The Walking Dead -- TV Series Thread
 

Just a reminder that the zombie show, that we have all been waiting for, begins this Sunday on AMC. Set your DVRs accordingly. :)

can't find a frigging place where I'll be able to see this on Sunday... :(

Looks like it'll be torrent time for me...

FM

Also if you're into zombies I'd recommend watching the British miniseries "Dead Set" which is showing on IFC - it has been showing at midnight this week but they are doing a marathon on 10/31 so a good time to record it. Very nice zombie stuff.

For those that can't watch on AMC on Sunday night, the pilot episode will probably be a free download on iTunes next week. AMC usually puts pilot episodes and first episodes of seasons up for free on iTunes.

woo, awesome tip, will keep that in mind...

FM

I am super pumped for this. I set my DVR to record the series a few weeks ago.

Justb checked that one out, looks pretty intersting, and sort of contemporary to our time too. :)

It's showing on Space Channel in my area (maybe elsewhere in Canada too) and they start the night by showing the final of five episodes at 9, then start a marathon of all fives episodes from 9:30 to 12:30, ending by a reshowing of that final episode. I'll set my DVR to record starting with the first one...

FM

Here is a very positive review of the show from the New York Times:

http://tv.nytimes.com/2010/10/29/arts/television/29walking.html?_r=2&nl=&emc=a28&pagewanted=all

If that's the case, you could have already watched it.

meaning it's already available on torrent? yeah, I guess...

FM

Most excited I have been for a premiere since Joanie Loves Chiachi.

Yea, it was leaked already.

I've got it set to record on my DVR.

Thanks for the heads up on this. Also showing tonight, 4:45 pm.

+1 and thanks for the reminder.

Bumpity ... 45 minutes from now

Knew it was coming but that was one hell of an opening.

Great spot placement, for the zombie DLC for Red Dead Redemption

I can't help but feel this is a commentary on the atlanta sports fan, with the zombie apocalypse prominently featuring the atl. If the zombies start doing the chop, my suspicions will be confirmed.

a tense 90 minutes. A good job at setting the atmosphere, especially the stairwell scene.

Great 1st episode. I agree the stairwell scene was intense...and I knew he was going to make it okay!

Anyhow, I was a little surprised that they went through the 1st issue and more in the 1st episode. The Jones were a welcome sight. I liked the little backstory with his wife. I can't wait until we see Michonne! That'll be badass.

Anyhow, the amcdead.com site is getting hammered. I can't get my entry in for the walk on role.

Got it DVR'ed. Excited to watch it. I actually received my Walking Dead Compendium One in the mail yesterday.

Amazon.com: The Walking Dead: Compendium One (9781607060765): Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard, Cliff Rathburn, Tony Moore: Books: Reviews, Prices & more

Will be cool to read that and watch the show alongside.

Strong, maybe just a tiny bit below the OMG I had come to expect from the hype.

I've never read a page of the graphic novel series, so I could be spot on or miles off, but I'm a little bothered that I've got a strong expectation that the first season is going to be spent working to push the two groups toward one another & that tensions between our former partners are going to become a huge part of the story. If I'm right, that's just too predictable. If I'm wrong, so be it, I'll be happy to be wrong.

Very solid opening. It went by really quick.

I just re-read the first trade paperback. Based on a one-to-one comparison so far, the show is better than the comic. Better dialogue, better tension.

Really enjoyed it. My only complaint is that AMC is not in HD for me, and I had forgotten how much it sucks to watch something in non-HD.

Liked the show a lot.

Yeah, that was a strong opener. Highly recommended.

Thats not much of an endorsement, is it?

I enjoyed the opener and thought they did a good job setting things up. The 90 minutes just flew by.

I don't know if the production costs were exceptionally high or if they were just really efficient, but I thought that was one of the most impressive, visually shot/directed television shows that I have ever seen. I don't know much about filming, but I thought that the shots and coloring really set the tone perfectly.

Definitely lived up to expectations for me.

A little more on this...

I thought the show did a good job of setting up the tension between Rick and his wife and Shane's lovelife troubles right away to better explain why Lori shacked up with Shane pretty quickly.

Lam and Dwayne's back story, which wasn't present in the comic at all (at least in what I remember and re-read), was heart breaking and probably the most emotionally powerful part of that episode.

The final shot of the zombies crawling all over the tank and then slowly losing interest in it and going for the horse was awesome and eerie to see.

Top notch stuff all around.

In one of the hardcovers there is a bonus part expanding on the back story of Morgan and Dwayne.

Are some of the more memorable scenes taken from the comic book?

I'm thinking about three in particular: the light coming in after he opens the stairway door, the scene of him on the horse riding into Atlanta with no cars going in and tons heading out, and the end scene that H_B is talking about.

1. No. In the comic, he opens the cafeteria door in the hospital, it's full of zombies and he ends up falling down the stairs and outside while wrestling with a zombie.

2. Yes. That's straight from the comic.

3. No. There is no tank in the comic.

I too think that the 90 minutes went by really fast. Almost felt like a half hour show. I never read any of the novels or anything prior to seeing it and thought that his reason for being in a coma was not done well (unless I missed something). I loved the overhead shot at the end with him in the tank, the zombies reminded me of ants. Pretty impressed though with the show and am looking forward to next Sundays episode.

Cool. Thanks.

Those three scenes seemed to stand out to me as something I might see in a comic book, so I thought they may have been a shout out to the loyal fans who crossed over with the show.

This is a regular series and NOT a mini series, right?

Yes, it's a regular series, though this first season will only be six episodes long. Were it to be picked up (which after the buzz I would assume the case, AMC's other shows prove you don't have to be watched in order to be renewed) the other seasons would have the typical 13 episodes.

Just watched it via my DVR. Being a lifelong zombiehead, I'm extremely pleased with the traditional Romero zombie direction the series has gone. Few things bother me more than running, jumping, talking zombies.

*** For the benefit of those of us who haven't read the graphic novels, I would like to stress the importance of using the "spoiler" option when discussing anything not already shown in an episode. Thank you in advance :)

Monster smash: 'Walking Dead' ratings huge - Live Feed

It's already been picked up for 13 next year, that happened a few weeks back.

The speculation (and that's all there's been so far that I can find) is that the first 6 eps will be Summer, with the next 13 being Winter (apparently following the source material with that).

I was out most of the day, so I didn't have a chance to check this out until now.

For some sort of comparison, the HH rating of 3.7/5.3m viewers (which has been confirmed as the actual rating, not the "coverage rating" that looks only at cable homes) is almost 28% higher than the latest Mad Men season premiere.

Even bigger perhaps, the 3.6m viewers 18-49 was THREE TIMES the latest season premiere for Mad Men.

Last I'd heard renewal was just a rumor.

http://uk.tv.ign.com/articles/111/1117231p1.html

Upon further review, I believe you're correct. I simply never saw the corrections that followed the original story.

I watched this again last night with Lady H_B. She liked it, though I think she will bail after the next episode or two. I don't think my infectious enthusiasm will be enough to maintain her interest over the long haul. She said "it was gross. It was really, really gross."

She also didn't pick up on the fact that Lori and Carl at the camp were Rick's wife and son. She saw the picture in the sun visor, but must have missed seeing Rick in the picture. She just thought Rick had taken Shane's car and saw the picture of Shane's family.

The episode was still as enjoyable the second time through.

Thinking about the great ratings for the show, they are even more impressive when you consider the fact that the show was up against both the Sunday night NFL game AND the World Series.

Well, at least she noticed there were zombies in the show.

I have a question about time in the show. Does it jump around in time, giving past events infused with present events? Or does it go linear at some point?

I'm wondering where the little girl (opening) scene fits into the time line of the first episode.

I found that curious, too. I watched this with a guy who is a big time devotee of the comic (I have never read a page), and he said that isn't in there, and he couldn't explain it as a story-telling device. He figured the director added it for flavor and tone-setting.

I had problems with that but my son had an easy explanation that sounded right to me. That scene occurs between him leaving the sheriff's office & finding the horse.

Remember, he takes the horse (apparently) because he's run completely out of gas for the patrol car. In the opening scene he's carrying a gas can & my son explained that this had to take place before he ran completely out, he was looking for gas because he knew he was getting low. Maybe that's not right, but I couldn't find any real flaw in his logic. And yes, I felt rather dumb to have my 12 y/o explain it to me. The purpose was strictly to set the tone for a brutal world and, perhaps, to show that our main character was equipped to deal with the new realities even if it was difficult to do.

Btw, the car he's driving is actually a GA state troopers car, only ones in the state with that color scheme. Sheriff's vehicles are uniformly brown, with the exception of unmarked & non-patrol vehicles (which are white).

Yeah. H_B, I'm looking at you. I will punch you in the face if you ruin this... IN THE FACE!

IIRC, while he was on his way to the gas station he walked by a set of tents that appeared to be the same group of tents the group of people (his wife and kid) were living.

I will be careful. Besides if you try to come here and punch me in the face, I am Michigan's Defense will sto... Nevermind.

Don't worry, other than the frist one, I haven't really read the comics in a long time. Probably a year or two. My details are pretty fuzzy.

I think your son nailed it, Jon. Unless they decide to do some sort of "Lost" like flashbacks, showing what folks were like before the zombies came around, it should be the last of that sort of temporal change. At least, it should be the last one that's confusing.

I was a bit confused myself at first, since the comic opens in the "present" with Rick getting shot. The little opening was just a mood setter.

They might have been well served to put in a "x weeks earlier" script when it went back to Rick and Shane in the car.

I guess some people (none here) had an issue with the little zombie girl picking up the teddy bear. I think it's been pretty well established in the zombie genre that zombies tend to have some very basic residual "memories" if you will. In the original "Dawn of the Dead", they theorized that the reason so many zombies were drawn to the shopping mall was because it was a familiar place to them, a place that evoked positive memories, etc. The same could be said for why the zombie wife kept going back to the house and kept trying to open the door when others didn't. She "remembered" that place being of some sort of importance to her. So, the fact that the little zombie girl picked up her favorite teddy bear when stumbling across it, seemed consistent and a nice, creepy little touch. Also, it gave Rick a reason to believe that she wasn't a zombie at first.

Just got to see this last night, a couple thoughts and a question.

As far as the opening scene, it seemed to me like they wanted to set a bit of a tone. The first zombie kill wasn't some near desperation kill in a chase or a horde of zombies attacking him, but a very calm and cool disposal of a single little girl zombie. For those of us who haven't read the comics I think that states fairly plainly that not a lot is going to be off limits and that they aren't going to pull many punches.

It was a bit confusing time line wise (the person I watched with was asking about that and while I was pretty sure that what followed was indeed prior events to what we just saw, was going more on what I thought was logical over any real indications at the time).

My big question is, how long was he in the hospital? Given the state of things when he woke up, well, how was he even still alive? If all the electronics were dead/out of power, well, it couldn't have been very long or he'd have died due to no nourishment, but given the state of the world around him, well, it looked like he had been out of it an awfully long time. Granted the breakdown of the hospital wouldn't have happened immediately, but it sure looked like it had been for more than a few days.

I haven't read the comics, so I can't say for certain how much time has passed. But I believe it was in the scene in the shower at the police station that one of the characters mentioned that the gas lines had been down "for about a month"...so it's been at least that long

That was one of the things that I couldn't come up with a satisfactory answer for either. Based on his beard growth, my guess was +/- a couple of weeks (if I assume they weren't having the nurses shave him) in the hospital with the last 2-4 days of it being zombie apocalypse time.

They hint at him being dehydrated (drinking from the bathroom sink) but it can't be too many days, otherwise he's in much worse condition.

One of the few moments that really nagged at me was him on the bicycle, as I had a tough time believing he had even his limited success with it after a couple of weeks flat on his back.

edit to add: Speaking of the hospital, I was also puzzled by the obvious damage to the building, what appeared to be artillery/cannon damage to the exterior wall of the hospital (in the background as he's walking on the loading dock toward the covered bodies). I saw the chopper on the landing pad & assumed there had been some combat there but saw relatively little other sign of that other than a few stray bullet holes inside the hospital ward.

And, while we're asking questions about Ep 1 anyway, is anyone confident about what county the car was coming from during the chase scene?

My ears heard it as "Linden County", which would be fictional. My son swore it was "Lincoln County", which could fit into the apparent distance from Atlanta. That would likely have made him a Wilkes County or McDuffie County deputy & could have placed the hospital in Augusta, GA. Otherwise, the hospital seemed too large for a rural county & became another thing that tweaked my realism meter.

Was his location specified in the graphic novels?

In the graphic novel, Rick is actually a cop in Kentucky when everything begins. So, he travels to Kentucky to Atlanta to find his family.

I didn't quite look at the cop cars or cop uniforms to see if they gave any indication as to whether they changed it to some location in Georgia for the series.

I do agree that the timing of everything is a bit off.

I guess what you could say is that Rick was in a coma (not sure how fall into a coma from a gunshot wound to the chest, but I'm not a doctor) for a few weeks. Let's assume that zombie outbreak started very shortly after he fell into the coma. Shit goes crazy. Hospital is at the center of things with people bringing wounded/dead there. Hospital does its best to maintain order, take care of people. Finally, all hands abandon ship. Some nurse realizes Rick is still there in a coma, pushes the bed in front of his door, hoping that it's better than nothing, and leaves.

So, while the zombie outbreak might have been going on for a few weeks, Rick could have still have been receiving some amount of limited care, change of IVs, water, etc. up until, say, a few days before he wakes up.

The locations very much appear to be rural GA from the outset (although that could be a matter of knowing where it was filmed & what to look for) but I did find this reference to the shift.

He will also be using an American accent, but won’t be attempting the deep Southern drawl of his character in the comic, as they’ve moved the action from Kentucky to Georgia to make the accent “slightly less rural.”

Read more: Breakfast With The Walking Dead http://www.sfx.co.uk/2010/07/23/brea...#ixzz14FO97U8R

Question to the people who know the comics. Is it ever revealed how long he was in a coma? I ask because, when he woke up, he had a beard that looked to be maybe a week old. I know if I don't shave for about a week, my facial hair would be roughly same as his was when he woke up in the hospital.

I really don't remember if they ever do give a specific amount of time.

I think it is anywhere from a few weeks to a month or so.

You can't just assume that the start of the zombie uprising = the end of Rick's care.

Even if the zombies did start coming around a month or so ago, it's entirely possible Rick still received some care up until a few days or a week before he woke up.

I agree that he probably should be more scraggly, thicker beard, neck not shaven, but it's TV. You have to do somethings for aesthetic purposes, I suppose. He probably should have also had a catheter, being in a coma and all.

The way I interpreted it was, they probably did all they could for him as long as they could, until they had to evacuate. You could also tell that even though the hospital was invaded by zombies, they seemed to have been held in check in certain parts of the facility and they even had time to lock some up.


That thought did enter my mind: It's TV, I'm sure there's things done for practical reasons, but, wondered if the amount of time he was there was a thing to consider other than to have two plot points develop; 1. The zombie uprising and 2. His family 'situation'. It's funny you mention the catheter, I was thinking, "Damn, he is not going to have a good time getting that thing out".

With all that being said, I'm thinking he couldn't have been in a coma for more than a week and a half or so. How long can a human survive with no water? 8, 9 days I think? If that is how long he was in a coma, and how much things have gone down hill, is just a testament on how fast and vicious the zombie apocalypse happened. :)

Assuming he still received care until a few days before he woke up, I think he could be in a coma for a while. I don't really have any experience with people in comas, but I assume they get their "water" through IV fluids or some other method.

According to the badge on his uniform and the sign on the Police Station, it was set in (fictional) King County, Georgia.

So there's a moral dilemma for you.

Husband has been shot and is currently in a coma. All sorts of stuff starts to hit the fan and the best idea is to get out of town and head to Atlanta to the quarantine zone.

Do you take off and leave him on his own in a hospital where you pretty much give him up for dead, take some provisions/arms and try to hole up in there until he comes around (along with making sure he's taken care of while unable to do so himself) or try to take him with you and figure out care for him on the road (assuming you're traveling by vehicle)?

Granted, we don't know how much time has passed and can give the story the benefit of the doubt that his care, whether provided by people or machine, has only stopped within say a week of him coming to. I'd also assume those working in the hospital would've been taking off around the same time his wife did, so it's somewhat improbable to defend her decision by saying that she was leaving him in better care than she could have provided, especially given who she was traveling with.

Not suggesting this to rag on the show, but more crouching it in the terms of what a brutal life decision that would be to make and I'm not sure if the presence of a child would make it easier or harder to walk away from him in a coma. The kids safety likely coming first and all, but even in a marriage with some deep issues, that can't be an easy decision to make. Will be interesting to see if he questions that at any point (assuming he meets up with her which I'd be very surprised if it doesn't happen).

Assuming this happened to me and Lady H_B and had a child and I woke up from my coma and managed to find them, my response to her would be: "You did the right thing."

I think I like zombie apocalypse stories so much better than vampire stories b/c the former actually seems plausible. The Walking Dead just reinforces that for me - so very easy to buy all of it.

I can see that definitely and makes sense. I hope they explore the beginning of the zombie invasion and we get to see how it all went down.

Another timeline question, re: the wife. Are we to assume she and the other cop were having an affair, as their relationship seemed far more familiar than a few weeks on the run from zombies.

That was my assumption.

Fair enough, and I'd like to think I would say the same, but what if the situation were reversed?

Obviously as the one waking up/working your way back, you really don't have much say in the matter, but I'm having trouble just trying to imagine how hard of a decision that'd be for the one who'd have to do the walking away.

I didn't think pre-existing affair, but given the state of the relationship as established in the hamburger-in-the-car discussion, I'd say she was already pretty much mentally checked out of the marriage. There might have been some subtle foreshadowing of an on-going affair between her & the partner in that conversation but that wasn't my first inclination about it.

This is the part of ep 1 that gave me the most reason for concern, it seems to have a lot of predictable soap opera potential for the storyline & I'm really not exicted about The Young & the Restless Meet the Zombies

Yeah, I didn't intend my response to dismiss the difficulty of the decision. I would just assume that my wife made a very difficult decision and I would do everything I could to let her know she did well.

I think it would be an insanely hard decision to make. Incredibly, incredibly difficult. Why I would tell my wife I would have done the same in her position, not 100% sure I would.

Then again, she has told me repeatedly, since this topic comes up rather frequently around me, that she doesn't want to survive a zombie apocalypse. She recently said that she might, given her foraging skills, but after the first 15 minutes of "Walking Dead" she said, "I think I've changed my mind about suriving the zombie apocalypse. You can find your own damned chicken mushrooms."

I'm with you, Jon. I didn't see it as an existing affair either, though it did seem like the opening discussion did set the stage for Shane's unhappiness in his relationship, Rick's unhappiness in his, and Shane sort of prying a bit to get more info since he thinks Lori is great. I might have been reading more into that conversation than was warranted, given I knew that Lori and Shane would be shacking up.

You have to have some human drama admist all the zombies. It can't just be all survival and headshots. Then again, it doesn't need to be terribly predictable either.

I've never read the comics. Am I wrong to assume that this level of discussion about the show would exist even if the comics didn't? Seeing this level of dialogue about a show after one episode has me hoping for a strong first season's worth of this type of discussion. Good stuff.

In the comic there was no pre-existing affair prior to the zombies, but there was no ongoing hankey pankey between the two either IIRC. (The kiss in the tent was added for the TV series) In fact, at the point in the story we're at now, in the comic you have no idea anything has occurred between the two at this point. It happens as a flashback a bit later on of a one-night stand they had on their journey together to Atlanta, which she appears to obviously regret.

I hope that isn't considered spoilerish by anyone, but you never know.

Was impressed with the first episode. My wife liked it too, and she's not a zombie fan. I'll be curious to see how closely they stick to the book.

Is this on the internet anywhere? AMC doesn't have On Demand.

I hope there is more discussion. There are a few American shows I try to keep up with, but there is very little analytical discussion about them here and almost none at the other forums I frequent.

My wife is a big zombie fan. We grab onto anything and everything zombie we can find. Hopefully this show sparkles and sticks around for awhile.

Thanks Kodos, 'preciate the insight.

iTunes and Amazon

I agree with Kodos.

I enjoy the comic series quite a bit, but I don't think Kirkman is the greatest writer out there. There is a lot of melodrama in the comics, pacing issues and some akward dialogue. He does a lot of things that are great and interesting, but I really don't consider the series to be sacrosanct. It could definitely use quite a bit of polish in terms of character, dialogue and story arc. I think we've already seen that to be the case in the first episode and I think we'll see more of it.

Darabount has hinted that he takes things in different directions from the comic, which isn't a bad thing. Kirkman even admitted that a lot of things they changed were for the better.

This is one of those stories that so long as you stick true to the "core" of it, I think that's all that matters.

doesn't answer your question, but yi i saw it (free) on Comcast OnDemand

AMC Single-Clip Player

(yes its legal)

Thx. I noticed that this afternoon and had a duh moment.

Pretty awesome that AMC just posts it on their site.

If you missed the first episode (like I did) AMC is showing it again at 10 pm tonight as well as 2 am in the morning.

Just about an hour until Episode 2

Very cool, just learned via Facebook that a good friend of mine is good friends with the parents of the kid playing the hero's son.

Awesome scene right there (at :35 or so)

Ended up watching and really enjoying this, as well as the Dead Set British mini-series I recommended earlier in the thread. The latter is definitely worth watching if they re-show it on IFC. It's like 5 shows, each around 30-40 minutes long.

Definitely a good follow up episode. I am really liking this series especially since I did not get a chance to read the graphic novel.

IFC is re-airing this series in its entirety on Wednesday. They are showing them back-to-back starting around 5:00 PM EST or so. Check your local listings.

Some thoughts on last night's episode...

To address the point Jon raised in his *spolier* warning: zombies using rocks. It's an interesting debate, well, for those who debate such things. I have always been pretty firmly in the "zombies can't use tools", including rocks, camp. That said, I don't think a zombie using a rock to try and break a window is a huge break in zombie tradition. In fact, if you go back and watch Romero's "Night of The Living Dead", I believe in the very first scene where Barbara is at the cemetry, she gets in her car and the zombie who is chasing her actually picks up a rock and tries to (and perhaps does) break the car window with the rock. So, since Romero is the grand daddy of zombie movies, there is definitely an argument for zombies using rocks.

Then again, it's a slippery slope basing things on Romero, since by the craptacular "Land of the Dead" zombies were using assault rifles to put their zombie brethern out of misery. So, let's not talk about that.

As for not seeing any zombies using rocks in the first episode, I don't think we ever saw the zombies getting all riled up and trying to break through a window to get at people. So, I am not sure if it's fair to say that the show is being internally inconsistent. It's only the second episode, so I think the show is still developing its "zombie rules" if you will.

So far, it seems like "Walking Dead" zombies are almost a middle ground between the slow, lumbering zombies in the Romero films and the fast, running zombies in the "Dawn of the Dead" re-make. They are slow and lumbering until "riled" up. When riled up, they don't run and jump and get all frenetic like the "DOD" re-make zombies, but they do seem to shuffle at a greater pace and were climbing the chain linked fence and even seemed to game to try and climb the ladder.

I don't mind this "middle of the road" approach. It makes sense and makes zombies much more of a threat, particular in a group and riled up, like Morgan warned of.

Ah, Michael Rooker. The moment I saw you on the screen, I knew you'd be some crazy ass redneck, because that is something you do so well. It's so very you. Initially, I was kind of annoyed with that character. It's not surprising that some crazy-ass rednecks who can shoot would survive longer than most. That said, if they are so fucking unstable that they become a liability then what's the point of having them around? I suppose that he just flipped out up on the roof because he had just learned that they were trapped in the store and, therefore, under pressue his redneck rampage blew up. Still, Rick was right. You can't have that kind of in-fighting anymore.

It was nice to see them inject a little humor with Glen.

I really enjoyed. The hour just flies right on by.

They changed some things from the comic, but I am totally on board with it.

For those interested in the differences (THESE AREN'T SPOLIERS):

1. Glen finds Rick in Atlanta and Glen is alone. He's not with a group.

2. Other than Andrea, the blonde woman in Atlanta, none of those other characters trapped in the Departmenr store, Michael Rooker included, are in the comic.

3. The Shane/Lori relationship was a lot different. They did hook up, but only once, and it was sort of a "heat of the moment" type of thing. It wasn't this on-going, kissing and romping around all the time sort of thing.

The opening scene with Shane and Lori was well shot with the ring in the foreground and all, but seriously, why would Lori go out by herself to pick mushrooms? She didn't go out with Shane, she walked off on her own. No one goes by themselves anywhere. I know they did it to set up that scene, but still...

Another thing about the zombies and rocks. Back in the first episode, Morgan's zombie-wife came up to the door and tried to use the door handle. She was also drawn back to the house where her family was. That sort of implies that some, perhaps all, zombies have some sort of vestigal intelligence that would allow them to perform some very basic tasks.

A weird editing thing. The black gets beaten up and is on the roof. At one point, perhaps the scene where they are cutting up the zombie or before that he's downstairs. He looks battered, but is up and standing. The next time they cut back to the roof, he's just sitting there in the exact same position looking too battered to have stood. For a second, I remember thinking "were those two separate guys?" Just a small, odd thing I recall.

I would hope (and I think this is actually what you meant here) that they already have their zomb rules, it's just that we don't know all of them yet.

I'm okay with them setting their own rules too, but it was actually the Ep 1 "mommy's home" thing that caused me to puzzle about the tool usage last night. She certainly seemed intent enough on getting inside (the persistence at the doorknob), so why not some more violent attempt to break in? I mean, if they're smart enough to use rocks at the store, then .... ?



My take was that she went out on her own at least somewhat intentionally with that outcome in mind, just that she didn't expect him to scare the crap out of her in the process.

Presumably I'm not the only person who wouldn't mind her stepping in front of an oncoming bullet, and taking Shane with her. F'n whore.

Yeah, that's what I meant. We, as an audience, haven't seen enough to know/understand all of the "zombie rules" in this world, not that the show itself hasn't figured it out. In sci-fi/fantasy settings, I have no problem with all sorts of actions and outcomes, so long as everything is internly consistent within the rules set within the world. I usually try to give a show/film/book the benefit of the doubt.

Like the mommy coming home thing. She was drawn to the house for some reason, probably some vestigal memory of that's where her family is. So, she goes back to the door whenever she passes by and tries to open it, since somewhere in her zombie mind she knows that's where she wants to be. She, and the other zombies around here, didn't seem to know that there were actually people (aka food) in there. Had she been aware of it, perhaps she would have tried much harder to get in. So, while she was persistent at using the door knob, she wasn't in the "riled up" violent stage which, apparently, leads to more frenzied and violent attempts to get into structures.

The zombies at the department store, for example, could see all that sweet, delicious noms wandering around inside there, just waiting to be eaten, so they were riled up and hungry.

I am finding it hard to suspend disbelief while watching the show:

1. They were willing to chop up that dead zombie and have the zombie guts splatter all over them (at one point he takes his glove off to hand her the gun; some aren't wearing protective eyewear, etc) even though they know it spreads from bites. Knowing only that, would you be willing to let zombie blood potentially in your eyes? It would be like chopping up someone with AIDS circa 1984 - you just didn't know for sure if that is a huge mistake or not.

2. I also find it hard to accept their premise that the zombies are so dangerous. If they wanted, they could have killed all the zombies within a several block radius pretty easily.

3. Really the whole concept of zombie is hard to believe in enough to ignore: even a zombie with its low-energy stagger still consumes some energy over time. This energy needs to be replaced, so walkers that don't find food over at least a few weeks should die or not have enough energy to remain upright. So really all people would need to do is chill and wait for a few weeks for it all to pass.

Except that we don't know what the requirements of these zombies actually are. For all we know, the virus manufactures calories or whatever.

Plus, these particular zombs are unusual from the traditional in that they either sleep or go dormant at times (we've seen what appeared to be sleeping zombies at least twice already, once on the bus in Ep 1 & again a few minutes later inside the tank)