{"id":1527,"date":"2010-10-29T08:41:24","date_gmt":"2010-10-29T13:41:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greatsociety.org\/?p=1527"},"modified":"2018-10-30T16:47:51","modified_gmt":"2018-10-30T20:47:51","slug":"walking-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/?p=1527","title":{"rendered":"Walking Dead"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nKirkman\u2019s Walking Dead<\/em> comic sucks. I sat down and plowed through all of the issues to date, and it\u2019s just a train wreck in terms of storytelling and characterization. But who can really say no to a zombie apocalypse roadtrip epic? That\u2019s what keeps the readers riveted, I think. It\u2019s just such a goddamned good idea and, even on the worst pages where you need to be tortured Clockwork Orange<\/em> style to stay awake, the promise of a good story shines through.<\/p>\n

When I first heard that a TV series was on the way, my heart sank. I\u2019m a post-apocalypse nut, but I\u2019ve watched the genre falter horribly on television. Logan\u2019s Run The Series<\/em>, Planet of the Apes The Series<\/em>, both Battlestar Galactica<\/em>\u2019s, the second season of War of the Worlds<\/em>, Jeremiah, Jericho<\/em>\u2026 All the greats. And all deeply flawed. Some have more gravitas than the others, but all of them, in the end, are sad fuck ups. Even though they\u2019ve fed my post-apocalypse addiction, they\u2019ve always let me down.<\/p>\n

But Walking Dead<\/em> had a lot going for it. These days, AMC can do no wrong. And the crew behind it not only know how to tell a good story, but they\u2019ve proven in the past that they know exactly the right temperature for boiling shit. I mean, hell, Darabont made Young Indiana Jones<\/em> watchable. Sorta.<\/p>\n

Unable to contain myself, I turned to piracy when the review copy of the pilot episode leaked a couple weeks ago. It was one of those midnight downloads where I had work the next morning but decided to fuck that concern, get some coffee going, and wait for the download like a kid listening for Santa on the roof.<\/p>\n

Within one minute, I was sold. In those first few minutes, our main character \u2013 Rick Grimes \u2013 is a richer, more likable person than in the entire comic series. Translating characters from comic to screen is always difficult, and always requires a certain finesse, but they all came shining through in the pilot episode. They were all perfectly done, even though we only see the bulk of them in a last minute cameo as Rick makes his way to Atlanta.<\/p>\n

I actually watched it again as soon as it was done. That\u2019s how much of a sad loser I am. But it deserved a second viewing because \u2013 seriously \u2013 it was the best hour of TV I\u2019ve seen in a long time. And no punches are pulled\u2026 The zombie makeup is off the chain, the way they handled the story is nothing short of breathtaking, and the tough scenes are tough\u2026 There aren\u2019t any cheap scares, either. That\u2019s what really wins my heart over. This is all about the classic lurking horror of a zombie apocalypse. Repulsive monsters who move just slightly too fast, and are pitiless and inhumane in every way, and yet inspire pity and humanity in both the characters and the audience. It taps into the vein that Romero mastered long ago \u2013 we are the zombies. <\/p>\n

The official premiere is on Halloween. Six episodes. It should be a beautiful ride and, if they can maintain what they did in the first episode, then we finally have a decent post apocalypse show we can enjoy.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss it! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58,50],"tags":[59,403,60,270,271],"class_list":["post-1527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bangs-whimpers","category-cult-culture","tag-apocalypse","tag-cult-culture","tag-post-apocalypse","tag-television","tag-walking-dead"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1527"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1528,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1527\/revisions\/1528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}