because they almost always have to be either the bad guys or become part of the group. Uncle Lou can't come by for a visit or you don't have a interesting new client this week to spice things up.


Jason

 

Andrew Lincoln was making twice that.

 

If they want to something new I think they got to at least got to get more original than this new show's premise sounds. We have already seen young people growing up in this world. I would love to see a 1 person show.

Spin off the cowboy character from "Fear' and do a Clint Eastwood Western of a single guy drifting around. Hell he can literally even ride a horse since that has become a thing.

What if zombies happened before in this society. Set in the 60's were a small town is isolated to prevent the outbreak from spreading.

Anthology series were you focus on different people in different time frames each week as they live in this world. Sometimes even familiar faces show up. Maybe we see Darryl and Merle and how they started off before finding the Atlanta group for one example. Actually that would be my pilot episode.

Medical Drama as people in a CDC building that doesn't blow up living their looking for a cure. Sometimes they got to go out for supplies to catch a zombie for research. Maybe you have another group nearby and the story is about two lovers and you basically tell a modern medical drama mixed together with Romeo and Juliet.

Jason

 

Three actors cast