Looks awesome.

Can't wait.

Agree. The scenes from the FIRST EPISODE look awesome. Just as it did last year. Then it all went to hell. I'm in for the long haul, because I need a good zombie show to watch, but I'm worried this is going to be Heroes 2.0.

I guess it's entirely possible.

I loved last season. Thought it was fantastic from beginning to end. I feel it surpassed the excellent source material in most respects. Never felt like it "went to hell."

I get no sense at all of a Heroes 2.0 situation (none), but, then again, I got no sense at all of a Heroes 2.0 situation after the first season of Heroes. It was only during the second season did it completely fall apart.

I think the odds of that happening to this show are quite remote, but can't say it's impossible.

TWD at least has vetted source material so long as they don't stray from that they can avoid the shit that Heroes turned into. Heroes felt like there were 354 writers writing it.

My biggest compliant with this show was the opposite of my compliant in most movies / tv shows. In most movies, highly trained soldiers miss guys running 20 feet away with no cover. In The Walking Dead, every round fired is a kill shot.

I just finished reading issue 51 of Walking Dead and it's one of my favorite comic books ever. I can't talk about it because it's waaaaay into spoiler territory, but the story is so personal and so powerful, I haven't been moved by a comic book like that in a long time.

Yup, some of the characters totally changed personalities multiple times in a single season. It was insane how badly it was written. Sure people change, but there's usually a journey that gets them to their new place. These guys just changed because they need to get to the next plot point.

Blasted blocked video outside of the U.S. Any YouTube link?

Here you go.

Might need to bust out Left 4 Dead for a zombie fix...

You could be like me and get addicted to Stupid Zombies. :)

Some phone game?

Yup! And it's crazy addicting, lol.

Ugh. This is probably not a good thing:

‘WALKING DEAD’ SHOCKER: Frank Darabont Steps Down As Showrunner – Deadline.com

Kinda surprising. Hopefully someone can step in and do a good job replacing him.

I say they should bring in George.

Romero?

Or for the love god, no. Please no...

It sounds like he just wasn't up for the daily grind of a tv series. It sounds like the work, time and pressures involved are a lot different than what's involved in making a film. Makes sense, I suppose.

I agree. Hopefully whoever replaces him is solid.

It says some guy involved with The Shield could step in... I thought that was a decent show, so maybe this isn't a horrible thing. Seems like there is drama with this show though, wasn't the entire writing staff fired last season?

Downloaded it a couple days ago. Good stuff! Thanks for the tip.

Sure thing. It's a fun one. But I wish I wasn't up playing it late at night when I should be sleeping, lol.

I finished watching season one last night, picked it up from the library last week and watched an episode a night. I loved it, great first season, and I'm really looking forward to the 2nd season.

Bump...

Just a reminder that season 2 begins on Sunday @ 9:00 PM EST on AMC.

Can't wait.

Going to be a hard decision come Sunday night- Which do I watch first Boardwalk empire or Walking Dead...

In preparation of season 2 (tomorrow!) here is a link to a very short little "Walking Dead" web series. There are 6 "webisodes". They tell the back story of that half-zombie from the first episode that Rick saw when he got that bike and that went back and killed at the very end in the park. For short, little web deals they're pretty good.

http://www.amctv.com/the-walking-dead/videos/the-walking-dead-webisodes-1-a-new-day

Thanks for link, nice story to wet the appetite for tomorrow.

I was in Paris several weeks ago and walked by the Walking Dead poster. Nice ... Paris would be a great city for a zombie movie!

Walking Dead recently was added to Netflix as well. Good way to catch up.

Bumpity for a reminder that Season 2 premiere is tonight a 9p (8 central)

Bumpity for those DVR'ing it, the season premiere is 90 minutes

zombies always creep me out and i have a hard time watching zombie movies

That wasn't a great episode for me.

Felt like a lot of running in place and very little action OR plot movement.

Upset by the ending, very contrived IMO. Didn't seem realistic to put the child in that situation.

Not the best episode in the series. Lot of setup.

Loved the opening segment, got us back to the zombie tension, was a great way to get everyone back into the groove for a new season.

The ending, eh, the shock value was enough to override any contrivance for me. I was expecting one of two really big things there, got neither of them, so it actually worked for me (and I see how it works for storyline purposes, both canonical & perhaps non-canon as well). For them to get where I think they're trying to go in the first half of the new season (we get 7 eps, then a break til February 2012 before the other 6 eps), I figure the group dynamic storyline stuff is going to have to move fairly quickly, because I think we'll move on to a new location for those last six,ending with the first half with major drama (and fatalities) in ep 7. Point being, I expect this might be the most action packed episode of the fall segment, I'm okay with the main plot being slowed a bit here since I fear we're going to be caught up in a lot of melodrama for the next several weeks.

I liked it well enough.

The herd scene was well done. Very tense.

Some very good character moments.

Some solid zombie kills.

I was thinking about the idea of "plot movement". The plot is pretty much how these characters react to and survive a zombie apocalypse. It's not like "Lost" or any other episodic show where there is some giant over arching plot that the show is moving towards. The whole concept behind the comic, as stated a few times by Kirkman, is the "zombie movie that never ends." It's the trials and tribulations that this group of people face in a zombie apocalypse. Sometimes that will involve a lot of "running in place", missing children, time spent in traffic jams, etc.

There was a lot of setup, which is fine. They are drawing lines within the group, establishing some dynamics based on recent events and the like.

The ending is pretty much straight from the comic and a pretty big link to sort of the next "phase" in the series.

Question, which I believe I can phrase in a way that there's no spoilering at all.
(I haven't read the comic series, but I've skimmed some summaries enough to know a little about the basics)

Q: I'm expecting the next "phase" to be wrapped up at the end of the first half of this season. Does that seem about right to you? (I'm gathering you know the original source material).

Preview clip for next week's episode, just a conversation between T-Dog & Dale but it's a heck of an interesting conversation. Don't watch if you don't like having even smaller stuff spoiled for you.
http://www.amctv.com/the-walking-dea...2-bloodletting

Thinking things over with the mention of Lost, it will be interesting if they can get things moving along well enough or jump forward somehow, so that they can avoid the Walt/aging factor with the kids in this show.

Yeah, I think that sounds right.

I agree, that seems about where it will be too...

The ending just didn't seem believable to me, allowing the boy to do that. Didn't seem to fit with the characters and risk aversion.

Ignoring that, I agree with the points that the next six episodes look like they are heading in a interesting direction.

Really?

It seemed they spent the whole episode hinting that the kid was 'growing up', challenging authority, wanting to take on more,etc etc.

He was told to stay 'within eyesight' about a half dozen times, which he was clearly still doing. Oh well.

Overall, I liked it. For a show with a six or seven episode season, Id rather not have ANY idea whats about to happen or what direction things are heading in.

If people didn't like last nights ending they should give up on the show now because it only gets crazier (based on the books anyway).

Last night's premiere of The Walking Dead scored around a 3.8 national adults 18-49 rating (up from last year's season/series premiere 2.7 adults 18-49 rating) and 7.3 million viewers for the 9-10:30p telecast.

And set the all-time record for viewing of a drama on basic cable.

said Charlie Collier, AMC’s president. “That ‘The Walking Dead’ is now the most watched drama in the history of basic cable is staggering, just like our zombies.”

Am I the only one who thought that the ending sequence last night was a dream because of the way it was shot? I know from this thread that it wasn't a dream but still, I had that impression when I first saw it.

I never thought "dream" ... I was thinking

Way too boring, way too many hackneyed, contrived "personal drama" scenes. About 8 minutes of "red meat". The acting is terrible. A good example of this is Rick's monologue with bleeding Jesus (and his opening monologue...heck, any of his monologues).

The silver lining is that the zombie herd scene was awesome, so there is a little hope. Hopefully most of these actors get killed off this season (kill Shane...please?) and we get some better replacements.

Not as bad as the Vatos episode, but underwhelming.

It's interesting, because the single worst drawn panel in the entire series is the one where the kid gets shot. I think I could have drawn it. That said, it was much more interesting in the comic because you weren't sure wtf just happened. On the tv show, by the way the scene was set up, you instantly know it was an accident. Not sure why they decided to take out that element of mystery.

I wonder if it was Daryl's brother making the shot?

(I have not read any comics, so I have no clue)