Fear The Walking Dead-Pilot

[Been Jammin]

Anyone watch? Thoughts?

Here is my take....

For the most part, I liked it. I liked the characters and thought the acting was good. I think the show will be good. However, I did have some problems with the writing.

1). I didn't think it made sense that there were multiple walkers in the church in the first scene and they seem to have completely disappeared when people went back to the church twice. If they weren't in the church, where were they? They aren't going to go into hibernation. If they got out of the church, wouldn't they be wandering around eating people? Wouldn't they show up somewhere during the next 2 days. Also, wouldn't there be more than just some blood left in the church? Bones? A half eaten zombie that is unable to walk? Something?

2) I, also would have like to see more people glued to the TV/Internet wondering what the hell is going on in the world. The one kid talked about rumors in 6 different cities. Wouldn't people be totally sucked into the story? Wouldn't strange happenings be all over the news?

3). How about having a bunch of people coming into the hospital with bite wounds? How about those people develop a fever and the docs think their wound must be infected? How about they eventually die and end up in the hospital morgue? How about they wake up in the morgue and kill some poor morgue worker?

4). My understanding of the original Walking Dead show was that initially, the only way to become a walker was to get bit by a walker, develop a fever, die, then come back as a walker. Not until later did the organism mutate/infect everyone to where anyone who died would become a walker. I didn't think the drug dealer, who died due to a gunshot wound should have turned into a walker. IMO, it would have worked if he told the other kid that some crazy drugged up dude bit him and now he wasn't feeling well, then got shot.

Ultimately, I didn't feel that this show played by the same rules as the original show. That bothered me. Take that out of the equation (i.e. pretend that this show came first) and I thought it was a good start.

 

[Marshal Jim Duncan]

Valid points. I wondered for sure most about the church. I was thinking -- did someone clean it up for some reason?

Maybe the drug dealer "friend" WAS bitten after the addict kid shot him and ran off?

Is the old man who was sharing the room with the addict kid and rushed out in cardiac arrset going to turn? I kept thinking he was going to turn in the room with the kid (I imagine that belief was the intention of the writers/director).

 

[Adman513]

Agree with your problems with the show (especially the lack of zombies in the church--how the hell did they just all get out?!?). For the most part, however, I didn't care for it. It was what I feared (pardon the pun) it would be--overly trying for us to care about the characters (who I found fairly shallow and uninteresting) and not go into the details of people freaking out/reacting to the upcoming zombie apocalypse transition. It looks like they delve into that further in upcoming episodes, and I'm sure I'll continue to watch, but I wasn't really "grabbed" by the characters or story development like I hoped. I REALLY wanted that worthless junkie kid to get eaten ASAP.

Also, just to add to your critiques, I also had a problem with how the mom & boyfriend reacted to the shot/dead dealer. I don't see any realistic way he didn't get a bite in on her before she just instinctively pushed him away. They also just sort of stood there as the junkie hipster jumped in the truck and backed over him. Even after he ran him over again and launched him from the truck, they both just had a "Hum...that's awfully odd..." look on their face rather than freaking out from what was happening.

Eh...like I said, I'm sure I'll keep watching, but I really hope it gets better.

 

[Rulz]

I guess if it is "the beginning", then the premise is there aren't many walkers around yet. The thought I had was that two cops in Georgia didn't talk about the stuff that apparently had been uploaded to YouTube from California when all the crap first started in their area. They always seemed to act like they didn't know if it was widespread yet. But I gues that's like wondering why no one mentions Qui Gon Jin or Mace Windu in the original Star Wars movies lol....it's just the nature of prequel writing.

The show really moved along slow, with a lot of emphasis on character development. I feel they could have went about this a million different ways, and although the acting was good, it wouldn't have been my first choice for the start. But again, oh well, after awhile it won't matter who these people are, they will be trying to survive just like everyone else. I just wonder if they will delve into the way the whole thing started initially. Perhaps that would kind of ruin the suspense and intrigue for the Walking Dead, but after 6 years and no interest in reading the graphic novels on my part, I'm ready to see the story of what is behind all the undead.

 

[Been Jammin]

Valid points. I wondered for sure most about the church. I was thinking -- did someone clean it up for some reason?

Maybe the drug dealer "friend" WAS bitten after the addict kid shot him and ran off?

Is the old man who was sharing the room with the addict kid and rushed out in cardiac arrset going to turn? I kept thinking he was going to turn in the room with the kid (I imagine that belief was the intention of the writers/director).

I thought the same thing about the old man. However, I thought it played out the way it should have. More likely (based on the original show) that he would die due to the fever he had, then will turn later in the hospital morgue.

As to the drug dealer, if a walker found him alive, after he had been shot, there are two reasons your explanation would not make sense. First, that walker would have done more than just bite him and leave. He would have eaten a good portion of him. Secondly, if you remember when Andrea's sister got bit, died and turned... it was depicted as taking a very long time for her to die and then hours before she came back to "life". It doesn't seem to parallel that the drug dealer would get bit and be a zombie just an hour or two later.

 

[GoPokes43]

I thought the same thing about the old man. However, I thought it played out the way it should have. More likely (based on the original show) that he would die due to the fever he had, then will turn later in the hospital morgue.

As to the drug dealer, if a walker found him alive, after he had been shot, there are two reasons your explanation would not make sense. First, that walker would have done more than just bite him and leave. He would have eaten a good portion of him. Secondly, if you remember when Andrea's sister got bit, died and turned... it was depicted as taking a very long time for her to die and then hours before she came back to "life". It doesn't seem to parallel that the drug dealer would get bit and be a zombie just an hour or two later.

It does take a while for someone to die after a non-fatal bite, but I think the Walking Dead has been pretty consistent with them turning relatively quickly after death - definitely within a couple of hours.

 

[Chillwell]

I thought it was it was pretty good. I've been really looking forward to it a lot, so I had high expectations. Don't know if it met my hyped expectations, but I still enjoyed it.

One of my favorite scenes was the youtube footage of the man on the stretcher coming to life and attacking the paramedic and then the cops unloading on him. I thought that was handled well...how the footage spread on social media and then how people even doubted its veracity.


I doubt it will happen, but I was hoping to get more of a "patient zero" type of explanation. Like is it a virus that jumped species? Did it come from the pacific islands?...Africa?, Asia, etc.?...something like that.


Also, lot of that was filmed near where my wife works (Children's Hospital, Los Angeles); as we watched, she kept saying, "hey, I drive by that place everyday"...like the green gas station, the little outdoor street market, etc. Also, I rode the Metrolink 4 or 5 times a week for almost 3 years, so a lot of the train scenery around Union Station was really familiar to me.

 

[Cowpoke]

It didn't do much for me. The characters don't interest me at all and it seemed inconsistant with twd.

I was hoping, and I guess it can still happen, for more buildup. I get the feeling that this is going to become TWD LA more than a prequel to twd. Meaning more "OMG run Zombies" more than seeing how the infection happened how it spreads all over the world, etc.

 

[Been Jammin]

It didn't do much for me. The characters don't interest me at all and it seemed inconsistant with twd.

I was hoping, and I guess it can still happen, for more buildup. I get the feeling that this is going to become TWD LA more than a prequel to twd. Meaning more "OMG run Zombies" more than seeing how the infection happened how it spreads all over the world, etc.

I agree. If I had written this show, there would have been a lot of focus on rumors about strange things happening around the country. Debate as to if it was all a hoax. People reporting being chased/bitten by other people who are curiously difficult to kill. Some of those biters would be captured and studied, and people would wonder if they were under the influence of some strange new drug. A much more gradual move toward the chaos that seems to have developed without much of a prelude.

 

[Marshal Jim Duncan]

It's only been one episode and they've only shown a handful of biters. If you were expecting a prequel, you'll be disappointed. Kirkman explicitly said it ins't a prequel , but rather a parallel story.

 

[Cowpoke]

" Kirkman explicitly it ins;t a prequel , but rather a parallel story."

Blah, not interested in that.

 

[Cowpoke]

I agree. If I had written this show, there would have been a lot of focus on rumors about strange things happening around the country. Debate as to if it was all a hoax. People reporting being chased/bitten by other people who are curiously difficult to kill. Some of those biters would be captured and studied, and people would wonder if they were under the influence of some strange new drug. A much more gradual move toward the chaos that seems to have developed without much of a prelude.

I would have offered to pay the family of that dude (or did he live??) that got eaten in Florida to use some of that news footage.

 

[Marshal Jim Duncan]

Well, this story has started a litte before the oriignal series...

So, it's a somewhat different perspective.

I may be more open minded about it because I've grown pretty weary of the original. I thought the acting was pretty good, but it was slow (to be expected setting up the series) and there were definitely some holes in the continuity and the logic of episode #1.

 

[Been Jammin]

" Kirkman explicitly it ins;t a prequel , but rather a parallel story."

Blah, not interested in that.

The biggest issue I have with a parallel story is that it dilutes TWD. I look at it this way. Remember the episode where the Walkers fell through the roof of the department store and ended up in the same room with people who were scavenging in the store? That was a pretty clever and creative way to thrust the show stars into a dangerous situation. We all know that the writers won't have that scenario happen again. Now, if they come up with a clever idea, they have to decide which show they are going to use it for and the original TWD will have only half of the really cool ideas.

 

[Cowpoke]

I'm a season or two behind on TWD already, I don't care to pick up something that will be essentially the same but less interesting characters (so far).

Its like Dukes of Hazzard with Coy and Vance.

 

[Marshal Jim Duncan]

Well, this story has started a litte before the oriignal series...

So, it's a somewhat different perspective.

I may be more open minded about it because I've grown pretty weary of the original. I thought the acting was pretty good, but it was slow (to be expected setting up the series) and there were definitely some holes in the continuity and the logic of episode #1.

They have completely separate crews, I believe. I assume that Kirkman wanted to try out some different ideas AND that they are preparing for the time when the original burns out/becomes too costly to produce due to rising stars' salaries.

It was always going to be difficult to rise to the intrigue level of the original.. But I'll give it a shot. This first season is only 6 episodes, so not much of an investment. If it hasn't gone anywhere I'll cut my losses.

Any of you guys had your itnerest piqued by The Bastard Executioner?

 

[CowboyJD]

I was underwhelmed, but will keep watching because I'm a Kirkman fan.

He's been quoted as not being interested in exploring a "Patient Zero" scenario. It's certainly not in the comics. I doubt we see it in a TV show.

Has any zombie TV show, book, comic, movie ever explored the "origin" of the zombie outbreak? World War Z did a bit, but other than that I can't think of others.

 

[hollywood]

I had the same problem as many others here - the way the walkers were popping up after dying, without there being the intervening event of being bitten/scratched/etc by another walker.

If these are supposed to be parallel events to what happened on the East Coast, then the episode involving the other group and the explanation of events and happenings by the scientist at the CDC seems completely at odds with this story line. If I recall correctly, and I'm fairly certain I do, the explanation was that the virus was transferred from its host by directly injecting it into the blood stream of the victim (who becomes a new host) typically by biting. It was ONLY after several months of observation and testing by the CDC scientist that they discovered the virus had mutated in such a manner that virtually every human being was now carrying some version of the virus which did not require it to be injected from old host to new host. (Simply dying was enough to activate the virus and have it take over, reanimating the corpse and turn it into a walker.) That of course was the "big secret" that was whispered into Rick Grimes ear at the last moment (before the CDC imploded) and not revealed to the rest of the survivors until a much later time.

Yet, what we are observing in L.A. seems to be the complete reverse sequence of events. It appears that people are reanimating and becoming walkers without any apparent sign that they had been bitten or otherwise infected by another host. It seems like they've skipped right to the mutated version, which the CDC scientist said only came about at a later date. And if anyone would be in the best position to understand what happened in L.A., in Atlanta, or any other place with the most thorough tracking of the disease vector, it would the CDC. So, how could they have been unaware of this early form of the virus which did not require direct "contamination" from an existing host?

I just realized that I'm starting to sound like one of those Star Trek fanboys who argue over what is and what is not "Canon." So, I'll leave it at that.

 

[Been Jammin]

@hollywood

You and I are on the exact same page. The only way that I can make the two story lines make sense would be if the CDC doc was wrong, and if everyone was infected from the very beginning, and any death would result in turning into a walker. Of course, even that scenario is incredibly flimsy, as any kind of infection has to have time to spread from person to person and it is silly to think that everyone would suddenly be infected with this organism that would cause re-animation after death.

I am trying to remember if anyone died in the first/second season of TWD other than people who died following bite then fever. If someone died, but didn't turn into a walker, then it confirms the sequence of events that you outlined above.

 

[GoPokes43]

Or, to resolve the points you guys are raising is that biting was not the only way to become infected. Presumably any transfer of bodily fluids should do it. E.g, intravenous drug use could do it. We don't know if the guy in the video was a druggie, but it could explain the others we've seen so far.

 

[MegaPoke]

Pretty good. Will watch again.