The satellite thing makes sense though because I don't know that the characters would know this isn't a regional phonemena somehow. Or maybe Europe wasn't hit or whatever. Unlikely but worth a shot of desperation.
AMC's The Walking Dead Season 1 Discussion & Spoilers
- Thread starter Dream
- Start date
Of course they wouldn't be working, but the idea is to show that stuff isn't working. All he did was try one landline; he didn't try a cell phone, didn't get static from a broadcast or Satellite radio, didn't watch snow on a TV, didn't get endless 'page not found' messages on the Web. All of these things would contribute to the growing knowledge that whatever has happened is widespread.
No, I had no idea.I doubt if the police station uses dial up. They either have cable or a satellite dish, which are independent of the phones.
Phone communications these days run over IP just like internet data. If the phones are down, most likely internet is down as well. It's all 1's and 0's.
If you wake up to a Zombie Apocalypse, your primary concerns are going to be finding help and getting information. You're not going to just try one random internal phone in a hospital and give up. You're going to look for other phones, for cell phones, for Blackberries, you're going to turn on TVs and radios, you're going to look for cars with XM receivers, you're going to try the Internet at the hospital, at home, at the Police Station. Like Mr. Adventure says, you'd have no idea how widespread the phenomenon is. And most people, rather than assuming that nothing works, would continue to try these things over and over no matter how many times they fail to work. It would have been to the story's advantage to show this, demonstrating vividly how serious the situation is, as well as the character's growing fear and frustration. As it is, I don't remember there being any evidence that this world even has Internet or cell phones or XM.
Because watching a person try one dead phone or one dead computer after another makes for RIVETING viewing, right?
I'm happy they didn't dwell on this aspect. Everyone has been familiar with the basic initial play-out of a zombie-apocalypse since "Night of the Living Dead" in 1968. We've SEEN the origin of the event story--SEVERAL times in SEVERAL movies. Anyone familiar enough with the concept of zombies to bother tuning in has likely seen at LEAST one of these. Personally, I'm glad it was NOT rehashed here and we're able to get on to traveling some new ground.
Yes, if I were to actually wake up during a situation like this, I would try to contact people. How do we know he didn't? Just because we didn't see it happen doesn't mean it didn't happen. There are things in storytelling that you just don't need to elaborate on.
There seemed to be a fair amount of time compression in the scenes between him waking up and him leaving the hospital; he was a lot surer on his feet when he found the exit. He may have tried numerous computers and radios and TVs and cell phones, I don't think the viewer needs to be shown all of that. As for the storytelling, I think it was more effective how it was done, leaving the audience in the dark until the situation could be dramatically related first-hand by the survivor. Those retelling scenes were some of the best, IMO.
--Justin
That would probably be true if the only way to create a zombie was to have someone infected by an existing zombie. But it is also established in the comics that
everyone who dies and doesn't have their brain removed becomes a zombie--everyone is infected with the virus already.
Currently, on average 146,357 people die each day. Therefore, it would appear that every day would bring at least a few tens of thousand new zombies.
True. But...
I think it's safe to say that the majority of zombies were created in that one month period where Rick was in his coma. And as such, we could expect the majority of them to die out at about the same time. If it was a world wide event, I would guess the number of human survivors to be about 1 to 10% of current humans, given the number of survivors we have run across compared to number of zombies.
Knowing that any death results in the creation of a zombie, survivors will be able to adopt new death rituals in disposing of bodies, such as we saw in the most recent issues of the comic,
where a spike is driven thru the head of the recently dead.
I think if they can outlive the majority of the existing zombies they have a good chance of somehow rebuilding the world.
Knowing that any death results in the creation of a zombie, survivors will be able to adopt new death rituals in disposing of bodies, such as we saw in the most recent issues of the comic,
where a spike is driven thru the head of the recently dead.
I think if they can outlive the majority of the existing zombies they have a good chance of somehow rebuilding the world.
That's right. It's a great way to build suspense and escalate fear.
If this were a comedy, he could have just said, "I've seen this movie." But it's a drama that needs to stand on its own.
As I said in my initial Post, the episode was paced for grownups. I don't see why they couldn't have included a montage of him trying all the things I mentioned. How long would it have taken? 30 seconds? As it is, aside from maybe fashion or car models, there's nothing to say this story couldn't have taken place in 2000, 1990, 1980....
He wouldn't have learned anything, except that the situation was Apocalyptically bad, which was kind of the point. Again, maybe there will be restored scenes on the DVD. But, to me, it seemed odd that he wasn't desperate to find someone or get information.
It might have enhanced the dream-like quality of it all. You know how sometimes a dream gets weird but you sort of roll along with it accepting it? Maybe I'm reaching there but it seemed to highlight just how overwhelming the situation was that he didn't even question it but sort of just absorbed it.
Not knocking what you're saying but offering another possible reason not to show it.
Rick was desperate to find someone: his wife Lori and his son Carl. Everything else is just background noise until he finds them.
I don't think you're going to generate much suspense when every one in the audience and every other character in the story is very aware of the nature of the situation. I think what you're really searching for here is fulfillment of a need on your part for validation of the situation, which isn't the point of the story here. "Night of the Living Dead" told that story. Both versions of "Dawn of the Dead" touched on the advent of the Living Dead. "The Walking Dead" is not about the zombie apocalypse and how it unfolded but, rather, it is about how otherwise sane and reasonable people react to and behave under conditions which are not sane and/or reasonable. It's fair that you wanted to see this story and your criticism is certainly valid from your point of view. After all, story-telling is a subjective enterprise. I think the story-tellers, in this instance made a decision that the audience has SEEN the unfolding of the zombie-apocalypse in numerous other variants and they made an artistic decision to abbreviate the part MOST familiar to audiences and get on to covering new ground. It's a choice I agree with here. Conversely, in the film "Diary of the Dead" I felt the characters easy acceptance and seeming overall QUICK familiarity with the concept of zombies to be incredible and unrealistic. "The Walking Dead" side-stepped this by virtue of having only the single character be in unfamiliar territory and it seems entirely reasonable that a lot of the details were filled in off-screen after the on-screen summary we saw him given. I think this was efficient and effective story-telling which allowed a quick move forward onto new ground from a familiar premise.
Well said. In fact, "The Walking Dead" as the title doesn't even refer to the zombies but rather to the survivors themselves.
I saw it, loved it, will tune in next time.
Question: Why is it that no one in zombie apocalypse movies/shows has ever heard of a zombie or seen a zombie movie? Why does the idea of zombies coming to life sound so foreign to them?
If there was a real-life zombie apocalypse, everyone would know what to do and where to aim their guns, knowing not to get bitten, and the whole thing would be over in a couple of days!
Question: Why is it that no one in zombie apocalypse movies/shows has ever heard of a zombie or seen a zombie movie? Why does the idea of zombies coming to life sound so foreign to them?
If there was a real-life zombie apocalypse, everyone would know what to do and where to aim their guns, knowing not to get bitten, and the whole thing would be over in a couple of days!
Yeah, but I'm thinking that you are always going to have a certain percentage of people who
die alone and/or in situations where no one can get to them before they turn
I've never heard it specifically articulated, but really it's one of core rules of zombie fiction: in those realities, George a. Romero was never born; hence, there is no such thing as zombie movies.
True, he did seem pretty zoned out-- understandable after being in a coma and then waking up to Zombie Apocalypse. It would also explain his slowness in questioning other survivor guy.
True, and I understand that. But my observation applies to the whole show, not just the opening sequence. Why didn't he try the phones or the Internet at the police station? Wouldn't their systems be independent of the civilian systems in case of emergency? And why didn't they ever check cars for satellite radio? Even if the whole area was blacked out, satellite radio would still be on the air-- unless the whole country is blacked out. That would have made for a very ominous moment.
Well, maybe not, but given that this was written and presented as adult drama and not just a shoot-'em-in-the-head movie, I think establishing the situation is important. They actually did a pretty good job of it. They spent plenty of time on Rick's reaction to the situation; they didn't rush through it and gave it proper depth and respect. That's what makes it seem like an oversight to me. If it was the type of show to rush through the preliminaries just to get to teh Kewl Zombie Action, I would have just shrugged it off.
Now let's talk about why he was running around in his hospital gown instead of getting his clothes out of the closet.
