Walking Dead…meh.

Updated on May 13, 2011 By Ken Begg 15 Comments

I finally caught the much-lauded Walking Dead series on DVD. Am I missing something? It’s OK, but I’ve heard little but rapturous things about it. Maybe TV critics just haven’t seen as many recent zombie movies as I have? I’m not a huge zombie fan, but there have been many superior zombie movies lately; Shaun of the Dead, the Dawn of the Dead remake, 28 Days Later…and those are just the ones I saw. Pretty much all of them (except the ones actually made by George Romero) have been pretty good to great.

The TV series didn’t do anything those movies didn’t. We’re kind of in a golden age of TV right now, or over the last 10 years anyway, and I think the bar is raised higher than what we got here. The character stuff was better than the zombie stuff, which is OK in itself (essential; arguably), but again, nothing better than what I’ve seen before. And I mean, a character  calling out to a little girl, who turns around and proves to be a zombie? Wow, I’ve only seen that like a zillion times. And this is one of the show’s ‘big moments,’ popping up on the DVD menus and everything.

I will admit also to one particular nagging plot problem (among several others, actually). There’s this small band of survivors, and there’s this huge importance attached throughout several of the six episodes to this duffle bag of guns one character scrounges up. The idea is guns are hard to find right now. Gee, that makes a lot of sense, given that the show is set in Georgia. Pretty much a tour of abandoned houses or abandoned cars would undoubtedly turn up scads of guns; this is the American South we’re talking about here.  Maybe ammo would be  a bit more of a problem (maybe), but hell, tons of firearms would be lying in the streets, as fleeing motorists who had grabbed up their numerous guns were overwhelmed by the zombie hoards.

Anyway, I thought I’d see if I were just barking up the wrong tree here. Any advocates for the show’s greatness? I”m not being snide, I’m honestly wondering if I missed something here.

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  • LukeB

    I’ve seen half of the series and several months later havn’t got round to watching the rest yet. As an unabashed zombie fan, meh is right. Nothing that hasn’t been done better several times before, though to be fair it’s also been done much much worse.

  • roger h

    The gun thing hit me too. Where did they all go?

    I suspect zombie members of the Brady Campaign and Violence Policy Center rather than looking for brains and entrails staggered around and gathered firearms.

    The horse scene was an interesting touch.

  • sandra

    The gun thing bothered me in THE ROAD, too. I mean, in gun-happy America the father can’t find a gun or ammo for the one he’s got ? Why didn’t he just search the glovebox of every abandoned car he passed? The starvation thing puzzled me as well. There must be millions of tons of canned food in North America, and a mere ten or twleve years after the Apocalypse, its almost all gone ? The third thing that bothered me was the ‘happy’ ending: just exactly how do those people keep that dog fed ?

  • Marsden

    I read somewhere that the gangs in America would be the 4th largest army in the world. I think the Crips would probably be able to exterminate the zombies if they were on their turf.

  • RogerBW

    Yeah, pretty much my reaction too. They had four hours to tell a more complex story than a film can manage, but they pissed it away at Camp Asshole and going over the same old ground.

  • Grumpy

    “We’re kind of in a golden age of TV right now…”

    Emphasis on “kind of.” Some spots are more golden than others; large swaths of TV make you want to travel back in time and murder Philo T. Farnsworth’s mother.

    “I think the Crips would probably be able to exterminate the zombies if they were on their turf.”

    Aw yeah! There’s a movie that’s begging to be made. In fact, why hasn’t anyone made it yet??

  • zombiewhacker

    Regarding The Road: Viggo’s character was a flat-out idiot. Period. He didn’t do anything right that entire movie. Why they didn’t make Guy Pearce the main character I’ll never understand.

    Re: the topic. 28 Days Later, [REC], and Shaun of the Dead are my favorite examples of the genre. The Crazies remake was also surprisingly good, though not officially a zombie movie. That’s the upside. The downside is that there have been so many zombie films the past decade that I don’t feel like watching an entire miniseries on the same topic. What’s the word? Oh, yeah… overkill.

  • The real issue is the build up that they’re giving the next season (in the works). What many fans don’t realize is that the known and recognized talent which made the original run so-so/ok has left the project. The new season is being helmed by different people and that is certain to make a difference.

  • Good to know. Again, I want to emphasize that I wasn’t saying it was bad (except for the gun thing, and a few other quibbles). But man, it got slathered with praise that I felt was well beyond its overall merits.

  • Reed

    Someone did make a gangs vs. zombies movie. I can’t remember the title of it, but the movie did nothing original with the concept. Instead of bickering people destroyed by their inability to come together to defeat an ubiquitous but easily defeatable opponent we got annoying gangbanger assholes destroyed by their inability to come together to defeat an ubiquitous but easily defeatable opponent. Sadly, that part was probably realistic.

  • Ted Cunn

    I’m a big fan of Frank Darabont’s work, so I thought that there must have been something really special in the original graphic novels (or comics, as I used to call them) but, if there was, it didn’t make it into the show. It was certainly well made, but didn’t have anything special about it.

    Sandra’s comments on The Road, however, I’m going to have to disagree with. The path they’re taking is well trodden and most things of value have already been taken. Most survivors are in gangs and they would hoard anything they find of any real value. Guns and food especially.

    And the food? Take away all fresh food and the ability to make any more food. Then add millions of people desperate to eat every day and the surplus, no matter how big, would soon dwindle. Especially adding the gangs mentioned above who would be gathering as much food as they could.

    Is the end happy? Sure, the boy finds some more people to be with, but what’s to say they are really good people? I’d say it’s a bleak ending because it’s the father’s main goal in life to defend his son and he fails. He dies and leaves the son to fend for himself and to end up with people who might have eaten him ten minutes later.

    Though, inevitably, the book was better than the film. There was such an air of bleakness, desperation and fear about it that I was genuinely worried about the characters. I rarely get that.

  • The Rev.

    I’m definitely of a mind with Ken on this series. I was going to watch it anyway, ’cause I love the zombies, but yeah…good, not great, occasionally annoying.

    That said, I’m happy to see Michael Rooker working, and look forward to his character’s inevitable return.

  • John Campbell

    We love the “Walking Dead”. (And the fiancee for the most part abhors standard zombie gut munching fair.)

    Would I be willing to say it’s better than Shaun of the Dead? No. Never.

    But I still enjoy the series and look forward to what’s next. I think AMC did a good job.

    As to “The Road” I won’t watch it. I agree with Ted Cunn. It’s bleak and he fails his son. Also in the book (Spoiler!!!) One of the cannibal gangs butchers and eats a baby. There’s enough in life to bring you down without having to know or see something like that. People can envision a horrid bleak future all they want. Doesn’t mean I want to take part.

  • BeckoningChasm

    Hey, I can be a pedantic ass! It should be “zombie hordes” and not “zombie hoards.” Unless the zombies are stockpiling Blu-Rays or something, then it’s okay.

  • sandra

    John Campbell: That particular scene left out of the movie of THE ROAD, something I was deeply grateful for, as nobody sane would want to see that depicted. I imagine it would have emptied the theatre within a minute.
    I wish to state that I actually liked THE WALKING DEAD tv series, although it relied on ridiculous plot twists: among the very few surviviors are the hero’s wife and kids, and his best friend, who is banging the wife ? Oh, please!