FWIW on The Nerdist Podcast, Chris had a panel with all of them and they talked about the process and about the second season. Some really cool insights and perspectives.
I am thrilled for this show to start back up. Season 1 was so damn enjoyable. I realized that the programming executives at AMC truly love their viewers when I noticed the end of Breaking Bad would segue immediately into the start of the Walking Dead. Hoo. Ray.
My recent Netflix binges could be clouding my perception, but there were sooo many ads this episode. Other than that it was good, kinda bummed Rick didn't reveal what Jenner whispered to him last season though..
My friend and I agreed. Also, it seemed to cut to commercial at awkward moments, once almost instantly after a line was delivered. Spoiler Someone want to tell me why the herd didn't smell them? My only guess would be that there was so much death around, it masked their smell, but I don't exactly "buy" that. LOVED the ending. Before it even started I said I hoped Carl would die this season b/c he did nothing for me. One thing I'm anxiously awaiting for is Merle's return. Where the hell is he?! I was pretty pleased with it as a premiere. Set up a couple of arcs for the season, touched on a couple of things from the finale (Andrea's speech to Dale was great), and ended on a pretty suspenseful note.
Yeah both the kids suck, I would be perfectly fine if the girl disappeared as that was it and Carl died. As for Merle: Spoiler If they are somewhat following the books, he might become the leader of a town and call himself "The Governor."
Did anyone else think some of the actions the characters took were unintentionally hilarious? "Oh, hey Andrea, I see you are getting attacked by zombie. Here, take this tiny screwdriver." Or, as soon as the herd passes, they go back to banging cars out of the way and screaming like assholes. It's as if they think the zombies (or walkers, or what the fuck ever) are unable to turn around. I don't think it's a good idea to make the oldest guy of your team the spotter. Dale didn't notice the huge pile-up 'till it was in front of him. Same goes for the herd. Dude, you've got fucking binoculars, how can't you see the undead-parade walking towards you?
No. I had it DVRed and toward the end, the commercial segments were running longer than the show itself. Ridiculous. I agree that hiding under the cars was stupid, and totally ignored the smell thing that was a key plot point in an episode last season. However, I don't think that means 10 people should try to take on a pack of 100 zombies that took them pretty much by surprise. One mistake, you get bitten, and you're one of them. I think that makes it a pretty clear choice to avoid tangling with them in close quarters. Of course, the characters in the show don't agree (church scene).
Gunshots attract the herd and the last thing they wanted to do was alert them all and have them storm the RV. That was my interpretation, anyway. The pile-up makes no sense, you're right, but the herd came around the cars a little bit at a time. Remember for a minute there that even Rick thought there were only a couple of them until they all shambled from around the car.
I watched "The Talking Dead" after the premiere, which is a little half hour talkshow-style recap after each new ep, hosted by Chris Hardwick, and with Kirkman answering questions. He said that the smell thing was more of a minor thing than people are playing it up to be. Like, (and this is my analogy, not his) if you are around someone from another country who eats an entirely different kind of diet, you notice their general body smell is not like yours. But if that person was hiding under a car and you didn't know it, you wouldn't be following your nose to them. Kirkman said, "I mean, they're not bloodhounds, you know? Plus I don't want them to be like, sniffing around, following their noses."
I don't know. Initially this seems like one of those fanboy complaints, but then again, it was explicitly described and made a major point in a previous episode. As for his analogy, I wouldn't notice that person's smell if I was walking by them in the pouring rain either but it still happened on the show.
(During the Vietnam war, GI Joes often could smell the Vietcong during ambushes at night, because of how much garlic they ate.) I always assumed in this show that walkers could differentiate between each other and living people because living people lacked the "dead" smell, not because they had their own distinct smell. i.e. If a walker doesn't see you, there's no reason he would suspect you are there. But if he sees you, he will be able to tell whether you are another walker or not.
The feel is somewhat the same, the last poster is right though. The comics are far more extreme than the show. But yeah, once they hit the CDC it took a strong left turn from the comics. However! The storyline of the comics, and how it's presented, the show could very easily return to the comic storyline at any point. From the previews it looks like they might be doing just that.
The end of the first episode left me feeling fucked up. Not fucked up like the end of the fourth season of Dexter, but still fairly fucked up.
Spoiler I can't remember if Carl was shot in the comic like just was in the woods. Obviously there was the most recent incident with the whole compound thing but was he shot before he killed the other cop?
Spoiler He definately was shot in the comics and I'm almost positive it was after he shot Shane. I'm going to spoiler the following also because I know some people don't want to know anything about the comics, but it's not too spoilery. Spoiler As far as following the comics, I think it's pretty much following it. I think they threw the CDC thing in their real quick so that everyone could get a simple explanation as to what caused the Zombie outbreak and when. The comics never really addressed that so this was a quick way to say "Hey, this is when it happened and why, now stop worrying about it and watch the show." Other than the CDC it's been following pretty closely.
Last night's episode was pretty damned good, and I like what they are doing with Shane's character. I can see this as the beginning of Rick's transformation into something more like his comic persona. Spoiler See how he was blaming himself for having the heart to go after the girl? In the comic, Rick would just let her die if meant keeping Carl safe. Or chop off her mother's hand's first and then feed her to a crowd of zombies in order to make his escape. Whatever.
The more I think about it, the less excited I'm getting about the show. That first highway scene was tits. Then the running the the woods for the next 45 minutes left me dry. Spoiler The little girl getting out and running away was like "come on really?" Plus I don't think enough stock was put into the little girl before she ran away. Pretty sure her and her mom are going to be gone anyway since they're useless and bring nothing to the table. The family at the house could have been a little more interesting, and the trip to the high school should be awesome. I hate the pause with Rick giving away his gun, obviously some shit is going to go down. Might as well give his hat away too.