The Walking Dead

I see that the first season of this begins a run on the UK's Channel 5 on Sunday night, was just wondering if it's worth a watch?

The pilot was great and showed a lot of promise, but the first season went gradually downhill with each episode until the sixth episode which was ridiculously terrible. But then the entire writing staff was fired, so I'll come back to watch the second season and see if it's any better.

I enjoyed the first season.

Far too tired to watch it last night, oops. Hopefully it'll be on 5's On Demand service.

I really enjoyed it when I watched it last year. I loved the setting of the last episode but can see why some of the story may have been disappointing.

Watched the opener last night ... good stuff indeed, I'm 'on board' for the rest of 'em. :D

Fairbairn-Sykes wrote:

The pilot was great and showed a lot of promise, but the first season went gradually downhill with each episode until the sixth episode which was ridiculously terrible. But then the entire writing staff was fired, so I'll come back to watch the second season and see if it's any better.

Agreed. The weakest part of the S1 for me is the episode centered on the conflict between characters over one that got bit and everyone freaks out as if he was a time bomb, even though people don't turn into zombies instantly but rather turn into them hours AFTER they died. It kinda rang false for me. I thought he finale was good but found its ending very weak. It kinda ended as if it were just any mid-season episode instead of giving audiences something to talk about between seasons.

Besides that, the pilot was great. I was very surprised because I haven't really been into zombie stuff beyond Romero's earlier work.

The comic is about a million times better. Only the first episode really followed the comics.

Draw your own conclusions.

Thought I'd get this up and running again.

Anyone seen the new ep yet? Really looking forward to it, last week's one was a killer.

Yes, seems season two is taking shape.

Since I'm playing catch up, I rewatched the first season. Great beginning, weak finale. I'm a couple of episodes in S2 and I'm wondering where the hell this is going. It's just stalling, like the first six episodes could have been condensed to three. Is hanging around a barn for so long the result of budget cuts or something?

Yeah season two is a big stalling game cuz the budget was horribly slashed to pay for mad men season 5. It picks up right near the end and season three has been the first actually good season.

It's also inconsistent at times. One episode they're trying to get rid of a walker from a well, avoiding shooting it so the noise won't attract other walkers. Next episode? Target practice for everyone! I'm still gonna continue because it can be really good when it is such as the pilot, so it's good to hear it improves.

Finished S2. Yeah, it improves around the end but man the season overall was just a lot of padding. I don't think it really picked up until they found Sofia, from then on it got a lot better and more interesting. I'm gonna miss Dale, probably the character I felt closest to in the long run but I understand how his departure works into the story and it works.

It's essentially an entire season of filler. S3 gets things back on track.

I would recommend picking up the first three volumes of the trade paperback of the comic series (Days Gone Bye, Miles Behind Us, Safety Behind Bars) to see how the original source material handled what became the storylines of seasons 1, 2 and 3 respectively.

I likely will, just to see how it all flows better.

Heh, The Walking Dead is another fascinating example of what is and isn't OK on 'basic cable' ... a character can see a friend or loved one chomped down on in eye-wateringly graphic gory detail, but are they allowed to say 'Fuck!' as a result? No sirree Bob.

I've caught Season 1 so far, 6 episodes, and watched them yesterday and today. Also ordered a boxed set of S1 and S2 (19 episodes in all).

Blunt Instrument wrote:

Heh, The Walking Dead is another fascinating example of what is and isn't OK on 'basic cable' ... a character can see a friend or loved one chomped down on in eye-wateringly graphic gory detail, but are they allowed to say 'Fuck!' as a result? No sirree Bob.

Whoever heard of a zombie who can say FUCK? They are braindead :face: We've had a few of them here on B&B.

Not sweary zombies ... sweary (or lack thereof, on basic cable) friends of zombie victims as they watch it happening.

Blunt Instrument wrote:

Not sweary zombies ... sweary (or lack thereof, on basic cable) friends of zombie victims as they watch it happening.

I have heard the humans say asshole, shit, prick, even the N word...at least they're getting there.

I'm tempted to download season 2 but am waiting on the boxed set.

I am 4 episodes into Season 3, and DAMN...this series has me hooked. Season 2 started off a bit dreary and picked up in the second half, but Season 3 is smoking so far. Both Lori and T-Dog bite the dust in this one. Will watch another couple throughout the night....

I just joined this forum and, thanks to the fact that season 4 is only a month away, this was the first thread I actively began looking for.

I love The Walking Dead.

I want to say it was around 2005 that I learned about the comic, and thanks to the fact that my hometown has no comic shop (just a bookstore that carries ten year old graphic novels, and occasionally newer ones), I didn't actually get to read the series until 2010, when I decided to start pirating the books online. I've gradually started collecting the TPBs and deleting the pirated issues, but the point, for me, was to start reading the comic before the show started.

Then, fate was cruel to me.

At around the same time the show was starting, Comcast decided that all of their viewers should upgrade to digital cable or else, and we were sadly in the "or else" category. I caught the pilot on Hulu and I absolutely fell in love with the show, much as I had done the comic, but Hulu wasn't going to be airing the entire season, so for five weeks, I was stuck with only the pilot having been watched. Luckily, we got DirecTV just in time for the season finale, and, also luckily, AMC was airing the entire season over before the finale aired, so my first time seeing anything other than the pilot was seeing the entire season in one day. I grabbed the popcorn and I enjoyed every moment.

Yeah, I liked all of season 1. I hated a few bits. Merle's disappearance being unexplained was annoying, though I've calmed down to it now. Didn't like the tease of the helicopter in the pilot, though I've since just decided, "meh". Other than that, I felt the season was a great representation of the comic book, even though the stories were different.

Since then, I've caught every episode of the series the night that it aired (I've even done those AMC Story Sync things, though those were kind of stupid). And, I just bought season 3 on DVD a couple weeks ago. Just watched the series all the way through again, and I've been rereading the comic, replaying Telltale's game, and I've finally gotten my hands on copies of the novels, so, I'm knee-deep in The Walking Dead right now, and I have no regrets.

Season 4 starts this Sunday...I'm stoked.

My DVR (and my ass) are already set for 9:00.