Be Excellent To Each Other

I agree with Christmas Tsara on this, have to say.

Poofs

I concur with m'learned Northerner.

I think it was an episode with a lot of purpose to it. Little zombie action and everybody not dying does not make it a bad episode. If you don't identify with or care about the characters watch something else.

What purpose? At the end of the episode they were literally in exactly the same situation they were at the end of the previous one!
Little of consequence happened.

It revealed for one.

And quite a chunck about the nature of the infection/brain function/time frame.

In the same position they have been since the start. So by that logic nothing happened in the whole series.

Agree. A--

It's unlikely that


The nature of the infection/brain function/time frame was a bit 'wavy hands' and I don't think is of any great consequence, it'll just be a vehicle for a "to stop this got to X and pick up Y".

[quote="Christmas Tsara"]It's unlikely that

Yes, but there's

and anyway, it's unlikely that the world will be wiped out due to a Zombie outbreak but it makes for bloody good tv entertainment.

No they weren't.

I agree with everyone who placed this series on the scale somewhere around 'pretty fucking good'.

I also agree that after an incredibly strong start it did sag a little around EP03/04, but brought it all good in EP05/06 and justified the time spent on the main protagonists, to the point that I was certainly emotionally invested in them,

IMO it's very good telly, it's well written, it has exemplary SFX, it's well acted, it has people you care about (even tangentially), and it's a got a really strong central narrative. Even the 'obvious emotional events' you can often see coming work well, because they're believable and cleverly played out.

Bring on Series 2, because this is quality stuff.

Season 2 trailer from Comic-con



Starts October 16th in the US

Do want!
Hurry up october!

Great trailer. Who is the old guy right at the end in doorway he looks very familiar but I can't place him.

That looks great, I can't wait for the next series.

Yeah, looking forward to more.

It is still sat on my Virgin box, not had chance to watch it yet!

Oh good, this has jumped the shark; Frank Darabont has been fired: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/50767

Bollocks, that bodes ill. Grrrr.

Feeling thoroughly ‘meh’ about the first season, I definitely won't be bothering with this now, then.

Maybe the new season will be better and will address your concerns?

I'll definitely keep watching until it stops etnertaining me.

yeah, quite - this doesn't, on the face of it, sound like it bodes well, but I'm certainly not giving up on series 2 until I've actually watched a bit of it. Not least as I loved series 1.

Even worse, looking through the reporter where that story comes from and it's likely Breaking Bad is only going to have one more season.

To be fair, I'm wondering how far they can stretch the story. It does sort of have a natural conclusion coming up, and I'd prefer they left it there rather than it plodding on forever or becoming ludicrous.

Walking dead: equally meh, I wasn't enthused enough by the first season to keep watching.

Nooo! You have to! Who else can I welch [legit copies - ed] from?!

Kalmar for mod, regarding both of these points. Breaking Bad has been ace, but I can't stand shows being drawn out past their prime. Everything needs a conclusion, and I'd rather something went out on a high.

Series 2, Episode 1 -

Too long, I've paused 2/3 of the way through to type this out. I'd like 45 minute episodes and hope the rest of the series is just that. I say too long because the tense moments are just too tense and I sort of seize up while watching - very uncomfortable.

As for the rest, we all know the characters, the awkward dialogue, the occasionally Neighbours-level dischordant character behaviour. All still present and correct. More of the same, basically. It seems there has been some sort of armageddon on it later in the season, inasmuch as Darabont binned off the writing team, then was bumped himself for a new showrunner so those who wanted to like it a bit more than they did might do well to carry on watching. We'll see how it gets on.

Otherwise, you are welcome to enjoy your other big-budget zombie series instead.



/edit finished the episode now. Fuck....

Is this on SKY yet?

Vince Gilligan has been open from the start that Breaking Bad would always have a finite lifespan. I mean, the show's entire premise is a terminal cancer diagnosis for the lead character; how much more obvious a ticking bomb can you have?

S02e01: fucking dull. It just feels as circular and sterile as Prison Break did after season 1. Shan't be bothering.

Just watched s2e01. Holy moly, I felt like I was going to have a heart attack the whole way through. So tense! I hope some of the future episodes are a bit less stress inducing. Will still be watching it though, its brilliant. Going to watch a comedy to calm down.

A slight difference of opinions there then.

it probably wasn't emo enough for malabelm.
I liked it, I thought it was really tense (a bit too tense if anything) with some scary bits and some shocks. It's not like some zombie things, where I spend my time deciding what I'd be doing and how I'd be surviving, with this I spend my time being properly scared of zombies and being grateful I'm not there.

To be fair, I didn't like the first season and went into this one with the same attitude. I just don't understand the raving about it.

Me neither. I can't understand why people are still watching this poorly written shite. I've given up on it.

It's got zombies in it.

I quite liked it, and agree with Gilly.

I'm on book 10 of the comics, and the series is very different in content, but very similar in tone. It's interesting they've now caught up with book 2, but I'll be interested to see how they deal with Shane.

I like it, it does tense very well and the zombies look scary real enough. Worth 45 minutes of my time once a week. I don't have huge expectations for it, but I think the level is consitenly higher than some stuff I watch.

*ahem e.g. Terra Nova ahem*

Talking of the comics, fuck me they're brutal.

Walking Dead > Terra nova

That was, in a poorly intimated way, my point. It's not hard to be better than Terra Nova, so you're sort of damning WD with faint praise. Unless that was the intention.

To clarify this point further;

Over the past ten years or so, there's been some awesome TV that we've watched. Really good, standout stuff which I'm not going to bother to really list, as it's the usual suspects. However, if you look at that list of 'awesome, really good, stand-out stuff' I think that there's only really been one show a year that's been that good, and stood the test of time. one show that runs for 12 episodes or so. The rest of the year, the other 40 weeks, is going to have inferior programs to that stand-out show broadcast. Then, when the next program comes along, the cycle repeats itself.

I think that the Walking Dead suffers more than most as the protagonists are always going to be short of food/water/fanbelt and have to run, or hide each week. To be honest, there's not that much you can do with zombies, their interaction with other characters is pretty much limited to "eating" or "being hit with a hammer", so the plot has to really then run along the characters of the main party. I think I've already said that I found myself toward the end not really caring for any of the protagonists, and after this episode, I don't really much, again, but, as an entertaining drama about some people who clearly should *not* have survived for as long as they have in that world it's entertainment enough for me, although I'm probably secretly rooting for the zombies. What it does, it does well; the vastness of Georgia, the isolation and self reliance needed, the expansive freeways that are often impassable.

Expecting each TV program to be chock full of writing to Ibsen's level isn't a realistic expectation, for anything, really. Some will be incredibly engaging and believable, but those won't be set in a fantasy world with the undead shambling through Georgia, as fantasy stories seldom, if ever, lend themselves to high writing. Couple that, with the sheer volume of shows being broadcast or downloaded, then of course some are going to be better than others, but it is perfectly possible to forgive the odd shonky line, or the ludicrous plot twist and not let it spoil your enjoyment of something, and you should do, too, as it's makes you considerably more happy. Because, otherwise, we'd all ahve given up making TV programs whenever someone saw the first episode of X and said "Boys, they've done it all so well, let's go home".