The Walking Dead: Discussion Thread

[Vee]

THR dishes on AMC vs. Frank Darabont in Season 2, with an unsealed deposition.

 

While I think Frank Darabont's a very talented writer and filmmaker I think the show has advanced leaps and bounds since his tenure and his run looks dated by comparison. That being said, he set the tone from the pilot, the show was/is a blockbuster, and AMC has always been very cheap and reluctant to compete with prestige cable budgets while still wanting the premium cable prestige.

 

Tellingly, Glen Mazzara chimes in and seems to blame Kirkman, which I recall being a rumored issue. I think Scott Gimple is the one who has learned how to deal with the excitable gorilla that is Kirkman without turning the show into pure fan service schlock. In the hands of two other showrunners Michonne (a ridiculous character in the comic, IMO, and one of many others, like Morgan) would have been a joke. Abraham almost was.

Edited January 7, 2016 by Vee

[Toups]

AMC execs are the worst.  What a bunch of cheap asses.  And it shows with these unnecessary stand-alone episodes and not utilizing half the cast for a handful of episodes a season.    Breaking Bad was another very successful show that the execs screwed with due to their cheapness. 

[Vee]

Danai Guirira will play Afeni Shakur. Apologies if this was posted, but it also mentions her play Eclipsed is going to Broadway with Lupita Nyong'o.

[DRW50]

I'm sure she'll be amazing. Sounds like a meaty role too.

[quartermainefan]

This is a part of an ongoing video series where the different comic book characters get together to discuss why their movies are better than each other.   So they all have this bar where they sit around and talk, and now they decided to let TV people in, and that is how this is on topic for both walking dead and talking dead....

 

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[YRBB]

A complete badass will come on the show, played by Tom Payne.

 

And there can never be enough Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Ever.

[Juliajms]

I like Tom Payne. He was in the ill fated HBO show "Luck" playing a jockey. It's hard to imagine him as a bad ass.

[Vee]

Alicia Witt (Justified, Twin Peaks, Urban Legend, etc.) joins:

 

 

Edited February 4, 2016 by Vee

[Vee]

Show's back on Sunday.

 

From the EW cast roundtable: Sarah Wayne Callies (Lori) is credited with saving Melissa McBride's job on her way out the door.

[Juliajms]

Doesn't that mean she basically got the actor playing T-Dog fired?

[Vee]

That was an intensely crowd-pleasing episode on every possible level. Especially my Rick/Michonne shipper levels, and my inherent belief in the show's capacity for positive change in a post-apocalyptic world - something I think the showrunners have always believed in, but Robert Kirkman not so much. It's always been a constant tug of war with his adolescent nihilism in the source material and making a genuinely good TV show. I was glad they made Rick finally have a real epiphany about Alexandria.

 

Does Danai Gurira have an Emmy yet? Does Andrew Lincoln? Melissa McBride?

Edited February 15, 2016 by Vee

[Vee]

Greg Nicotero on the episode. It was apparently Scott Gimple's choice to do the cheesy flashbacks when Jessie finally bought it, which I felt was a mistake. It doesn't look like '70s filmmaking in the way they thought - those quick cuts were never as stylized, nor would I have expended them on her.

 

The Kirkman.

 

Scott Gimple. Yes, Carl, they did plan to kill Jessie and co. all along. I will take my No-Prize!

Alexandra Breckenridge talks about gettin et.

 

I thought Breckenridge was a solid actress who did some very good work in the first half of the season. We keep forgetting these were very sheltered people dealing with a horrific new situation, who weren't making excuses for it (like Morgan). That said, I wasn't sorry to see Jessie go - I felt the subplot with Rick was rushed and unnecessary from the comics, especially when this episode then had such a strong showing for Rick/Michonne/Carl in the back half, which has always felt like the true north.

 

I'll also miss the kids playing her sons - Austin Abrams as Ron, who had much better stuff in other things, and poor little Major Dodson as Sam. I thought that was very sad that Carol's warning to him ended his life in his worst nightmare; I hope they let Carol react to what happened to him because I loved their bond. I was kind of hoping Sam would be the only Anderson to live, but of course here and in the comics he was the first to go (minus Drunk Dad).

 

Those characters had both good material (Jessie coming to terms with the zombie apocalypse, Sam traumatized) in the first half of the season, and some hackeneyed or rushed stuff (the Rick/Jessie 'affair,' Ron and Chekhov's Gun). Lifting them out, as it was in the comics, with the slight change made (Ron being Carl's shooter) just feels like TWD hacking off a bad limb. It makes it feel like even more of a waste of time despite the good performances and some good writing, so I'm glad it's done.

 

Edited February 15, 2016 by Vee

[ChitHappens]

Lawd! That final zombie scene sent chills thru my body! Wow! It was magnificently done! 

[Vee]

Denise is the real MVP

 

Chandler Riggs and a requiem for Carl's eye.

 

Seriously (our) Carl picked the wrong moment to stop watching. That whole episode was drenched in Richonne as The Truth!

Edited February 15, 2016 by Vee

[Vee]

Social media takes the news:

 

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No, I'm not done yet! Telltale Games, makers of the wonderful TWD RPG, previews their new 3-episode Michonne side-story game. (It's comic canon, so Danai isn't doing the voice sadly - it's Samira Wiley from Orange is the New Black.)

 

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Edited February 15, 2016 by Vee