The Walking Dead Violence continued...

I had several people on facebook message me about my post on THE WALKING DEAD earlier this week. Most were in agreement with me that it was a terrific episode, full of tension and drama and heartbreak. A few sided with the show's detractors that it went too far, that there was no reason to show that level of gratuitous violence.


I had time to reflect on it a bit more over the past couple of days, and have come to the conclusion that this is really much ado about nothing, or at least nothing new. You see, the Walking Dead has been doing this for years, the public had just conveniently forgotten it. Remember Noah, the character who had his face literally ripped apart by a hoard of zombies while Glenn watched on a mere inches away behind a pane of glass?




How about in Season 5 when the bad guys had our heroes lined up, once again on their knees, hands bound and mouths gagged, bent over a trough so they could BASH THEIR HEADS WITH A BASEBALL BAT, slit their throat and drain their blood to use their meat for a community of cannibals?






Or the violent deaths of any of a number of characters over the years, not to mention the many, many disgusting things done to walkers over the years. No love for them?


So why not the outcry over any of these things? Why the current batch of complaining like the violence in this year's opener is something new?

If the very same things that Negan did in the most recent episode were done to a walker, or a less prominent character, you wouldn't hear this outcry. It is because it was a main character, a beloved character, and that really is a testament to the writers of the show, that they can make people care that much about the characters.


The premiere drew 17 MILLION viewers, which tells me the WD cast and crew is doing something right, so don't expect it to change anytime soon. And it shouldn't. It's a HORROR show, directed (at least that episode was) by makeup special effects genius Greg Nicotero. Of COURSE it's going to be special effects laden! And dark - I would expect no less. This is a horror program kiddos, not THE VAMPIRE DIARIES. Tune in to the CW if you want lighter fare, but don't be surprised or feign shock at what should be pretty damn apparent. This ain't gonna be pretty. It hasn't been for some time now. So stop with the false outrage already, the complaints and whining. If you don't like it, stop watching. The ratings will just continue right along swimmingly, and your fair sensibilities won't be upset.


But I bet you still tune in, despite your weak protests to the contrary. Because, as I mentioned before, the writers have presented characters you care about, and the majority of you will be tuned right back in Sunday night to see how far it goes this time.

THE WALKING DEAD S7 Premiere - Let the Complaining Start

Last night THE WALKING DEAD season 7 premiered to what will surely be record viewing numbers. Season 6 left us with a cliff-hanger that promised the brutal death of a Walking Dead cast member - an event that was taken straight from the pages of the comic it is based on. This death came at the hands of the show's latest villain, Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan, a character that is once again taken from the comic). Many Walking Dead fans complained about the season 6 finale, and the fact they had to wait the entire summer to find out who gets killed. Many even boasted that they would never watch another episode (although I bet almost every one of them was glued to their sets when it aired at 8pm central last night).

This season's episode picked up right where last year's left off and although the event deviated somewhat from the comic (I won't go into details here because this blog, and my own personal philosophy, is 100% spoiler-free) it still delivered and was a fantastic piece of TV drama. I have to admit I have not read the comic, and actually think that probably works in my favor as I approach each episode fresh, able to enjoy it without comparing and contrasting it to the source material.

Once again, however, the complainers have come out of the woodwork, and I have to say this has gotten completely out of hand. Social media was immediately inundated with people spouting off about how upset they were at the episode, how they would never watch another episode, how the show was ruined, etc., etc. Enough already.

Even my own home town of Nashville's beloved alt-newspaper THE NASHVILLE SCENE joined in, as they unveiled a fluff piece online this afternoon by a writer named Amanda Haggard entitled "Dear THE WALKING DEAD, I'm Over You." In this article she gripes about how much she disliked the premiere and ends with the line: "TWD, I’m over you."

WHO CARES? It's complaining, and nothing more. The opinion of one person who, by her own admission, the show probably isn't for. No kidding! So stop watching already, end of story. I have to ask, why in the hell did The Scene bother to run this piece? Seriously, not a good look, Scene.

The truth of the matter is that last night's episode was full of drama, tension, fantastic special effects and delivered an event that will have repercussions for the characters the remainder of the show's run. But then, that's just my opinion.

Was it for everyone? Of course not. Nothing is. There are plenty of shows that I don't bother to watch because I know they aren't the sort of show I like. But then, I don't waste my time complaining about them, either. Unlike some members of the press, I have better things to write about.

Romero's take on The Walking Dead

Director George Romero sounded off on his opinion of the hit TV show, The Walking Dead, in the interview below. I first saw this posted on Facebook last week, and have seen it again several times since.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-george-romero-walking-dead-soap-opera-20131101,0,1375253.story#axzz2jgfARCAR

 

 In it Romero dismisses The Walking Dead as being merely a soap opera. Well, that makes sense, as he started the whole modern zombie movement, and these are people having huge success based on the work he created. Kind of not fair, in a way, but you know what? The Walking Dead is scarier and has better effects than either of Romero’s last two movies – particularly SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD, which features some embarrassing CGI blood effects and an equally embarrassing storyline. There is NOTHING scary about Romero’s zombies in that film. The humans have learned to cope with the dead, which have become about as threatening to them as mosquitos.

Romero says…

“I always used the zombie as a character for satire or a political criticism, and I find that missing in what's happening now."

… Yeah. And honestly, that’s exactly why I enjoy The Walking Dead. Romero’s heavy-handed commentaries bug me to no end. He is so busy trying to send a message – and believe me, there is no subtlety in those messages, even the most dense viewer would “get” it – that he has worked everything scary out of the movie. His zombies are a joke, an afterthought. The humans don’t fear them any longer, so why should we? In fact his zombies are now learning, regaining consciousness, and becoming more humanistic. One of them even rode a horse, fer cryin out loud - Again, losing everything frightening about them. Man, just tell a monster movie, George!!

 

 

George sounds sour about TWD to me. It is way more successful than his last two film ventures, and with good reason. TWD is fun. It isn’t beating you over the head with a message, and features killer special effects. Look at the bicycle zombie from Season One of TWD – that is probably the single greatest zombie makeup ever created. Great work, KNB!

 

This is the type of show I used to dream about seeing when I was a kid – I am not going to miss this for anything. I love George’s first three zombie movies, they’re fantastic – but his later three are more interested in the message than the story. And that is the problem with them.

My take on The Walking Dead

It was with a bit of trepidation that I finally sat down and watched the first three episodes of THE WALKING DEAD, the new AMC TV series that takes place during a zombie apocalypse. You see, I think I’ve reached zombie overload – the genre has become over-saturated to the point it’s become one big shambling cliché. Zombies are everywhere nowadays - Zombie Walks, Zombie Costumes, Zombie Proms, fer cryin’ out loud – and of course, let’s not forget the ever present low budget straight-to-video zombie movie releases – all of these and more have contributed to my state of over-zombification.

Add to that my newfound disdain for digital blood, thanks largely in part to George Romero and the latest in HIS ongoing zombie series, SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD, and you have a clear recipe for disaster.

You see, I knew going in that this was a zombie television series. I’m somewhat familiar with the comics that THE WALKING DEAD are based on, although I haven’t read them personally, so I sort of knew what to expect, story-wise. And I had heard that the series was ripe with digital blood effects, so I was dreading the plastic looking digital spray used so often in SURVIVAL.

But I decided there was no way I was going to miss out on a new horror TV series, so I got a copy of the first few episodes and settled in for a night of flesh eating fiends.

**SPOILER ALERT**

THE WALKING DEAD managed to make this feel fresh. I can’t exactly put my finger on just WHY this is the case, though. It certainly wasn’t the storyline. Nothing new there. The lead character, Sherriff’s Deputy Rick Grimes, is injured in a shoot-out and awakens in a hospital to find himself in a world turned upside down. A zombie plague has ravaged the country, and the hospital is abandoned and filled with both half-eaten corpses and some hungry undead as well.

This immediately brings to mind the 2002 film 28 DAYS LATER, in which a character awakens in a hospital to find himself in a world ravaged by a viral plague. The people who contract this virus, although not zombies by the Romero definition, are still, for all intents and purposes - zombies.

Actually, 28 DAYS LATER isn’t the first film to utilize that plot line. In 1951 John Wyndham wrote the novel THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS… in that book, (as well as the 1962 film version and the 1981 UK TV series and the 2009 UK TV series based on that book), the lead character awakens in a hospital with his eyes bandaged. He removes his bandages to find the world in a state of chaos, and he is one of the few humans who have eyesight. Everyone else is blind - and there are huge, walking, flesh eating plants roaming the countryside, to boot.

Come to think of it, THE WALKING DEAD reminds me more of the British made for TV version of THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS than 28 DAYS LATER. It is closer in tone to that production, and shares some other similarities story-wise as well.

The Walking Dead Hospital Scene

28 Days Later Hospital Scene

The Day of the Triffids Hospital Scene

THE WALKING DEAD actually didn’t add anything new to the zombie genre, either. They are, basically, Romero version zombies. They shamble slowly, seek living flesh for sustenance, and are destroyed by destroying the brain. Kill the brain, and you kill the ghoul – lesson one from NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. Also, much like Romero, no reason is given for the zombie apocalypse. The audience is all too familiar with the rules of zombiedom nowadays, so no such explanation is needed. There are zombies roaming the earth. Now deal with it.

No, nothing new story wise, so how is it that it still seems fresh, not stale and boring like so many recent zombie productions?

I think several factors play into this. Number one – it’s a TV series, thus it’s paced differently than a movie. This is probably the biggest reason it works. There is more time for character development and mood building than if this were a movie. There are 6 one-hour episodes to this series – that is 6 hours to tell a story that would have to be rushed into 90 minutes if this were in the theaters. The pacing is slower, the mood more intense, and there aren’t explosions and giant special effects happening every few minutes. No, this is a much slower, quieter story, and it benefits from it.

Not that there aren’t action packed sequences. There are, and they’re done very well. The zombies all seem to move and act consistently. The makeup is fantastic, especially on the zombies we see close-up. The first zombie we get to see in detail, the crawling, rotting, half-corpse woman, is stunning. Simply one of the best looking zombies ever filmed in any zombie production.

The digital blood is an unfortunate choice, as I always prefer squib and traditional blood effects over computer generated effects. They always look better. But I have to give the devil his due here – they are handled way better than in SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD, and are far less distracting.

I think the number one thing about the series that makes it work is the characters. This is a character based series. You care about Rick Grimes and what happens to him. You watch with nervous apprehension as he makes his way through zombie filled terrain. It isn’t the zombies that make this good – the threat could just as easily be Triffids, or rabid dogs, or any other monster you care to name – it just so happens to be zombies here. No, the thing that makes this work is that the characters work. The acting is good, the effects are good, the pacing is good.

The zombies in THE WALKING DEAD are not a mere afterthought, though. They are approached thoughtfully - they're more than mere special effects. When they work best, they are pitiful creatures. Shrunken, shriveled, emaciated versions of themselves – cursed creatures with just a touch of humanity about them. My favorite scene from episode one is when Rick returns to find the half-corpse woman I mentioned before, kneels beside her, and tells her, “I’m sorry this happened to you,” before putting her out of her misery. It’s a neat moment, and one that sets it aside from its undead brethren. The focus on so many recent movies is the zombies and their ghoulish nature, and you don’t care who these creatures were before they turned into ghouls. Sure, there are plenty of moments of mindless zombie mayhem here – but like I said, the times THE WALKING DEAD works best is when there is a touch of humanity injected into the ghouls. They are us, after all, only different.

So I’m looking forward to seeing the second half of this TV series. I understand it’s already been picked up for a second season. If as much care is put into season two as was put into the first one, AMC will have a sure-fire hit on their hands.