DVR Break-Up: The Walking Dead
"Think it's getting any better?" "Nope."
From listening to Sepinwall and Fienberg’s excellent podcast, I’d anticipated a letdown after The Walking Dead‘s premiere episode. I hadn’t anticipated one during it, or that I’d bail on it after three episodes, but it’s just not good enough. It’s okay, it’s not terrible…it’s not good enough.
Except when it’s outright poor. The accent work is atrocious. Yes, it’s set in the South, but not everyone in the South is from the South, so if the actor can’t do a credible and consistent accent, you can scotch the accent and let the viewer fan-wank its absence herself; you can scotch it, and write a throwaway line explaining how an unaccented individual might have, say, found himself working law enforcement just outside a major metropolitan center in Georgia; or you can recast the part. What you shouldn’t do is let your entire cast careen back and forth between Cheyenne and Chattanooga until their characters get upset and start yelling, at which time it’s right back to Sarah Lawrence sophomore workshop. Nailing an accent is hard. If it’s too hard, admit defeat.
The acting is occasionally amateurish as well, although the writing is partly to blame there. I spent much of the pilot grumbling at the television for Rick to ask a goddamn question already; it drives me nuts in supernatural stories when characters don’t notice shit they should, don’t ask questions they should, don’t ask questions the audience obviously will, don’t even talk to themselves at all. When I boil it down, that’s probably the biggest problem I have with The Walking Dead: I can buy the existence of zombies, but what I can’t buy is people not talking to themselves when confronted by zombies, not joking around about zombies at all, not acting like real people. This is a danger of a plot-driven story, but it seems to me as though the show wants to distinguish itself with its character beats, but the characters function as mere sketches. You have to give it to Uncle Stevie — this is something he knows how to do. Stephen King understands that characters do not stop being themselves, do not stop being human or having dimensions, when confronted by a supernatural holocaust or a weirdocalypse or whatever. They become more themselves, more human, more complex, not less.
Here, the lawman is doddering through the landscape, waiting to stumble upon Morgan and Li’l Morgan so that they can explain to him a few things. Sure, sure, he just woke up from a coma. If he’s with-it enough to get out of bed, to read the sign on the caf doors, and to head into town on foot even though he’s probably had no fluids for like two weeks? He’s with-it enough to ask, in so many words, “What in the fuckety Christ is going on out here? Also, I am Rick. What is your name?” If you could find pants, you can remember to introduce yourself.
Things picked up enough that I decided to stick with it, but the Lori/Shane relationship as written is sufficiently estranged from my understanding of human behavior that, even though it’s by necessity over now, I realized I couldn’t continue. It does not track for me at all that Lori would take up with the guy. Would she have sex with him a few times, try to annihilate herself with some good old-fashioned grief boning? I can accept that. But that nonsense we saw in the woods last week, where she’s all noodly at how good Shane is with the kid (who: see numerous previous comments regarding Hollywood’s chronic inability to write for children between the ages of 4 and 13) and then, after a quick staring contest with Rick’s Giant Wedding Band Of Significance, it’s Cinemax fun times in the grass? Not to blame it all on the show — I haven’t read the comic, but either way, find a widow and ask her if she’s going to get all moonballs over her just-deceased husband’s best friend and co-worker, during an ongoing disaster, when she has no privacy, no running water, and a grieving child to comfort. Because no.
Ask her also if she’d want someone with more range than a broken sitar to play her in the TV version, or if she’d settle for Sarah Wayne “Stricken’s The Face, You Can Look Up The Number” Callies. All the actresses in the world, TWD casts the one who got upstaged by a model of her own chopped-off head. Zombie, please.
Could it turn out that Lori and Shane got together before Rick got shot? Sure. That would make way more sense, although the most recent episode seemed to want us to infer that she only got with Shane at all because he had told her Rick had already died (or…whatever he told her). But however it plays out, it’ll take way too long, and Callies will make bug-swallowy faces forever, and I don’t care! I don’t care. Now that the novelty of the zombies themselves has worn off, I can’t relate to the characters — everyone is either a battle-scarred saint, a noxious emotional cockroach who’s only survived out of sheer meanness, or a boring cipher in dirty jeans. Michael Rooker acting the hell out of a cardboard cutout is impressive, but I already knew he had those chops, and I’d rather read a book.
Also, Andrew Lincoln looks like Sam Robards, Jon Bernthal looks like Fred Ward, and I’d rather watch those dudes in this material, but I can’t, so: next!
Tags: Alan Sepinwall bad accents Dan Fienberg DVR Break-Up Fred Ward ghost stories Jon Bernthal Michael Rooker Sam Robards Sarah Wayne Calliezzzzz Stephen King TV
I watched the first episode, in the day time and fast-forwarding through all the tension because I already know I’m a chicken, because I heard it was SUCH a good show.
I didn’t like the characters either, even though I love Andrew Lincoln in Love Actually, and since watching I’ve had plenty of paranoid extra-panicky night- (and DAY-)mares about OMG WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WHEN THE ZOMBIES COME so clearly this show is not for me.
The affair seemed to make more sense in the comic. Although, it’s hard to point to exactly why. Some combo of grief and aligning oneself with someone who could protect you and your kid and previous attraction or something. The comic may have been a better actress. Also, Rick is more talky in the comic, at least so far. It amounts to the same, but he does ask more questions. In the TV show, it seems some of that is sacrificed for mood. I’ve enjoyed the TV series so far, but I’d say if you aren’t enjoying it because of the issues you’ve outlined above, you might still get some mileage out of the comics. The TV show is generally following it, but there have been numerous additional characters and some plot changes.
– – Rob
Oh thank GAWD someone else feels the same way I do. I realized that it had taken me five separate attempts of two minutes each to watch the first ten minutes of the second episode, and I finally decided to delete it from my DVR so it wouldn’t be there staring at me anymore.
I have not yet seen this show, but despite how many friends have been telling me I should watch this, I have no interest in it.
You see, the same problems that you’ve outlined here about the TV series (or mini-series, I don’t know), I had with the books/graphic novels. The first one or two were interesting enough, though I kept asking questions of the characters. After two of them, it was more talking in my head than reading of the page.
It could have been done SO much better! And I *love* zombie books. For those of you looking for something better, try World War Z by Max Brooks.
Rick not asking any of the 5 million questions he should have asked just about drove me insane! How do you not ask when the zombie invasion first happened, or even what the date is? I watched the second episode, but completely forgot about the third last night. Maybe I will watch it later, but I am guessing I won’t.
I had no plans to watch this because I can’t deal with visuals of blood and gore (can’t watch True Blood for the same reason), but my boyfriend *loves* it, along with most of the other pop culture bloggers I read. So I’m glad you don’t like it, Sars, because I hate feeling like I’m missing out on some really awesome television just because fake guts give me nightmares.
I’m not really watching it so much for the characters (even though it’s AMC and I know that’s where they’re trying to place the focus) but because it’s a rarity for TV: a serialized horror show that’s actually going somewhere plot-wise (I hope).
Can’t argue with any of Sarah’s points; they’re all valid and true. But I’m watching it more for the really tense moments like toward the end of the first episode or the “Guts” walkabout in Episode 2. More of the “how the Hell are they gonna get out of THAT?” than the “why is that lady sleeping with that one guy” stuff.
Seconding the recommendation of “World War Z” which is just fantastic. I’m also in the middle of reading “Y: The Last Man” which also has some parallels, but is handled with a lot more humor and lightness despite being just as grim, plot-wise.
I think the problem is that the plot fails specifically WHEN it strays from the actual book. I think the reason that Walking Dead works in print is that it’s essentially (and I’m going to piss off some film nerds here, sorry) what Romero started with the Night/Day/Dawn of the Dead, etc. etc.- use them as a lens to examine how humans behave when society breaks- and then does it MORE realistically and quite a bit better. I think it’s maybe because it’s such a long series? I mean, the books’ story lines are well past survival mode and into This Is the New Normal mode, something hard to do in a 2 hour film…
The poster above is right: the relationship between Shane and Lori works way better on the page. He’s a close friend of the family, there’s some hinting that there’s been mooney-eyes, Lori and Rick have Had Issues ™, blah blah unhappy marriage/convenient support relationship-cakes. That Redneck Writ Large character? VERY much absent from the book.
I’m not giving up yet, just because I’ve really enjoyed the book and there have been some brilliant scenes. Rick’s awakening in the hospital and his lost time were especially well done, And realistic- it’s a TERRIFYING feeling to be in hospital and drugged up and realize you’ve been having a conversation for the last five minutes with somebody who left two days ago.
More of the “how the Hell are they gonna get out of THAT?” than the “why is that lady sleeping with that one guy” stuff.
I would be happy to watch it for the former, and the first episode did those well, but it seems like they’re moving towards an emphasis on the latter, and that isn’t done well enough for me to stick around.
I just couldn’t make myself watch it, no matter how much AMC begged and pleaded and kept showing that one half rotted half a zombie that they must’ve blown a wad on because–to me, this version of a zombie(infected/undead fast moving rage/chomp machine)only works as a symbol.
George Romero, despite losing it a la George Lucas in his later “Do it over and over and OVER AGAIN, DAMNIT” remakes of what was a perfectly good story, understood that the zombies were horrible because they were ravenous mirrors of the society that had somehow spawned them. They could reflect racism, or consumerism, or what have you, but ironically, the less they were like something that had ever been human, the more fascinating they became story-wise.
The whole idea of having to see your loved one as a gruesome death monster is horrible, but–after a while, horrible can’t lap itself. The zombies aren’t going to get any more zombie-riffic or whatever. They’re just going to roam around, rotting, until the last one finally shrivels up and collapses, and then you’ve just got a soap opera of “Who slept with who and who’s upset about it; time for an Actor’s Workshop Scene where we natter endlessly as single tears run down respective cheeks” thing going on, and, well, worldwide zombie apocalypse is a long way for that little bit.
A million endorsements of the plug for “Y: The Last Man” instead. The way Yorick completely falls apart, and puts himself back together, and goes right on carrying scars that you gradually see go so freaking deep they’re within inches of destroying him, and all without ever stopping making pop culture cracks, is one of the most spot-on “after the disaster” stories I’ve ever read.
…not everyone in the South is from the South
Also, not everyone from the South even has an accent, Hollywood. Case in point: not just myself, but almost every single person I went to elementary/high school with in that major metropolitan center in Georgia. (When I went north for college, I heard “But you don’t sound Southern!” constantly.)
@Louisa: I am so glad to see your post, because I thought I was the only one who had started not being able to handle too-real zombies or too-real apocalypses because they give me waking nightmares about “what if it happened”. And I felt like a wimp.
For that reason, I said a big NO to even starting to watch this series, but I’ve been happy to listen to friends talk about it and read commentary like this. (To sort of try to keep up with what everyone’s talking about.)
I think you all kind of touch on this with the “asking questions” point, but I’d love to hear some folks’ thoughts on how you feel about the show’s (and the books’? this is what I’m wondering) seeming decision to make this a world in which zombie fiction doesn’t exist? What I mean is, a friend who’s been watching it commented that this struck him as the case, and we had a good mutual rant about that, because we both hate it when the characters in a show/movie don’t ask or say the things real people would say in that situation (which Sars nailed, above). But it sounds like an additional choice was made to suggest that nobody in this world has ever seen a zombie movie, or heard of the concept of zombie movies even if they haven’t watched them? Or have they been rectifying that in later episodes?
I realize that this is a decision that a lot of (essentially) fantastic literature makes, and some go one way, and so go in another. If you go in the “I’ve seen this movie” direction, that can sometimes too-easily lead to camp, but I don’t think it has to.
Just from what my friend was saying, it sounded like, even if I could handle this show, that alone would drive me nuts enough that I couldn’t watch. It would be so hard for me to accept that nobody in the world had ever even heard of the concept of the zombie apocalypse, or even monster movies in general, that — like their inability to react and talk like real human beings — I’d be unable to accept them. I’m just curious as to whether that’s the case, and whether it’s been bugging anyone else, or whether you can accept that more readily as a decision the show’s made for that world.
@Holly: That struck me also, although I forgot to mention it above. I wouldn’t mind if, in the TWD-verse, the characters either 1) had no body of zombie-iana, or 2) had concluded that it was wiser not to rely on fictional zombie-adjacent works to provide a rules framework for dealing with actual zombies. One line, or exchange, along the lines of “But in that movie in the mall, they killed them by –” “Yeah, turns out that doesn’t work on these walkers” would do it.
This isn’t an element of supernatural narrative that’s obscure. A large body of pertinent work, much of it quite recent, exists. One of BTVS’s smartest decisions (the self-regarding Dracula episode excepted) was to take the pre-existing vampire “rules” it wanted, make up other rules it wanted, leave the rest, and make all of that perfectly clear to the viewer while remaining — at least for several years — internally consistent. You want to do a series about, say, La Llorona, which in this medium is not explored much, you don’t have to double-bag your internal logic, but for something like zombies or vampires, you really do.
Another series that did this quite well, although it had some problems: Miracles. It forced Skeet to do a lot of expositionary “but SOME sources say that this OTHER thing,” but this ghost-story dweeb was thankful that they’d bothered.
@Laura OMGOMGOMG YES. I love Y. Just… not so much the direction they went with the ending. It’s supposedly optioned to be a movie, but I think that’s going to expire soon.
Also, I meant to also say in my tome above: Tremors. HEE. I love that movie. It is genius.
I don’t have an accent y’all! But I’m not from these parts. Most of the Texans I run into in the northern part of the state don’t seem to have much of one, actually, but when they do – boy howdy does it stick out.
Haven’t watched the show, sounds like I haven’t missed much (I lurvve zombie stories). Have to triple recommend World War Z, it’s one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. Off to Amazon to find Y: The Last Man – thanks!
I was on the verge of digging in to watch this, mostly because of blog recommendations (Salon and also Tom & Lorenzo.) Honestly, I don’t really enjoy post-apocalypse pieces (which zombie movies generally are) so it was going to have to be worth watching because of the characters/character development. The fact that it was based on a graphic novel series that was pretty extensive made me hopeful — at least they wouldn’t run out of story (because a zombie story seems, to me at least, to be more conducive to a two-hour beginning-middle-end rather than a long-running gradually-unfolding plot.)
Jen S 1.0 — loved your comment that “the zombies won’t get more zombie-rriffic.” Back to Stephen King’s comments in “Danse Macabre” about showing the horror vs. not showing — something like, if you whip open a door and there’s a six-foot bug there, at first it’s terrifying, but then you adjust and think, “Well, at least it wasn’t a TEN foot bug” and the arms-race-of-horror begins. Which is why the Jaws sequels and all subsequent shark movies begin to degenerate under the need to endlessly top the one source of horror. Also, I love “Zombie-rriffic”, having written a song with that title (long story.)
I haven’t seen more than a few minutes of the pilot yet (there it sits in my iTunes) but one can guess at the types of moments that will be in there (having to shoot former family member who is now a zombie, killing a zombie who was a child, etc.) And once you run out of all the permutations of how the zombies can attack and what makes them horrible … what do you do? (Whew, at least it wasn’t a TEN foot zombie.)
Also: as a nerd about accent/dialects, THANK YOU all for pointing out the dialect issues that so many shows stumble on. Dialects are not uniform in any one place; some people in a location have them and some don’t; and if you can’t DO one, DON’T. True Blood was terrible with this at the beginning — they seem to have gotten better, or perhaps my ears just shrugged and gave up. It’s true some actors have a better sense of the musicality of accents than others (I read somewhere that Brits tend to be better, or at least to receive better training, because of that culture’s stronger focus on accent and where it places you in the culture structure — I don’t know if I believe that, but it’s interesting.) But a bad dialect is much much worse (for me) than to have to do a little fanwanking about the lack of one. (I’m about two years behind the curve, but I JUST saw the Amy Walker “21 accents” YouTube video — she really understands the placement and melody of so many accents [Brooklyn, not so much, but nobody’s perfect])
Anyway … I will probably watch the pilot, but it’s a relief to know that all of my misgivings about the series overall are pretty much confirmed. I didn’t realize I was bursting with so many things to say about it, either.
Valid points about Rick’s lack of curiosity and the Widow Grimes… but I’m still going to give it a few more episodes. I also think Glenn is possibly the funniest ‘comic relief’ I’ve ever seen in this genre. (They had me at “Also, he’s an organ donor.”)
If I remember right, “zombies” didn’t start showing up in pop culture until right around the late Fifties/early-to-mid-Sixties. So, anything set in an era prior to that (or set in an era that, for some reason, never went past the late Fifties – hi, Fido!) gets what amounts to an automatic bye, as far as explaining why the zombies do/do not act like we’d expect and “why haven’t you just tried shooting them in the head already darnit” and all that.
But if you’re saying that your series is set in modern day? And it’s not an alternate universe, where somehow the idea of zombies never entered pop culture? Yeah. (I’d try for more detail, but I need to run to class now.)
I’m teetering on the edge, though I’ll probably stick the season out.
One thing among the many others you’ve already competently gone over here is this: Let’s have a little zombie consistency. Zombies, traditionally, don’t use tools. So why would ONE pick up a rock to break through glass? Either they’re all gonna become tool-lovin’ fools (in which case the humans really are screwed) or none of them will. Second, what zombie climbs OVER a fence? The comic has neither of these issues in there.
That’s my little bit of bile. And yeah, the Cinesex amidst the disaster had be going, “Wha?”
Wikipedia has literary sightings from the 1920’s (Lovecraft no less). I’m pretty sure the restless dead hunting the living is a pretty darn old cultural concept.
I tried the series premiere, even though zombies are about the only supernatural baddie that I find completely uninteresting. It didn’t work for me. I am delighted that the series is doing well though, because I would love to see other genre efforts.
@Holly: yeah, it drives me nuts when you see a movie with zombies or vampires, and people act as if this is something of which they’ve never heard — even in fiction and also don’t ask relevant questions about what’s going on. I’m going to out myself as a fan of From Dusk to Dawn (yeah, yeah, I know I’m the only one — but Clooney is hot and the movie entertains me), but one of the things that movie did really well was have the characters actually discuss what they thought they knew about vampires and how to kill them.
SPOILERS:
Once they survive the initial attack, Clooney immediately says that he doesn’t believe in supernatural stuff, but says that there’s no doubt in his mind that they just got attacked by vampires and asks if anyone disagrees. They then start discussing what they know about vampires, realizing it’s all from fiction with the exception of what they learned during fighting off the initial attack, but that the fiction knowledge is all they have. It seems like a conversation that real people would have to me.
Regarding awareness of zombies inside fictional stories about zombies, there’s a great comic called “Zombies Calling” by Faith Erin Hicks that deals with just that. The main character is a zombie fanatic who knows all of The Rules…and then actual zombies show up. Also, it’s funny and not too gruesome, mostly because the art style is more influenced by cartoons than anatomical naturalism.
(Full disclosure, I’ve known the author for years, and I helped design the cover, so…biased. But that doesn’t mean it’s not good! Plus it’s a one-shot, so you won’t have to keep buying umpteen trades to get the whole story.)
As for TWD, the trailer looked like a cross between The Stand and 28 Days Later, and I’ve seen both of those already, so…meh. Would rather re-read the comic.
Andrea: You are not alone. I have the two-disc Collector’s edition and still laugh at Sex Machine.
I’m just a bit over the zombie-mania. There were some great zombie movies that resurrected the idea, but it’s been so overdone lately that I have little interest. World War Z was a rare exception in that it was a reminiscing/examining of the geopolitical consequences version, but I’m really just over zombies for a couple of years, I think.
Once you all finish World War Z, get Mira Grant’s Feed too. It’s a really excellent zombie story that takes place about 20 years after the outbreak, so it’s very much the about the new normal, and did really great world building, including of people’s reactions to zombies using Romero zombie lore.
Hard to not be spoiler-iffic re: the comic and how it possibly defines the future of the show.
The comic has always pretty much been about what humans do to themselves. I think the zombies exist as a sort of ever-present threat that prevents them from getting back to “the way things were”. So, the comic really is about what the humans do when faced with such a threat to their bodies their culture and everything. The TV show hasn’t shown us all the rules yet, either.
I forgot to mention what you guys said about zombie stories: they tend to happen in a world where no one has ever heard of zombies. Since zombies freak me out, I’m not using a real sample size of entertainment here, but still.
Because they represent the fear of death and the unknowable, maybe? If you already have some clues on how to handle the situation, it’s not so horrifying?
Vampire and werewolf stories tend to get right into the mythology and what the rules are, so you can start killing them. Or making sweet, sweet love to them (thank you, True Blood).
All I know is, zombies are so goddamn scary that unlike other movie monsters, they can just go ahead and walk around in the daytime, AND THEY ARE NO LESS SCARY. Agh!
Interesting article today on the history of zombies in pop culture:
http://io9.com/5692719/a-history-of-zombies-in-america
There was a 1930s zombie movie with Lugosi that I’m now dying to hunt down.
@c8, that’s the movie White Zombie, and it was recently on On Demand’s free movies. It’s very, very atmospheric and is from the “drugged by a witch doctor so you become a souless servant” realm of zombie lore.
I must warn people, though:
a)The print I saw on OD was restored as well as could be, but–this was a 1930s cheapie, and no care was lavished on storage. Be prepared for lots of pops, crackles, and sudden frame loss.
b)Most of the actors, with the exception of Lugosi, came from the silent film era, so thier acting is,err…different. Lots of rather exaggerated movements to convey emotions, and their voices are kinda honky. But again, the age of the print can be factored in here.
c)Racism. Seriously, there’s some pretty unforget and unforgiv-able lines in here, time and place nonwithstanding, so, just don’t go in with your eyes closed or you will be badly startled and offended.
I sort of watched a few episodes, flipping back and forth between this and some other shows.
I just don’t get the zombie cultural phenomenon going on right now. (I buy fiction for a library, and there are a ton of zombie books, including this Christmas gem: It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Zombies. I find zombies boring. Sure, they are gross. But they aren’t complex enough to interest me. I mean, they eat people. That’s it. Give me vampire or werewolves or any other paranormal ghoulie any day of the week.
I have to admit that the British zombie show, Dead Set, gave me nightmares after about 15 minutes of viewing. Much more disturbing to watch than this one.
Just read the comics. They are fantastic.
@Louisa: Precisely. That’s one of the scariest things about zombies–that they have no problem shambling about in daylight. I have a really hard time watching TWD, not b/c I don’t think it’s so good, but b/c zombies are just so horrifyingly single-minded. Even the slow ones, although the “Dod Sno” turbo variety freak me out twice as badly.
As for southern accents: I agree with the assessment that Brits tend to do them better. Andrew Lincoln’s works fine for me, perhaps b/c I’m a southerner of the hillbilly/peckerwood/Rick Bragg variety. I used to think the typical treacly Foghorn Leghorn dialect you encounter in most entertainment product was entirely, absurdly imaginary, but then we moved to southern Georgia, actual plantation country, and I found out that it does exist. And it BUGS, rather more than an actual zombie apocalypse would.
it’s obvious that none of characters has ever read “The Zombie Survival Guide”, or they would not have been caught with their pants down when the walkers bum rushed their camp. especially after finding one feasting on a deer near the camp earlier. durrrr.
not one person has a dog? seems to me anyone with a dog would have surely survived considering dogs are acutely aware. anyone with a dog would have had far better chance of surviving yet, no dogs.
i’m hoping the writers explore the possible causes of the outbreak, they have a lot of opportunity there. another realm to explore is, how long does it take for the zombies to decompose to a state where they can no longer move?
what about winter in the north, do the zombies freeze? would it give those living up there a chance to strike back by being able to destroy large numbers of them?
would they reanimate if the brain tissue was frozen solid and therefor damaged?
these are just some of the many unanswered and unexplored areas they could go, the vatos thing, kinda corny, definitely a “rolls eyes” moment. i hope the show doesn’t turn into jericho with zombies. otherwise it’s off too a good start.
I’m not removing it yet, but the second season will be on the bubble for me. The horror/action/suspense scenes are indeed well done, the intimate character work less so, and when you hit a 25-minute stretch of meaningful conversations and ethical dilemmas, the show just goes limp. The cast is competent, but you’d need at least three members to be charisma supernovas (of which “Lost” had an abundance) to take up the slack the writing is leaving, and that isn’t happening here.
Sars: Not Fred Ward per se; more like “portrait of Fred Ward that someone tried to disguise by hastily painting ‘Days of Heaven’-era Richard Gere over top.”