I don’t care about any of the characters or any of what they’re calling plot lines. The writers couldn’t develop a story arc if their lives depended on it.
I actually downright hate a few of the characters;
Both cops, this show is about the end of our civilization, the collapse of society and structure. Theres an endless well of deep metaphysical and moral questions that can be explored when a badge becomes just a shiny metal object. But no, these two clowns are in charge because well…they’re just in charge. If I decided to dig holes and was handcuffed to a tree because ‘I was scaring the children’, that cop better not fall asleep…ever.
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The hick brothers**, yes they’re two dimensional, yes they’re cliche, but they’ve also shown nothing but contempt for everyone in camp…why are they even there?
- The Pizza Delivery Boy I guess is there for the token Asian comic relief, but even his paint-by-numbers character offends me.
When starting this OP I was going to go though and contrast The Walking Dead with the first four episodes of Lost, but I really don’t care enough to bother now.
I started watching the Survivors remake on Netflix watch instantly and can highly recommend it as The Walking Dead only better in every way.
Well, I’m enjoying it. Sorry that you’re not, but I don’t think it’s all that horrible.
Because people don’t look to trustworthy authority figures? Who else in the group would you trust to be your leader in that situation?
He was acting erratically and couldn’t (or wouldn’t) explain himself. Heck, as far as I’m concerned, he’s lucky he didn’t get shot – for all they know, he could have snapped completely or have been infected. At minimum, he was putting his health at risk by exerting himself in the sun and heat. If you want to go off and do your own thing, that’s cool - but why would a group of survivors feel obliged to allow this?
I do hope that they’re developed a bit more, but they are there for pretty simple reasons. For themselves: safety in numbers. For everyone else: they are (or at least Merle’s brother is) good resource gatherers, and good defenders against attack.
I rather like him. I didn’t think he’d been played for laughs; he’s among the more capable characters.
The only thing I agree about is that the cop characters would automatically be looked to as authority figures.
The character who was digging holes was restrained because they were concerned he was losing his mind. Unpredictable behavior of that sort is a serious concern for everybody in that situation.
As to the brothers – while Merle (so far) has been shown as a pretty one-dimensional, sterotypical racist redneck, I think his brother, Darrel (and I hope they don’t have another brother named Darrel), has been more nuanced and shown some more intelligence and maturity. He’s shown a willingness to listen to the others, despite his anger, expressed some respect for Glenn (the Korean kid) both when Glenn was sketching out a strategy for retrieving the bag of guns, and for his courage in being willing to take risks and run point for the group. He also showed a lot of anger and concern when Glenn was taken by the Vatos. He had the bag of guns. He didn’t personally have to care about Glenn, but he was enraged that they had taken him. I think Darrel is actually devolping as a pretty good character and not so much a cardboard hillbilly.
I don’t see Glenn as comic relief, but just as a smart, quick-witted kid with a lot of guts and innate strategic skills.
One of the strengths of the show has been how some people who were nobodies in their previous lives (a pizza delivery boy, a custodian at a nursing home) realize potential, character and leadership that they probably never knew they had themselves. Unfortunately, I think that’s undermined a little by a couple of cops automatically being accepted as authorities in a situation when previous authority no longer means anything.
Also, I admit it’s a rather huge coincidence that the main character would not only be able to just stumble right onto his wife and son so quickly, but his former partner too. Crazy coincidences do happen in chaotic situations, though.
It’s not that big of a coincidence. He headed toward the nearest major city, same as them. When he got there, he couldn’t penetrate very deeply into the city, and neither could the scout group, so they naturally ended up relatively close by. Then, he fired a bunch of shots, attracting the attention of everyone nearby.
Seems like a reasonable course of events to me. Certainly better than, say, Luke Skywalker crash-landing within a quarter mile of the one life form on the entire freaking planet.
It’s just eye candy for me, since there is almost nothing else worth watching at this time of year. We’re watching more and more PBS programs, to my horror.
Stop watching if you want, but if the show generally follows the books (as it seems to be doing) then things should get better:
Shane aside (he doesn’t last long), Rick eventually starts questioning his leadership abilities, especially after committing (a justifiable) homicide and going a little crazy. The characters of Andrea, Glenn and Rick’s son Carl (sadly the only other original survivors as of the last trade paperback) are also further developed.
[spoiler] I thought that they would certainly have left base camp by now. I guess they plan on only doing one book. That explains the extra characters, since they needed to add more parts to stretch just one book so far.
but they didn’t know that at this point in the book. I’d also like to point out that this seemed like one of the greatest inconsistencies in the book. At first, they had to get bitten to turn, then they all automatically turned when they die. [/spoiler]
I’m about done too. I guess the original author/producers of the adaptation aren’t too interested in trying to find out how the plague got started and how it can be defeated?
I’m glad most people think it’s worth the effort–I haven’t started yet (DVR crashed), but On Demand will allow me to catch up. Looking forward to it (when the wife is asleep; she thinks zombies are stupid. Pffftt!)
It’s not the adaptations fault. The series is all about survival. Scenarios where somehow a scientist maintains a laboratory and cures the virus are ridiculous. No laboratory would last a week in this type of scenario. A laboratory needs tons of electricity, constant sources of a wide variety of chemicals and other consumables, a way to ship things in and out, experts in every relevant field and a huge reference library. In this type of scenario, all of that is gone.
Not even remotely. In an all out zombie breakout where society itself has colapsed, there is absolutely no way to maintain a functional laboratory capable of doing anything beyond 19th century chemistry.
Hear, hear. The same reasoning, resupply and logistics, more than explains why there’s no standing military either. Yes, lots of different gunships are more than capable of taking out the group of zombies in downtown ATL, but then where do they land, where do they refuel, reload, rest, etc. Those tanks, planes, and copters are all gas guzzling machines that need a steady convoy of fuel and skilled mechanics to support them. When that human machine breaks down, those solutions are no longer viable.
I hope we don’t begin a trend of Cafe Society threads where people need to announce they’re done with a show instead of announcing it in any of the relevant episode threads.
I wanted to love Survivors, but I couldn’t endure all the contrived melodrama and painful overacting. The Walking Dead, with all its flaws, is much better.
Has there ever been a zombie movie/book where they actually cured everyone. Pretty much every zombie story I know of that has a “happy” ending involves just killing all the zombies.
Umm we have all these science crime shows, like CSI, NCIS, Bones, etc. that viewers eat up? Certainly you don’t need to be focused on the lab rats all the time (assuming of course that it can remain running as others said)-my main issue with the series is that it is lacking any substantial <ahem> dramatic meat, and I don’t see any sort of interesting destination/denouement in store. I guess (not having read the graphic novel(s)) that they’ll eventually find safe sanctuary on an island somewhere, wait for the zombies to decay to dust, band together with other survivors, and rebuild civilization. I’m interested in seeing just how many humans are still extant, and if there’s any fearless leaders under whom they’ll rally. But the glacial pace of what has been passing for a plot so far doesn’t inspire hope. And I haven’t found any of the characters remotely compelling either.