The Walking Dead - Frank Darabont/Robert Kirkman

[Inferno04]

I am one happy MLP fan =D Daryl is the best pony.

Spoiler:

show spoiler

[Scream]

I'd say the best part of that episode was when Spoiler:

show spoiler

they were moving the zombies Day of the Dead style and Shane saw them, he must of thought they were completely retarded. They should of added in some rainbows digitally and perhaps even a merry sing-song..

[Wrathborne]

http://blogs.amctv.com/the-walking-dead/2012/02/david-morrissey-cast-as-the-governor.php

--------

We have confirmation that the Governor is not only coming up in the series, but they got British Actor David Morrissey to portray him.

Also to anyone who is wondering, yes season 2 is picking up, the first 7 ep stoary arc went on 2 eps 2 long, but the current story arc is moving along faster.

[Rancid Cheese]

Man.

I left this thread alone cause I knew I was behind with season 2 and wanted to avoid spoilers but no-one else has commented for months?!

Well I finally caught up with the show and my copies of the comic arrived the other day so I've been working through them. The differences have been quite impressive I was so surprised Daryl wasn't in the comic as he has been the best character. I've enjoyed all the characters and while I disagree with some of their actions I can't fault any of them to the point where I can't believe in them.

I was really satisfied with season 2 a lot of fans have criticised it for being slow paced but I thought it was well done slow burning drama with the search for Sophia and the lingering dread that Hershel's farm however idealic is only ever going to be temporary both on account of Shane's attitude and the discovery of walkers in the farms perimiter firstly in one of the wells and elsewhere. The mid season finale was everything it needed to be and the resulting half has been crazy good hell even amazing. I'm so pissed we gotta wait SO long for season three with the spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers and the way spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers.

Seriously people everyone should watch this show, read the comic and maybe even play the game!

Telltale Games (which is a bit discouraging tbh) it's episodic wont follow the show/comic survivors but some will cameo and according to Inside Xbox will be around five monthly episodes starting from sometime this month at 400m$ each with no doubt some bundle or retail release at the end (if retail stores still exist that late on ) with skant detail but the wiki states:

"The Walking Dead is an upcoming episodic video game based on Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead comic book series. The game is under development by Telltale Games.[3] The Walking Dead's release date was first planned to be set in the last months of 2011.[4] But according to the time the production and development of the project are taking, the original release date was pulled off to middle or first part of the last quarter of 2012. The game will consist of five episodes, with the first episode scheduled to be released in April 2012.

Kirkman has said that, unlike typical zombie games such as Left 4 Dead, it will focus more on characterization and emotion than action.[5]

The game will feature cross-genre of both adventure and action, in which, like in the previous Telltale titles, the player must make use of inventory items and environment, however, unlike in them, the played characters will have limited time to do so and could die in the process. The plot revolves around five specific survivors who just arrived in the infected city and each chapter will center around one specific character."

Teaser: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u14YHB_u5D0

[Darkmoon]

The game sounds very much down my dark, urine soaked alley. But then I love a bit of zombies.

Season 2 wasn't that great for me. Shane's drawn out presence made things awkward, allowing Rick to be too much angel. And some of the comic characters that got killed felt too much like the TV people yelling, 'Look at us, we're our own story - and now something else lifted from the comics'.

I enjoyed it, but it would have benefited from loosing two or three episodes. There was too many bits that felt like making up the time rather than portraying life on the farm during a zombie apocalypse.

On the plus side, most of the side cast got offed during the finale, so unless they aquire some more deadweight at the prison than they do in the comics things should pick up. And with Shane gone Rick's descent into becoming a hardened asshole can really get going.

[Rancid Cheese]

Haven't stopped reading the comic since earlier and man its good . . . at times significantly different but good, great even.

Spoiler:

show spoiler

I dunno Rick did kill Dave and Tony in the bar single handed plus he showed signs of the pressure getting to him a few times although I admit the focus seemed to be more on Shane Vs Dale. Shane did kinda overstay his part though but Dale went too soon. The lack of other characters put more punch into what Rick says at the end though about it no longer being a democracy.

I'm onto volume 5 now and I actually think killing Sophia in the show was a bad move cause the future is far too bleak now they needed Carl and Sophia to show the future generation and with no other children from the comics in it at all, I dunno.

Allen and family and Tyreese and family not even featuring I imagine they may show up next season or they'll just make up some people. The 4 prisoners will no doubt feature as I imagine it'll flow much the same as season 2 with a slower start as they establish the prison as a safe haven. Probably Beth will be killed then or maybe she'll go on to be inplace of Patricia from the comic. Probably T-Dog will fill some of the Tyreese events or maybe the Morales will feature. I dunno I'm drivelling now and heaping speculation ontop of rumour with wild abandon.

[Wrathborne]

Season 2 broke the one rule of entertainment, to entertain the audience.

There were so many ways they could have done this but instead kept the story to a minimum.

They had roughly 9 episodes of story, but 3 episodes of filler...bad filler. Mediocre character development filler.
The sad thing is that season 2 is not what Frank Darabont was trying to create..but when the shows budget got cut and more revisions to the scripts were made as a result...medicoreness ensued.

I watched 8 eps, then just stopped. They kept repeating the "Ok, something just happened. We need to talk about it for 20 minutes of episode time before doing anything" cycle.

There were some really strong moments in the season, Rick and Shanes face off at the end was very well done...but it didnt make up for 3 episodes of nothing crap where the characters were doing stupid shit.

Sad thing is..the TV show is repeating the graphic novels limited story structure...Which for anyone who doesn't know, is a simple 3 step process:

Things are bad, things improve slightly, Things get even worse. 14 graphic novels of this same structure is really sorry when you look at it from a writers perspective.

I dont know if its laziness, or a limitation of Kirkman, but it really hurts to look at the series in the long run knowing this.

Either way, I'm done with the series, they had such a great opportunity to make it more than it is.

[Xander Ashford]

They had roughly 9 episodes of story, but 3 episodes of filler...bad filler. Mediocre character development filler.
The sad thing is that season 2 is not what Frank Darabont was trying to create..but when the shows budget got cut and more revisions to the scripts were made as a result...medicoreness ensued.

I watched 8 eps, then just stopped. They kept repeating the "Ok, something just happened. We need to talk about it for 20 minutes of episode time before doing anything" cycle.

You mean you didn't enjoy the four episodes it took to finally find Sophia?! I exaggerate, of course, but it was like "Jesus-Satan-Christ, we get it, she is missing! Find her dead body and let's move on!" I still like the show, but I agree that it needs some work on character development and story development. I don't want an entire show of just zombie attacks, but I also don't want 30 minutes of just talking about what we're going to do, and how we need to do this and that to avoid the walkers.

Sad thing is..the TV show is repeating the graphic novels limited story structure...Which for anyone who doesn't know, is a simple 3 step process:

Things are bad, things improve slightly, Things get even worse. 14 graphic novels of this same structure is really sorry when you look at it from a writers perspective.

I dont know if its laziness, or a limitation of Kirkman, but it really hurts to look at the series in the long run knowing this.

You know, that actually makes a great deal of sense because I never really understood why I go through phases of just being absolutely bored with the graphic novel. I buy the hardcovers (and I can't remember exactly how many issues that is per hardcover), and I stop reading for a while after I finish two or three. I made it through Volumes 1 and 2, stopped for a while, got back into it and read Volumes 3, 4 and part of 5. It does get stale after a while because it is following that simple formula that you pointed out. Ultimately, I still enjoy the comics, but it isn't something that stays fresh, so breaks are needed at least for me. I notice when I eventually make it back to the comics, it's almost like starting anew.

Though everything gets stale over time. There is only so much you can do before it becomes repetitive.

In regards to the show, I am interested to see the take on the Governor and Michonne.