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Post by trashcanman on Aug 13, 2011 10:48:57 GMT 2
In my discussions leading up to the eventual adaptation of the super-awesome comic series The Walking Dead, I remember groaning that it was AMC who acquired the rights and not HBO, IFC, or another channel with more integrity. Those fears subsided when the show hit the air. In spite of the unnecessary divergence from the source material in the final episodes of the ridiculously short first season, I was pretty pleased with the quality and violence. Clearly, a lot of this was due to talented bigtime film director Frank Darabont's contributions. The show was a massive hit in every sense, but if you know anything about sci-fi/fantasy/horror television history, you know nothing is ever safe... warmingglow.uproxx.com/2011/08/oh-snap-frank-darabont-didnt-quit-the-walking-dead-amc-fired-himSo yeah. Looks like AMC is going to kill the show by making it mediocre. My retard detector went off the charts when the head of AMC said “Ratings have no bearing on this conversation.” Seriously? When a show like this is a success, all of the sudden ratings don't matter, but when they get low the show will be cancelled, yes? Somebody needs to be shot in the head, and it's not a zombie this time. |
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Post by The Curmudgeon on Aug 14, 2011 1:22:23 GMT 2
Looks like you were right, Trash. This is the sort of show that really needs to be on HBO. There, at least, they allow a show time to breath and give it the funding it deserves. A guy wants to bring cinema quality style and dynamic to a horror TV show? Who the fuck wants that, right?
So it's a massive hit, critically and commercially. Yeah, best sack the director quick snap. Fuck me.
Now I'm worried.
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Post by trashcanman on Aug 14, 2011 10:03:22 GMT 2
Any network that routinely butchers classic films with censorship shouldn't be trusted with this kind of property. Man, even Starz would have done this up right. Just my luck AMC snatches it up just to kill it.
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Post by The Curmudgeon on Aug 17, 2011 0:11:02 GMT 2
Hey, we might be over-selling this here. It could still be great, it could still live a long and healthy life. It could..
Ah, who am I kidding?
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Post by trashcanman on Aug 17, 2011 5:55:03 GMT 2
Hey, I'll still watch, but now my expectations are firmly in check. I've read the goddamn comic. I know that some of the most disturbing, emotional, and epic character demises and shades of grey in the history of fiction are coming up. If they can't do it right or don't have a production team that cares enough to even pull the trigger when the time comes, then the show fucking fails. And if they diverge too far from the source material and stop bringing the brutality and massive scope, it's just another lackluster, nondescript zombiepocalypse.
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Post by trashcanman on Oct 6, 2011 23:07:27 GMT 2
Found this article and thought I'd resurrect this zombie thread. media.gunaxin.com/walking-dead-wont-miss-frank-darabont/102907It's good that not everybody is writing the show off, but I've got to call bullshit on a few of these points, though. A film director directing a series is always a boon when it comes to something like this. And calling the pilot a "2 hour movie" is dumb. Every episode could be considered a 1 hour movie by that logic. Movie direction is better than television direction. Fact. "Second season stride" has another variation: "sophomore slump". And regardless of how many generic series the new writer has worked for, none of those have any relation to anything pertaining to TWD. Darabont adapted King. Well. Twice. Lastly, saying that the viewers will watch anyways regardless of if the show sucks or not is not a fucking upside. Fact #2: science fiction, fantasy, and horror are always longshots on television. Always. Even the successes usually fail. As much of a stickler for the source material, I have to admit that the best moments of the first season were ones that were not in the comic, but took the time to expand on moments that flew by all too quickly in the comic's early days or some were even wholly original. This is what made the series really cook for me. I don't know how much of that was Darabont, but I hope they can keep bringing that kind of freshness while retaining all of the best parts of the original story. 10 days away and the doubts can start either being confirmed or assuaged. |
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Post by The Curmudgeon on Oct 9, 2011 19:07:13 GMT 2
The article makes a lot of good points, and if I hadn't read about the director leaving who's to say I would even have noticed. It's hard to say until we see the second season. If it sucks and gets shit-canned, we can blame it on the lack of Darabont. Time will tell. The States will no doubt get the second series before us, so keep me in the loop on how the show is.
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Post by trashcanman on Oct 17, 2011 10:46:49 GMT 2
Alright, just finished the season 2 premiere. The outlook: not good at all. At least 3-4 separate occasions during the 1 1/2 hour show I wondered what in the hell the writers were thinking. The show has officially gone too far away from the comic and managed to have a feature length premiere with commercials every fucking 5 minutes where almost nothing of consequence happened. The survivors are suddenly insufferable MORONS. Season one whiffed big time when they skipped an extremely important character death, and went way off the beaten track for an ep or two but left off in a perfect place to get right back where it needed to be to follow the source material. Now it actually seems like the writers just said "fuck the original story, comics are gay anyways" and started writing a soap opera instead. Honestly, this premiere was worse than my worst fears for the show. I thought there might be a slow and steady decline, but I swear this hour and a half of television has shaken every ounce of faith I had in a show that started off damn near perfect. God, these characters are fucking idiots. I currently don't want any of them to live. No joke. That is a bad place to be in a story that centers on the tension and horror of imminent demise. Every character is now that kid in a wheelchair in the original TCM. Their deaths may actually warrant a cheer....that is if the show can even manage to kill any more characters off. The way it's going, it appears the writers may have decided that people actually dying is for loser shows too. We shall see. I'm still going to watch, but The Walking Dead is officially on the proverbial bubble with me.
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Post by The Curmudgeon on Oct 20, 2011 12:04:58 GMT 2
See, I get this report from you and I get someone else who has downloaded the show who says he's really enjoying it. I prefer to listen to someone who actually watches it on television.
A show full of Franklin's doesn't sound like a good idea to me. It comes back on over here on Friday (only a couple of days after the States, I can handle that). I'll let you know what I think.
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Post by trashcanman on Oct 20, 2011 20:21:42 GMT 2
So far, I appear to be in the minority. Reaction has been pretty positive overall, but that means little to me. Unless I'm watching a stupid slasher film or something that's not really even trying to be dramatic, I really can't abide some of the stupidity that is being displayed by the survivors right now. I'm also troubled by the show's refusal to pull the trigger on one of the comic's most iconic moments because it would mean losing a cast member. True Blood managed to get away with this because said cast member was awesome, but TWD is almost defined by it's readiness to shock the shit out of you by murdering and maiming man, woman, and child alike at any given moment. If they take that away, they barely even have a show anymore.
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Post by The Curmudgeon on Jan 27, 2012 15:09:58 GMT 2
Update: You know, maybe it was Trashy ripping it before I watched it, but I just did NOT enjoy Walking Dead this time around. In fact, I didn't give a shit about any of it. The characters are flat and boring and I wouldn't have blinked if they'd been ripped to pieces by a horde of zombies. I may even have welcomed it.
We binned this show about four episodes into the second series. I just couldn't bring myself to watch it anymore.
RIP.
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Post by trashcanman on Jan 28, 2012 11:13:37 GMT 2
I'm still watching, but it's almost out of curiosity at this point. Every once in the while, the show does something really inspired and off the beaten path that just kicks my ass, but overall in season 2 it has simply not been able to sustain genuine interest apart from wondering what they are going to do next to fuck everything up. The show is currently on mid-season break (hate that shit), but I have to admit that the climax of the semi-season finale was nothing short of breathtaking and heartrending, almost making up for the horrifyingly slow-paced and (seemingly) pointless storyline that had taken up the entire season up to that point. And it wasn't from the comic. In fact, they actually killed a character that is alive to this day in the comic, and I applaud the hell out of that choice. So TWD has gotten a new lease on life with me....for now. If they can deliver that kind of awesome with the frequency of the comic from here on out, all will be forgiven, but I doubt it will happen. Again, I'll keep watching, but my expectations are teeny-tiny. As C said, the characters just suck. I give not two shits about anybody. Every now and then, an actor will elevate the material with an inspired performance, but overall these people are boring dicks and that is probably the single biggest reason why this show is failing with me.
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