Walking Dead Season 5 second half

[Rinaldi]

I mean the big line in the comics is that the survivors are the "walking dead" not the walkers.

Come on, everyone knows ‘The Walking Dead’ is just a re-imagining of Dostoyevsky’s ‘The Brothers Karamozov’.

 

[tdrink]

I didn,t read the comics, but i played the Walking Dead video game with Lee Everett as the main character. I heard that was also based on the comics. Made me wonder why they didn't weave that storyline through the series.

 

[meyers7]

Isn't that dooming them to half-empty story then? I mean a comic cannot 1hr of TV make. And it has to be very difficult to expand stories into certain beats that must be hit via lines or scenes.

No, it's like any other source. Except this source is like 11 years worth, something like 130+ comics. Lot's and lots of material to draw from. And it's still being produced.

But it is do-able. With previous episode we simply needed to see more than just pictures of the Richmond folk and the fallen town aftermath. Show the town running and people enjoying themselves and then inject our characters into that. This way the viewers are devastated along with Rick & Michonne, not just the Noah kid that we barely know.

They could have, but people/viewers don't seem to like to veer too far off the main group. Lots of complaints when they focused on the Governor or Woodbury. And they (Kirkman, Gimple, have said this is supposed to be from Rick's groups' point of view. Hence why we don't see any other groups unless they come in contact with Rick's group. i.e. we don't know what's going on in CA or Mexico or Europe, etc. It's not about that.

Besides I think the way the town was destroyed, houses burned, the torso's all cut up, something knocking down their walls, the thing about the wolves, we'll get more about the town and what happened later. Or Rick's group is going to run into whoever did this. So showing it up front wouldn't allow this. Just a different way to approach it.

II think the show's kindred spirit is the Incredible Hulk. In that show we hoped David Banner would find peace in his new town, he met nice people and had to protect them, but then bad-guy, maybe dreaded reporter plus the two scenes of hulking out per episode. Then back to the slog of surviving.

I really liked the Incredible Hulk. They kind of have to keep moving though. People really didn't like them settling down very long, on the farm, in the prison. Lot's of complaints about that. So I think the idea is to keep them moving more often.

The fact that they do switches with comics vs TV characters in storylines is totally irrelevant to non-comic readers. But I can see how the Glen thing (don't give any more spoilers like that though!) can make the show more edge-of-seat riveting for comic readers that know too much about what is happening. And equally the infill your brain does with reading (even comics I suppose though I've never read) supplies much more plot and character backstory, so its not surprising that comic readers find the TV show richer than non-coms.

But it is relevant to comic book readers, who make up a portion of the audience. And Gimple is a huge fan of the comics anyway. And Kirkman is on the writing/producing team. So it's always going to be comic-centric. But like any book to movie, they gotta make it good for those who've read it and those who haven't. Not always an easy task.

Hey I said "potential spoiler alert". Besides, it may not be a spoiler in the show. Probably won't be since they've shown the bat a couple times before.

 

[tdrink]

I had a feeling that the arc of the show was somewhat fan driven. Not sure that necessarily works best in the long run.
There have been a bunch of things in Game of Thrones that I never would have chosen to take place. Those events had me immediately pissed off at the writers. But in the long run they were crucial for the story as whole.

 

[Rinaldi]

I had a feeling that the arc of the show was somewhat fan driven. Not sure that necessarily works best in the long run.
There have been a bunch of things in Game of Thrones that I never would have chosen to take place. Those events had me immediately pissed off at the writers. But in the long run they were crucial for the story as whole.

I cried when they killed off Sissy....

 

[meyers7]

I didn,t read the comics, but i played the Walking Dead video game with Lee Everett as the main character. I heard that was also based on the comics. Made me wonder why they didn't weave that storyline through the series.

I have read that they might cross connect some of the stuff from video games to TV and vice versa. The Dixon brother, who were not in the comics at all have their own video game now I believe.

 

[Deepster]

Viewership is doing pretty well (outside your home). People talk about Game of Thrones or even Breaking Bad popularity, but they were not even in the ballpark. The highest GoT viewership was 7.2 mil. Heck Talking Dead (the aftershow has pulled in 7.3 mil) Breaking Bad didn't break 3 mil til 2nd half of their final season. Finally topping out at 10.28 for the Series Finale. Walking Dead hasn't been under 10 mil since Season 3. And their highest rated was this season, 17.29 mil.

Is this really accurate? GoT is on a premium channel and Walking Dead isn't. GoT is the most downloaded and illegally pirated show in history. For the record...

 

[meyers7]

Is this really accurate? GoT is on a premium channel and Walking Dead isn't. GoT is the most downloaded and illegally pirated show in history. For the record...

Yes it is accurate, for the numbers. But true, one is a premium channel. I don't think they take into account Netflix or DVR, etc. either.

I think GoT set the record with about 1.5 million in the piracy area? So, yea it beats Talking Dead, by a little.

 

[Dogdeacon]

Pretty solid episode, Maggie's grief was certainly after the fact, but at least they finally addressed that and a lot of other much-needed realism too. Loved Maggie telling father bull$hitt to stfu. Should we be optimistic or pessimistic about the new likely villain plot?

 

[Deepster]

Yes it is accurate, for the numbers. But true, one is a premium channel. I don't think they take into account Netflix or DVR, etc. either.

I think GoT set the record with about 1.5 million in the piracy area? So, yea it beats Talking Dead, by a little.

For whatever it's worth, I still don't think that's an accurate comparison. It's so much easier to latch onto Walking Dead at this point with DVR'ing past seasons, on demanding them for free or catching one of the many marathons AMC runs leading up to a new season. For someone to start GoT, they need to pay for HBO which is a huge step or download past seasons off iTunes. The past GoT seasons aren't even on Netflix streaming anymore.

In short, Walking Dead numbers are going to be a lot higher just for ease of access. And just as another comparison, each GoT is estimated to cost 6 million to make. That's almost double what Walking Dead costs (3.4m). You have a lot more CGI but why pay all that extra if you could make two Walking Deads for the same pricetag?

 

[meyers7]

For whatever it's worth, I still don't think that's an accurate comparison. It's so much easier to latch onto Walking Dead at this point with DVR'ing past seasons, on demanding them for free or catching one of the many marathons AMC runs leading up to a new season. For someone to start GoT, they need to pay for HBO which is a huge step or download past seasons off iTunes. The past GoT seasons aren't even on Netflix streaming anymore.

In short, Walking Dead numbers are going to be a lot higher just for ease of access. And just as another comparison, each GoT is estimated to cost 6 million to make. That's almost double what Walking Dead costs (3.4m). You have a lot more CGI but why pay all that extra if you could make two Walking Deads for the same pricetag?

I agree, lot's more people watch TWD than GoT. Reason really doesn't matter.

On the costs, TWD really doesn't have many sets to build. They just find some woods, or an old abandoned building. Also I imagine GoT run 58-60 mimutes per episode. TWD is only about prolly 45ish with all the commercials. On the other hand GoT is doing 10 episodes a season and TWD is doing 16.

 

[meyers7]

Pretty solid episode, Maggie's grief was certainly after the fact, but at least they finally addressed that and a lot of other much-needed realism too. Loved Maggie telling father bull$hitt to stfu. Should we be optimistic or pessimistic about the new likely villain plot?

I think they are pretty low now, like really low. They are going to need a pick me up or it's just gonna be too depressing. I'm thinking this new guy (Aaron?) is going to be ok. He looks like he's coming from someplace pretty nice by the look of him and his clothes. Probably won't trust him right away, but they need somebody good or at least not an out and out villain for awhile. They just went through the Governor, the Claimed gang, Terminus and Gareth, the hospital and Dawn. Time for somebody decent. But who knows??

 

[Rinaldi]

Really? Snooze.........
The only interesting thing that happened came in the last 30 seconds.
If they slow it down any more I'll fall asleep.

 

[Deepster]

I think the show is at a very interesting crossroad. Most of these large scale series nowadays last 5-7 seasons (The Wire, Sopranos, Breaking Bad, etc.). I've read that execs feel that any more than that, without some sort of conclusion, and viewers start to lose interest and drop off or the story gets diluted and ineffective. With this series, they're now more than halfway through season 5. Assume there are 2-3 more seasons, I'm curious to see what happens.

• With the walkers, you've basically seen what you're going to see. They are predictable and pretty dumb. Stagger around and either swarm you with numbers...or sneak up and ninja attack you.
• The supplies are near gone. Cars are rendered useless. Apparently there is no more bottled water or canned food available and they're eating humans and dogs.
• They've gone to Atlanta (urban), the CDC, Hershel's ranch, Woodbury, the Prison, Terminus and forest to forest, abandoned homes here or there. They're really exhausting a lot of where they could go in terms of type of location. The Washington DC angle is interesting in that it "could be" something that leads towards some type of series conclusion/ending point.

I didn't think much of this last week's episode other than they're gonna need to figure something out pretty quickly and what they've done to this point ain't working more than very temporary. Or they just wander aimlessly forever.

 

[Rinaldi]

I think the show is at a very interesting crossroad. Most of these large scale series nowadays last 5-7 seasons (The Wire, Sopranos, Breaking Bad, etc.). I've read that execs feel that any more than that, without some sort of conclusion, and viewers start to lose interest and drop off or the story gets diluted and ineffective. With this series, they're now more than halfway through season 5. Assume there are 2-3 more seasons, I'm curious to see what happens.

• With the walkers, you've basically seen what you're going to see. They are predictable and pretty dumb. Stagger around and either swarm you with numbers...or sneak up and ninja attack you.
• The supplies are near gone. Cars are rendered useless. Apparently there is no more bottled water or canned food available and they're eating humans and dogs.
• They've gone to Atlanta (urban), the CDC, Hershel's ranch, Woodbury, the Prison, Terminus and forest to forest, abandoned homes here or there. They're really exhausting a lot of where they could go in terms of type of location. The Washington DC angle is interesting in that it "could be" something that leads towards some type of series conclusion/ending point.

I didn't think much of this last week's episode other than they're gonna need to figure something out pretty quickly and what they've done to this point ain't working more than very temporary. Or they just wander aimlessly forever.

Wandering aimlessly? Seems like...

 

[Deepster]

Wandering aimlessly? Seems like...

Well, that was a conversation this week, wasn't it? Who really is the "walking dead"?

 

[Rinaldi]

Well, that was a conversation this week, wasn't it? Who really is the "walking dead"?

The viewers, perhaps?

 

[meyers7]

I think the show is at a very interesting crossroad.

Actually from what I've read about the comics (not that they follow them faithfully), looks like there is a major change coming. Or they are about at the point in the comics where a major change occurred. But they are only about 1/2 way through the comics now.

With the walkers, you've basically seen what you're going to see. They are predictable and pretty dumb. Stagger around and either swarm you with numbers...or sneak up and ninja attack you.

Agree the walkers are pretty much mostly an annoyance now. The main thing is how people deal with people.

• The supplies are near gone. Cars are rendered useless. Apparently there is no more bottled water or canned food available and they're eating humans and dogs.

Yea they are going to have to move on to a more settled place where they can grow some food. Or possibly get to a lake, ocean where they can get fish, shellfish.

They've gone to Atlanta (urban), the CDC, Hershel's ranch, Woodbury, the Prison, Terminus and forest to forest, abandoned homes here or there. They're really exhausting a lot of where they could go in terms of type of location. The Washington DC angle is interesting in that it "could be" something that leads towards some type of series conclusion/ending point.I didn't think much of this last week's episode other than they're gonna need to figure something out pretty quickly and what they've done to this point ain't working more than very temporary. Or they just wander aimlessly forever.

I think the last two episodes were meant to show they can't wander forever, they are going to have to find or create a more permanent place. Even though Carl has opined that you can't stay in one place too long.

 

[meyers7]

Well, that was a conversation this week, wasn't it? Who really is the "walking dead"?

I've heard "We are the Walking Dead" was an iconic line from the comics. Interesting that he gave the speech while they were in the barn and right before the walkers were outside trying to get in. Kind of the opposite of Hershel's farm where the walkers were in the barn trying to get out. Roles reversed. Kind of like the living with roles reversed, We are the Walking Dead.

The more I think about it the more this looks like the bottom, things will get better for them now.

 

[Dogdeacon]

I can't believe that silently get up and hold walkers out of the barn scene was NOT a dream! I thought for sure it was even after I saw the freakish storm zombie after-effects.

 

[meyers7]

I can't believe that silently get up and hold walkers out of the barn scene was NOT a dream! I thought for sure it was even after I saw the freakish storm zombie after-effects.

Tornadoes do weird things like that in real life. I grew up in IL and you'd read about, see pictures in the papers about, really weird things after a tornado would come through.

 

[tdrink]

I read that Alexandra Breckenridge is going to join the cast. She was contributing to global warming hot as the young maid in the first season of American Horror Story. But she was kind of plain and unimpressive acting-wise in a small part during the third season. If TWD can tap into what she brought as young Moira it might bring me back to the screen.

 

[meyers7]

I read that Alexandra Breckenridge is going to join the cast. She was contributing to global warming hot as the young maid in the first season of American Horror Story. But she was kind of plain and unimpressive acting-wise in a small part during the third season. If TWD can tap into what she brought as young Moira it might bring me back to the screen.

Yea, saw that. Supposed to be "Samantha". Could be just a name holder though as I don't think there is any significant Samantha's in the comics. Or could be a new character (like the Dixons). I just hope she stays a redhead for the series.

 

[meyers7]

Pretty good episode last night. Alexandria Safe Zone at last. Be very interesting to see how they adapt to being "safe".

That overhead view while they were driving through the herd was pretty cool.

 

[Dogdeacon]

Pretty good episode last night. Alexandria Safe Zone at last. Be very interesting to see how they adapt to being "safe".

That overhead view while they were driving through the herd was pretty cool.

Didn't do it for me. Simple theme of Rick being over-cautious beaten like a dead horse. Aaron was wayyy too nice, benign and trusting yet holding secrets only to give Rick's paranoia a morsel of justification. Small example, you don't carry applesauce if you don't like it and you certainly eat it to re-assure the obviously paranoid dude that is threatening to kill you. As viewers we COULD have been equally paranoid about Aaron's intentions and maybe still are, but for this episode they played him so benign & obviously good-at-this-point making only drama when Rick succumbs or if Rick kills someone out of hypervigiliance. Needed some gray area to Aaron's behavior for this episode to be dramatic or tense, instead they beat the 'look how the world has jaded our characters' as if they only had rubber mallets to slay a cement-headed walker.