Fear the walking dead

[Psychosplodge]

Please put spoilers in white and don't quote them :D

I was disappointed. It was really slow, especially for the length of the episode. They could have easily got everything into a normal episode.

spoiler
Minor quibbles that annoyed me - How could his mother have possibly known which random pile of bedding was her sons?
Why would they leave the only piece of evidence tying the son to shooting his dealer next to the car? How did they possibly drive past the zombie in the gully access without noticing him?

/spoiler

I really hope it improves, cause I enjoy the walking dead, but I'm worried now the opening episode was so pedestrian.

[Mr Mystery]

It was somewhat dull.

Doesn't help the 'Junkie' didn't particularly convince.

If you compare it to the remake of Dawn of the Dead, that dealt with the emerging outbreak really nicely

And frankly, given this was AMC/BT's chance to convince me to shell out £20 a month just to have access to their channel, they blew it. Not only were the adverts frequent and overly long, but they've billed themselves as the home of original productions, yet were pimping stuff that's anything but new.

I think I'm going to wait for FtWD to come out on home media. It may well pick up, and I'm far happier paying £20ish for a boxed set than £20 a month for a ropey TV Channel.

[Psychosplodge]

Yes the Dawn of the Dead remake did it a lot better and set the scene in much less time.

I think you're right. It probably does make far more sense to buy the boxset if it picks up, than to shell out on the TV channel in the hope it does.

[Filthy Casual]

I'm amazed that they've managed to make 2 really dull and tedious shows out of a pretty decent comic

[Mr Mystery]

In many ways. I think it was the frequency and length of the ad breaks that did it in. They cut straight across any tension they managed to raise

[Psychosplodge]

I'm amazed that they've managed to make 2 really dull and tedious shows out of a pretty decent comic

I think the original series suffers from too much filler. But most american imports seem to have that because of how long the series are. But to have your opening episode feel like that is a massive mistake. As Mystery said they were trying to sell him a tv package on the back of that program and just shot themselves in the foot. I know if they remove it from a free add on to the sport we'll lose it.

[CoffeeGrunt]

Walking Dead lost me at the Season Four mid-season finale, and I just haven't picked it up afterwards. If this is even more dull then I'll probably just not bother. Season one was excellent and the opening double-length episode was excellently-done, but it just ran out of steam so very fast after that.

Agree that Dawn of the Dead's remake really nailed the whole collapsing civilisation/zombie outbreak montage, especially the opening with the newsreel clips over Johnny Cash's The Man Comes Around.

I'm still holding out hope for the right producer to pick up a copy of the World War Z book, slap the people who wrote the movie script unconscious, then produce a series based on it. I mean, you could do most of it pretty low-key, cut between the interview and the events, but there's room for some awesome setpiece events and battles, like Yonkers, the taking back of America, Ukraine, Russia, Pakistan...christ, I'd love to see the right horror director do the Paris Catacombs or the Indian storyline where they're trying to escape via ships at a shipbreaking yard. The right vision for that scene could really nail the tragedy from the uncoordinated panic that underlines WWZ's Great Panic section.

Plus I'd love to see the part where the Russians pull out the old Cold War/Great Patriotic War kit and start taking back the Motherland with PPSh SMGs and T34s, along with slews of conscripts. Also the Dog Handler sequence, which was pretty heartbreaking.

I think it'd do much better though, because it has a definitive end. Outbreak happens, Great Panic, the zombie occupation, Total War, and the Aftermath. It's international, and you don't have to pad it out or keep adding season after season of the same old stuff.

[Psychosplodge]

Yes that book had so much potential.

[Mr Mystery]

I still like Walking Dead.

The whole 'it's safe, no, wait, run away!!!!' was getting dull. But they've changed that up.

Now all they need to do is stop killing off Token Black/Replace Token Black cycle.

[40kGamer]

I still like Walking Dead.

The whole 'it's safe, no, wait, run away!!!!' was getting dull. But they've changed that up.

Now all they need to do is stop killing off Token Black/Replace Token Black cycle.

Well Morgan looks to be an awesome butt kicking pacifist so there's still hope! And they haven't killed off the annoying preacher... ;)

[CoffeeGrunt]

Morgan being a regular character might be the only reason I start watching again.

[40kGamer]

***Spolier Alert***

I'm very excited to see him return... all the teasing of him following the group was driving me nuts! I skipped over the new series.

I'll wait until it hits netflix or the home package drops. I just can't do all the commercials anymore. They kill all the tension and excitement!

[Psychosplodge]

That's the sort of thing that should be whited out :rolleyes:

[Alaric]

Im enjoying the new series. Not gonna get attached to a character till they finally reveal all the members of the group, pretty stoked for zombies on a plane and to see how it ties in.

[40kGamer]

That's the sort of thing that should be whited out :rolleyes:

Sorry about that! I messed up the formating options and didn't check before I posted it! Edited.

[Psychosplodge]

I'd be more bothered had I not caught up :p

****ing tv guides have already spoiled some aspects of that character in the next series.

[40kGamer]

They do get pretty aggressive with giving us details. By the time I see most any show or movie I already know way too much about what's going to happen! :(

[Psychosplodge]

Took three episodes but something has finally happened. Just.

But does anyone know if the unsubtitled spanish conversation was deliberate or if AMC didn't broadcast the subtitles for some reason?

[Mr Mystery]

Watched the second episode at my mate's house.

Still not convinced - perhaps to the point of not bothering following it up further.

It's the acting. It's terrible. That Junkie Kid, Nick. Bloody awful.

[Psychosplodge]

Yeah I'm probably going to give it another two or three episodes. if it doesn't start to up its game by then I probably won't bother anymore.

[Mr Mystery]

The cinematography is off too. It feels like one of those shoddy knock off movies you get. Cheaply made, and with god awful sound effects which don't really match the activity on the screen.

Plus - so far absolutely no empathy for any of the characters, apart from 'Knife Kid' in the school, who clearly has his head screwed on straight.

Final point? FTWD has the same issue as WD - Token Black keeps on getting jobbed.

Kel the Dealer? Toast.
School Principle? Toast.
Daughter's Boyfriend? Toast.

Three black characters, two episodes, three deaths. That's pretty poor.

[Psychosplodge]

You know it's taken you saying that to realise it. You're right, three episodes in I don't really care about any of the characters yet.

[Mr Mystery]

And given the mess we know is coming - beautifully realised in The Walking Dead - I just don't see any of them surviving for long.

Junkie Kid? Total liability.
Dad? Wuss
Daughter? Wuss
Mom? Bit better, but still....rather than force Junkie Kid to just go cold turkey and get it over with - no I must provide him with some downers and that to help him through....

The other two - Other Mom and Other Son? Don't really know a great deal about them.

[Psychosplodge]

The mother to some extent seems to have her head screwed on right. I'm guessing the daughter will either snuff it early(looking for boyfriend) or become badass.
The father of the spanish?mexican? family seems on the ball but too insular. In fact that family seem more interesting than the "main characters" so far.

[Mr Mystery]

Third episode is an improvement. The slow burn is heating up, which on reflection helps the rather tepid first two episodes.

Starting to feel some sympathy and empathy with the main characters - but still don't buy them surviving for very long.

[Psychosplodge]

The fourth on Monday set an interesting scene.

[Mr Mystery]

Haven't seen it yet.

But I am a bit more favourable now the situation is deteriorating.

Still don't rate much of the acting - Junkie Boy can still snuff it for all I care, but it's creeping up the pace. I think my original stance of 'perhaps better binged' may have been on the money.

[Psychosplodge]

Yeah he's still annoying.

[Psychosplodge]

With only one more episode left it doesn't look promising. The last episode better have something spectacular if they're hoping for a second series.

The military are kind of reacting how you'd expect at this point, and also hints at how it collapsed against a shambling horde.

[Mr Mystery]

Yep. Still just not feeling it.

I kind of like some of the decisions the Military are making (right, get all the complete liabilities - the injured, the sick, the junkies, the scam artists etc - and put them over there to be dealt with. Relatively normal people get to keep on being relatively normal).

Other than that, it's still feeling like a very low budget knock-off, as Transmorphers was to Transformers and that.

[Psychosplodge]

Issues I had with the final episode


The "released" captive - knows his unit is withdrawing, knows the city is collapsing better than the "survivors" pursues a petty revenge agenda

The girls father not finishing him off

Bitten squaddie trying to get on helicopter, I think the door gunner would have euthanised him, not merely pushed him away.

The level of disorganisation defending a fixed position against a shambling horde.

The chinook abandoning the medical staff, yeah you'd expect them to probably abandon the troops, but medical staff are rarer and were on the roof



I'm sure if I watched it again there'd be other things I've missed that'd jump out at me. But its reached what I was expecting from it. Shame it took the entire series to get there. The problem is now is it going to turn into a sub-par version of the original series?

Still think the only decent characters are the El-Salvadorian father and the Blonde mother.

[Mr Mystery]

Watching it tonight.

Really questioning if I'll be bothered enough to check out Season 2. It's had it's moments, yes. But they've been fairly few and far between thus far.

Oh god I hope Junkie O'Liability gets jobbed. Can't stand the actor, and the character is just lame.

[Mr Mystery]

Yeah....don't think I'm going to bother with the second season.

Given what we saw Grimes and Co deal with on Monday night, I just can't see any of the FTWD characters lasting out in the wild for more than five minutes, without it all feeling incredibly contrived.

[Psychosplodge]

I'm stuck until it comes on freeview so normally a good six to twelve months behind for the main series :(

[Mr Mystery]

After the arse that was FTWD, your faith will be restoreded.

[Psychosplodge]

gd, gd.
Do you agree with my list? or am I being picky?

[Mr Mystery]

I think it's more that Junkie O'Useless managed to survive.

Really, really not feeling that series.

It could pick up - and to be honest, it will have to up the ante considerably for me to revisit. And kill off Junkie O'Useless toot sweet.

[CoffeeGrunt]

Has the Walking Dead itself got any better? I dropped it after the mid-season finale for Season 4 with the idiotic Governor plotline, but I've been debating picking it back up lately.

[Mr Mystery]

I'd say yes.

If you can get it on streaming, do give it a bash.