Monday, January 3, 2011

Series Review - The Walking Dead

So several of my friends told me I had to watch this show.  I love Zombie flicks (well done ones!) and I was pretty interested in the fact that someone would make a series about the apocalypse.

So I watched the entire series from start to finish and I must say, I was very disappointed overall.  Not that it's not worth a watch, but there are just some major holes in the plot that I couldn't let slide.

Spoilers be ahead.  So if you hate spoilers don't read.

Ok so the story is about Sheriff's deputy Rick Grimes, who wakes up in the hospital after being injured in a shoot out with some bad guys.  He has no idea what is going on, leaves the hospital to see the apocalypse outside, dead bodies everywhere, etc.  makes his way back to his house which is now deserted.  However he believes his wife and kid made it out alive because all of the pictures and photo albums are gone.  He gets some help from a guy and his kid, then goes back to the police station to get some guns and a squad car.  The guy tells Rick that there is a stronghold in Atlanta, and that he should go there, that his wife and son could be there.  Rick gives said guy a radio and says he will radio him each morning at dawn to let him know what is going on in Atlanta.  So off Rick goes........

I don't want to write too much about the series, but I am going to touch on some of the bullshit parts of the series........


  • Rick's best friend and partner, Shane, is banging his wife Lori, 17 minutes into the Apocalypse.  
Ok on a timeline scale, we're talking maybe a month has passed since the Apocalypse went down.  Rick and Lori have been married for a long time, have a son they adore, seem to have a great relationship from all accounts.  Well Shane tells Lori that Rick died at the hospital and a few weeks go by before she's letting him go balls deep up in her.  

I tried to somehow figure this out.  My wife finally goes "Dozer died 4 months ago and you still get upset and aren't ready for a new dog.  This chic is banging her husbands best friend less than a month after he tells her he's dead."

Check and mate.  

I mean I could see it if say several years had gone by, but a month at best?  No flippin way.  This isn't some psycho woman.  This is a woman that appears to have, outside of this choice, good character and morals.  Yet she isn't mourning her husbands loss at all.  In fact she's getting nailed face down, grub-worm eating style in the woods by his best friend, and like a kid at MacDonald's, she's lovin it!  

WTF????  Sorry.  This is so stupid I can't even suspend reality enough to buy this in a zombie Apocalypse show.

Second, they missed the real boat on this.  The story line could easily have been Shane constantly struggling with leaving his very best friend behind.  I don't fault him for that one.  There were zombies at one end of the hall way, and military at the other end killing EVERYONE.  There was no way he was going to get Rick out alive.  He barricaded his hospital door to give him protection from being eaten by the zombies, then left.  They could have shown the internal struggle he had with leaving his best friend.  They could have shown him telling Rick's kid how awesome his dad was, and how he would do everything he could to protect him in his absence.  When Rick shows up later, alive, they could have let Rick forgive him and you see an awesome friendship rekindled.  But no, they totally fucked it up with this retarded shit.  

I could never get past this ridiculous plot in the story.  

  • Less character development and more action, or suspenseful moments.
There is a scene where two sisters sit in a boat and talk about fishing with their dad.  This scene goes on forever and really has no bearing on anything.  I am all for character development but this was maddeningly boring, and never endeared me to either of the characters.  You can easily build character development, like they did with the father and son who saved Rick, and it not be boring.  There were parts through some of the episodes that were beyond boring and seemed like filler.  

  • Bullshitty moments
Trying to escape the CDC at the end, the one woman decides, with 3 minutes left before they die, to announce that she has the grenade that Rick had on him from the tank in Atlanta.  Why has she been holding on to it all this time?  Stupid.

Living in the woods?  Really?  No protection in case the zombies run you over, which happens later.  If you are going to live in the woods, how about building some big giant tree houses and some Zombie death traps all around the outskirts?  Even better, how about finding a small town to live in, clear out the small number of zombies then barricade the town up and start stocking up on supplies?

No gasoline?  Really?????  Ok look it's only been a month or so since the Apocalypse happened!  There should still be plenty of vehicles with gas and gas stations with gas.  Why on Earth are these people having such a hard time finding gasoline?  Stupid!

The part where Rick and the Asian kid cover themselves in guts and blood.  I liked this part.  However when the rain comes, it takes all of about 5 seconds of rain for the zombies to smell them and get after them.  Really?  What the zombies have a super heightened sense of smell?  No, I don't think so.  When it rains, you can't smell anything but the rain.  It's overpowering!  Second, even if it did rain it wouldn't wash off all of that blood and guts in seconds.  Just dumb as hell.

Closing.....

This series has potential and I will probably catch the next installment, but they had better stop with the dumb shit or I will be done with it after that.  

10 comments:

  1. Even though I haven't seen the series yet, I have read the graphic novel and from what I can tell from your description, it is a lot more in-depth.

    Though it(like the series, I assume)is not THE BEST thing out there, it is very entertaining and definitely outranks four out of five graphic novels out there. If you are into the genre, I recommend it.

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  2. I need to read it then, because the series had huge plot holes for me. If the same ones are in the graphic novel it'd be the same.

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  3. Check out Dead Set - UK zombie mini series - was very good:

    http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dead-set/4od

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  4. Nice to hear you are a fan of zombies man... The series is not that bad (ok the last episode is), but doest use 10% of the potential of the comics. Check out the comics, its one of the best zombie stories on all medias.
    By the way, the main reason i do hill sprints is to prepare for the zombie apocalypse, the zombies are getting faster these days. lol

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  5. Definitely another vote for the graphic novels - you can pick up the first anthology on Amazon.

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  6. Pretty sure its women instict that speeds up the mourning process when the apocalypse happens and turns them all into earth repopulating nymphos.

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  7. Kind of like female Lions when a new male takes over and kills all of the cubs?

    Still not buying it. LOL

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  8. Kind of like when female lions' husband dies in the apocalypse and the husband's bestfriend lion comforts her with his lion cock.

    Pretty much Lion King.

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  9. I remember that part in the Lion King. Very similar.

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