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Re: The Walking Dead - TV Series « Reply #61 on Oct 3, 2010, 10:43pm »
Awesome credits. The song used, Fresh Blood, was on True Blood! And I loved it. Cannot wait for this show. Do we know what time it'll be airing at? Odds are I'll de doing stuff on Halloween night, and don't want to miss it.
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Re: The Walking Dead - TV Series « Reply #62 on Oct 3, 2010, 11:10pm »
Re: The Walking Dead - TV Series « Reply #63 on Nov 1, 2010, 12:31am »
I'm 30 minutes in. I'm digging it so far..
Edit: Finished watching it. I am amazed. The quality of this show is totally on the same level as movies if not better. The zombies are so well done. It also doesn't hurt that the cop guy is totally cute either..
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Re: The Walking Dead - TV Series « Reply #66 on Nov 2, 2010, 6:24pm »
Yeah, this is long, so just a warning. I started a blog devoted to "The Walking Dead" so I wanted to start my reviews off with a bang:
"Days Gone By," is about leaving a past life, and a past world behind. Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) wakes up from a coma, only to find his Kentucky town, lifeless and destroyed by a zombie apocalypse.
I'm not going to do much of a plot recap, as that can easily be gleaned from watching the show. I'm just going to focus on what I thought, as this is a review, after all.
Let me start by saying "Days Gone By" is one of the best pilot episodes I've seen in a long time, if not ever. It is well filmed, beautifully acted, deliberate in its pacing, chilling, horrifying and an all around spectacle of TV.
For a show about zombies, the quietness of this first episode was remarkable. In Kentucky, most of the townspeople are dead. Rick does not encounter many zombies until he reaches Atlanta, where all hell breaks loose. Generally zombie movies start large scale and stay large scale. "Days Gone By" took the opposite approach by giving Rick small, single encounters with zombies for most of the episode so we could accurately feel the terror and horror that Rick was going through.
It made his arrival in Atlanta that much more effective, as Rick was completely out of his element. Fresh from a coma, Rick should not have survived his encounter with the zombie horde in Atlanta. The fact that he does, coupled with Andrew Lincoln's wonderful performance, allows us to immediately rally behind him. Rick is the center of the show, and making him sympathetic, capable, vulnerable and driven right from the get go makes him a worthy character to watch.
Speaking of Andrew Lincoln, he was perfect casting. While sure, one or two lines of his Southern accent sound off or too forced (Lincoln is British), Lincoln showed commitment to this role right away. I noticed this more on my second viewing of the episode, but where Lincoln impressed me the most was how nuanced his performance was. Whether it was his facial expression as he put on his hat to find some gas for his police cruiser, or a few moments later as he shot a young girl in the head (she was a zombie, of course), he has made this character his own and fans of the comic should be proud that an actor is taking such care of this iconic character.
I cannot mention acting chops without mentioning Lennie James, who was just phenomenal as Morgan, a man Rick meets in Kentucky who fills him in on what has happened. Morgan's grief and sense of loss over his wife practically oozes off of the screen, knocks you over the head and envelops you along with this stricken character. The pauses, the flinches, the lip twitches every time Morgan mentions his wife and barely holds it together are "wow" moments that stay with you long after the episode ends. I am calling a "Best Guest Actor in a Drama Series" nod right now, as Lennie deserves it.
Perhaps the largest deviation from the comic in this episode was the extra time spent with Morgan and Duane. Darabont and Co. really developed a special dynamic between these characters. Morgan and Rick are incredibly similar people, namely in their commitment to their families. With Morgan's wife a zombie, who haunts them at night, his son is all he has left, and Morgan's sole purpose now is to keep his son safe, while still teaching him how to be a good man when he grows up, despite all that has happened. In essence, Morgan represents Rick, just a month down the line. Rick is still terrified, worried and trying to accept what has happened, while Morgan is simply holed up and keeping his son alive.
There's some subtle and profound character development in Rick in "Days Gone By," that probably impressed me the most out of everything I saw. Soon after leaving the hospital and Rick finds his home empty, he finally shatters, losing all hope and wondering if he's even awake. By meeting Morgan and Duane, Rick slowly gets his groove back. His mood changes, he regains his strength, and he realizes he has to find out what happened to his wife and child at all cost. Seeing this kind of growth in the very first episode of a series is essentially TV magic (and reminds me of the first episode of Joss Whedon's "Angel").
So did I not like one single thing? Almost. My one gripe with "Days Gone By" was how Lori was introduced and handled. She comes off a bit cold, as we have not one, but two instances of characters questioning her parenting (Rick in the car with Shane, over something Lori said in front of Carl, and Shane telling her she should not get so worked up in front of her son). This just did not quite work for me, as Lori was developed and introduced as a much stronger character in the comic. That said, I like that she had a great idea about warning other people away from Atlanta. It was easy to take her side over Shane's, as he was an a-hole in the comic and an a-hole here as well.
Some other thoughts:
- Best scene? Easily the sequence where Rick returns to kill the emaciated, legless female zombie he encounters after leaving the hospital, and Morgan attempts to kill his undead wife. The music was haunting and the emotion pouring from both characters (and the undead woman) was intoxicating.
- Second best scene? Rick waking up and leaving the hospital. The cinematography was beautiful (although it is beautiful across the entire episode), Andrew Lincoln's horror was well played, and the set design was just fantastic.
- Favorite deviation from the comic? I already mentioned the expansion of Morgan and Duane, so another would be that the first zombie Rick encounters is the starving, legless woman he later returns to kill (in the comic he opens the cafeteria doors in the hospital and sees a room full). It makes the episode's best sequence even more powerful.
- Worst deviation from the comic? Nothing major, but I would have liked a scene or two of Rick talking with his horse, as I enjoyed that in the comic.
- Favorite zombie death? Young zombie girl. No other choice really. It set the tone of the series right away.
- Best shots? Two favorites here. The first being when Morgan's wife starts to turn the doorknob at their house and the camera stays on Rick's eye as it slowly looks down at the turning knob. Then, near the end after Rick enters the tank, shoots the soldier and recovers from the gun shot reverberation. He sits quietly, and the lighting was brilliant here, as he was completely silhouetted as he thought about what to do next.
- Poor Blade (Rick's horse)!
Bottom line: "Days Gone By" brings the comic to TV with more depth than I could ever have imagined. Dark, often terrifying, introspective and somber, this show is off to a brilliant start.
Re: The Walking Dead - TV Series « Reply #67 on Nov 2, 2010, 6:59pm »
^Awesome review. I agree with all your points. I've never heard of or read the comics beforehand so I can't really compare but if it didn't deviate much then it certainly speaks highly of them. The slow pacing was indeed very effective in setting the tone and reinforcing the the theme of making choices. My favorite scene was definitely when Rick goes back to kill that zombie, it totally established the heart of his character in a really understated fashion. I cannot wait until the next episode..I hope they wrap things up with Morgan and Duane.
So did I not like one single thing? Almost. My one gripe with "Days Gone By" was how Lori was introduced and handled. She comes off a bit cold, as we have not one, but two instances of characters questioning her parenting (Rick in the car with Shane, over something Lori said in front of Carl, and Shane telling her she should not get so worked up in front of her son). This just did not quite work for me, as Lori was developed and introduced as a much stronger character in the comic. That said, I like that she had a great idea about warning other people away from Atlanta. It was easy to take her side over Shane's, as he was an a-hole in the comic and an a-hole here as well.
I really liked your review, but I kinda disagree with this part. What she apparently said in front of Carl was really bad, but I think the rest of her actions and her personality lined up with her comic-counterpart. I always found her to be a bit shrill.
I like the way they ended things with Morgan. Dealing with and moving on from losing someone so close to you is always a lifelong battle. I think showing him trying and yet failing to take that first step was the perfect note for Morgan's story to end on.
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Re: The Walking Dead - TV Series « Reply #69 on Nov 4, 2010, 11:03am »
A local comic shop here is showing it every sunday. I missed the first episode with it being Halloween and all, but luckily next week they're showing Episode 1 and then we're watching Episode 2 so I'll catch them both on sunday.
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Re: The Walking Dead - TV Series « Reply #70 on Nov 4, 2010, 7:21pm »
I pretty much concur with Wynnie. The scene with Rick killing the zombie girl and Morgan trying to kill his zombie wife actually brought tears to my eyes, something no television pilot has been able to do before.
This, so far, is living up to the comics I and many other fans adore, and it's looking to be a good run.
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Re: The Walking Dead - TV Series « Reply #72 on Nov 7, 2010, 11:34pm »
Continuing my tradition of having weird things stick out to me, there was one part in the episode that bothered me. Why did that woman not know how to use a gun? She was carrying one, and there are zombies everywhere. You'd have thought that she would have learned how to use it as soon as she realized that there were zombies everywhere. I don't know, maybe she just wasn't paying enough attention at that time ans she did know how to turn the safety off, but I just found it slightly irksome. Overall I loved this episode though. Especially when they were walking through the crowd of zombies. Much tension.
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Re: The Walking Dead - TV Series « Reply #73 on Nov 7, 2010, 11:50pm »
I think this was a great episode. Last episode I felt dragged a little in the beginning, but this one was really tense. I was watching it with a crowd of Zombie loving comic book fans too so it was a fun experience.
I have to say to, I absolutely hate Lori and Shane.
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Re: The Walking Dead - TV Series « Reply #74 on Nov 8, 2010, 1:19am »
As the name implies, “Guts” was The Walking Dead’s first crack at a more traditional horror story.
In the premiere the horror element came from Rick suddenly waking up in this new world and how he learned to begin coping with it. In “Guts,” there’s no time to cope, only act, and Rick Grimes shows us just how exciting of a leader he can be.
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Re: The Walking Dead - TV Series « Reply #75 on Nov 8, 2010, 2:31am »
Another awesome episode. I totally despise Rick's wife, total yuckage.
I actually think the previous episode was a bit stronger. I liked the slower pacing, I found it to be more effective and haunting. These zombies are smarter than I thought they were. One busted open a door with a brick and another hopped a fence...
I just saw this on the Entertainment Weekly website! I really like this show, and I'm glad it got renewed for a second season! I kind of wish they would order more episodes for season one, though.
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