# Walking Dead - Episode 1 - OAD 10/31/2010



## Mike Wells (Mar 9, 2000)

I thought I had missed the beginning -maybe it had started at 9PM EDT - since I had seen the trailer, but I was wrong. 

So far so good. I have high expectations for this show.


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## VegasVic (Nov 22, 2002)

I'm recording to watch later or tomorrow. I've never been a fan of the zombie genre but this got good reviews and I'll give it a shot.


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## ElJay (Apr 6, 2005)

I thought it was great, but then again I'm a fan of the zombie/end of the world genre. I guess now the test will be if they can keep it from turning into a boring soap opera.


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## Maui (Apr 22, 2000)

Loved the first episode!


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

They took everything that made the comic book good, and didn't add anything to make it suck.


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## Queue (Apr 7, 2009)

Rob Helmerichs said:


> They took everything that made the comic book good, and didn't add anything to make it suck.


Agree. I enjoyed the first ep and I'm already looking forward to next week. I've read the comic and even knowing the characters and what was going to happen the show made it intriguing getting to know them again.

Only downside. I got a little confused at the beginning with it starting off with Rick already on his way. Then I wasn't sure when it caught up to his present part of the story. But it didn't seem to matter.


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## spikedavis (Nov 23, 2003)

My only problem was the silly song they played at the end when Rick is in the tank. Otherwise it was perfect.


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## net114 (Dec 29, 2000)

I never read the comics. This was good. They seem to be concentrating on the storytelling, which is great. One thing that bothers me about some zombie films I've liked, (Dawn of the Dead remake, 28 Days Later) is that it's really hard to get an entire end of the world type story into the "standard" 2 hour film constraint. Even if there's a sequel, we have to wait a couple years or more to see it. 

I was excited to hear about this as they can really tell a survival story over an entire season. I just hope they don't get pressure to go non-serialized. (Each episode not continuing a story, but supposedly more "watchable" by people who just drop in to view). 

This type of show does best, I think, when you have those episodic stories that we really want to see what happens next week. Now I will have to decide if I want to save up some episodes or watch this week to week. 

By the way, in case anyone missed it, the code to enter the contest this week was "SURVIVAL". (Enter to win a walk on part as a zombie).


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## [email protected] (Jan 8, 2008)

I thought it was pretty cool. Did any women like it? Or is it just the guys?


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## net114 (Dec 29, 2000)

spikedavis said:


> My only problem was the silly song they played at the end when Rick is in the tank. Otherwise it was perfect.


You and I are on the same page!! Totally. This seems to be some strange trend that shows are on the last several years or so. When I see this come up, I usually tell anyone I'm with..."uh,oh, music video alert!"

SO many shows do this, it has really gotten old. Usually its at the end of an episode to add meaning or something I guess. ? I hate it too.


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## jschuur (Nov 27, 2002)

Queue said:


> Only downside. I got a little confused at the beginning with it starting off with Rick already on his way. Then I wasn't sure when it caught up to his present part of the story. But it didn't seem to matter.


No complaints about the episode really, but it always seems a little cheap when shows (or even worse, movies) do the 5 minute flash forward right at the start of an episode. It just looks like a focus group somewhere thought it started out too slow, and they were afraid to lose people's attention right from the start, so they had to make sure you see zombies right away, rather than wade through 15 minutes of lead up.

Great show so far though. Looking forward to the next episode!


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## martinp13 (Mar 19, 2001)

Can this be watched by scaredy-cats?  I don't like jumpy-scary stuff, so almost any horror movie is out (even lame stuff like The Sixth Sense got to me). I'd like to watch this as it sounds like good TV, but I'm leery because of the subject matter.


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## jschuur (Nov 27, 2002)

martinp13 said:


> Can this be watched by scaredy-cats?  I don't like jumpy-scary stuff, so almost any horror movie is out (even lame stuff like The Sixth Sense got to me). I'd like to watch this as it sounds like good TV, but I'm leery because of the subject matter.


Well, zombies aren't the fastest, so if it's things jumping at the screen out of dark corners you're concerned about, not much of that there.

Lots of bloody, decaying flesh falling off people's bones and teeming, writhing masses of undead clawing at anyone that smells human. But you know... in a classy, artistic way.

Oh yeah, and head shots. And baseball bats to the head. No chainsaw action yet, but one can only hope. It's sweeps month after all.


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## Barmat (Jun 1, 2001)

jschuur said:


> No complaints about the episode really, but it always seems a little cheap when shows (or even worse, movies) do the 5 minute flash forward right at the start of an episode. It just looks like a focus group somewhere thought it started out too slow, and they were afraid to lose people's attention right from the start, so they had to make sure you see zombies right away, rather than wade through 15 minutes of lead up.
> 
> Great show so far though. Looking forward to the next episode!


I thought it was outstanding begining, breaking one of TV Taboo's. Showing a graphic depiction of a childs death(redeath).

Most reviews I've read from respected sources are calling this one of the best new series of the year. So far I agree. I love the comic and so far I love this series.


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## john4200 (Nov 1, 2009)

I seem to be in the minority here. I was not impressed. I did not see anything I haven't seen before several times in run-of-the-mill zombie movies. 

I was rooting for the deputy to get killed in Atlanta. Man, that guy is dumb as rocks. Riding calmly past abandoned military vehicles. Geez, you think maybe something happened to the soldiers? Maybe? But I suppose they had to make him dumb so that he can get more clever as the story progresses. Another cliche, so at least they are consistent.

I'll watch a few more episodes to see if I can discover what other people like about this story, but I do not have high expectations.


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## jschuur (Nov 27, 2002)

Don't forget, the first season is only 6 episodes.


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## photoshopgrl (Nov 22, 2008)

Damnit, forgot to record this!


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## firerose818 (Jul 21, 2003)

[email protected] said:


> I thought it was pretty cool. Did any women like it? Or is it just the guys?


I'll let you know when we watch it tonight!


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## Maui (Apr 22, 2000)

photoshopgrl said:


> Damnit, forgot to record this!


From what I could see of the listings it will be replayed plenty between now and next week.


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## ClutchBrake (Sep 5, 2001)

[email protected] said:


> I thought it was pretty cool. Did any women like it? Or is it just the guys?


My wife loved it.


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## madscientist (Nov 12, 2003)

My wife thought it was good. She normally loves scary but she did say that zombies especially creep her out and she thought this show was creepy. But, she's still watching.

I thought it was great, although I agree the Sheriff is not exactly a Mensa candidate. On the other hand he did see the helicopter and he had been told it was a safe area. He probably thought that the tanks etc. were leftovers from a first line of defense (if they ran out of gas they would have to be left behind) and that the safe area was further along.


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## Bob Coxner (Dec 1, 2004)

[email protected] said:


> I thought it was pretty cool. Did any women like it? Or is it just the guys?


Just the guys. The NY Times recently had a cool analysis of the man/woman vampire/zombie divide.

https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/29/arts/television/29walking.html?src=me

All it really takes to outrun a zombie is a car. Also, a bullet to the head will stop one cold. And that may explain why so many men prefer zombies to vampires: zombie stories pivot on mens two favorite things: fast cars and guns. Better yet, zombies almost never talk. Vampires, especially of late, are mostly a female obsession. Works like Twilight and True Blood suggest that the best way to defeat a vampire is to make him fall so in love that he resists the urge to bite. And thats a powerful, if naïve, female fantasy: a mate so besotted he gives up his most primal cravings for the woman he loves.

Vampires are imbued with romance. Zombies are not. (Zombies are from Mars, vampires are from Venus.)


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## aadam101 (Jul 15, 2002)

jschuur said:


> No complaints about the episode really, but it always seems a little cheap when shows (or even worse, movies) do the 5 minute flash forward right at the start of an episode. It just looks like a focus group somewhere thought it started out too slow, and they were afraid to lose people's attention right from the start, so they had to make sure you see zombies right away, rather than wade through 15 minutes of lead up.
> 
> Great show so far though. Looking forward to the next episode!


I don't think it's cheap. Alias did that when the show was at it's absolute best in almost every episode. I think they just wanted to remind people it was a zombie show. The first 30 minutes or so didn't have any zombies.


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## martinp13 (Mar 19, 2001)

Bob Coxner said:


> (Zombies are from Mars, vampires are from Venus.)


You need to trademark that.


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

Vampires are actually multi-planetary.

Steven King vampires are from Mars. Stephanie Meyer vampires are from Venus.

Maybe some enterprising horror author ought to come up with sexy, romantic zombies!


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## sieglinde (Aug 11, 2002)

I can see the point about zombies. I haven't watched this yet so I have no opinion but zombies are the least interesting monsters in filmdom. Monsters that show the least bit of intelligence such as the Aliens monsters are more interesting. Vampires are interesting even if they are the non-attractive types. Dracula (Bela Lugosi) was sexy but you would not imagine having a love affair with him.


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## TomK (May 22, 2001)

I wish this was in HD on Directv. Actually I wish AMC was in HD on Directv, not so much for the appeal of zombies in HD.


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## cheesesteak (Jul 24, 2003)

I got a little tired of the head shots but I learned to turn away in time. Other than that, 4 thumbs up. I feel kinda bad for that horse, though.

Rick's wife and partner are gonna have some splainin' to do.


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

sieglinde said:


> I can see the point about zombies. I haven't watched this yet so I have no opinion but zombies are the least interesting monsters in filmdom. Monsters that show the least bit of intelligence such as the Aliens monsters are more interesting. Vampires are interesting even if they are the non-attractive types. Dracula (Bela Lugosi) was sexy but you would not imagine having a love affair with him.


The thing that makes Walking Dead the comic book work so brilliantly is that it's not about zombies. It's about people put into an unspeakably horrible situation, and how they cope. And not Hollywood heroic people...good people, bad people, but all _people _people.

It looks like the show is headed that way, too. Hope so!


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## Maui (Apr 22, 2000)

So I have a question...

Just how long was the character supposed to be unconcious that civilization got that bad on him?


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## SeanC (Dec 30, 2003)

Going by the flowers, I would guesstimate he was out for 5-10 days.


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## john4200 (Nov 1, 2009)

SeanC said:


> Going by the flowers, I would guesstimate he was out for 5-10 days.


Sounds about right. His whiskers looked like they had been growing for a week or two. He must have been tended within a week of waking up, since his IV would not have lasted long without someone to change it, and he would have died of dehydration without it. Maybe things in the hospital went bad several days after he was admitted.

But it is strange that he was unconscious at all from a gunshot wound to his side -- the bullet must have just grazed his side where the vest did not cover him. Maybe they put him under for an operation, but he should have been awake the next day.


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## gchance (Dec 6, 2002)

Rob Helmerichs said:


> The thing that makes Walking Dead the comic book work so brilliantly is that it's not about zombies. It's about people put into an unspeakably horrible situation, and how they cope. And not Hollywood heroic people...good people, bad people, but all _people _people.
> 
> It looks like the show is headed that way, too. Hope so!


That was one thing that really struck me. The one character's wife being drawn to the house, and the guy knowing he needs to dispatch her or his son will continue being tormented, yet not being able to do it for being conflicted himself... the main character glimpsing and running away from the legless zombie, only to come back later, taking pity on it and actually talking to it with compassion.



Maui said:


> So I have a question...
> 
> Just how long was the character supposed to be unconcious that civilization got that bad on him?





SeanC said:


> Going by the flowers, I would guesstimate he was out for 5-10 days.





john4200 said:


> Sounds about right. His whiskers looked like they had been growing for a week or two. He must have been tended within a week of waking up, since his IV would not have lasted long without someone to change it, and he would have died of dehydration without it. Maybe things in the hospital went bad several days after he was admitted.
> 
> But it is strange that he was unconscious at all from a gunshot wound to his side -- the bullet must have just grazed his side where the vest did not cover him. Maybe they put him under for an operation, but he should have been awake the next day.


"I'm out a week and you go after Laurie?" The one character name I actually remember. 

Greg


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

SeanC said:


> Going by the flowers, I would guesstimate he was out for 5-10 days.


That's not how long he was out, that's how long he was unattended.

(In the comic, the duration of his coma is never specified, but one event that took "weeks" happened entirely while he was out.)


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## danterner (Mar 4, 2005)

I'm all caught up on the comic, so I've been eagerly anticipating the start of the television series. I loved it.

I'm not sure I would have cast the same person for Rick. He seems like a great actor and I'm sure he'll be great in the part, but he just doesn't bear much of a physical resemblance to Rick, I don't think. Not really a quibble, just an observation.

I was anticipating it being scarier. I wasn't really frightened at any point. Maybe some of that comes from knowing the storyline in advance. But this wasn't a show with cheap "cat jumps out at you"-type thrills. (And it was better for it, I think). The situation itself is horrific enough, perhaps.

I've also been watching "Dead Set" on IFC (the 5-part zombie apocalypse mini-series). I've seen two of the five episodes so far. It's interesting to contrast the two approaches to story telling. Dead Set is more viscerally scary, but based on the pilot episode of The Walking Dead I think the latter is far and away the better horror show.



jschuur said:


> No complaints about the episode really, but it always seems a little cheap when shows (or even worse, movies) do the 5 minute flash forward right at the start of an episode. It just looks like a focus group somewhere thought it started out too slow, and they were afraid to lose people's attention right from the start, so they had to make sure you see zombies right away, rather than wade through 15 minutes of lead up.


I think you hit the nail on the head, there - they wanted to open the show in media res. Give us some action right away to capture our interest and then dial back to tell the story at a more deliberate pace once we're hooked. Nothing wrong with that. The only problem, in this instance, is there was no "Five Weeks Earlier" (or however long it was) title card that appeared as soon as the opening flash-forward concluded and the story proper began. I think that's a good sign - it shows the producers are expecting a certain amount of maturity and deductive reasoning from the audience, and won't be spoon-feeding. Still, opening with the car chase would have been just as exciting. (That's, in fact, how the comic starts). So I'm not sure why they made a different choice. Maybe to further delay the scene of Rick coming out of his coma in the deserted hospital, which happens very early on in the comic but which is very reminiscent of the opening of 28 Days Later. I think Robert Kirkman and 28 Days Later came up with that intro independently and at approximately the same time, if I recall. Now, though, for the Walking Dead TV show to do it the audience might assume the show is just copying from the movie, and so a decision was made to put the scene farther into the episode?

*Just a note to spoiler-phobes*: two posts below mine Rob gives some information about setting (and appropriately spoiler-tags it). Just beware before clicking on the "reveal spoiler" button -- it really is a spoiler. If the series stays true to the comic, it reveals quite a bit of extra information you may not want to know just yet.


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## Magnolia88 (Jul 1, 2005)

Does this show take place in Atlanta? The poster looks like the Atlanta skyline.

I have no interest in zombies but I might Tivo it if it's actually set in Atlanta, and filmed here. It could be set here and filmed in Vancouver though.


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

Magnolia88 said:


> Does this show take place in Atlanta? The poster looks like the Atlanta skyline.
> 
> I have no interest in zombies but I might Tivo it if it's actually set in Atlanta, and filmed here. It could be set here and filmed in Vancouver though.


The city they're in is Atlanta. In the comic,


Spoiler



they start in Kentucky where Rick lives & works, quickly move to Atlanta (as in the show), and then move on (the Big City is way too dangerous), eventually settling first in a prison, and currently in a (literally) gated community.


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## Cainebj (Nov 11, 2006)

Maui said:


> So I have a question...
> Just how long was the character supposed to be unconcious that civilization got that bad on him?


Or that his wife and partner LEFT him there!
I am hoping we get to hear how that came about...

So, I know NOTHING about the comic - 
I was pretty surprised... 
- probably the first time I got emotionally upset in a zombie franchise (in particular the scene where the guy is attempting to shoot his wife)

...I was much more expecting the whole thing to be along the lines of when he turned the corner on the horse before ending up in the tank...

I might mention this being Halloween weekend, I watched Night of the Living Dead Friday Night and Zombieland Saturday 

[as an aside it was driving me nuts where I knew the black actor from - he was in Jericho - if anyone else has been scratching their head thinking - where do i know him from?]


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## JETarpon (Jan 1, 2003)

Maui said:


> So I have a question...
> 
> Just how long was the character supposed to be unconcious that civilization got that bad on him?


"Gas lines been down for maybe a month." So, at least a month.


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## net114 (Dec 29, 2000)

jschuur said:


> Don't forget, the first season is only 6 episodes.


Didn't they used to promo this number of episodes as a "mini-series"? Shogun in the early 1980's, etc. Now I guess 6 episodes makes a "season"? Or is it because they aren't showing this back to back over several nights. I would have loved if they chose to do it that way.


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## danterner (Mar 4, 2005)

Yeah, six episodes to a season is pretty paltry by US standards (but pretty standard overseas). For what it's worth, this particular series was already picked up for a second season (13 additional episodes) even before last night's first episode aired. Hopefully, it will be around for a while.


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## cheesesteak (Jul 24, 2003)

Cainebj said:


> [as an aside it was driving me nuts where I knew the black actor from - he was in Jericho - if anyone else has been scratching their head thinking - where do i know him from?]


He's also in a couple of Human Target episodes.


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## retrodog (Feb 7, 2002)

I know nothing about the comic book or "graphic novel" or whatever it actually is, but I did indeed watch the show last night and thought a few things about it...

1. Lots of head shots shown. Wow, that has to be the record for viewed head shots that I've ever seen on a TV show. 

2. People are stupid or liberal Hollywood is in charge on this one. No one had any assault weapons. Apparently, all the troops got killed and their guns mysteriously vanished. Any Law Enforcement office the size of the one on the show would have had MP5s and M16s instead of just shotguns and bolt action hunting rifles. Or maybe those got taken away too. A really nice belt-fed HK23, firing at head height, would mow down most of those undead in mere seconds. You could even dip it a bit to pick off the shorties and crawlers.

3. Did suppressors suddenly vanish from society? If noise is a problem, wouldn't you be looking for some suppressors? Or is that rocket science?

4. Blood flowing out of the head of a zombie. Everybody knows that zombies don't need real blood so their's has already coagulated. It should never be depicted as flowing out of a gunshot wound.

5. Great special effects. In an age where we've gotten so jaded about such things, it's nice to see someone take the time to create pretty authentic looking zombies and gunshots.

6. Too much radio hiss when the mic was keyed. Someone on the production/technical staff needs to know how radios work. When you key the microphone, the reception noise goes away till you release the key. 

7. The Sheriff isn't very smart. Aside from the weapons issues, riding the horse into the streets of a large city when you know zombies are on the loose was purely stooooopid. I hope the book told that part of the story in a way that worked better. 

I still think it looks like an interesting show though, focusing on the fact that it's really all about the living characters. I was happy to see scenes to the upcoming episodes to have an idea of where they're going to be going with the story in the rest of the short season. Should be interesting.


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## Queue (Apr 7, 2009)

retrodog said:


> 2. People are stupid or liberal Hollywood is in charge on this one. No one had any assault weapons. Apparently, all the troops got killed and their guns mysteriously vanished. Any Law Enforcement office the size of the one on the show would have had MP5s and M16s instead of just shotguns and bolt action hunting rifles. Or maybe those got taken away too. A really nice belt-fed HK23, firing at head height, would mow down most of those undead in mere seconds. You could even dip it a bit to pick off the shorties and crawlers.


World War Z (different book in a different zombie universe) actually brought this up and talked about it. At least the part about automatic weapons against zombies.


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## cheesesteak (Jul 24, 2003)

Actually, I thought horse ridin', zombie killin' sheriff was a great image. It didn't last too long though.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

danterner said:


> Yeah, six episodes to a season is pretty paltry by US standards (but pretty standard overseas). For what it's worth, this particular series was already picked up for a second season (13 additional episodes) even before last night's first episode aired. Hopefully, it will be around for a while.


This is great news. After watching last night this will be one of my most anticipated shows each week in November. I'll need to take a look at the graphic novel.


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

aaronwt said:


> I'll need to take a look at the graphic novel.


It's actually an ongoing comic book series, just hit issue 78. It's collected in three different series of books...$15 paperbacks with 6 issues each, $35 oversized hardcovers with 12 issues each, and $100 monster-sized hardcovers with 24 issues each. The 12-issue hardcovers are probably the best deal...with Amazon discounts, they're only slightly more than two 6-issue paperbacks, in a sturdier package with bigger pages.

(I get the $100 books, which are hideously expensive, spectacular packages with huge pages and glorious production values. But I'm a huge fan of the series, so it's worth it to me to pay the premium.)

One thing really shocked me, though, looking at the first volume to check on Rick's coma. The series artist is Charlie Adlard, who is absolutely perfect for the book. But the first six issues were drawn by Tony Moore, who is a very good artist in his own right, but has a much cartoonier style that was very jarring to see after all those years of Adlard. Those early issues were good, but the chemistry between writer Kirkman, artist Adlard, and the material is truly magical, so if those initial issues don't work for you, keep going until you get to the Adlard stuff, which is much more indicative of the series as a whole.


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## robojerk (Jun 13, 2006)

retrodog said:


> 7. The Sheriff isn't very smart. Aside from the weapons issues, riding the horse into the streets of a large city when you know zombies are on the loose was purely stooooopid. I hope the book told that part of the story in a way that worked better.


I actually thought the horse was smart. The horse doesn't require gas, is way more maneuverable than a car and has it's own pair of eyes so if it saw zombies he didn't it could move away. What went wrong IMO is that the sheriff was thinking the city was safe didn't take more caution in the fact that he was in a major metropolis and there could be hundreds/thousands/hundreds of thousands of zombies just around any corner. When he told the horse not to worry about the few following them when he passed the bus it was a big clue he wasn't being cautious enough and things were probably going to go bad soon.


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## stellie93 (Feb 25, 2006)

Rob Helmerichs said:


> The thing that makes Walking Dead the comic book work so brilliantly is that it's not about zombies. It's about people put into an unspeakably horrible situation, and how they cope. And not Hollywood heroic people...good people, bad people, but all _people _people.
> 
> It looks like the show is headed that way, too. Hope so!


Yeah, I love end of the world type scenerios. A good plague with people going crazy would probably be better than zombies to me, but I thought this was really well done.

I somehow missed the point that the woman with his partner was his wife.  And son, I guess. Was I just not paying attention? Maybe I should watch it again. This is why I come here. You guys catch all the details.


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## DreadPirateRob (Nov 12, 2002)

retrodog said:


> People are stupid or liberal Hollywood is in charge on this one. No one had any assault weapons. Apparently, all the troops got killed and their guns mysteriously vanished. Any Law Enforcement office the size of the one on the show would have had MP5s and M16s instead of just shotguns and bolt action hunting rifles. Or maybe those got taken away too. A really nice belt-fed HK23, firing at head height, would mow down most of those undead in mere seconds. You could even dip it a bit to pick off the shorties and crawlers.





Queue said:


> World War Z (different book in a different zombie universe) actually brought this up and talked about it. At least the part about automatic weapons against zombies.


Yeah, WWZ (one of my absolutely favorite books) talked about the ineffectiveness of much of modern weaponry - including machine guns - against a large mass of zombies. Sure, if they stay tightly packed and there is a relatively limited number of them (or if you have significant numbers on your side that are discipline in sticking to fields of fire, machine guns can be highly effective. But if not, you run into problems quickly, and you are going to burn through ammo at an extremely high rate without getting much bang for the buck. Unlike a regular enemy, it's basically all or nothing against zombies - you either hit the brain and get a kill shot, or you do no damage whatsoever, and waste a bunch of ammo in the process. So you better have way a ton of ammo. Also, the machine gun has no deterrent or psychological effect on zombies, whereas they give the shooter a feeling of invincibility right up until they run out of ammo, at which point they become useless.


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## spikedavis (Nov 23, 2003)

Good thing Rick did poop or pee all month he was in that bed.


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## DreadPirateRob (Nov 12, 2002)

retrodog said:


> 3. Did suppressors suddenly vanish from society? If noise is a problem, wouldn't you be looking for some suppressors? Or is that rocket science?


Where do you go about finding suppressors in a small Kentucky town if you don't already have some? You may have a whole drawerful in your garage, but I'm going to hazard a guess that 99% of the population either 1) has no idea how to obtain one in a panicked state with a bunch of zombies strolling around and other people trying to get the hell out of dodge, or 2) even if they think they are important, they are probably pretty low on the list of basic survival supplies they are looking for.

So while it may not be realistic for _you_, 'dog, I had no problem with it, other than thinking "a silencer would be nice", as I'm sure the survivors also thought.


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

stellie93 said:


> I somehow missed the point that the woman with his partner was his wife.  And son, I guess. Was I just not paying attention? Maybe I should watch it again. This is why I come here. You guys catch all the details.


They didn't reveal it right away. We were meant to think what you did (if we hadn't read, the comics, that is!). At the end, Rick was looking at the picture of his family, and it was them.

In the comic, they handled it a little differently.


Spoiler



Rick finds Lori and Carl with Shane, but there's only a hint that Shane is in love with Lori and wishes that Rick hadn't come back. Later, we learn that in Rick's absence, Shane & Lori had a brief affair.


In my last post, I forget about the Compendium, a paperback collecting the first 48 issues for $60. So that one would have the most bang for the buck, although it would leave you hanging for a few years until the second volume came out.


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## jschuur (Nov 27, 2002)

Maui said:


> Just how long was the character supposed to be unconcious that civilization got that bad on him?


About as long as the guy from 28 Days Later. It would seem he was in a coma, and not just out of it from his immediate wounds.

Out of curiosity, I just checked the dates on both. The Walking Dead comic started in 2003, and 28 Days Later is from 2002, so we can be reasonably sure that 28 Days wasn't copying Walking Dead.

It's entirely possible that both were inspired by an older story (or it was simply a natural conclusion to come to independently). Does anyone have any examples dating back further where coma patients wake up and zombies have taken over?


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## spikedavis (Nov 23, 2003)

Rob Helmerichs said:


> They didn't reveal it right away. We were meant to think what you did (if we hadn't read, the comics, that is!). At the end, Rick was looking at the picture of his family, and it was them.
> 
> In the comic, they handled it a little differently.
> 
> ...


And as Walking Dead fans-we can tell you that waiting a MONTH feels like waiting a year...


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## spikedavis (Nov 23, 2003)

jschuur said:


> Out of curiosity, I just checked the dates on both. The Walking Dead comic started in 2003, and 28 Days Later is from 2002, so we can be reasonably sure that 28 Days wasn't copying Walking Dead.


In regards to this old story, EW interviewed Kirkman today (great article):

http://popwatch.ew.com/2010/11/01/walking-dead-amc-pilot-kirkman/

EW: I suspect a lot of people who are coming across the story of The Walking Dead for the first time would have thought that the guy-wakes-from-coma-to-discover-that-the-world-has-been-overrun-by-zombies plot was very similar to 28 Days Later. Presumably you had seen that film when you wrote the first issue of the comic?
RK: No. Welcome to my life seven years ago. It was complete coincidence. I saw 28 Days Later shortly before the first issue of Walking Dead was released. That first issue came out in October of 2003 and 28 Days Later was released in the States in June of 2003. So we were working on our second issue by the time I saw it. It was going to be a matter of somehow trying to restage the entire first issue, because it was a very similar coma opening. I made a decisionwhich I pretty much regret at this pointI said, You know what? Its so different [from that point on], I will probably never hear anything about this. And I was wrong.
EW: So when you saw the movie you must have thought, Oh s!
RK: Yeah. It was a little annoying. But great minds think alike, right?


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## DreadPirateRob (Nov 12, 2002)

retrodog said:


> 7. The Sheriff isn't very smart. Aside from the weapons issues, riding the horse into the streets of a large city when you know zombies are on the loose was purely stooooopid. I hope the book told that part of the story in a way that worked better.





robojerk said:


> I actually thought the horse was smart. The horse doesn't require gas, is way more maneuverable than a car and has it's own pair of eyes so if it saw zombies he didn't it could move away. What went wrong IMO is that the sheriff was thinking the city was safe didn't take more caution in the fact that he was in a major metropolis and there could be hundreds/thousands/hundreds of thousands of zombies just around any corner. When he told the horse not to worry about the few following them when he passed the bus it was a big clue he wasn't being cautious enough and things were probably going to go bad soon.


I didn't have a big problem with the horse either. In many respects, it's a good choice. No worries about fuel, allows for a heightened vantage point, self-navigating so Rick could worry about looking around for survivors and not worry about missing a zombie right in front of him, an extra set of danger sensors, the ability to cover a lot of ground and do a great deal of recon, and the ability to out-run anything he is likely to run into. All good things.

Now, as with anything, there are trade-offs/potential risks. The horse is going to make more noise and thus attract more zombies, thus reducing Rick's ability to sneak into the city. Also, the horse could potentially be skittish if the zombies get close. Both are concerns, but not deal-breakers. I think the problem was that Rick hadn't seen anything more than a handful of zombies together up to that point, and didn't really respect them as much of a current threat as he should have. He didn't see the devastation and the world end around him - he just saw the aftermath. I'm not sure he considered the possibility of a hundred thousand zombies all in a relatively combined space. And he sure as hell didn't take into account the fact that Atlanta was a death trap and not a safe zone.

So, really, it was more user error on Rick's part than a poor choice to begin with. Had he been more careful - and not a dumbass like the guy on the mic called him - he could have easily avoided the situation that he got himself into.


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## john4200 (Nov 1, 2009)

Rob Helmerichs said:


> They didn't reveal it right away. We were meant to think what you did (if we hadn't read, the comics, that is!).


I haven't read the comics, but my first thought after the kiss in the tent was that his partner was boning his wife -- it seemed exactly the right cliche for this series. But my second thought was, why didn't his partner, wife, or son recognize his voice on the CB? It didn't sound terribly distorted.

On the subject of the horse, I agree with retrodog that it was idiotic. First, he did not seem to be carrying food and water for the horse, which was probably in bad shape when he found it (nothing but grass to eat and I did not see a water trough). Second, it cannot be terribly difficult to scavenge some gas. Not all of the abandoned vehicles ran out of gas, I'm sure. I would have looked for a motorcycle to start with (good gas mileage) and then switched to a truck as I neared the city (quieter). But I would have been out of there as soon as I saw the first zombie and/or abandoned military vehicle.


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## john4200 (Nov 1, 2009)

DreadPirateRob said:


> I think the problem was that Rick hadn't seen anything more than a handful of zombies together up to that point, and didn't really respect them as much of a current threat as he should have.


Despite the explicit warning he was given about packs of zombies. I guess they had to make him really dumb in the beginning in order to have him slowly get smarter as the series progresses.


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## DreadPirateRob (Nov 12, 2002)

As for my feelings about the ep in general (as opposed to just sniping at retrodog's comments ), I really liked it. I have no background with the source material, but I enjoy the zombie/post-apocalyptic genres (not sure what that says about me, especially since for the most part I'm a decidedly optimistic person). 

I enjoyed the slower pace of the opener - in most zombie flicks, they can't really fit in too much grief or sad contemplation into the story before they have to cut to the chase, so I appreciated how in this ep they made a concerted effort to show both. I was truly moved not only by Morgan's inability to shoot his zombified wife, but also by Rick's compassion for the crawler, and how he talked to her and expressed his sorrow for her before putting her down. I understand that it won't always be like this, but I appreciated that they took a few beats to show that side of the story.


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## DreadPirateRob (Nov 12, 2002)

john4200 said:


> Despite the explicit warning he was given about packs of zombies. I guess they had to make him really dumb in the beginning in order to have him slowly get smarter as the series progresses.


I think it's one thing to hear warnings from someone else, and it's quite another to have seen and experienced something for yourself.

But I agree that they are probably going to show him "growing up" as the series goes on.


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

I thought the horse was a decent idea...an ATV that could forage its own fuel, and really just a temporary expedience. Remember that as far as Rick knew, all he had to do was get to Atlanta and he'd be back in the arms of civilization. It wasn't until he went around that corner that he realized how badly he'd miscalculated.

And I, for one, am tired of post-apocalyptic protagonists who know everything they need to survive (often because they were pre-apocalyptic geeks). Having Rick be a regular guy who has maybe never seen a zombie movie in his life yet has to deal with all this unspeakable crap is a welcome change for me.


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## john4200 (Nov 1, 2009)

jschuur said:


> It's entirely possible that both were inspired by an older story (or it was simply a natural conclusion to come to independently). Does anyone have any examples dating back further where coma patients wake up and zombies have taken over?


Didn't one of the Resident Evil video games (upon which the movies were based) have a similar scene with the woman waking up in the abandoned hospital? I'm not positive about that, and I'm not sure of the timeframe. Just a thought.


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## jschuur (Nov 27, 2002)

spikedavis said:


> In regards to this old story, EW interviewed Kirkman today (great article):
> 
> http://popwatch.ew.com/2010/11/01/walking-dead-amc-pilot-kirkman/


Excellent find. I'll buy that. Short of coming back from space, an Antarctic base or a long vacation in the mountains, awaking from a coma is an obvious place to to start with.


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## john4200 (Nov 1, 2009)

Rob Helmerichs said:


> And I, for one, am tired of post-apocalyptic protagonists who know everything they need to survive (often because they were pre-apocalyptic geeks). Having Rick be a regular guy who has maybe never seen a zombie movie in his life yet has to deal with all this unspeakable crap is a welcome change for me.


Using a gasoline-powered vehicle instead of a horse is hardly knowing everything. In fact, I think that most people would have more difficulty with a horse than with scavenging some gas and salvaging an abandoned vehicle.

If gas were truly scarce, I'd agree with you that a horse was a decent idea. But I just don't buy it. There should be plenty of gas to be found with a little searching.


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## DreadPirateRob (Nov 12, 2002)

john4200 said:


> Using a gasoline-powered vehicle instead of a horse is hardly knowing everything. In fact, I think that most people would have more difficulty with a horse than with scavenging some gas and salvaging an abandoned vehicle.
> 
> If gas were truly scarce, I'd agree with you that a horse was a decent idea. But I just don't buy it. There should be plenty of gas to be found with a little searching.


Not surprising, I guess, but I disagree.  I guess I like playing the contrarian today.

There are more than few problems/hurdles with either choice. With cars, you have to scrounge up some gas, but there is little to no power anywhere, so the gas station pumps likely are going to work. So you have to know how to siphon it from another car. Which means you need a hose. I don't know about you, but I don't know how to siphon something using a hose. I understand the theory behind it, but as a practical matter have never gotten it to work (the one time I tried with gas I got a mouthful of gas).

And then you have to worry about car batteries being dead. There are fewer and fewer manuals out there, so finding one where you can pop the clutch is going to be hard. Much less finding one on a significant enough slope to where you will be able to get a good push going by yourself.

And even assuming both of those hurdles are overcome, in the aftermath of an apocalypse, you are going to have to assume that most roads are not going to be passable - they're going to be jampacked with cars, just like the other side of the freeway was (and really the way the whole freeway should have been).

On the other hand, you have a horse. If you know how to saddle one and get astride it (not unlikely considering Rick is from Kentucky), there are no more hurdles to overcome. You don't need fuel, juice, or passable roads.

In his situation, not an unreasonable choice.


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

DreadPirateRob said:


> In his situation, not an unreasonable choice.


And while I agree with everything you said, there's also the point that it's just SO DAMNED COOL!


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## danterner (Mar 4, 2005)

Rob Helmerichs said:


> In my last post, I forget about the Compendium, a paperback collecting the first 48 issues for $60. So that one would have the most bang for the buck, although it would leave you hanging for a few years until the second volume came out.


One additional option, if you have an iPhone/iPad/Touch, would be the Image Comics app. Every issue of The Walking Dead is available for download, so you can read it in electronic form. It even does a cool panning thing from frame to frame -- it uses the same Comixology back-end interface as the Marvel and DC apps. The price for each issue is similar to what you would pay for the print version, or you can download the collections. The digital issues release same day-and-date as the print issues are released to stores.


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## john4200 (Nov 1, 2009)

DreadPirateRob said:


> There are more than few problems/hurdles with either choice. With cars, you have to scrounge up some gas, but there is little to no power anywhere, so the gas station pumps likely are going to work. So you have to know how to siphon it from another car. Which means you need a hose. I don't know about you, but I don't know how to siphon something using a hose. I understand the theory behind it, but as a practical matter have never gotten it to work (the one time I tried with gas I got a mouthful of gas).
> 
> And then you have to worry about car batteries being dead. There are fewer and fewer manuals out there, so finding one where you can pop the clutch is going to be hard. Much less finding one on a significant enough slope to where you will be able to get a good push going by yourself.
> 
> ...


None of these are serious difficulties. Siphoning gas is not rocket science. If you get a mouthful, don't swallow, spit it out! No need to worry about car batteries being dead. There are plenty of vehicles to choose from, and there will be plenty with working batteries. Obstructions are not a problem. Just find a 4 wheel drive vehicle and go around obstructions. Or use a motorcycle until you get close to the city.

The only thing I agree with in the quote above is that the freeway should have had cars on the other side too (going the wrong way). If people were fleeing the city in such haste, they would have used both sides.

The horse was idiotic. He should have taken a motorcycle or a truck.


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## retrodog (Feb 7, 2002)

DreadPirateRob said:


> Yeah, WWZ (one of my absolutely favorite books) talked about the ineffectiveness of much of modern weaponry - including machine guns - against a large mass of zombies. Sure, if they stay tightly packed and there is a relatively limited number of them (or if you have significant numbers on your side that are discipline in sticking to fields of fire, machine guns can be highly effective. But if not, you run into problems quickly, and you are going to burn through ammo at an extremely high rate without getting much bang for the buck. Unlike a regular enemy, it's basically all or nothing against zombies - you either hit the brain and get a kill shot, or you do no damage whatsoever, and waste a bunch of ammo in the process. So you better have way a ton of ammo. Also, the machine gun has no deterrent or psychological effect on zombies, whereas they give the shooter a feeling of invincibility right up until they run out of ammo, at which point they become useless.


Standard fiction, invented by those who would have you believe they wouldn't be effective. I guess its best that way though because we need a story.


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## Fleegle (Jan 15, 2002)

Rob Helmerichs said:


> Vampires are actually multi-planetary.
> 
> Steven King vampires are from Mars. Stephanie Meyer vampires are from Venus.
> 
> Maybe some enterprising horror author ought to come up with sexy, romantic zombies!


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## stellie93 (Feb 25, 2006)

john4200 said:


> I haven't read the comics, but my first thought after the kiss in the tent was that his partner was boning his wife -- it seemed exactly the right cliche for this series. But my second thought was, why didn't his partner, wife, or son recognize his voice on the CB? It didn't sound terribly distorted.


Not recognizing his voice is a good question. Also they seemed to take the idea of posting a sign on the road into Atlanta pretty lightly. At this point I would think there'd be so few people left that each chance to save one would be important. I don't know how far from the road they are....


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## Queue (Apr 7, 2009)

I thought Shane made it to the radio after they couldn't hear Rick anymore. And Lori showed up after Shane.


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## Cainebj (Nov 11, 2006)

stellie93 said:


> I somehow missed the point that the woman with his partner was his wife.  And son, I guess. Was I just not paying attention?


It was easily missed. Right after they showed them by the radio - they cut to him taking a picture of his wife and son down from the car visor. I actually rewound it to check that it was them. At first I thought it couldn't have been because of the kiss.



spikedavis said:


> Good thing Rick did poop or pee all month he was in that bed.


I have to say I thought the same thing.
It's kindof a shame they didn't soil or at the very least wet his boxers. 
But then again. I bought into no one in 24 ever went to the toilet.


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## SoBelle0 (Jun 25, 2002)

I was nervous the whole episode!! Zombies are freaky creepy, and him just wandering onto porches and riding past groups of zombies had me completely on edge. 

Really enjoyed it... Except for all the gore. Ew! That was a lot to take. And, the poor horse. 
They did a great job of providing the horrific-ness of the situation, with some feelings of sympathy for the walking dead. 

So, he came from Kentucky? I didn't know anything about the comic, and the Forum app doesn't hide spoilers, but I thought I saw that in a skim through. 

Fun, and scary, seeing downtown overrun with the zombies. I want to play a zombie on tv, now.


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## madscientist (Nov 12, 2003)

aadam101 said:


> I don't think it's cheap. Alias did that when the show was at it's absolute best in almost every episode. I think they just wanted to remind people it was a zombie show. The first 30 minutes or so didn't have any zombies.


I thought they did it to heighten the suspense. By showing that there are zombies up-front, and even kids can be zombies, the entire sequence with him waking up in the hospital, etc. was even more nerve-wracking (I think).



gchance said:


> The one character's wife being drawn to the house, and the guy knowing he needs to dispatch her or his son will continue being tormented, yet not being able to do it for being conflicted himself


I said to my wife "honey, I hope you don't take this the wrong way but if I was in that position I would not be hesitating at all". She said "good--you better not!"


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## VegasVic (Nov 22, 2002)

VegasVic said:


> I'm recording to watch later or tomorrow. I've never been a fan of the zombie genre but this got good reviews and I'll give it a shot.


Glad I did. I enjoyed it immensley.


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## TiVoStephen (Jun 27, 2000)

jschuur said:


> About as long as the guy from 28 Days Later. It would seem he was in a coma, and not just out of it from his immediate wounds.
> 
> Out of curiosity, I just checked the dates on both. The Walking Dead comic started in 2003, and 28 Days Later is from 2002, so we can be reasonably sure that 28 Days wasn't copying Walking Dead.
> 
> It's entirely possible that both were inspired by an older story (or it was simply a natural conclusion to come to independently). Does anyone have any examples dating back further where coma patients wake up and zombies have taken over?


John Wyndham's 1951 novel "The Day of the Triffids" (which has been filmed several times, once as a movie and at least three times as a mini-series) begins with the main character waking up in the hospital after an apocalyptic disaster (not involving zombies, though).

Per Wiki, Danny Boyle was inspired by "The Day of the Triffids" when was writing "28 Days Later." (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/28_Days_Later#Style_and_inspiration).


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## tlc (May 30, 2002)

Rob Helmerichs said:


> Maybe some enterprising horror author ought to come up with sexy, romantic zombies!


I haven't read it yet, but I think The Loving Dead by Amelia Beamer goes there. Well, sexy, not romantic.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

john4200 said:


> None of these are serious difficulties. Siphoning gas is not rocket science. If you get a mouthful, don't swallow, spit it out! No need to worry about car batteries being dead. There are plenty of vehicles to choose from, and there will be plenty with working batteries. Obstructions are not a problem. Just find a 4 wheel drive vehicle and go around obstructions. Or use a motorcycle until you get close to the city.
> 
> The only thing I agree with in the quote above is that the freeway should have had cars on the other side too (going the wrong way). If people were fleeing the city in such haste, they would have used both sides.
> 
> The horse was idiotic. He should have taken a motorcycle or a truck.


Most people have no idea how ride a mortocycle, plus gas was an issue for him any way.
And from teh look of things. many cars probably had ampty tanks if people were stuck in them for a long time.

For siphoning, can you actually do that with most vehicles? Is there nothing in the gasoline entrance like a strainer type filter(to prevent bigger objects from falling in the gas tank) that would prevent a hose from going into the gas tank?


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Cainebj said:


> It was easily missed. Right after they showed them by the radio - they cut to him taking a picture of his wife and son down from the car visor. I actually rewound it to check that it was them. At first I thought it couldn't have been because of the kiss.
> 
> ....


After I saw that, I was wondering if there was actually something going on between the wife and the deputy before he got shot.


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## robojerk (Jun 13, 2006)

aaronwt said:


> After I saw that, I was wondering if there was actually something going on between the wife and the deputy before he got shot.


Same here.


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## robojerk (Jun 13, 2006)

aaronwt said:


> Most people have no idea how ride a mortocycle, plus gas was an issue for him any way.
> And from teh look of things. many cars probably had ampty tanks if people were stuck in them for a long time.
> 
> For siphoning, can you actually do that with most vehicles? Is there nothing in the gasoline entrance like a strainer type filter(to prevent bigger objects from falling in the gas tank) that would prevent a hose from going into the gas tank?


I think the hose is a better long term investment. Batteries corode over time, the volatility gasoline gets compromised after a few months. 6 months to a year after the zombie apocalypse started gas and a working vehicle would be worth it's weight in gold but would need a lot of maintenance. Bad gas wears down the engine.

The argument is moot now, the horse is zombie dinner. He should have respected the zombie threat more. An ATV, motorcycle would have been cool too, but they're definitely a lot noisier than a horse.


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## Test (Dec 8, 2004)

Rob Helmerichs said:


> Maybe some enterprising horror author ought to come up with sexy, romantic zombies!


You haven't seen Deadgirl?


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## DreadPirateRob (Nov 12, 2002)

john4200 said:


> None of these are serious difficulties. Siphoning gas is not rocket science. *If you get a mouthful, don't swallow, spit it out!*


Gee, thanks for that nugget of advice. 

None of those may be serious difficulties 2 weeks after the zombie apocalypse, but months later? It's going to be an issue, and it's going to get worse.


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## DreadPirateRob (Nov 12, 2002)

retrodog said:


> Standard fiction, invented by those who would have you believe they wouldn't be effective. I guess its best that way though because we need a story.


Wait. Do you mean to tell me that a book about how machine guns wouldn't be as effective against a _zombie apocalypse_ was standard fiction? Sheesh. Now they tell me. 

On a serious note, read _World War Z_ and get back to me. I'd love to hear your counterpoints. What the guy wrote made sense, but then again I'm not an exotic truck-mounted, belt-driven machine gun aficionado. FWIW, I didn't get the sense that the author of _WWZ_ was anti-gun, and he had clearly thought a *lot* of stuff out.


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## Test (Dec 8, 2004)

The guy had a cowboy police hat, there is no question that he would choose a horse over car every time...right? Yee Haw


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## cheesesteak (Jul 24, 2003)

I bet the horse's last thoughts were along the line of: "I was standing there just minding my business, not a care in the world and this clown had to come along and get me eaten alive. A-hole"


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## speedcouch (Oct 23, 2003)

[email protected] said:


> I thought it was pretty cool. Did any women like it? Or is it just the guys?


We recorded it and watched it last night. I thought it was very good, but my husband thought it was wasn't that original and too predictable. Probably because the black guy was also on Jericho, which as another what he calls "post-apocolytic, survivial story."

I thought this one was more about character development than horror (okay, except for a few times). 

As soon as his partner kissed the woman in the tent city, I knew that was the lead's wife and kid. Fully expected the wife to call the kid Carl, so we'd know.

Cheryl


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## windracer (Jan 3, 2003)

DreadPirateRob said:


> I enjoyed the slower pace of the opener ...


Me too. I wonder if any of the people who hated "Rubicon" because of the slow pace and lack of dialog have the same complaint about "Walking Dead." 

I've never read the comic either, but love zombie flicks and enjoyed reading "World War Z" so I liked this first ep.

With only a 6 episode season, why didn't they start this _before_ Halloween? Wouldn't it make sense to be showing zombie-themed content during October and have the finale on Halloween instead of starting it on Halloween?


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## danterner (Mar 4, 2005)

windracer said:


> With only a 6 episode season, why didn't they start this _before_ Halloween? Wouldn't it make sense to be showing zombie-themed content during October and have the finale on Halloween instead of starting it on Halloween?


I believe the original plan was to have the first episode start the week before Halloween, and have the second episode a week later on Halloween, as this would allow two episodes to fall during Fear Fest, but ultimately the decision was made to delay it because they didn't want the first episode to go up against the Vikings vs. Green Bay Packers game -- AMC figured the crossover audience was large enough to merit a week delay so as to avoid people choosing football over their show.

As for why they didn't start it even earlier in September or October, and wrap up with a finale on Halloween, I think the encouraging answer is that AMC is not viewing this as a mini-series but as one of their staples. It's going to be an ongoing show, so the idea of ending it at Halloween wasn't so much of a consideration, maybe, since it's coming back anyway?


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

Another factor is that if they started it earlier, it would be up against the starts of all the new network shows. The timing seems perfect...with baseball, the election, etc., there's a lull in major network programming that gives Walking Dead a better shot (which it seems to have taken...it was the highest rated series episode in AMC history!).


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## dbranco (Nov 20, 2003)

[email protected] said:


> I thought it was pretty cool. Did any women like it? Or is it just the guys?


I TiVo'd this for my husband, not intending to watch it. Just have no interest in zombies at all. He convinced me to try it out for 1/2 hour, saying I could opt-out after that. Well, after 1/2 hour I could not "put it down". I found it extremely creepy, and I was intrigued by great storytelling and character development. Watched the entire episode and am now officially hooked.


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## cheerdude (Feb 27, 2001)

We watched it last night and loved it...

With the several close calls... you would have thought that Frank would have figured out what to do/not to do with zombies; but I guess that's going to take a little longer.

If this is going to follow the comics - Do we ever find out how it all started? Is there anyone that immune to being a Walker? How far has it spread (i.e. is the entire state of Georgia under quarantine)?


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## cheesesteak (Jul 24, 2003)

Unfortunately, if this series proves to be a hit, we'll probably get hit with shows where the zombies are angsty, guilt ridden, read poetry, have fwoopy gelled hair and six pack abs.


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## Barmat (Jun 1, 2001)

cheerdude said:


> We watched it last night and loved it...
> 
> With the several close calls... you would have thought that Frank would have figured out what to do/not to do with zombies; but I guess that's going to take a little longer.
> 
> If this is going to follow the comics - Do we ever find out how it all started? Is there anyone that immune to being a Walker? How far has it spread (i.e. is the entire state of Georgia under quarantine)?





Spoiler



1. Not yet.
2. It has covered at least much of the South and East Coast, no specifics have been given. There has been no rescue party's from any where else, no radio, no TV, no government, no help at all. It seems it has covered the globe.


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## retrodog (Feb 7, 2002)

DreadPirateRob said:


> Wait. Do you mean to tell me that a book about how machine guns wouldn't be as effective against a _zombie apocalypse_ was standard fiction? Sheesh. Now they tell me.
> 
> On a serious note, read _World War Z_ and get back to me. I'd love to hear your counterpoints. What the guy wrote made sense, but then again I'm not an exotic truck-mounted, belt-driven machine gun aficionado. FWIW, I didn't get the sense that the author of _WWZ_ was anti-gun, and he had clearly thought a *lot* of stuff out.


I don't need to read some other book to make the points that I needed to last night, but was stuck on a iPad with no real keyboard so I couldn't type much.

Just to be a little more clear than my earlier post...

Zombies only represent a part of the threat in this environment. The other survivors, organized and disorganized, represent a much more sophisticated threat. And they are subject to superior firepower. When I was talking about machine guns, I also wanted to mention semi-autos like AR15s and the like. Things with 20-40 round mags. Much better than a deer rifle with 3-4 rounds.

Back on the zombie thing... when I was referring to a couple of guys with beltfed automatics, I was referring to an organized and sizable support force that was there for crowd control cleanup, whereas ammo supplies wouldn't be much of an issue and barrel changes would be easy.

But my key point here is back to the fact that something like an AR15 with a 30 round mag would be greatly preferable to a bolt action hunting rifle. Not only is it superior to the BAHR for numbers, but it is also accurate out past 200 meters for long range head shots.

In our hero's situation, obviously he couldn't mow down all those zombies that were around the corner because there were too many layers (deep) of them for him to even attempt it with anything short of a plasma blaster. But if you were paying attention, he got flanked by single layers of zombies who were more than he could take on with his six-shooter. So he crawled under the tank and used his few bullets on the ones crawling under there after him. If he had only had an automatic of some sort, he could have penetrated the thin layers of zombies that flanked him and made a run for it.

After getting into the tank and shooting the soldier zombie, he got his P92 (Beretta Handgun with a 15 round mag). I'm sure that will come in handy for his eventual escape from his current situation. But keep in mind though that he no longer has a few thin lines of zombies on his six that he can easily get through... as they have now saturated the area around his entire perimeter. He's going to need something more serious now (fire, explosions, etc.) or they will have to get creative with their camera angles to let him escape. Or maybe he can just start it up and drive away. 

All of this could have been satisfied and I wouldn't think the guy was dumb if he had just made a comment back in the armory something like, "Well, looks like they took all the good stuff and just left this."

I'm sure that a few months of our civilization battling zombies would have resulted in a lot of the automatic weapons being used, and maybe some survivalist groups ran around picking up all the fallen weapons, but there should have been something more than shotguns and deer hunting rifles available. And those things would be a lot more useful. That's what I'm saying.


----------



## spikedavis (Nov 23, 2003)

cheesesteak said:


> I bet the horse's last thoughts were along the line of: "I was standing there just minding my business, not a care in the world and this clown had to come along and get me eaten alive. A-hole"


:up:


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## firerose818 (Jul 21, 2003)

Rob Helmerichs said:


> Another factor is that if they started it earlier, it would be up against the starts of all the new network shows. The timing seems perfect...with baseball, the election, etc., there's a lull in major network programming that gives Walking Dead a better shot (which it seems to have taken...it was the highest rated series episode in AMC history!).


And I'm guessing because Mad Men ended only two weeks ago, and the shows share a time slot.


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## TAsunder (Aug 6, 2003)

Liked it. Generally I agree with Roger Ebert[?] that zombies are a really boring monster/enemy and that the genre is on the whole uninteresting. This show therefore had to overcome a lot. I think it did. My wife liked it too.

Had to be more than a week since his legs were weak when he stood up at first.


----------



## retrodog (Feb 7, 2002)

So why did the zombies eat the horse? They didn't eat the dog in Dawn of the Dead.


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## danterner (Mar 4, 2005)

Thinking back on this episode, with the exception of the last scene where the Atlanta zombies mob Rick on horseback, did we see a single instance of a zombie actually attacking a human, or was all of the violence human on zombie? For a feature-length show on zombies, that's got to be some kind of a record.


----------



## retrodog (Feb 7, 2002)

danterner said:


> Thinking back on this episode, with the exception of the last scene where the Atlanta zombies mob Rick on horseback, did we see a single instance of a zombie actually attacking a human, or was all of the violence human on zombie? For a feature-length show on zombies, that's got to be some kind of a record.


The little girl came after him and the one crawling in the park also did. What, in your book, qualifies as an actual attack? Do they have to make physical contact and bite a chunk out?

But yeah, I see your point. There just hasn't been enough humans around for them to attack. Only three so far, right?


----------



## danterner (Mar 4, 2005)

retrodog said:


> The little girl came after him and the one crawling in the park also did. What, in your book, qualifies as an actual attack? Do they have to make physical contact and bite a chunk out?
> 
> But yeah, I see your point. There just hasn't been enough humans around for them to attack. Only three so far, right?


Plus everyone at the outskirts-of-Atlanta camp (though they didn't receive much screen time).

RE: physical contact and bite a chunk out -- yeah, that's pretty much what I meant. In this episode we didn't see anyone living fall prey to a zombie and get turned (if that's even what happens), which is pretty much a staple of most zombie stories. I'm not trying to make a major point here, except maybe just to say that this series is doing things differently (and I like it!).


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## ozzman73 (Nov 27, 2006)

Enjoyed the show very much. Very creepy, not like the show Supernatural creepy because in that case we are talking isolated incidents. With zombies and the depiction of the aftermath here, we are talking about end of civilization creepy.

Some elements and situations actually reminded me of Guillermo del Toro (and Chuck Hogan's) The Strain Trilogy (about Vampires)



Spoiler



Things like the fever, that was one of the first signs of infection. Likewise, the mother coming back to the kid, in The Strain, vampires always went back to their loved ones first



For retrodog,
Seven Scientific Reasons a Zombie Outbreak Would Fail


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Rob Helmerichs said:


> Another factor is that if they started it earlier, it would be up against the starts of all the new network shows. The timing seems perfect...with baseball, the election, etc., there's a lull in major network programming that gives Walking Dead a better shot (which it seems to have taken...it was the highest rated series episode in AMC history!).


Also November is a sweeps month. So the ratings gathered in sweeps months are what the advertising rates are based on.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

retrodog said:


> So why did the zombies eat the horse? They didn't eat the dog in Dawn of the Dead.


Different Virus


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## Cainebj (Nov 11, 2006)

retrodog said:


> So why did the zombies eat the horse? They didn't eat the dog in Dawn of the Dead.


Everyone knows horsemeat is tastier than dogmeat.


----------



## HIHZia (Nov 3, 2004)

retrodog said:


> All of this could have been satisfied and I wouldn't think the guy was dumb if he had just made a comment back in the armory something like, "Well, looks like they took all the good stuff and just left this."


Actually he did say it looked like it had been cleaned out, but there were some things left. Probably exactly what you're saying. Somebody took the most effective weapons and left the others since they couldn't take everything.


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## cheerdude (Feb 27, 2001)

One other comment - I loved the radio comment in the tank at the end. Figure we will find out next week where the guy was... but it was almost like it was his conscience saying "Dumbass... look what you got yourself into!"


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## danterner (Mar 4, 2005)

cheerdude said:


> One other comment - I loved the radio comment in the tank at the end. Figure we will find out next week where the guy was... but it was almost like it was his conscience saying "Dumbass... look what you got yourself into!"


(Spoilers based on knowledge from the comic)


Spoiler



I assume it is going to turn out to be Glenn, however it'd be interesting if this is a foreshadowing of Rick's later telephone calls with Lori and Cheerdude is right.


----------



## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/blogs/live-feed/zombie-tastic-walking-dead-ratings-34098



> 'Walking Dead' a Monster Smash
> By James Hibberd, The Hollywood Reporter's 'Live Feed' Blog - November 1st, 2010
> 
> AMC's The Walking Dead premiere ratings are enormous: The 90-minute Halloween night debut delivered 5.3 million viewers and a 3.3 adults 18-49 rating.
> ...


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## MickeS (Dec 26, 2002)

This was awesome. The best horror I've seen in years (and I watch a LOT of horror!).


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## windracer (Jan 3, 2003)

danterner said:


> I was anticipating it being scarier. I wasn't really frightened at any point. Maybe some of that comes from knowing the storyline in advance. But this wasn't a show with cheap "cat jumps out at you"-type thrills. (And it was better for it, I think). The situation itself is horrific enough, perhaps.


I thought for sure there was going to be a "jump out at you" moment when Rick was leaving the hospital via the pitch black stairway using the matches. I kept waiting for the next match strike to reveal something. They probably planned it that way, though, and it was more suspenseful because nothing happened.


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## SoBelle0 (Jun 25, 2002)

windracer said:


> I thought for sure there was going to be a "jump out at you" moment when Rick was leaving the hospital via the pitch black stairway using the matches. I kept waiting for the next match strike to reveal something. They probably planned it that way, though, and it was more suspenseful because nothing happened.


Agreed! I felt that way through most of the show...
and, loved it!


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## cheerdude (Feb 27, 2001)

We needed a cat to be thrown in front of him!


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## SorenTodd (May 26, 2009)

Amazing. Simply amazing. This is easily the best new show of the 2010 season; it's not even open for debate. It even makes The Event look like crap in comparison.



> _I was nervous the whole episode!! Zombies are freaky creepy, and him just wandering onto porches and riding past groups of zombies had me completely on edge._


This. With George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" and "Dawn of the Dead", you pretty much knew where the zombies were at any given moment. But with this show, I was on edge; never knowing when a zombie would suddenly pop out of nowhere.

What's funny is that I was already a big fan of The History Channel's "Life After People". So I knew I would be drawn to this show like a horse to water. And I do see some similarities between the two shows. Except with "Walking Dead", there are "people", just not the kind that you would want to invite to your next social function.


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## spikedavis (Nov 23, 2003)

SorenTodd said:


> It even makes The Event look like crap in comparison.


I think this is something we can all agree on.


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## Mikeyis4dcats (Oct 2, 2003)

for anyone looking to buy the Compendium, it is available on Amazon right now for $35.

http://www.amazon.com/Walking-Dead-...0760/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1288753003&sr=8-1


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## dbranco (Nov 20, 2003)

windracer said:


> I thought for sure there was going to be a "jump out at you" moment when Rick was leaving the hospital via the pitch black stairway using the matches. I kept waiting for the next match strike to reveal something. They probably planned it that way, though, and it was more suspenseful because nothing happened.


Yes, same here! Agree wholeheartedly that it made it so much more suspenseful.


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## Martin Tupper (Dec 18, 2003)

musclenatural said:


> well i missed that episode


It's still going to air three more times on AMC this week, and once on IFC


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## retrodog (Feb 7, 2002)

SorenTodd said:


> Amazing. Simply amazing. This is easily the best new show of the 2010 season; it's not even open for debate. It even makes The Event look like crap in comparison.
> 
> This. With George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" and "Dawn of the Dead", you pretty much knew where the zombies were at any given moment. But with this show, I was on edge; never knowing when a zombie would suddenly pop out of nowhere.
> 
> What's funny is that I was already a big fan of The History Channel's "Life After People". So I knew I would be drawn to this show like a horse to water. And I do see some similarities between the two shows. Except with "Walking Dead", there are "people", just not the kind that you would want to invite to your next social function.


And of course there's still the whole thing of Life After People being an actual documentary and the Zombie thing being impossible. But let's not split hairs here.


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

retrodog said:


> And of course there's still the whole thing of Life After People being an actual documentary and the Zombie thing being impossible. But let's not split hairs here.


Well, Life Without People isn't any more possible than The Walking Dead...


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## NatasNJ (Jan 7, 2002)

Rob Helmerichs said:


> Well, Life Without People isn't any more possible than The Walking Dead...


Huh?

Life could still exist in the asbence of humans/people. Walking dead is still 100% impossible as far as we know.


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

NatasNJ said:


> Huh?
> 
> Life could still exist in the asbence of humans/people. Walking dead is still 100% impossible as far as we know.


But every human being on the planet suddenly vanishing without a trace is also 100% impossible as far as we know.


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## retrodog (Feb 7, 2002)

Rob Helmerichs said:


> But every human being on the planet suddenly vanishing without a trace is also 100% impossible as far as we know.


Oh, I see. Your point is that they didn't show a lot of corpses lying around and decaying. Well yeah, I guess that's a valid point.


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## stellie93 (Feb 25, 2006)

"As far as we know...." Yeah, this conversation could go on quite some time.


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

stellie93 said:


> "As far as we know...." Yeah, this conversation could go on quite some time.


Maybe.

At least, as far as...

On, never mind.


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## tivogurl (Dec 16, 2004)

I was disturbed by the cop wasting priceless and irreplaceable ammunition killing unthreatening zombies, namely the zombie cop and the legless zombie girl. Also, given that he was told "don't get bitten", making it obvious that zombiedom is transmitted like a disease, killing the zombie cop at point blank range where blood spatter (something a cop _should_ know about) can hit your skin and potentially infect you was beyond stupid. He has no way of knowing whether the disease can be transmitted by touch. Even if simple contact with skin isn't enough, his face was unprotected from spatter, and his eyes and nose are prime disease vectors into the body. Even a tiny near-invisible blood drop into his tear ducts could infect him, or he could breath in the invisible spray created by the spatter (rather like a sneeze does in reverse).


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## kilcher (Mar 6, 2002)

spikedavis said:


> My only problem was the silly song they played at the end when Rick is in the tank. Otherwise it was perfect.


Huh... I really liked it, enough to look up who sang it, and was shocked to see it was Wang Chung! Never would have guessed.



> I TiVo'd this for my husband, not intending to watch it. Just have no interest in zombies at all. He convinced me to try it out for 1/2 hour, saying I could opt-out after that. Well, after 1/2 hour I could not "put it down". I found it extremely creepy, and I was intrigued by great storytelling and character development. Watched the entire episode and am now officially hooked.


That's pretty much how my wife felt. She HATES horror movies but for some reason doesn't mind zombie movies (still far from being a fan). I was shocked she wanted to watch it with me. I told her she could stop whenever she wanted (I had already watched it). We usually alternate programs at commercial breaks but she wanted to keep watching and it sounds like she's hooked.

I think the key for this show is to focus on how it affects the human characters without getting too cheesy.

I am having a little trouble buying that the zombies, especially the slower non-Atlanta zombies shown in the beginning, could overrun the entire human population - including a well armed military. Maybe they'll get into that at some point.


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## spikedavis (Nov 23, 2003)

kilcher said:


> We usually alternate programs at commercial breaks


wait-what?


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## mchasal (Jun 6, 2001)

tivogurl said:


> I was disturbed by the cop wasting priceless and irreplaceable ammunition killing unthreatening zombies, namely the zombie cop and the legless zombie girl.


I can cut him some slack on this since, at that point, he's assuming he just has to make it to Hotlanta and everything will be fine. There was a bunch of ammo they took from the police armory, so he might have a fair supply. However, now that he realizes that it's going to be a longer haul, I hope we start to see some more consideration for things like this going forward.


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## photoshopgrl (Nov 22, 2008)

[email protected] said:


> I thought it was pretty cool. Did any women like it? Or is it just the guys?


LOVED it. Missed the original recording after I had been waiting on it all month so I had to wait a bit longer.



TomK said:


> I wish this was in HD on Directv. Actually I wish AMC was in HD on Directv, not so much for the appeal of zombies in HD.


I actually had to give up Directv after realizing they were never getting me Mad Men and Breaking Bad in HD, two of my must watch shows. Now this. Glad I made the switch to Time Warner as they were the only ones to carry it around here.



cheesesteak said:


> I got a little tired of the head shots but I learned to turn away in time. Other than that, 4 thumbs up. I feel kinda bad for that horse, though.


Being the animal lover I am, the horse was the only part of the show that I didn't love. 



Cainebj said:


> Or that his wife and partner LEFT him there!


Yeah I can't wait for that explanation. Perhaps they thought the entire hospital was taken over and assumed with all the other bodies that he hadn't made it. Still..... if it were my husband, I'd need to see the dead [or undead] body before I jetted off. And even then, picking things up with his partner no less? Umm no. Me thinks that wasn't a new development.



tivogurl said:


> I was disturbed by the cop wasting priceless and irreplaceable ammunition killing unthreatening zombies, namely the zombie cop and the legless zombie girl.


I actually understand him on these two. He's a do-gooder. He doesn't know if they are in pain or suffering of sorts so it's in his nature to try to put them out of their misery.

Gosh, I'm actually surprised at how well done this show was. I have zero knowledge of the book/comic/whatever so I'm just watching this based on the previews and knowing how amazing other AMC shows have turned out to be. Zombie movies usually bore me because they are all the same predictable stories. Excited this might actually be different!! :up::up:


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## retrodog (Feb 7, 2002)

tivogurl said:


> I was disturbed by the cop wasting priceless and irreplaceable ammunition killing unthreatening zombies, namely the zombie cop and the legless zombie girl. Also, given that he was told "don't get bitten", making it obvious that zombiedom is transmitted like a disease, killing the zombie cop at point blank range where blood spatter (something a cop _should_ know about) can hit your skin and potentially infect you was beyond stupid. He has no way of knowing whether the disease can be transmitted by touch. Even if simple contact with skin isn't enough, his face was unprotected from spatter, and his eyes and nose are prime disease vectors into the body. Even a tiny near-invisible blood drop into his tear ducts could infect him, or he could breath in the invisible spray created by the spatter (rather like a sneeze does in reverse).


Maybe he never saw 28 Days Later.


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## DreadPirateRob (Nov 12, 2002)

tivogurl said:


> I was disturbed by the cop wasting priceless and irreplaceable ammunition killing unthreatening zombies, namely the zombie cop and the legless zombie girl. Also, given that he was told "don't get bitten", making it obvious that zombiedom is transmitted like a disease, killing the zombie cop at point blank range where blood spatter (something a cop _should_ know about) can hit your skin and potentially infect you was beyond stupid. He has no way of knowing whether the disease can be transmitted by touch. Even if simple contact with skin isn't enough, his face was unprotected from spatter, and his eyes and nose are prime disease vectors into the body. Even a tiny near-invisible blood drop into his tear ducts could infect him, or he could breath in the invisible spray created by the spatter (rather like a sneeze does in reverse).


I don't want to delve too much deeper into the netherworlds of zombie geekdom, but at least in the traditional zombie mythos, the heart of a zombie does not beat (hence the term walking dead). No heart beating, no blood pressure. No blood pressure, greatly reduced spatter. Furthermore (and this wasn't depicted in the show, so it may not be applicable to this 'verse) because of the lack of blood pumping/pressure, traditionally zombie blood turns to a blackish sludge-like substance, which again makes splatter less likely.

In fact, given the decomposition of your average zombie, you are probably more likely to get spatter from the use of a blunt weapon (like the baseball bat he used on his first zombie kill) than you are from a projectile weapon. Think using a baseball bat on a ripe pumpkin versus shooting it (well, at least with a FMJ round. Using a hollow-point would cause the most splatter of all).

But overall, you are right that given that zombieness appears to be a blood-borne disease/virus, you should try to minimize splatter as much as possible.


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## retrodog (Feb 7, 2002)

DreadPirateRob said:


> I don't want to delve too much deeper into the netherworlds of zombie geekdom, but at least in the traditional zombie mythos, the heart of a zombie does not beat (hence the term walking dead). No heart beating, no blood pressure. No blood pressure, greatly reduced spatter. Furthermore (and this wasn't depicted in the show, so it may not be applicable to this 'verse) because of the lack of blood pumping/pressure, traditionally zombie blood turns to a blackish sludge-like substance, which again makes splatter less likely.
> 
> In fact, given the decomposition of your average zombie, you are probably more likely to get spatter from the use of a blunt weapon (like the baseball bat he used on his first zombie kill) than you are from a projectile weapon. Think using a baseball bat on a ripe pumpkin versus shooting it (well, at least with a FMJ round. Using a hollow-point would cause the most splatter of all).
> 
> But overall, you are right that given that zombieness appears to be a blood-borne disease/virus, you should try to minimize splatter as much as possible.


At least during his first zombie kill with the bat, he was initially wearing a face splatter shield.

As I mentioned earlier, the blood was supposed to be already coagulated and shouldn't have splattered at all. I guess they decided to put this aside and go for the red blood running and splattering all over the place.


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

Maybe it's zombie saliva that carries the disease.


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## retrodog (Feb 7, 2002)

Rob Helmerichs said:


> Maybe it's zombie saliva that carries the disease.


That seems to be very inconsistent. In one of the movies, the infection went airborn from the containers and also when they burned the zombie bodies. Just breathing it was enough to cause infection.


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## john4200 (Nov 1, 2009)

The thing about zombies that I've always wanted to see explored in more depth is their uncanny ability to distinguish between the living and the undead. Zombies are not very intelligent, and yet they seem to be able to instantly determine whether a body is live, and thus potential food, or undead, and thus uninteresting (or a potential hunting pack-mate?).

In contrast, living, intelligent people have difficulty distinguishing the living from the undead -- look at how they knocked out the deputy when they first saw him.

If the living could discover how the zombies can identify them, then the obvious next step is for the living to find a way to make themselves appear undead.


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## DreadPirateRob (Nov 12, 2002)

john4200 said:


> The thing about zombies that I've always wanted to see explored in more depth is their uncanny ability to distinguish between the living and the undead. Zombies are not very intelligent, and yet they seem to be able to instantly determine whether a body is live, and thus potential food, or undead, and thus uninteresting (or a potential hunting pack-mate?).
> 
> In contrast, living, intelligent people have difficulty distinguishing the living from the undead -- look at how they knocked out the deputy when they first saw him.
> 
> If the living could discover how the zombies can identify them, then the obvious next step is for the living to find a way to make themselves appear undead.


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

retrodog said:


> That seems to be very inconsistent. In one of the movies, the infection went airborn from the containers and also when they burned the zombie bodies. Just breathing it was enough to cause infection.


I was referring to Walking Dead. I was also (mostly) joking.

I think it's one of those "it is what it is" situations.


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## john4200 (Nov 1, 2009)

Yes, I've seen Zombieland, but that does not really address my question. The living had trouble distinguishing Bill Murray from a zombie, but it did not show how zombies reacted, nor did it discuss what is necessary to fool a zombie. I guess more than just visual aids are required.


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## retrodog (Feb 7, 2002)

Rob Helmerichs said:


> I was referring to Walking Dead. I was also (mostly) joking.
> 
> I think it's one of those "it is what it is" situations.


I realize that. I was merely pointing out that this genre of movies usually rewrites the rules to make the story work out the way they want it to instead of worrying about any consistency.

Sorta like how Blade came along and started killing vampires with silver instead of wooden stakes.

Or the way that Romero came along in 2004 and decided to make zombies run fast and attack quickly.

They just keep breaking the rules.


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## trnsfrguy (Apr 28, 2005)

retrodog said:


> Or the way that Romero came along in 2004 and decided to make zombies run fast and attack quickly.


Romero didn't have anything to do with the Dawn of the Dead remake other than credit for the original screenplay.
He's always said that zombies should be slow.


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

But why should there be consistency in movies taking place in entirely different worlds? As long as Walking Dead is consistent with Walking Dead, they've done their job. They owe nothing to George Romero!

Hell, George Romero owes nothing to George Romero, if it's a new movie with different zombies. Half the fun of a zombie movie these days is figuring out what kind of zombies they're using.


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## DreadPirateRob (Nov 12, 2002)

john4200 said:


> Yes, I've seen Zombieland, but that does not really address my question. The living had trouble distinguishing Bill Murray from a zombie, but it did not show how zombies reacted, nor did it discuss what is necessary to fool a zombie. I guess more than just visual aids are required.


I only posted that because I couldn't find the scene from _Shaun of the Dead _where they do the zombie shuffle.


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## retrodog (Feb 7, 2002)

Rob Helmerichs said:


> But why should there be consistency in movies taking place in entirely different worlds? As long as Walking Dead is consistent with Walking Dead, they've done their job. They owe nothing to George Romero!
> 
> Hell, George Romero owes nothing to George Romero, if it's a new movie with different zombies. Half the fun of a zombie movie these days is figuring out what kind of zombies they're using.


You seem to be reading something that I'm not writing, so I guess you're talking to someone else. I merely pointed out the differences and inconsistencies. I didn't complain or say that they should be limited.


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## retrodog (Feb 7, 2002)

trnsfrguy said:


> Romero didn't have anything to do with the Dawn of the Dead remake other than credit for the original screenplay.
> He's always said that zombies should be slow.


Are you intentionally trying to miss the point, or was that an accident?

Doesn't really matter who did it. I was just pointing out that someone is regularly changing the rules however they want just to make their story work like they want it to.

Some movie that I recently watched (can't remember what it was), the zombies weren't killed by a "trauma to the head". So that really messed things up bad. You finally had some people who knew to shoot them in the head and it didn't work.


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## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

Maui said:


> So I have a question...
> 
> Just how long was the character supposed to be unconcious that civilization got that bad on him?





SeanC said:


> Going by the flowers, I would guesstimate he was out for 5-10 days.





JETarpon said:


> "Gas lines been down for maybe a month." So, at least a month.


What JETarpon said. Morgan said it had been at least a month. I don't understand how Rick was even still alive if he'd been in that hospital bed for a month without anyone to change his IV bag, empty his catheter bag, etc.


danterner said:


> Yeah, six episodes to a season is pretty paltry by US standards (but pretty standard overseas). For what it's worth, this particular series was already picked up for a second season (13 additional episodes) even before last night's first episode aired. Hopefully, it will be around for a while.


That's actually a rumor that's been proven to be untrue. While I have no doubt that it actually will be picked up (based on the ratings for the premiere), it wasn't picked up before the premiere aired.


windracer said:


> With only a 6 episode season, why didn't they start this _before_ Halloween? Wouldn't it make sense to be showing zombie-themed content during October and have the finale on Halloween instead of starting it on Halloween?


As others said, Rubicon and Mad Men were airing on Sunday nights up until the middle of October. There was only one week earlier they could have started it and decided to hold off so they didn't conflict with the Vikings/Packers game (which was a good decision, since that turned out to be the highest-rated Sunday Night Football game ever).

Just watched last night. I enjoyed it and thought it was very well done. Didn't have any problem with the horse or choice of guns. Of course they weren't ideal, but he wasn't in a position to be choosy.


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## john4200 (Nov 1, 2009)

DevdogAZ said:


> Didn't have any problem with the horse or choice of guns. Of course they weren't ideal, but he wasn't in a position to be choosy.


No, actually he was in a great position to be choosy. With 90+ percent of the population apparently dead, there is sure to be tons of salvage available. He just did not take the time to scavenge. Dumb deputy.


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## danterner (Mar 4, 2005)

Rob Helmerichs said:


> Half the fun of a zombie movie these days is figuring out what kind of zombies they're using.


I thought it was interesting to see Morgan's zombie wife fiddling with the door handle to the house they were in. She seemed more drawn to the house than the other zombies, and to be exercising a greater effort to try to get inside. Is that because she has some sort of residual memory of her husband and son being inside? Or was she just doing what any other zombie would have done in her place? I wasn't sure if we were being shown a 'rule of this zombie universe' there or not.



Spoiler



If she had some sort of higher functioning/memory/reasoning, that would be a departure from the comic, right?





DevdogAZ said:


> What JETarpon said. Morgan said it had been at least a month. I don't understand how Rick was even still alive if he'd been in that hospital bed for a month without anyone to change his IV bag, empty his catheter bag, etc.


It's been a month (give or take) since the initial outbreak (based on the flowers and also based on Morgan's comment in the police station concerning the heat for the showers), but that doesn't necessarily mean that Rick's been unattended for all of that time. The hospital he was in was being used as a refuge and staging area, it looked like. There was the chopper and all of the military stuff on the hill, as well as all of the bodies in orderly rows outside. Looks like there was some kind of last stand there. Who knows when the final holdouts fell or left? It could be that the last of them fell or left just a day or two before Rick came to, and that they had been tending to him up until then, right?



> That's actually a rumor that's been proven to be untrue. While I have no doubt that it actually will be picked up (based on the ratings for the premiere), it wasn't picked up before the premiere aired.


Huh. Oh, well. Fingers crossed, then, that it gets picked up.


----------



## retrodog (Feb 7, 2002)

danterner said:


> I thought it was interesting to see Morgan's zombie wife fiddling with the door handle to the house they were in. She seemed more drawn to the house than the other zombies, and to be exercising a greater effort to try to get inside. Is that because she has some sort of residual memory of her husband and son being inside? Or was she just doing what any other zombie would have done in her place? I wasn't sure if we were being shown a 'rule of this zombie universe' there or not.
> 
> .


Maybe they copied that off of Land of the Dead, when the zombies were doing the things that they did when they were alive.


----------



## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

DevdogAZ said:


> That's actually a rumor that's been proven to be untrue. While I have no doubt that it actually will be picked up (based on the ratings for the premiere), it wasn't picked up before the premiere aired.


There are conflicting stories about that. The executive producer said that it's been picked up, and they're filming the second season starting in January. Then, the network said that's just a rumor. But you'd think the guy who's making the show would know if he's been told to start making the show in a couple of months.

So something weird is going on...I suspect the green light was given back when Darabont said so, but that for whatever reason the network wasn't ready to announce it publicly (and Darabont simply jumped the gun on the announcement).

As you say, however, with ratings and buzz like that, either way it will be back.


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## DreadPirateRob (Nov 12, 2002)

danterner said:


> It's been a month (give or take) since the initial outbreak (based on the flowers and also based on Morgan's comment in the police station concerning the heat for the showers), but that doesn't necessarily mean that Rick's been unattended for all of that time. The hospital he was in was being used as a refuge and staging area, it looked like. There was the chopper and all of the military stuff on the hill, as well as all of the bodies in orderly rows outside. Looks like there was some kind of last stand there. Who knows when the final holdouts fell or left? It could be that the last of them fell or left just a day or two before Rick came to, and that they had been tending to him up until then, right?


This.

Just because the world went to hell in a handbasket a month or so ago doesn't mean that Rick has been unattended for that long. Like you said, all of the bodies piled up and the military equipment just outside would seem to indicate that it had been at least a temporary safe zone. If that was the case, he was likely receiving care well after the initial outbreak and infestation. For how long is anyone's guess, but there is at least enough there for me not get hung up on how long he was without care.


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## ClutchBrake (Sep 5, 2001)

danterner said:


> I thought it was interesting to see Morgan's zombie wife fiddling with the door handle to the house they were in. She seemed more drawn to the house than the other zombies, and to be exercising a greater effort to try to get inside. Is that because she has some sort of residual memory of her husband and son being inside? Or was she just doing what any other zombie would have done in her place? I wasn't sure if we were being shown a 'rule of this zombie universe' there or not.


It certainly seemed that way to me. Especially by the way he and his son reacted. They were waiting for her to appear.

You'd think the dad wouldn't put his kid through that every night. Find a new house for his sake and the kid's.


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## danterner (Mar 4, 2005)

Rob Helmerichs said:


> There are conflicting stories about that. The executive producer said that it's been picked up, and they're filming the second season starting in January. Then, the network said that's just a rumor. But you'd think the guy who's making the show would know if he's been told to start making the show in a couple of months.
> 
> So something weird is going on...I suspect the green light was given back when Darabont said so, but that for whatever reason the network wasn't ready to announce it publicly (and Darabont simply jumped the gun on the announcement).
> 
> As you say, however, with ratings and buzz like that, either way it will be back.


The sweepstakes they are running during each episode has as its prize a walk-on role as a zombie for Season 2, so that's at least a good sign that they're thinking Season 2 thoughts. Then again, there's standard disclaimer language in the official rules:



> (Six (6) Grand Prizes will be awarded throughout the Sweepstakes Period; One (1) per Entry Period. Each Grand Prize consists of the following: A 4-Day/3-Night trip, for the Grand Prize winner ONLY, to the location of The Walking Dead Season 2 production/filming, (note: Season 1 production/filming took place in Atlanta, GA, but the location has not yet been determined for Season 2), plus the opportunity for the Grand Prize winner to have a single walk-on role in a Season 2 episode of The Walking Dead (exact specifics of the walk-on role will be determined at Producer's sole discretion) *provided that AMC picks up the show for a second season*.


 (emphasis mine).

So take that for what it's worth (not much, I suppose).


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## mrdazzo7 (Jan 8, 2006)

ClutchBrake said:


> It certainly seemed that way to me. Especially by the way he and his son reacted. They were waiting for her to appear.
> 
> You'd think the dad wouldn't put his kid through that every night. Find a new house for his sake and the kid's.


I was a little confused about the wife. I thought by her hovering around that same house over and over again, the writers were saying there is still some residual impulses left from when they were alive... but I guess not (never read the comics so I don't know what the rules are here). Wouldn't she just be roaming aimlessly then? It's weird that she's been in that one spot all this time.

And you're right, if she's sticking to that one spot, then why the hell don't they just go somewhere else? He obviously can't kill her, so why not just leave the area... That actress was mad effective though--when they did the close up of her and she's just staring doing that wierd thing with her tongue. Freaky.

The only that that annoyed me story-wise, and I knew it was gonna happen, is the lack of questions Grimes asks. I guess for the sake of storytelling sometimes the writers have to side step certain things, but he barely asked anything. "What happened?" "An outbreak"... "aight"

What caused it, how long ago did it happen, how did it spread to the whole world, etc. I drives me nuts in shows (Lost, anyone?) when people don't ask the right questions.

Anyway, I'm into it so far... again I never read the comics so it'll be interesting to see how the producers handle this type of story over time, since it's only been done in movies so far. I hope they do flashback episodes of the actual outbreak and the slow downfall of society--I get that they had to speed it up in the beginning by having him wake up after all of it has gone down, but I definitely want to see how it all played out.

I wonder what the budget was on that pilot. I'm sure some of the zombies in the last ariel shot were CGI but there some shots of a LOT of people. I'd also like to know how they shot those "empty street" scenes in the middle of busy Atlanta.


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## madscientist (Nov 12, 2003)

john4200 said:


> Yes, I've seen Zombieland, but that does not really address my question. The living had trouble distinguishing Bill Murray from a zombie, but it did not show how zombies reacted, nor did it discuss what is necessary to fool a zombie. I guess more than just visual aids are required.


Well, from one of the articles about the upcoming season:



Spoiler



They implied that zombies use a keen sense of smell to find the living.


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## Vendikarr (Feb 24, 2004)

john4200 said:


> No, actually he was in a great position to be choosy. With 90+ percent of the population apparently dead, there is sure to be tons of salvage available. He just did not take the time to scavenge. Dumb deputy.


There were probably more powerful weapons in the evidence lock-up. He could have peeked in there. Then all he would need are bullets.


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## tivogurl (Dec 16, 2004)

Vendikarr said:


> There were probably more powerful weapons in the evidence lock-up. He could have peeked in there. Then all he would need are bullets.


There's no reason they'd still be there, they were probably taken by the other deputies in that department for anti-zombie defense.


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## vertigo235 (Oct 27, 2000)

He did say some things were missing...


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## danterner (Mar 4, 2005)

Vendikarr said:


> There were probably more powerful weapons in the evidence lock-up. He could have peeked in there. Then all he would need are bullets.





vertigo235 said:


> He did say some things were missing...


He was in the armory, not the evidence lock-up. (Though I suppose if they were missing from the armory, then chances are the evidence lock-up might have been picked clean, as well).


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## tgrim1 (Sep 11, 2006)

jschuur said:


> Well, zombies aren't the fastest, so if it's things jumping at the screen out of dark corners you're concerned about, not much of that there.


At the beginning when he was in the stairwell with matches I was pretty jumpy waiting for a zombie to pop up out of the dark!


Rob Helmerichs said:


> The thing that makes Walking Dead the comic book work so brilliantly is that it's not about zombies. It's about people put into an unspeakably horrible situation, and how they cope. And not Hollywood heroic people...good people, bad people, but all _people _people.
> 
> It looks like the show is headed that way, too. Hope so!


I never read the comic, but this show definitely has a UK "Survivors" type feel to it.


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## jradosh (Jul 31, 2001)

I finally got around to watching this (and catching up on the thread). I thought it was a great start to the series. I haven't read the comics so it's all new to me, and I like the tone and pacing so far. Regarding things already commented on...

I agree that the flash-forward start wasn't necessary and felt gimmicky to me. In fact I think it lessened the tension of his hospital wake-up scene... especially when he finds the door marked "Don't Open. Dead Inside". That would have played out much better if we didn't already know the dead were walking (although how could we not know given the title of the series  )

---------------------

Regarding the horse vs. car discussion, I come down in favor of the horse. First of all, they showed why he picked the horse... he was out in the middle of nowhere and found a farm house with the suicide couple inside. There were no keys to the truck outside (and I guess he didn't want to poke around the couple's house) and the horse was right there. It was simply convenient to take the horse.

But furthermore, having a car obligates you to have gas, and the best places to get gas (siphoned from other cars) means you need to be around places that are populated, and that means you have to be around places that are likely to have more zomies than not. So while it's possible to have a car and keep it fueled, the burden adds risk that the horse does not.

I think a bicycle would have been another good choice.

-------------------------

I like that this zombie universe is closest to the Romero one than the others. I never liked the fast moving zombies (it just didn't make sense to me, what with the decay and lack of blood flow) and the whole "Brains!" thing also made no sense to me. To me zombies are scary because they are relentless and because they form masses.

-------------------------------

I too had to rewind the "flip down the visor and look at the family photo" scene to make sure what I'd seen was really what I thought I saw. It made me think back to the opening conversation between the two officers when they're talking about their women to see if there was any hint of the infidelity... but I couldn't see any.

-----------------------------

The cars only on one side of the road... that was the only flaw I saw in the show so far. 

Ready for episode two!!!


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## mrdazzo7 (Jan 8, 2006)

jradosh said:


> I too had to rewind the "flip down the visor and look at the family photo" scene to make sure what I'd seen was really what I thought I saw. It made me think back to the opening conversation between the two officers when they're talking about their women to see if there was any hint of the infidelity... but I couldn't see any.
> 
> -----------------------------
> 
> ...


I don't think his partner and wife got together until after the zombie apocolypse. Seems like they made a run for it together and got close over time, thinking he was likely dead. Gonna be mad awkward when he catches up to them.

As for the cars on one side of the road--I thought that was a pretty cool touch. It showed that people were fleeing _from _the city as opposed to fleeing _to _it.

I've never seen the actor playing Grimes before--had no idea he was british (I think) until after the episode they did a quick "behind the scenes" thing and he was commenting on the show with his full accent. He does a good job covering it up. I'm also glad Sarah from Prison Break is back on TV... She might not have been the highlight of that show but I think she's a good actress and is very 'easy on the eyes' as they say.


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## danterner (Mar 4, 2005)

mrdazzo7 said:


> As for the cars on one side of the road--I thought that was a pretty cool touch. It showed that people were fleeing _from _the city as opposed to fleeing _to _it.
> 
> I've never seen the actor playing Grimes before--had no idea he was british (I think) until after the episode they did a quick "behind the scenes" thing and he was commenting on the show with his full accent. He does a good job covering it up. I'm also glad Sarah from Prison Break is back on TV... She might not have been the highlight of that show but I think she's a good actress and is very 'easy on the eyes' as they say.


The actor that played Morgan is British, as well (Lennie James). I watched all of Jericho but only recently found out he's not from here. He does a good job with the accent, as well.


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## jradosh (Jul 31, 2001)

mrdazzo7 said:


> As for the cars on one side of the road--I thought that was a pretty cool touch. It showed that people were fleeing _from _the city as opposed to fleeing _to _it.


I suppose... but it seems logical to me that in an emergency situation they would open _all_ the lanes to outbound traffic.

Of course it could be that they did open all lanes, but there was an accident on the one side that clogged the traffic while the other side was free to move. /shrug


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## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

mrdazzo7 said:


> As for the cars on one side of the road--I thought that was a pretty cool touch. It showed that people were fleeing from the city as opposed to fleeing to it.


I think that's the key right there. In a real situation like that, people would be using both sides of the freeway to exit the city. But to depict it on TV in the most concise way, they had to only show cars on one side. Otherwise, they would have had to show a couple more shots to clarify that the cars on both sides were going the same direction, and it wouldn't have the same visual effect as one completely gridlocked side and one completely empty side.


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## ozzman73 (Nov 27, 2006)

jradosh said:


> The cars only on one side of the road... that was the only flaw I saw in the show so far.
> 
> Ready for episode two!!!


Do you remember Katrina? Eventually they opened the other side, but it was gridlock all the way out of the city.


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## tivogurl (Dec 16, 2004)

DevdogAZ said:


> But to depict it on TV in the most concise way, they had to only show cars on one side. Otherwise, they would have had to show a couple more shots to clarify that the cars on both sides were going the same direction/QUOTE]
> Wouldn't the direction the cars pointed clarify their direction of travel without the need for extra shots? Why presume the viewers are stupid?


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

tivogurl said:


> Wouldn't the direction the cars pointed clarify their direction of travel without the need for extra shots? Why presume the viewers are stupid?


It may have simply been a visual reference to Katrina, when exactly that kind of scene was common on the news.

In which case, the implication is that we're collectively too stupid to learn from our mistakes. Which may well be the case!


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## DreadPirateRob (Nov 12, 2002)

mrdazzo7 said:


> I've never seen the actor playing Grimes before--had no idea he was british (I think) until after the episode they did a quick "behind the scenes" thing and he was commenting on the show with his full accent. He does a good job covering it up.


I only recognized him because he was part of the cast of _Love, Actually_, which is a holiday staple in my family. But yeah, he did a nice job hiding the accent.


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## retrodog (Feb 7, 2002)

ozzman73 said:


> Do you remember Katrina? Eventually they opened the other side, but it was gridlock all the way out of the city.


And then only one month later, when Rita was bearing down on Houston, they waited entirely too late to open up the lanes to outbound only. It's a tricky thing though because some of us need to go through the city to evacuate it. I live 20 miles SE of Houston and my official evacuation route is to go up I45 right through Houston. And if you think people are too stupid to handle simple stuff already, just wait till you see the mess that would be caused by only converting some of the freeways over to contraflow configuration.


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## retrodog (Feb 7, 2002)

Sometimes, zombies are a good thing...


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## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

tivogurl said:


> Wouldn't the direction the cars pointed clarify their direction of travel without the need for extra shots? Why presume the viewers are stupid?


A wide shot of cars packed on one side of the freeway and the other side completely empty is not a normal sight. It very quickly conveys the idea that everyone was trying to get out of the city. Very creepy. No further explanation needed.

A wide shot of a freeway with both sides completely packed is not that uncommon in large cities. Look more closely. Oh, they're all heading the same way. That's weird. I guess everyone was frantic to get out of the city. Hmmm.

I don't think it's about whether viewers are stupid (although some definitely are). It's more about the visual effect of everyone trying to get out and nobody trying to get in. It's a more powerful visual the way they did it. The other way may be more realistic, but it's not as powerful because your brain has to process it for an extra beat or two and by then the effect is gone.


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## danterner (Mar 4, 2005)

DevdogAZ said:


> I don't think it's about whether viewers are stupid (although some definitely are). It's more about the visual effect of everyone trying to get out and nobody trying to get in. It's a more powerful visual the way they did it. The other way may be more realistic, but it's not as powerful because your brain has to process it for an extra beat or two and by then the effect is gone.


Placing Rick on the empty-side of the highway also visually extends the metaphor that he is all alone. If both sides of the highway are filled with cars, that's not as effectively conveyed.

Here's the shot:










See how alone he looks? It's striking. Now imagine him winding his way through cars on that side of the road. It might be more harrowing, but it would not give the same feeling of desolation.

As an aside, here's the actual skyline:


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## northmoor (Feb 9, 2005)

finally watched this last night ....



tivogurl said:


> I was disturbed by the cop wasting priceless and irreplaceable ammunition killing unthreatening zombies, namely the zombie cop and the legless zombie girl. Also, given that he was told "don't get bitten", making it obvious that zombiedom is transmitted like a disease, killing the zombie cop at point blank range where blood spatter (something a cop _should_ know about) can hit your skin and potentially infect you was beyond stupid. He has no way of knowing whether the disease can be transmitted by touch. Even if simple contact with skin isn't enough, his face was unprotected from spatter, and his eyes and nose are prime disease vectors into the body. Even a tiny near-invisible blood drop into his tear ducts could infect him, or he could breath in the invisible spray created by the spatter (rather like a sneeze does in reverse).


The "wasting" of the ammo didn't seem too troublesome for reasons others mentioned (being a do-gooder and all) ..., but I was wondering a little about the same thing with the killings you mentioned, esp seeing as how he earlier came out of the house with with the bat and the clear face mask/guard on to club the one zombie to a second death who was sitting outside the house on the sidewalk by the mailbox. He must have thought it necessary to have the clear face guard on to protect from the splatter and all .... but later, he didn't?


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## McGonigle (Nov 7, 2001)

Being from the area, I thought I would try to find where the scene at the beginning was in real life.









I believe its here. 
and you can see the gas station he walked to at the corner.


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## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

Is that gas station down a hill from the level of the intersection as it appeared in the show?


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## spikedavis (Nov 23, 2003)

McGonigle said:


> Being from the area, I thought I would try to find where the scene at the beginning was in real life.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


cool, nice find. See if you can go there and take a picture.


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## danterner (Mar 4, 2005)

McGonigle said:


> Being from the area, I thought I would try to find where the scene at the beginning was in real life.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


If you're interested, on the AMC website there's a "behind the scenes" video for this particular scene - basically Robert Kirkman wandering around the area and describing the filming. You can see a bit more of the surroundings. Plus it is just cool to watch.

http://www.amctv.com/originals/The-...7333001&bclid=621108993001&bctid=180369208001

Actually, the whole site is worth exploring - AMC generally does a great job with featuring lots of extras for its shows on its site, and The Walking Dead is no exception. There are lots of videos and blogs and other making-of stuff.

Also, here's a link to an annotated fan-created Google Map of all the various locations featured in the comic. (Warning: major spoilers) - http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=U...d=117944206413941555934.0004723d3ecc55ac63583


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## McGonigle (Nov 7, 2001)

danterner said:


> If you're interested, on the AMC website there's a "behind the scenes" video for this particular scene - basically Robert Kirkman wandering around the area and describing the filming. You can see a bit more of the surroundings. Plus it is just cool to watch.


Thanks, I'll check it out. 
When I said I was in "the area", it's still a couple of hours away. But I will definitely stop by and get a pic if I'm in "the neighborhood."


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## astrohip (Jan 7, 2003)

Finally watched this. Enjoyed it, and I do NOT typically watch horror/zombie/whatever shows. But the rave reviews piqued my interest, and they were right--fun to watch, great story. I really don't care about the "horror" aspect (although it is obviously a zombie show), I just enjoy good TV.



windracer said:


> Me too. I wonder if any of the people who hated "Rubicon" because of the slow pace and lack of dialog have the same complaint about "Walking Dead."


Night & day. I stuck with Rubicon for 3-4 eps before I finally pulled the plug. There is a difference between "slow pace and lack of dialog", and a show (Rubicon) where nothing happens, and at a pace so languid it's no longer fun to watch. Walking Dead was fun, and I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes; Rubicon became a struggle to force myself to watch. YMMV.


retrodog said:


> So why did the zombies eat the horse? They didn't eat the dog in Dawn of the Dead.


Is there any reason that each zombie show (in essence, each zombie universe) can't have it's own rules? Some vampires twinkle, others don't. Some zombies eat animals, others don't.

I'm not being sarcastic, just stating that to a casual observer like me, who is NOT versed in zombie lore, it's not an issue. Not even on radar.



kilcher said:


> We usually alternate programs at commercial breaks ...


 Explain.



mrdazzo7 said:


> The only that that annoyed me story-wise, and I knew it was gonna happen, is the lack of questions Grimes asks. I guess for the sake of storytelling sometimes the writers have to side step certain things, but he barely asked anything. "What happened?" "An outbreak"... "aight"
> 
> What caused it, how long ago did it happen, how did it spread to the whole world, etc. I drives me nuts in shows (Lost, anyone?) when people don't ask the right questions.


+1. And I realize they have to stretch out the exposition over a few eps, but geez louise, if I wake from a coma and the world has turned to zombiism, I've got a few questions that just HAVE to be answered. Now.


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## getreal (Sep 29, 2003)

Bob Coxner said:


> Vampires are imbued with romance. Zombies are not. *(Zombies are from Mars, vampires are from Venus.)*


:up: Succinct summary.


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## Langree (Apr 29, 2004)

I've been meaning to come back and discuss the lack of soiled sheets when he awoke.

My assumption based on facial hair growth and grooming, hed been in the coma for awhile. So:

They'd have inserted a cathiter (be glad you didn't see him remove it, unless it was a Texas Cathiter, but not likely for long term use)

Being on an "IV Diet" after a few days all the solid waste in his body would be expelled, after that his bowels all but shut down and he wouldn't soil himself often, if at all.

I figure it was 3-5 days between flowers and awakening, he would have been without fluids from the IV after the last changed bag ran out. He was thirsty, but not sickly dehydrated.


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## Langree (Apr 29, 2004)

My only real "huh?" part is, we never see him check the TV or, more likely a radio for an active EBS broadcast. Stations in the AM band can be heard accross the country just for such emergencies where the locals cannot broadcast.


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## robojerk (Jun 13, 2006)

john4200 said:


> The thing about zombies that I've always wanted to see explored in more depth is their uncanny ability to distinguish between the living and the undead. Zombies are not very intelligent, and yet they seem to be able to instantly determine whether a body is live, and thus potential food, or undead, and thus uninteresting (or a potential hunting pack-mate?).
> 
> In contrast, living, intelligent people have difficulty distinguishing the living from the undead -- look at how they knocked out the deputy when they first saw him.
> 
> If the living could discover how the zombies can identify them, then the obvious next step is for the living to find a way to make themselves appear undead.


I think zombies have a knack for looking for fresh meat. They aren't interested in eating rotting flesh.


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## getreal (Sep 29, 2003)

Langree said:


> I've been meaning to come back and discuss the lack of soiled sheets when he awoke.
> 
> My assumption based on facial hair growth and grooming, hed been in the coma for awhile. <snip>


Methinks you are over-thinking this story. Remember the whole part about the "Walking Dead"? How realistic is that? Just chill and enjoy.

I was wondering if the horse would become a zombie after they started biting into it. But it looks like there wasn't going to be much left to, uh, "carry on" (carrion) as a zombie horse. _<-- pun intended_


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## Langree (Apr 29, 2004)

getreal said:


> Methinks you are over-thinking this story. Remember the whole part about the "Walking Dead"? How realistic is that? Just chill and enjoy.
> 
> I was wondering if the horse would become a zombie after they started biting into it. But it looks like there wasn't going to be much left to, uh, "carry on" (carrion) as a zombie horse. _<-- pun intended_


oh, i'm enjoying, but the timeline has been brought up a lot, and not just here.


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## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

Langree said:


> I've been meaning to come back and discuss the lack of soiled sheets when he awoke.
> 
> I figure it was 3-5 days between flowers and awakening, he would have been without fluids from the IV after the last changed bag ran out. He was thirsty, but not sickly dehydrated.


It was a lot more than 3-5 days between flowers and awakening. Morgan mentioned the gas had been out for a month. While it's possible (likely, even) that Shane brought the flowers after the outbreak started (he mentioned how certain people wanted to come but couldn't), there was still much more than 3-5 days between Shane being able to visit his buddy in the hospital, and the entire town being dead/deserted and his wife shacking up with someone else.


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## retrodog (Feb 7, 2002)

astrohip said:


> Is there any reason that each zombie show (in essence, each zombie universe) can't have it's own rules? Some vampires twinkle, others don't. Some zombies eat animals, others don't.
> .


Real vampires don't twinkle. That was just something that a publicist came up with to make young girls like them.


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## balboa dave (Jan 19, 2004)

DevdogAZ said:


> It was a lot more than 3-5 days between flowers and awakening. Morgan mentioned the gas had been out for a month. While it's possible (likely, even) that Shane brought the flowers after the outbreak started (he mentioned how certain people wanted to come but couldn't), there was still much more than 3-5 days between Shane being able to visit his buddy in the hospital, and the entire town being dead/deserted and his wife shacking up with someone else.


I strongly suspect Shane is the reason Rick was left behind in the hospital. I predict (I have not read the comics) we will learn he lied to Rick's family that he was dead or could not be rescued.


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## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

balboa dave said:


> I strongly suspect Shane is the reason Rick was left behind in the hospital. I predict (I have not read the comics) we will learn he lied to Rick's family that he was dead or could not be rescued.


Very possible (I also haven't read the comics). I was simply pointing out that Rick's wife doesn't abandon him and start hooking up with Shane if it's only been less than a week since Shane was last able to visit Rick and deliver the flowers.


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## robojerk (Jun 13, 2006)

DevdogAZ said:


> It was a lot more than 3-5 days between flowers and awakening. Morgan mentioned the gas had been out for a month. While it's possible (likely, even) that Shane brought the flowers after the outbreak started (he mentioned how certain people wanted to come but couldn't), there was still much more than 3-5 days between Shane being able to visit his buddy in the hospital, and the entire town being dead/deserted and his wife shacking up with someone else.





balboa dave said:


> I strongly suspect Shane is the reason Rick was left behind in the hospital. I predict (I have not read the comics) we will learn he lied to Rick's family that he was dead or could not be rescued.





DevdogAZ said:


> Very possible (I also haven't read the comics). I was simply pointing out that Rick's wife doesn't abandon him and start hooking up with Shane if it's only been less than a week since Shane was last able to visit Rick and deliver the flowers.


I have not read the comics so this is just my take on things.
Before Rick got shot in the first episode, he was taking to Shane about how his marriage seemed to be falling apart and his wife was saying things about him (Rick) in front of their child. I think it's a clue that she was already thinking of leaving him, and was probably sleeping with someone else already, if not Shane.
I think Shane really does/did like Rick and wanted to be his friend, and I kind of doubt he would leave him in the hospital. My opinion is that Shane and/or Rick's wife felt that rescuing Rick was a suicide mission, considering if you were bit you would become sick and eventually die and then come back. Hospital's were probably the most dangerous places to be before word spread about how the zombie condition (virus?) was spread.


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## tivogurl (Dec 16, 2004)

robojerk said:


> Before Rick got shot in the first episode, he was taking to Shane about how his marriage seemed to be falling apart and his wife was saying things about him (Rick) in front of their child. I think it's a clue that she was already thinking of leaving him, and was probably sleeping with someone else already, if not Shane.


There's no reason to exempt her from suspicion. Even if she wasn't sleeping with Shane pre-apocalypse, she's thinking about leaving Rick. She's already divorced Rick emotionally if not legally, so she tells Shane and her kid Rick is dead or can't be rescued and runs off with Shane.


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## balboa dave (Jan 19, 2004)

robojerk said:


> I have not read the comics so this is just my take on things.
> Before Rick got shot in the first episode, he was taking to Shane about how his marriage seemed to be falling apart and his wife was saying things about him (Rick) in front of their child. I think it's a clue that she was already thinking of leaving him, and was probably sleeping with someone else already, if not Shane.
> I think Shane really does/did like Rick and wanted to be his friend, and I kind of doubt he would leave him in the hospital. My opinion is that Shane and/or Rick's wife felt that rescuing Rick was a suicide mission, considering if you were bit you would become sick and eventually die and then come back. Hospital's were probably the most dangerous places to be before word spread about how the zombie condition (virus?) was spread.


Dammit, you made watch the opening dialog again. It didn't occur to me that there might be an affair already going on, but from Shane's leading questions, I now think it was.


tivogurl said:


> There's no reason to exempt her from suspicion. Even if she wasn't sleeping with Shane pre-apocalypse, she's thinking about leaving Rick. She's already divorced Rick emotionally if not legally, so she tells Shane and her kid Rick is dead or can't be rescued and runs off with Shane.


That's a pretty cold move, and something I'd expect from a guy, not a wife, but then we really haven't seen too much of their characters yet, so the inevitable reunion scene should be real interesting.


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

balboa dave said:


> That's a pretty cold move, and something I'd expect from a guy, not a wife, but then we really haven't seen too much of their characters yet, so the inevitable reunion scene should be real interesting.


Maybe this is like a sitcom, where their wacky adventures will make them keep JUST missing each other!


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## balboa dave (Jan 19, 2004)

Rob Helmerichs said:


> Maybe this is like a sitcom, where their wacky adventures will make them keep JUST missing each other!


...with that snoopiing zombie next door named Gladys.


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

balboa dave said:


> ...with that snooping zombie next door named Gladys.


Will their landlord be a vampire or a werewolf?


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## robojerk (Jun 13, 2006)

Rob Helmerichs said:


> Will their landlord be a vampire or a werewolf?


Frankenstein (Herman Munster).


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## BK89 (Oct 11, 2005)

Just watched the first episode last night. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time! Planning to watch the second one tonight. For everyone who is complaining that both sides of the freeway were not being used - did anyone think maybe they kept the inbound side clear so all of those tanks/military vehicles could get into the city and try to defend? (I do agree though much better imagery not having both sides full of cars).


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## sbourgeo (Nov 10, 2000)

Mikeyis4dcats said:


> for anyone looking to buy the Compendium, it is available on Amazon right now for $35.
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/Walking-Dead-...0760/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1288753003&sr=8-1


Sorry to resurrect a dead thread, but I wanted to say that I picked up the Compendium and enjoyed it quite a bit. This is the biggest TPB I've ever read, and it took me quite a bit of time over the weekend to get through it all. If and when a Compendium 2 comes out (still a few issues to go before #96), I'll definitely get that too. :up:


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## Barmat (Jun 1, 2001)

The comic doesn't lose steam. The current events are some of the best writing I've ever seen in comics.


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