The Walking Dead - TV Series

[TordelBack]

Shane's an odd choice for a lead character...  

Not really - remember that [spoiler]Rick is separated from the group for the whole of the first arc, and we think Shane is a good guy and not a psycho rapist.  [/spoiler]

[HOO-HAA]

Yeah, I didn't realise that part of the comic's story lasted so long ... I suppose it could make an interesting first season arc.

This is going to be the Next Big Thing, isn't it? Like next year's True Blood...

[locustsofdeath!]

I wonder...I wonder how I'll like the first arc. To be honest, the only thing that makes these characters interesting at the start is what they become later. I read the first volume (I've read The Walking Dead through the first five HC collections, finishing volume five last night) and felt everything about the characters was...I don't know, silly maybe...but found myself caring for them as they went through their transformations - or regressions. Now that I've started rereading the series from the start, I like them more - but of course, if it's true to the comics, the series will start with the same bland characters that almost put me off the book in the first place! Hopefully the screenwriters are a bit more skilled with characterization and dialogue than Kirkman (I have to say, second time reading, there is some really atrocious dialogue). That said, I look sooooo forward to this!

[TordelBack]

Hopefully the screenwriters are a bit more skilled with characterization and dialogue than Kirkman (I have to say, second time reading, there is some really atrocious dialogue).

In an odd way that's what I've found so appealing about The Walking Dead.  In many ways it is a cackhanded mess, with stock characters, dire dialogue, truncated stories and shoddy contrivances - but then so is real life.  Kirkman and Adlard just keep plugging on, abusing their cast in the most horrible ways imaginable, even as the cast do the same to each other, and somehow that makes more sense than the neat clockwork of an Alan Moore story, the compressed twistiness of a Morrison or the heart-warming bromances of an Ennis.  It's all too easy to imagine that this is what it would be like, chaotic and cliched at the same time.  As Spock might say, it's very human.  

[HOO-HAA]

I've always bought into the characters and their humanity - it's refreshing to read a zombie story with such ordinary people at its heart. Even its square-jawed hero, Rick, is a complete mess. Great stuff.

The only time I lost love for this story was the post-prison scenes on the road; they felt dreadfully contrived.

[TordelBack]

The only time I lost love for this story was the post-prison scenes on the road; they felt dreadfully contrived.

Do you mean the 'telephone' stuff, or the 'off to see the boys in DC' stuff?

[Goaty]

The only time I lost love for this story was the post-prison scenes on the road; they felt dreadfully contrived.

Do you mean the 'telephone' stuff, or the 'off to see the boys in DC' stuff?

Oh dont worry, next issue looks very interesting...

[HOO-HAA]

The only time I lost love for this story was the post-prison scenes on the road; they felt dreadfully contrived.

Do you mean the 'telephone' stuff, or the 'off to see the boys in DC' stuff?

It was around the time of both yet neither bothered me that much, in their own right. [spoiler]Mostly it was the post-prison survivors' diaspora - and then, miraculously, everyone seemed to just meet up again on the road. As a reader, I found it both clumsy and lazy writing, to be honest. It pulled me out of the story and made the characters suddenly cardboard, to the point where I was very close to ditching the comic (it's one of the few I still get as single issues). Thankfully, with the Hunters storyline things recovered and we were back in business. [/spoiler]

[locustsofdeath!]

Hopefully the screenwriters are a bit more skilled with characterization and dialogue than Kirkman (I have to say, second time reading, there is some really atrocious dialogue).

In an odd way that's what I've found so appealing about The Walking Dead.  In many ways it is a cackhanded mess, with stock characters, dire dialogue, truncated stories and shoddy contrivances - but then so is real life.  Kirkman and Adlard just keep plugging on, abusing their cast in the most horrible ways imaginable, even as the cast do the same to each other, and somehow that makes more sense than the neat clockwork of an Alan Moore story, the compressed twistiness of a Morrison or the heart-warming bromances of an Ennis.  It's all too easy to imagine that this is what it would be like, chaotic and cliched at the same time.  As Spock might say, it's very human.  

I don't want to sound like I'm not digging the Walking Dead at all - because I am, immensely. It's great escapism, real zombie fanboy wet dream stuff...

Here are my complaints with the writing (bear in mind, all of the following induces eye-roll reactions rather than 'this is shite' reactions - I mean c'mon, I have a huge Italian zombie film collection, I eat this stuff up like our living dead friends munch flesh):

Repetitiveness: For example, during the siege of the prison, the Governor replies in response to a query about the tank: "we can't fire it, so-n-so barely learned how to drive it, it's just for show" and not two pages later Machinonne says: "they can't fire that, it's just for show". This happens quite often throughout the series.

Over-expostion: This killed me during my reread: 1) a character will describe what needs to be done, we'll see the action and then the characters will talk about what they've just done or 2) characters, especially when they are first introduced, reel off huge chunks of monologue in supposed bouts of "character-building". This makes me feel that Kirkman just doesn't quite trust his audience to fill in any gaps in the story, that he sort of forces characterization (we often get an information overload about a character and then he/she sort of fades to the background for awhile) - or maybe Kirkman is in love with his own words. In any case, a very smart scriptwriter can tell three stories within a strip by using dialogue, captions and pictures and, while I'm not saying Kirkman can't do that, he just doesn't.

Sounds juvenile at times: Carol and Tyreese, both adults, "break up" (not "split" or "move on"), Rick tells Lori they "broke up", the children's dialogue has a forced innocence to it, and so does much of the "love" stuff. To me it sounds as if a 13-year-old wrote sections of the script.

Anyway, I'm not trashing the comics - I really like them - and heck, I'm buying them. I just thought I'd clarify what I meant by atrocious dialogue. I am looking forward to the series just like I look forward to reading the comics!

[mygrimmbrother]

I'll second all of that Locust. I'm working my way throught the TPBs (just received and read volume 8 this morning - Made to Suffer indeed!), and although I'm completely hooked, you're bang on about the dialogue and exposition. Like someone else said on this thread earlier, I trust Darabont and his crew will give the dialogue a helluva polish, and deliver a landmark piece of television. Here's hoping anyway.

[radiator]

I very much agree, Locust, but I would go further than that. I think the comics are immensely overrated. They're OK - readable fluff, but I really don't understand all the praise and I got bored around volume 4 and stopped reading it.

Fans will always bang on about the fact that the zombie/horror aspect of the comic is secondary to the relationships and characters, but I found the writing and dialogue to be very wooden and unnatural in places (the relationship stuff is especially cringey), the plot to be quite simplistic and the overuse of predictable 'shock' moments gets tired quickly.

I also find that TWD (by its nature) is a bit plodding and meandering - it doesn't really seem to be going anywhere.

I expect the TV show will have higher quality control, and I'll definitely give it a go - it seems to be in safe hands.

[locustsofdeath!]

Last night I just got bored with seeing every new character vomit a page's worth of dialogue balloons. Glad I'm not alone in this  .

[Goaty]

Nice footage from Bloody-disgusting.com.

Rick and his horse!! Poor horse...

20 years of Zombie TV, niceee...!

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/20946

[SmallBlueThing]

There's a comment on the BD page below the video that sums up my feelings precisely:

"PANTS MEET SPLOODGE!"

SBT

[Goaty]

here the bootleg Trailer of The Walking Dead at Comic Con 2010...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBiI6YRfWIY