I'm not sure what else they're supposed to do here though. How are they supposed to do is relay his tormentented fears of failure/ inadequacy though, have him cast really pained looks at the screen a lot? I mean, there's a certain risk of having him become too perfect given the way he's written, a classic babyface in a 'tweeners world (to borrow from pro wrestling), and that can be a kiss of death for a character.

Plus, I think we have to remember this is not supposed to be the most articulate, witty, urbane guy in the world. (T-bone or whatever the hell his name is gets off a pretty good line - simple but effective - about Rick & Shane next week & while it's supposed to some character flaw in him, it's pretty on target I think). Sure, Darryl got the best line in the church by far but I thought Rick's speech in the church actually rang pretty true to me for who that character is supposed to be ... err, have been.


On that we can agree. Although I'd take a one hour Shane monologue over dealing with the increasingly shrill blonde or annoying ass Lori. These are not exactly the most likable people in the world

The actor that plays Shane should have had his SAG card revoked after the alcohol/crying/shower scene last season.

I really don't have too much problem with the acting. They aren't great, but they do.

I agree with Jon about the Rick scene in the church.

It's interesting to think of the episode as being "way too boring." You can't have zombies in every scene all the time or eventually that threat becomes dull. You need to pace it out with the zombie interaction, more often than not, being less than the rest. Between the herd scene, the scene with Rick and the two zombies in the forest and the church scene, I think that was about right for zombie threats.

The show will really have to live and die (no pun intended) with the characters. If you don't like the actors, the characters or the dialogue and are just watching for zombie-killing action then I would imagine the show will disappoint more often than not.

Between reading the comic and the show, I feel pretty comfortable and invested in the characters. I am not overly annoyed or disappointed with any of them.

I've never thought the aritst drew kids very well. They always look oddly disproportionate. Their arms and legs always look too short, their hands big but with short little fingers and their head's too big.

The guy draws some mean zombies, though.

Jon - all good points. I think my biggest issue is with the casting, particularly Rick and Shane. I get the sense that the guy who plays Rick is a solid actor but miscast in that role. The actor who plays Shane looks the part, but holy overacting, Batman!

Monologues are a staple of dramatic television, I get that - the ones in this past episode just felt a little forced (hey - we need a dramatic monologue to add gravity to this show!)

And to H_B's point - I also agree that you don't want to overdo the zombies. I just think you need to have a more consistent tension throughout the show. It needs to feel claustrophobic and dangerous and you want to be on edge until the commercial break or the show ends. The highway/herd scene was masterful in that regard.

I agree with the tension point. For whatever reason though, I always feel tense watching that show. I just amped for some reason. It seems to carry over after the show too, since, more often than not, I will have a zombie dream after watching this. I like zombie dreams. I had one on Sunday night. No zombies, but it was in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. I was in a house with my wife and some woman and she told us that she heard on the radio that they power would keep going until January 13, 2012. That's all I really remember.

Also, given how many god damned commercials they seemed to pack into those 90 minutes that'd be a LOT of tension. I guess AMC's gotta do something to afford its Mad Men budget.

I will agree that the tension that I feel during the show is strange for me but also pretty cool. I was watching the new episode last night and it just seemed that my house suddenly got a whole lot colder.

Oh yeah, 90 minutes didn't equal much extra show. But commercials? ton, hence me time-shifting my viewing. :)

I don't mind the monologue ideas or the pacing. I think the idea was sound, execution was off.

I didn't realize notice anything unusual about the placement of commercials, other than the unusually long opening segment (20-25 mins) that didn't have any. If it was indeed odd, that probably had something to do with it, had to make up at least one full break over the next hour.

I thought the extended early sequence without ads was an AMC thing as I feel like I've seen that on Mad Men often.

Does MM do 90 minute episodes?

I seem to vaguely recall at hearing at least some MM eps being referred to as "presented with limited commercial interruptions" or something to that effect.

On the whole though, the number of commercial minutes in an hour of TV remains pretty constant, skip a break & it'll most likely be made up with more/longer breaks later in the show.

Mad Men episodes are always one hour but are frequently "presented with limited commercial interruptions" when they originally air. This may only be something that AMC does for its marquee show, though, as the advertisers tend to make "special" Mad Men themed ads to run during the show.

I enjoyed the first half hour or so; they did a great job building up tension. After the herd left, it kind of devolved back into the same old "let's make them do stupid stuff to further the story" stuff that got tiring last year. oh, you say the suicidal chick now just wants to sneak away with Starsky to get away from the man? well, sure. still good, but you really do need to check your logic at the door sometimes.

One minor complaint I had: I think they did a fairly poor job with the "previously on" segment. I normally skip through these, but it's been so darn long I had forgotten a lot of key details. They didn't do a great job reminding me.

Lori is such a bring down, and she manages to suck the tension out of every scene she's in.

"This is a graveyard, we shouldn't defile this place"
"I don't like the way you're looking at me, just take the gun."
"I don't like the way you look at my husband."
"I don't like how you talk to my son."
"I know you still want me, but I don't want you"

Bitch, it's zombie apocalypse, not high school, get on board! Was she this insufferable in the comic? If she seemed even slightly concerned with the zombies rather than entirely her own personal bullshit, some of that concern might even carry over to the viewer.

The Walking Dead comic isn't really about the zombies. It's about a group of people trying to survive in a world overrun by zombies.

Sure, once in a while you get a full comic filled with brain-mashing mayhem, but it's really about the people.

I have heard this complaint by a number of folks, about how stupid/brain dead these folks are. Thinking back to this last episode, I can't really think of anything that they did that was so insanely stupid or brain dead.

The events, as I recall, where:

1. Car breaks down in the midst of the traffic jam. So, they stop there, start looting the cars for food, clothes, spare parts, weapons, etc. They also stop to fix the RV.

2. Zombie herd comes and they all hide.

3. Little girl gets spooked by two zombies and she takes off in the woods, trying to run away from them. She's a little girl. She's scared. I can't blame her for this.

4. Rick follows after her, finds her and tells her to hide so he can take care of the zombies alone without having to fear for her safety. Sound move.

5. Little scared girl takes off and tries to run back to her mother once the coast is clear and gets lost in the woods.

6. Rick and Daryl try to find the girl. They can't. It gets dark. They wait until day light to go out in a big search party.

7. Search party can't find her, they follow the bells to the church thinking the girl might have gone there. They kill the zombies in the church. It's getting late again, most of the group starts to head back while Rick, Shane and Carl stick around to look around the church to make sure the girl isn't hiding somewhere.

I'm failing to see how any of those actions, outside of those of the terrified little girl who is the daughter of a terribly abusive father and probably quite jumpy, are all that stupid or brain dead. All seem pretty much ok to me. I guess one thing people note is having Carl stay behind with Rick and Shane, but I don't even think that was all that dumb. He's with the second and third most compotent people (Daryl is clearly el numero uno in that regard). He would have probably been safer going back with the big group, but this is sort of their "new normal." He's got to start growing up a bit and the situation seemed pretty decent. It would have been fine save a completely random happenstance that could have easily happened anywhere.


Lori is a downer. Without a doubt. She is written a bit differently in the show than the comic. That said, I don't think it's terribly unrealistic that people continue to care about personal stuff in this situation. Sure, you're not going to be worried about when zombies are around, but during the many many hours of long no-zombie presence, that shit will, sadly, bubble up onto the surface, especially in such a tense situation.

Also, I think a lot of her issues come from the guilt of sleeping with Shane and betraying Rick. It's why she lashed out at Carol for the way she was "looking" at Rick. It's why she lashes out at Shane. I think she lashed out at Andrea, because, well, it would be hard not to after all of Andrea's complaining about the gun situation.

A person can really only be on "high alert I am thinking nothing other than zombies and how to survive" for so long. The adrenaline dissapates and old nonsense boils up, especially in a small, intimate group.

As for her complaining about looting from the dead, I really didn't have a problem with it. I would have had an issue if she complained and they didn't do it, but I have no problem with her voicing the concern and how bad it feels. It's a realisitic reaction to the situation. This isn't The Humungus and his hounds of war who have been living in the wasteland for years, scavanging off the carcas of a dead world. These are just regular people who have only been in this situation for a few months, tops. They aren't that hardened yet.

This. One of the more themes they tried to introduce in the opener was Carl's situational need for maturity, perhaps beyond his years. Contrast that to the problem created by the little girl panicking, leaving her safe spot too soon (a few more minutes & Rick would have picked her up as planned), and then getting lost.




The group reaction to it (basically staring at her like she's nuts for a few seconds & then proceeding to scav the hell out of stuff) really made it work okay for me. It was like a momentary lapse of reality but we clearly saw that it was an isolated reaction, that the group as a whole is in touch with the situation even when a single member isn't. I suspect we'll see that kind of thing happen somewhat frequently this season, where an individual briefly reverts back to old reality but the group carries on to deal with the situation. They also made use of the incident when the formerly abused wife/mother was lookingly longingly at some frilly thing she found in a car, going from a questioning look by Lori to a line meant to show the emotional damage that Carol(?) carries from being married to the abusive asshole.

well, I'd pretty much start here. why are they still driving that rickety POS RV? they haven't passed any new RV dealerships by now? or a broken down fuel truck where they can stock up on some gas? no, they were so tight on gas they couldn't backtrack and instead had to try to plow through (GPS must have told them new route was too long). oh, and even though they are tight on gas, they don't think to stop at the big traffic jam to grab some gas until they get stuck.

the chase in the woods was fairly dumb too. sheriff and kid are being chased in the woods by two zombies. for some reason, these fit individuals can't outrun the zeds. sheriff apparently doesn't want to use the gun to avoid attracting other zombies. eventually, he uses a rock...but since this is a magic rock, he could only use it when no other living humans are around, because before he did it he sent the girl away. or that's what I'm assuming.

I know you have to do this stuff to a point. Lost was pretty big for this as well (hey, we found this shelter with food, running water and beds, but let's just use it as an occasional shower and stay on the beach under the tarps). I just wish they put a little more effort into disguising it.

I don't have a real problem with them hanging onto the RV. People who own RVs often know how to fix them. They know what parts to get and how to put them back together. It seems like Dale is the only guy who has any automotive skills and if he feels like he can fix his RV better than he can fix some random truck that he's never maintained before, it's plausible enough to me. There's a lot to be said for owning a vehicle that isn't controlled by a computer when you're in a zombie apocalypse.

I also see Dale's RV as a manifestation of this: in times of great stress, people cling to the familiar and comforting, much as Sophia clings to her teddy bear. Dale's RV is a sort of portable home, comfortable and familiar.

Gas was a little tight, but they were on a road and passed many cars. It was just a convenient time to do it, with all those cars everywhere and since they had to stop anyway. I didn't see gas as an issue at all.


I didn't see any issue with this. He wanted to take them out. I am not sure if he was confident Sophia could out run them. There were two. The last thing he wanted was to have one get Sophia while he tried to kill the other, so he led them off to a safe distance to make sure of that. I see it as a solid plan. Sophia was the one who fucked up, but again, she's young and terrified. Perhaps Rick should have known better, but it was an extremely stressful situation and a snap judgment was made.

IIRC something was said to that effect, I believe it was referenced as being Glen's GPS.

Great start to ep 2

Love the flashbacks. Good stuff in this episode.

Post-game show Talking Dead ... got Robert Kirkman tonight, being distracted incessantly by the usually-funny-but-tonight-just-annoying Brian Posehn.

Helloooooo, Maggie! :)

I thought that was a great episode and, at first glance, I really like the casting of Hershel's crew. I think in pairing it with the first, it did a nice job of making it clear that Lori has some issues and she is not the typical loving wife and mother that we often see in these types of supporting roles.

I'm not liking that the walkers seem to be able to run, though. I think one of the good parts of the mystique is that, once you get your wits about the situation, one or two at a time are not terribly threatening and it isn't until you get overwhelmed (a la Shane and Otis) that you are in real trouble.

Spoiler for the Comic Book folks:

I agree that the walkers do seem to be able to shuffle quite quickly. They aren't quite running, but are definitely moving at a swifter pace than your typical slow-moving zombie. They are somehwere between Romero's initial slow moving shamblers and the fast zombies of the Dawn of The Dead re-make. Maybe closer to the shamblers than the sprinters, but not too much closer.

It was a fun episode.

Lori definitely has her issues. She's not totally pleasant even under the best of circumstances. But I guess that's something they've been developing over time. There's been that tension between what Lori wants in a husdand and who Rick is. Lori seems to desperately want someone passionate and completely devoted to her in every way. While Rick is devoted to her, he's definitely not a passionate guy and based on conversations in the past and his actions in the show, he's someone who while devoted to Lori in his way, is always trying to do everything for everyone, which makes Lori feel neglected or regulated to a secondary status. So, I can sort of see why she is the way she is, especially when it comes to her family.

I wasn't too sure about Shane and Otis' plan. The flares as a distraction was a good idea, but even as they were heading into the trailer I was questioning their escape plan. Hoping that the flares would keep the zombies distracted long enough was really wishful thinking on their part. They were very desperate, but I think the right idea might have been to distract them the way Glenn did with a car. Ideally it would have been one of the police cars, assuming they had keys in the ignition. If not, maybe Shane could have driven around in the pick-up, honked the horn and drawn the zombies away while Otis snuck in and got the stuff and waited for Shane to hightail it back to pick him up. Ideally big Otis would have been the one driving, but he was the only one of the two who knew what they needed.

That ending scene was awesome and terrifying.

Darryl just keeps getting better with every episode.

I like that they haven't found Sophia yet. It helps build the tension. I, too, thought she'd be at the farm, but now that she's not... I have no idea. Swaggs, your idea is as good as any.

Indeed. ;)

Anybody know when the shows get uploaded? I watched the premiere for season 2, but I don't see the second episode up yet.

I missed the premiere last week, but Comcast On Demand had it available the next evening, so I'm assuming episode 2 will be available tonight.

So far, I am two for two in terms of having zombie dreams on Sunday nights.

Since I love having zombie dreams, even in ones where I don't fare well, this is just an added bonus of watching Walking Dead right before going to bed.

Somehow, I picture your zombie dreams as you sitting on a cooler with a backpack and duffelbag in Detox's empty driveway, waiting for him to come home. :)

FWIW, Kirkman talked about that a little bit on the aftershow last night. Basically they're capable of different speeds, never really running but as fast as a pretty good shamble. He said their mobility is based on how fresh they are, the newer the zombie, the more mobile they are.

I also thought the explanation -- which I'd read elsewhere but it was interesting to hear him talk about a little -- for why the characters on TV (and only rarely in the comic) don't say the word "zombie". In their world, the pop culture phenomenon around zombies never happened, so the things we take for granted (like head shots) aren't common knowledge to them, Romero, et al never happened in their universe.

Very much enjoying the show. I do get annoyed a bit by fast zombies, and zombies who turn doorknobs (rewatched the pilot a couple of weeks ago), but overall, it is great having a zombie series on TV. Does it seem to anyone else like the redneck character has changed too quickly? We was full of a lot of anger last season. This season, he seems to have forgotten the aner.

Wasn't the only zombie we've seen turning a door knob the wife of the black guy who saved Rick? If that's the case, I give that one a bit of a pass, because she's very fresh and her strong, strong desire to return to that house, to her husband and son.

I love Darryl. He may have mellowed out a bit, but from what I recall from the last couple of episodes he was coming around to the group.

I'm inclined to give that one a pass as well, although I'm trying to remember whether the one that went after the blonde in the RV did anything "normal" when trying to get her out of the bathroom. Or did he just tear blindly at the door in search of food?


So far this season, his L&O one-liners have been worth any overly abrupt mood swing they might indicate.

I think he was just so sort of tear blindly at the door. If I recall, it was one of those weird doors that sort of fold up when you push at hinges in the middle, so just blinding clawing at it and pushing on it would eventually start to force it open, which seemed to be what happened.

We have seen evidence of a few zombies operating at a slightly higher level than most. A few examples thus far:

1. The zombie of Morgan's wife trying the door handle
2. After Glenn helps Rick escape from the tank and they start to climb the ladder on the side of the building, one zombie begins to climb after them.
3. One zombie picks up a large rock/chunk of concrete and uses it to bash down the glass in the front of the department store.

I remember the ladder crawling zombie. Wasn't a fan of that. Zombies shouldn't be climbing ladders or anything really.

I also remember the rock-wielding zombie. Not a huge fan of that either, but one of the first ever "traditional" zombies ever on screen, in "Night of The Living Dead", did pick up a rock to try to smash Barbara's car window when she was at the cemetary.

FWIW, Kirkman didn't flinch last night when the host said (during a true/false segment) that zombies could climb trees.

I got the feeling they're going to be allowed (in this universe) to do anything physically reasonable that an animal would do ... and animals would climb trees, a few would also climb a ladder.

She is really annoying in a way.



Anyhow, it was a great episode last night. I'm pulling for Shane more and more now.

re: RA's second spoiler ... I've read what you're talking about, but I honestly wonder whether the TV version is even going to go there. It could, but my guess is that we won't see that for at least another couple of weeks & at most it'll be used as a convenient device to push the group elsewhere & get us to the next likely destination in time for season 1.5 after the mid-season break.

edit to add: I do think there was a line of dialogue last night that foreshadowed what you're talking about, so I'm now leaning toward it being an issue, but I'm still not sure it'll be something they do a ton with either.

And still not up unless I'm missing something.

Yeah, I had this exact thought during that particular conversation between Herschel and Rick on the porch. I felt it set up quite nicely.

For the record, this would be more like my zombie reality. I'd have Lady H_B riding shotgun, my dog in the back and a spot in the back seat for Detox and his guns and ammos and supplies. Sadly, the closest things I have to weapons at my house are some gardening tools. :)

Good news.

'The Walking Dead' gets third season | Inside TV | EW.com

Good news, both from the perspective that we get to enjoy another season, but also because the writers can now plan and map out how much of the graphic novel material they want to use without worrying about rushing it or being cancelled without hitting some of the cool spots.

Good stuff this week. I like their treatment of Hershel and Otis a lot more than I liked them in the comics. Great job building suspense over the bullet wound.

Just wondering (since I didn't watch Deadwood & didn't recognize the actor), did the casting of Otis influence your feeling about him on TV?

I gather that the guy playing him has at least some sort of following, thinking of that made me wonder if your different impression was from a significantly difference in the actual character or if it might be from something along the lines of "the actor delivers the character better than the cartoonist/artist".

Maybe that's an odd question {shrug}, just kind of crossed my mind & figured I'd ask.

Herschel was pretty spot on. Otis was good casting. The comics are a little flat in characterization to me.

Andrea is another one with more character (albeit not very likeable).

Dola, and I never saw Deadwood

I'm generally not all that down on the acting...but that dude playing Dale is awful.

That's interesting since he's usually considered the most accomplished actor of the bunch.

yeah, I see that he has a lot of work to his credit, but he's Sam-Waterston-cringe-worthy to me. I think some of that has to do with some of the awful lines they have him spewing (is Lucas involved in the dialogue writing?). Just not a fan at all.

I've watched every episode and still don't know most of the character names. I think that speaks to the unremarkable writing, or perhaps more to my cognitive shortcomings.

I haven't watched Deadwood, but I do like that character actor. Otis is right in his wheelhouse.

no, it's not you. I had to look up Dale's name (I just know him as the floppy hat dude). whenever someone uses a name other than Rick, Shane or Lori in this thread, I have to look it up

I'll just ditto the name struggle thing, but what's interesting is that other than Rick & Shane, which names have stuck seem to vary. Not sure if that says something about the characters, about us, or both.

FTR, in addition to the those two, Dale's name was probably the first one to stick with me since Merle.

I think Darryl & T-Bone are now immediately identifiable to me by name, but that's something new to Season 2. I've almost got Lori's name down, but Andrea, the other woman, and the kids ... I still steadily whiff on.

I don't have too much trouble with the names, probably because I've read the comics and therefore have a pretty decent foundation from which to work from.

Even with that, I used to get Dale and Glenn confused and sometimes get Dale and Darryl confused, but I think it's all pretty straight right now.

Ouch. Your post made me realize that Glenn never ever crossed my mind when I was putting the characters into their recognition tiers. Probably has something to do with his near invisibility (one real scene maybe?) so far this season.

Glenn hasn't done much so far this season. But, this season has only been two episodes and has only spanned a couple of days. Glenn will get his due. Oh yes... More than his due given some awesome casting. ;)

I don't know the names at all (well, Rick and Shane I guess... and if you say someone else's name, maybe I know who you are talking about... but I can't sit there identifying anyone else).

I find the characters pretty dull, except for the hillbilly guy (is that Merle?), and I like when someone dies in hopes that they are replaced with a more interesting character. I'm still watching the show because I like the idea of it and they have some nice scenes once in awhile.

That's Darryl. Merle is his brother who was left handcuffed on the roof and chopped his own hand off to escape.

I think the last show where I could readily name the characters was Seinfeld. But I have trouble with names in general. Especially if I am put on the spot.

I didn't even know t-bones name till the last episode.. I really started out not liking darryl's character.. but his character has really grown on me in the past few episodes.. Don't like shane's brooding at all however..

I give tubby otis a 0% chance of making it back from the school alive

also, if otis was studying to be a paramedic.. wouldn't he have been a better choice to be doing triage surgery over mr vet?

I am not sure. I don't know how much surgical training a paramedic has. Wasn't he volunteer one anyway? I can't recall the exact bit of dialogue when he described what he did.

I'm pretty sure he was volunteer

I've been DVR'ing & watching these episodes later in the week (usually Friday) so I've been avoiding this thread until after I see the latest episode.

I'll also confirm that the names are not engrained in my memory very much at all. Rick, Shane, and usually Lori now. Everybody else is just the old guy, asian dude, black dude, the deer hunter (which now has a completely different context...so I'll need to change it), blonde woman, woman who isnt blonde woman but also not Lori, and the random kids (one of which is Rick's son...maybe thats it?).

I thought ep2 was ok. Very much a tease/setup episode though. My wife asked me while we were watching it, "Is this show going to become 'Lost'?"...to which I said "Probably".

One thing I have to say that is starting to annoy me. The "Rick & Shane verbal heroism battles" are getting old. I get "what" they are trying to communicate but they just seem too contrived & illogical to me. IDK what they could do better but they are really not sitting well with me.

Rick: I need to leave my dieing son here without access to my blood so I can go get Lori just in case he dies...which will probably happen if I do leave.
Shane: You need to be here with your son...ya know...because he'll die if you dont.
Rick: Gah!!! His mother should be here & I need to go get her!! Its not right!
Shane: You know I'd take a bullet in my pee-pee for ya buddy, right? I mean...no shit...straight up. But I dont think you should go get her.
Rick: I gotta go get her...[collapses]
Shane: Phew...glad I didnt have to prove that one.

Let's boogie :)

Welcome to the deep end, or rather, off the deep end.

Figured that's what was coming but still, damn.

Yeah, Shane's soul is going for a sun tan.

Yeah, I was pretty sure right when Shane got back that Otis was the reason he got away.

But I was hoping it was in a positive, heroic way. And the second Shane seemed to be standing off by himself, I was suspecting it wasn't that way.

Brutal turn this one has taken, and really has me wondering (as someone who has not read the comics) what will happen with Shane as the series goes forward.

Oh yeah, and I'm beginning to get annoyed at Sophie.

That seems to be part of the beauty of it: as I understand it, his storyline is now completely diverged from the comic, so it's all new ground for him.


I was annoyed with her before she finished running up the creek bank.

The television show has already diverged considerably from the comic, so outside of general settings/direction and a few important characters that I presume are coming (that are just too cool to pass up), I don't think anyone knows what is going to happen on the show.

Which is where I suspect we'll also get the return of Merle, likely as a henchman of some sort for the next (human) bad guys.

Poor Otis.

That was pretty brutal. At first I was surprised that they had Shane roll up alone and had their "escape" happen off screen. But then... poor Otis. It's not just that Shane left him for dead to get away, but rather instead of killing the poor guy and leaving his freshly killed body as bait, he wings his leg making him an even bigger distraction and suffer horrificly painful death.

I found Shane's actions in that sense a very nice and sharp contrast to Rick's whole "deer speech" about why it was important for Carl to live. Sure, there is still some beauty left in the world, but it's so fleeting and what happened with Shane and Otis will be much more the reality as people get more and more desperate.

I am still not sure how the farm house has both electricity and running water.

I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one having trouble keeping the character names straight. I was afraid my enormous alcohol intake was finally catching up with me.

Fast forwarded through all the scenes in the room with the injured kid, which improved the pace considerably. Pretty sure I didn't miss any important dialogue between the sheriff and his annoying wife.

'Curly' shaved his head. Now I guess I have to learn his real name.

You actually missed some good stuff.

I was thinking the farmhouse was on a NG generator. I also wonder if Zombie Otis will lead a pack towards the farmhouse, as that place would be a fresh memory.

I'm starting to lose interest anyway, but it is good to hear they actually said something worth listening to.

Lori's acting made Prison Break painful at times. I hope that she meets her doom soon.

Thank you. Was wondering that myself. I get that a generator (which, BTW, would be loud and would draw zombies and you never heard in any outside scenes) can provide the electricity if they have gas (which they must, their truck runs still), but the running hot water at an output similar to full civilization is a tough one to figure for a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere.

Maybe there is a generator or something else. I don't consider myself an expert of such things or really understand how it all works. Maybe there is a good explanation for it.

It wouldn't have hurt for someone new to ask some basic questions about the farm:

"How do you guys still have electricity and water?"

"Why don't you have anyone on look out or anything boarded up?"

Amy did reference the gate and, in the comic, there is a big fence around the property. Perhaps between that fence and their remote location - zombies seem to prefer urban areas - they haven't had much of an issue so far.

A small thing, but something that folks will undoubtedly make a big deal about. It doesn't bother me that much, but a little explanation wouldn't hurt, especially since everyone made such a big deal about having a hot shower and other creature comforts while at the CDC. Granted, they have been dealing with some pretty big issues since getting to the farm.

Hmm, I hadn't recalled the hubbub about the CDC.

Running water and electricity and all there made complete sense to me. Not only is it a facility built by an organization with endless amounts of money (the government), but the specific purpose of the CDC was to fight disease. Since serious widespread disease==plague, it makes sense that the CDC would be designed to withstand a widespread plague and be self-sufficient, at least for a certain length of time, probably stretching months if not years.

Farmhouse, meh, not so much.

I had no issue with the CDC having power and water.

The "hubbub" I was referring to was in-character hubbub. All the characters in the show kept going on and on about how great it was to have hot water and creature comforts. How rare and wonderful it was.

I think they actually explained the CDC power/water deal in some detail with the generator and those big oil drums or whatever were downstairs and all of that.

I found the the character's reaction and the explanation at the CDC to be a sharp contrast to what we've seen at the farm house. Then again, it hasn't been quite as long between events. Most of those people were living at that campsite for weeks before leaving to the CDC.

Remember that they have moved on to rural Georgia. It is not at all unusual for a farmhouse to have well water (I don't know a ton about that particular part of the country, but I'd say it is more the norm for places outside towns around here) and a gasoline or natural gas generator would not be unusual, either. If it is natural gas, it would not be noisy (and, I'd guess it is, as they'd be conserving gasoline by now, I suspect).

As for the density of zombies, they appear where they lived/died, so there wouldn't be very many in the country. And, it appears as if people flocked to the city for protection and services when the outbreak first occurred, so even less than the occuppied homes. If Herschel's farm is several hundred acres and they turned away any roamers during the first few months of the outbreak, I'd say they are pretty safe at present.

I will easily buy this explanation.

Thanks!

My natural gas generator for my server room is very loud. Though I'm sure you can muffle it some if you tried.

I don't think that electric power or natural gas would necessarily be down...it's not like they got nuked or something to that effect. Now certain areas were probably broken. These people also don't have cell phones? Or laptops. Even if this is wonton apocalypse, the Zombies wouldn't care about destroying infrastructure.

And they need to find that girl because fake Jamie Lee Curtis is getting on my last nerve.

Hmm ... I think there might be a question of whether (in this universe) they ever had them.

I mean, we've been told by the creator that zombies - as we know them in our popular culture - were unknown to the residents of the Walking Dead universe. Maybe that's not the only thing that's different.

It's been months since the invasion seemed to overwhelm everything. There's a reason there's a power company and water company. These things break without supervision.

Since I don't know much about this stuff, I can't say how long the infrastructure could maintain itself.

There was no power in Atlanta or the surrounding suburbs for example.

Likewise, would cell phone towers still be able to operate? Cell networks still up?

Man, you guys piss and moan too much. :)

I'm enjoying it more this season than last season so far.

I am also tiring of the exposition between the Rick and Lori. I could give two shits about Lori.

Shane, on the other hand, is one of my favorite characters. At least he's got some depth to him, unlike everyone else, who might as well be red-shirt #2.

One thing that won't compute later if the show is like the comic is when Herschel asks what happens to Otis and then doesn't ask why Shane didn't bring his body back or if he doesn't send out a party to get him.

And yet we've seen a herd of 30 or so Zombies plus 4 or 5 in the forest in 2 days that are within my-son's-been-shot-i'm-going-to-run-him-to-the-nearest-help distance? That seems to be a pretty high zombie density for them not to have some bother with it.

And AMC isn't putting new episodes up online after the season premiere. :rant:

Well, the herds were on the highway and near a school (that could have been used as a temporary shelter, based on the fact that they had medical trailers set up in the parking lot) that required that Shane and Otis drove to it.

The only few that we've seen in/near the woods were the ones that followed Sophie and Rick in, the hanging camper, and the ones that were in the church.

Since they have showed a handful of campsites throughout the woods, I'm not seeing anything too unbelievable from that.

It is $3/episode on iTunes. I wish Dexter had a similar model.

Yeah, it would have to be well water and a gas generator. As someone mentions, you need a power company and a water company... I think laptops and cell phones would be generally useless by now. It's not like this is a CONTAGION (the movie) type outbreak, where just 15-20% of people are infected. This is a full-on, 99.9% of the population has been eradicated event. There are no more cell networks or internet infrastructure. Everything is down.

I was actually wondering how they had white bread to make Rick a sandwich, that was my biggest wtf of the night.

Lol, agreed on the white bread.

Also...these people live in a world where nobody has ever fashioned a spear? Phalanx defense for the win.

Heh... the white bread caught my eye, too. :)