For Mr. Morlock's money (which ain't exactly legal tender, so take it how you will) Walking Dead looks to be a winner.
True to the grim, creepy, not-Hollywood-schlock source material. Well adapted, designed and performed. In a word: really fucking good. Three words.
In a strange way, it's kind of sad not to have that sense of ownership of being in the tasteful minority: this is going to be popular as well as critically acclaimed. But then again, if popularity prevents another Firefly disaster, let's welcome the mouth-breathing masses.
6 comments:
I was halfway through this comment before I noticed your link to the money printer. Ha!
Many of my closest nerd sources report that they loved last night's premiere and these are people that don't love The Walking Dead comic at all, so I'm impressed. The sign of a good show is approval from fans and non-fans alike. Observations from the other side of the fence were that the TV adaptation had better pacing and character development.
I too noticed that the pacing was a bit slower than in the current issues of the comic book (though I want to say it's about par for those original first couple issues), and that's not a bad thing for a television adaptation. I loved what they did with the father and son, even though it was an elaboration on the original characters, if only because it served to instill that sense of sadness and loss that the comic presented to us so well with minimal effort.
The minor changes they made did not inflame my comic-nerd pride, and I thought the whole production was truly enjoyable and well done.
Great things:
-Very little soundtrack; exemplified in the best of the old horror movies, and something COMPLETELY misused in new horror movies. The scariest moments of life have no soundtrack. Reality is heart stopping enough. Especially if zombies exist.
-No jump scares. How I hate jump scares. If you felt startled at any point while watching last night's episode, it was because you had a sudden, depressing or awful plot realization, not because a cat jumped out of a closet.
The only thing that annoyed me:
-Fake blood FX. Yeah, I know it's cheaper and easier and very popular right now (thanks for that, Mr. Romero), but for a show that's obviously doing so well to attend to disturbing little details, sudden CGI blood is a touch distracting.
Overall I give it an A+ and I really hope they can keep it up. I'm almost afraid to like it as much as I do because I will be VERY let down if it's canceled, or worse, becomes a piece of crap.
***SPOILER ALERT***
I watched the pilot last night and really enjoyed it although the whole opening journey of Rick Grimes was very "28 Days Later" or "Day of the Triffids" or...well...you get the picture. Also, I guessed the mother/son/best friend scenario long before it happened. I haven't read the comic (didn't realize there was one) but I guess this is all there including the father /son story line!?!
Oh...who was the "half" zombie woman in the park he went back to kill !?! I had a sense that he knew her in some way before the "plague"...perhaps the couple whose house the father & son were held up in while he recovered !?!
Still great stuff and I'll continue to watch it. The Walking Dead will be added it to my must-watch list of Fringe, Supernatural and The Vampire Diaries !!
Vic
From the comic, the half zombie was no one in particular. It's just the very first zombie that he saw, and had the most emotional response to. He couldn't stand the thought of it just... continuing to exist, so he had to go back and put it down. I always liked that.
Post a Comment