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Posted: Jul 18 2011 04:37 pm

Rydog wrote:

Why can't it stray and still be good??????????? Everyone is so worried it won't match the comic frame for frame, just watch the show and judge it on its own instead of comparing the two the whole time.

Who cares if it matches the comic? All I care about is if the show is GOOD, and it wasn't. The first episode was phenominal. Episodes 2, 3, 4, and most of 5 were slow and boring focusing on bad actors poorly portraying cookie cutter characters (The guy from Boondock Saints was like the one highlight in this time). Then at the end of 5 they got to the research facility and that last 8 minutes was really good. The last episode was pretty good, but sadly kinda pointless.

In short, these 6 episodes had about 1.5 episodes worth of really good material, and a fuck ton of stupid filler. There was a teaser trailer for season 2 played during Breaking Bad last night, and I LAUGHED at it. (Syd can testify to this). In the entire second season, they couldn't even come up with a 30 second clip that was worth watching. This will end poorly.

Joined: Apr 09 2008 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 3112

Thing is, usually when a movie strays from a comic's storyline, it's to keep some semblance of believability in a world where you have real people playing the characters. The CDC sub-plot was unnecessary and unbelievable. It brought in nothing new, and resolved nothing else. I don't know if they're writing the characters in the long run (who knows, now that they fired a bunch of the writers), but with the exception of Dale (who is much better than in the comic), all of the characters are bland and poorly-acted. I'm willing to give the show a second chance, but the whole CDC thing has soured me on the series.

Posted: Jul 27 2011 04:39 am

Just a few days after acclaimed director Frank Darabont took the Comic-Con stage to promote season two of AMC’s The Walking Dead comes this news that he’s stepping down as the series’ showrunner.

Sources say Deadline’s report is true that Darabont will no longer serve as the chief writer-producer on the series. Without saying whose decision it was, the decision is attributed to Darabont never quite having gotten the hang of switching from films (The Shawshank Redemption, The Mist) to a TV show.

At Comic-Con, Darabont certainly seemed excited about continuing on the hit series and working with the second season writing staff. “We also have writers that are really fans of [the show],” Darabont said. “The first six episodes, nobody knew what the hell they were dealing with, except me.”

Darabont’s been involved with the project for a long time, too — he pitched it to NBC about six years ago. He could stay on the series in some kind of capacity, though such positions are sometimes merely honorary when a big talent steps down as showrunner. Glen Mazzara (The Shield) is Darabont’s No. 2 on the show, though it’s not yet clear what sort of succession plan is being laid out. Either way, the series is expected to continue shooting as planned and still debut Oct. 16.

We've got an air date now! Not sure how I feel about this since I think he totally changed up the writing crew for Season 2 in the first place.

Joined: Apr 09 2008 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 3112

The whole writing crew thing happened to Mad Men, and it worked out fine. And honestly, I wasn't all that psyched about Darabont like everyone else was. The Shawshank Redemption was good, but I was never impressed by his other movies. I think they need a zombie movie fan who is sick of zombie movies, i.e. they understand what makes great zombie movies (Shaun of the Dead, 28 Days Later, etc.) great, and makes bad/bland ones not so great. The Walking Dead was great because it never fell under the constraints of a two hour movie (showing a group eternally dealing with the problem), and had multi-layer characters who each developed arcs under the context of plots and sub-plots. I'm interested to see if the writers this time were able to see what made the comic great, and what kept it from being a great TV show.

Posted: Aug 08 2011 10:47 pm

Okay, another production/development hiccup with this show:
Arguably the most technically expensive show on AMC, The Walking Dead AND Breaking Bad's budgets are being slashed by about $250,000 an ep because the guy behind Mad Men (its only other original show and thing to show other than old movies) threw a hissyfit and wanted more money. This may even be the reason Darabonte left.