MovieChat Forums > The Walking Dead (2010) Discussion > Rewatching the whole show - Season 1

Rewatching the whole show - Season 1

posted 3 years ago by Painter (37)
21 replies | jump to latest

Disclaimer: I know the comic in a general sort of way, I don't like it and I don't care how much the show diverges or how things happened on the pages.

Onto the post, now.

Days Gone Bye it's still a solid episode. To be fair, I think that its appeal comes from the fact that it's the very beginning, so everything is new for us as much as it is for Rick. On the other hand, it dramatically improves on the comic, so it's not just pure perception.

The rest of the season rides on the quality of the first episode and I think it's a little bit on the overrated side. It's not bad, nor even mediocre, it's actually good, but not as great as I remembered.

The characters are adequately presented, but of course Rick, the family and Shane take the lion's share. Among the secondary characters Daryl stands out the most. About the others we are given enough in order to understand them.

Glenn and Andrea are fleshed out a bit more than the rest of the cast, which is basically made of cardboard cutouts and cannon fodder. Dale seems just a plain douche instead of the holier-than-thou douche that is going to be in Season 2.

The Vatos episode is not that great and I feel like is slowing down too much the pace of the story. Again, it's not terrible either and all in all enjoyable.

Now to the truly bad stuff: the CDC episode. I don't understand what they were thinking. It didn't have any impact on the overall story. It didn't provide any explanation to people who needed it to enjoy the show, it didn't provide any insight that would help to find a cure (if that's your cup of tea and not that it did matter in the scheme of the plot) and it really didn't do anything for the wievers who are happier without explanations. I don't know, it seems to me like wasted screen time on a storyline that didn't have any payoff whatsoever. Yes, I know, Jenner told Rick that everybody was infected, but it's not like other groups in the show couldn't figure it out by themselves.

It was pure titillation that didn't go anywhere and fast.

TL:DR - Its' still good, but not as good as I remembered. Still worth (re)watching.

[–] Bloodshot77 (10748) 3 years ago

Still worth (re)watching.

Maybe season 1-2. Rest is hot garbage.

[–] aavfreak (2984) 3 years ago

I disagree about the CDC. It goes a long way into setting the tone for the whole show going forward.

I establishes that the pandemic is global in scale. That there were holdouts, but they also fell or at least went silent.

It establishes the hopelessness of their situation. The CDC is what they considered the last bastion of hope, the last stronghold, the last place to get some answers. Then, as quickly as they arrived, they were back in the wild running for their lives again.

It is more than just hopelessness, but a sense of utter apocalypse. There's now no where to turn, no where to run, no where to rest, no return to normal.

[–] damocci (1504) 3 years ago

Did you notice how different season 1 zombies were from the rest of the series?

1) In the episode where Rick takes refuge with Morgan, Morgan's zombie wife attempts to OPEN the house door using the doorknob. That's something that no other zombies ever try again and I am glad they scrapped that ability. Opening doors requires the ability to think and zombies are supposed to be mindless ghouls.

2) In the episode where Glen rescues Rick from the tank we clearly see a zombie CLIMBING a fire escape ladder in pursuit of them. This ability to climb ladders never shows up again in future episodes.

3) In the episode where they cover themselves with zombie guts to blend with the undead there are shots of the zombies RUNNING in pursuit of the living. I am glad they scrapped this running ability and went with slow shuffling zombies instead. I hate running zombies, they make no sense because running takes a lot of energy that undead creatures simply do not have.

All in all it seems as if Frank Darabont's vision for zombies was slightly different from that of subsequent showrunners.

[–] Louche (100) 3 years ago

So you prefer when zombies just teleport out of nowhere to catch up to survivors

[–] damocci (1504) 3 years ago

No, I prefer zombies that catch up to survivors through stamina and endurance, and overwhelm them by vastly outnumbering the survivors. That's more "realistic." Running requires coordination and higher brain function, which is why it takes children so long to learn how to do. Shuffling around is a simple form of locomotion, one that is more acceptable when it come to zombies.

Hollywood needs to stop this nonsense of having creatures that can run, crawl along walls, dodge weapons and calling them zombies. Those are NOT zombie. What we have in The Walking Dead are zombies.

For better clarity you should have a look at The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zombie_Survival_Guide

It's actually a really interesting book and it was used as the basis for The Walking Dead.

[–] Bloodshot77 (10748) 3 years ago

Did World War Z have running zombies?

[–] mtxmind (3296) 3 years ago

Yes. Climbed walls too IIRC.

[–] Bloodshot77 (10748) 3 years ago

Then his post contradicts itself.

[–] damocci (1504) 3 years ago

My post does NOT contradict itself. The movie adaptation of World War Z barely resembles the book by Max Brooks. It's a very loose adaptation. The book has zombies that are similar to the ones from The Walking Dead. Way to jump to conclusions. My post still stands: Max Brooks put a ridiculous amount of thought into how the zombie virus works, how it reanimates the dead, how the zombies operate, how long it takes for a zombie to decay to the point that it is rendered truly dead, what it takes to kill them, what weapons work best against the undead, how to fortify your dwellings, what vehicles are best to navigate the zombie apocalypse, which places are best suited for waiting out the zombie apocalypse etc. If you're a fan of zombies then The Zombie Survival Guide really is worth a read. I can see how The Walking Dead borrowed so much from this book.

[–] Louche (100) 3 years ago

If your survivors can't outrun shuffling zombies, they're morons who deserve to die

[–] damocci (1504) 3 years ago

You should watch a few National Geographic documentaries about African wild dogs hunting their prey. Their prey (antelopes, springbok, wildebeest and the like) can easily outrun them. However, wild dogs aren't sprinters, they are marathon runners. They just jog behind their prey for literal HOURS, biding their time, confident in the knowledge that their prey will eventually tire and stop running. Once their prey is exhausted and cannot run anymore, and not even defend itself, the wild dogs attack and are met with little to no resistance.

Zombies are the wild dogs of the horror genre.

[–] Louche (100) 3 years ago

A wild dog has more intelligence than a zombie. You complained up above about zombies being too smart.
Nice way to contradict yourself.

[–] damocci (1504) 3 years ago

The pedanticness in your reply just exhausted me. You're INTENTIONALLY missing the point. I have no more energy to reply to you further. You are the wild dog of MovieChat and you have my sincere permission to eat me. Just read the damn book. I'm out. Peace.

[–] Louche (100) 3 years ago

So you admit you have no argument then. Imagine being this defensive over zombies.
Jesus Christ.

[–] aavfreak (2984) 3 years ago

Did you notice how different season 1 zombies were from the rest of the series?

1) In the episode where Rick takes refuge with Morgan, Morgan's zombie wife attempts to OPEN the house door using the doorknob. That's something that no other zombies ever try again and I am glad they scrapped that ability. Opening doors requires the ability to think and zombies are supposed to be mindless ghouls.

2) In the episode where Glen rescues Rick from the tank we clearly see a zombie CLIMBING a fire escape ladder in pursuit of them. This ability to climb ladders never shows up again in future episodes.

3) In the episode where they cover themselves with zombie guts to blend with the undead there are shots of the zombies RUNNING in pursuit of the living. I am glad they scrapped this running ability and went with slow shuffling zombies instead. I hate running zombies, they make no sense because running takes a lot of energy that undead creatures simply do not have.

All in all it seems as if Frank Darabont's vision for zombies was slightly different from that of subsequent showrunners.

Don't forget the one using a rock to smash through the glass doors at the department store.

[–] TrentnQuarantino (8970) 3 years ago

> I hate running zombies, they make no sense because running takes a lot of energy that undead creatures simply do not have.

Had to chuckle at that one.

[–] aavfreak (2984) 3 years ago

Yep, they're perpetual motion machines. If they can move at all then no level of energy is outside of the realm of possibility.

[–] damocci (1504) 3 years ago

Dead people are known to twitch or have spasms hours after passing away. Meh, I give up. My post count on MovieChat is relatively low precisely because I prefer not to engage in circular arguments, especially about a topic that is explained to an acceptable fictional degree in the aforementioned book (reasonably discarding the laws of thermodynamics of course). The Zombie Survival Guide did such a good job of making zombies somewhat plausible that the creators of BOTH The Walking Dead comics AND series used it as a foundation for their works. Cheers guys, it was great chatting to y'all. No hard feelings, honestly.

[–] damocci (1504) 3 years ago

Don't forget the one using a rock to smash through the glass doors at the department store.

I missed that one but that's another great example.

[–] HAL9000 (935) 3 years ago

couldve used the guts all the time.
this show is so awful

[–] furiousstyles (4364) 2 years ago

Season 1 and 2 are absolutely brilliant, just re watched myself, great cast and characters , kinda miss the old gang especially shane