"The Walking Dead" on AMC HD - Page 111

great episode and left me with more questions..if you rewatch this season and older episodes you can clearly tell that there was ONE singular event that caused this outbreak or as Dr. Jenner termed it "WildFire" Obviously if everyone is a carrier of the disease it had to have been implanted/initially spread by some means. if its the whole planet than maybe an airborne government experiment gone wrong? It would be impossible for 1 zombie to have a domino effect that would cause the end of the world.

Also if you watched Talking Dead, creator Kirkman said at the end when Michonne was begging to be in Rick's group they actually cut out her saying the line "please" because it would have made her seemed too desperate.

The preview for Feb 10th's episode looks great...episode is titled: "The Suicide King"

Kirkman has said he will not address the origins of the disease, so we can pretty much come up with whatever origin story we want, it just won't be verifiable.

We now know Carol's not a lesbian.

But she's got short hair.

1. Now I know Kirkman is full of ****... A zombie head still trying to bite? Really... ?

2. God @#$%ing damn Andrea needs to die... (I don't give a damn if she's "trying to fit in" by sleeping to the top...)

3. So close... I knew the governor couldn't die, now we got one big cluster @#$% we gotta wait for til Feb... :sigh:

11 mil see ‘Walking Dead’ midseason-wrap premiere
By Lisa de Moraes

Zombies in "The Walking Dead" on AMC. (AMC - TWD PRODUCTIONS/AMC)
Nearly 11 million people watched the mid-season finale of AMC’s “The Walking Dead” at 9 p.m. Sunday night – about 60 percent more people than had tuned in to same, last year.

AMC’s zombie-drama -- the most watched ad-supported drama series in basic cable history – is also, as of its midseason break, TV’s second most watched program of the fall among 18-49 year olds advertisers prefer, behind only NBC’s Sunday football.

The claim is based on stats that include viewing of episodes up to seven days after their initial telecast for all but the final two weeks of “Dead’s” season to date.

The numbers are kinda close – “Dead” is 131,000 18-49-year-old viewers ahead of CBS’s “Big Bang Theory” and 143,000 vahead of ABC’s “Modern Family.” So its ranking could change when so-called Live + 7 ratings through last week are issued, in a couple of weeks.

Later Sunday night, “The Talking Dead” – “The Walking Dead’s” after-show, clocked 2.2 million viewers; when that franchise returns for the rest of the season, it’s being pumped up to a full hour each week.

I feel it is spoiler heavy so I will only post the link, but awesome article with the actor playing Tyrese.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/walking-dead-spoilers-tyreese-chad-coleman-396788

Loved this episode, but it really bothers me, with all that Merle did and all he caused, the pain, everything, and you hold a gun on him and just tell him to stop? Really? Yet someone you don't know you stick a bone into his neck without thinking about it. They sooo would of blown his head off in the real world, that part was pretty lame.

Andrea, really, the heads, the daughter, and you still want to stay, no matter how wacked she is that wouldn't of happened.

Merle and Daryl is definitely a ploy to get Merle to the prison to see what is going on, infiltrate from the inside.

The preview for the next episode was sooooo spoiler heavy. It answers what happens to merle and daryl, the group, everything.

That's going to bother me if that's the case(And I know if very well may be) because Merle flat out lied to the Gov about his mission to kill Michonne and now the Gov is just going to trust him again?
Merle has made two things abundantly clear.
1: He can't be trusted.
2. His methods puts the group in danger.

I'm not an evil psychopath living in a zombie apocalypse, but I think even I would have to kill Merle for that.

I would buy into Merle trying to double cross Rick's group on his own to get back into the Gov's good grace, but I just don't see why the Gov would trust him other wise.

as far as biting heads are concerned...I think the rule is to cause massive trauma to the head. It was explained in TS-19. SO even if a head is severed it will still be "active" thats why merle and his gang had to destroy the severed head from their group. Aside from the governor being a sycopath maybe he was also studying to see exactly how long it takes the walkers to actually starve to death.

Yeah that would have been my excuse to Andrea, yeeeeaaaaah that's they're for I'm running an experiment, you believe that right Hun???? She'll believe anything
On ther other hand Michone notice the National guard's head floating in the fish tank, she could have said something to Andrea, shake her up or someting!

Djoel

I don't understand the Governors reasons for killing the National Guard group. I know he's crazy, but that group would have easily integrated into his little township. What criteria constitutes an acceptable member for his town? He found Merle and took him in, and he's the exact type of person you would never want. So he only accepts other psychos, I guess? Not people that have combat training and would be a benefit to defending your town.

I always figured the Gov did not want any people with authority around .. the whole National Guard scene was BS to me as well, as ex-military, I could not understand why their traning did not immediately kick in .. instead, they were an easy target .. the Guard also indicated to me that there was a central command post somewhere .. and, you'd think, the folks in charge would get out and look for their missing brothers ..

As mentioned above, the Gov probably didn't want anyone who threatened his authority to join Woodburry, so he took out the National Guard guys (very unlikely, by the way, but it's fictional TV so whatever). As far as what constitutes being an acceptable member, I'd guess being a woman or being weak. Merle was almost dead when the Gov found him, and he took him in, nurtured him back to health (part of his plan to gain his trust), then turned him into his lackey. Merle was in a weak state when the Gov found him, and he exploited that.

I think that's far from clear at this point. What she "wants" doesn't really matter at the moment.

The head wasn't trying to bite (no movement) the governor before when he was admiring them... Further more a great example is Michonne beheading her pets... She would've known to do another strike after beheading them or going for the brain, not the neck.

So just a quick question that walkers are almost immortal if the brain is not damaged... so the heads there could be there forever and they are still biting and moving without a body..

Gets me thinking if the virus/infection that created the apocalypse was created by scientist trying to find immortality?

Unanswered questions about the Gov ..

1) Why does he not want to reveal his real name .. ?? Infamous criminal .. ?? Disgraced politician .. ??
2) Are all the heads in the tanks Walkers .. ?? Some don't look to me like they have turned, but I could be wrong .. if they have not turned, then why .. ??

as for Merle ..

He told Andrea his real name...can't remember what it is, though.

That pic is awesome.

I think his name is Phillip or something like that. He told Andrea once.

The national guard guy was not a walker and his head was there. So who knows how many others might not of been.
Not sure why they wouldn't of turned yet. Unless maybe they spiked them in the back of the head. But where's the fun there? You need active heads in tanks!

Yes, we know his first name .. that's it ..

If any heads in the tank have not turned, that, to me, opens a whole new set of possibilities ..

I'd really love to see a flashback on him. Maybe the 2nd half of season 3 will have that.
He does have a politician vibe to him.

Phill or something like it..

Djoel

I'm pretty sure Kirkland has written a novel about his backstory. So it could happen.

Michonnes zombies heads did not try to bite the governor because she also chopped their lower jaws off so they cant bite.

All the heads in the tanks are zombie heads because everyone is infected and when you die you turn, I am pretty sure that when you get your head cut off that means you are dead, so the head ame back as a zombie. Some look different because as they have stated, depends on how long one has been a zombie, they have different states of decay and such.

'The Walking Dead': 4 Things Networks Can Learn From the Cable Show That's Beating Them

By Tim Molloy | The Wrap – 9 hours ago

TV's top drama is a grisly, sometimes sorrowful series that kills off characters as fast as it introduces them and almost never slows down to explain what's happening.

Networks could learn a lot from "The Walking Dead."

The AMC series, which ended the first half of its third season Sunday, currently has an average 5.32 rating in the key 18-49 demo. That's better than the rating for any show on television except for NBC's "Sunday Night Football."

Factoring in a whole week's ratings -- as networks do to account to DVR viewing -- "Walking Dead" slips behind "The Big Bang Theory" and "Modern Family" -- but just barely.

Maybe network shows should just have more zombies, or violence. "The Walking Dead" has definitely benefited from a national fascination with the undead and must show more intestines per episode than any show in TV history.

Also read: 'Walking Dead' Preview: Four Men and a Baby

But zombies and guts aren't the only reasons "Walking Dead" has a shot at finishing the season as TV's top series -- and will almost definitely be its top drama. Some viewers tune in for gruesome spectacle, while others watch through their fingers.

Successful new network dramas are rare – NBC's "Revolution" and CBS's "Elementary" are among the few this season. Those that take the most risks, like ABC's "Last Resort," are often quickly canceled. Dramas are especially big gambles for networks because they are much more expensive than reality shows and comedies.

But "The Walking Dead" makes the case for taking risks anyway -- from letting major characters die, to letting viewers sometimes turn to online friends for answers.

Here are four things network shows could learn from AMC's hit.

1. Surprise us. Asked for the main reason "The Walking Dead" is thriving, showrunner Glen Mazzara points to its unpredictability.

"The show feels grounded, it feels accessible. But it's also unpredictable, and it has a fast pace," he told TheWrap. "There was an article I read about the speed of storytelling on shows like 'Homeland' and 'The Walking Dead.' The things that usually would be saved and built to are being pulled up and sort of happening before the audience is ready.

"That's something that I learned on 'The Shield' -- a type of accelerated storytelling. Especially when you have a very hungry audience like this. We've had other versions of the show in the past that weren't as accelerated, and I think that led to a lot of audience frustration. I think that the pace of the storytelling is right now able to keep up with the audience's expectations."

The most unpredictable thing about "The Walking Dead"? Who lives and who dies. A willingness to kill major characters is perhaps the biggest difference between cable and network dramas. While networks may occasionally kill someone in a season finale, cable shows like "The Sopranos," "The Walking Dead," "Game of Thrones" and "Boardwalk Empire" have killed the characters we least expected, when we least expected.

2. Skip the backstory. Nothing slows down a story like too much explanation -- especially when it's repeated episode after episode, for viewers who haven't been watching or paying attention.

On "The Walking Dead," we don't even know what created walkers. And we don't need to know. This season, "The Walking Dead" provided some basic background in its season premiere -- and then kept moving.

"The beginning of the season reestablished all the characters and all the dynamics really quickly and gave everybody an entry point," Mazzara said. "I did anticipate that we would have new audience joining us. I thought maybe people would catch up on DVDs over hiatus or something like that. But now the train's running, and you just need to catch up. We're not going to keep going back and reestablishing the rules. I believe that the audience is on board."

3. Keep it simple. This one's tricky because, if anything, networks are too fond of simple, self-contained stories.

Networks are wary of serialized dramas like "Lost," "The Wire" and "Breaking Bad," which are most rewarding to those who watch every episode. It's incredibly satisfying to watch stories unspool over weeks or years. But it's harder for heavily serialized shows to draw in new viewers, or to play in syndication.

The self-contained nature of "CSI" episodes is one reason the show sells so well all over the world. But at their worst, sealed-off episodes limit character development and change.

"Walking Dead" is the rare show that successfully manages both self-contained and long-term stories, in part by surprising us and skipping needless backstory. It benefits from a simple setup -- people are trying to stay ahead of the zombies -- that lends itself to both small dramas (will they make it over the fence?) and big ones (should they bring a child into this world?)

"We never want to confuse things, and we certainly don't have a very complicated mythology," Mazzara said. "Part of what I like to do is to make sure every episode has a very clear mission and a very clear objective. …. Even though it is a serialized drama, every episode is hopefully satisfying within itself. ... I'm not interested in filler episodes that just connect this episode to that."

4. Leave room for debate. Shows dream of sparking the kind of online debates that make non-viewers want to join the fun. At the same time, shows are afraid of alienating new viewers with scenes that may require interpretation. "The Walking Dead" takes it as a given that viewers will go online for answers.

"Our audience communicates with each other," Mazzara said. "And they have access to all the actors through Twitter. For example, in [one] episode our guys are running through and they came across a cabin. And there's a guy suffering from some type of dementia in the cabin. Some of our audience thought that that guy was like Rip Van Winkle and was not aware that there zombies outside. Other people understand that he did suffer from dementia and was very confused that suddenly these people were in his house.

"So there were debates online: Who was this guy, what was this? We didn't need to explain it. The audience in a sense communicated and talked about it, and they were part of a community and they worked it out. I don't need to explain every single scene to people. Let people talk about it, let people discuss it. And maybe that scene works for some people, maybe it doesn't work for some people. We happen to like the scene and thought it was interesting.

"The audience figures things out. They're smart. They don't need to be spoon-fed."

http://movies.yahoo.com/news/walking-dead-4-things-networks-learn-cable-show-023052682.html

It just seemed like thay made a point to show the zomified heads still biting but the fresh heads being still and not biting and looking dead, not just dead'ish.
I could be remembering that wrong though.

 

Good article. I'd add one more thing the networks can learn: Shorter seasons. It seems that most 22-episode seasons on networks contain so much filler that it drags down the pace of the shows, plus they provide ample opportunity for bad writing as writers struggle to complete the episodes in time. 12-episode seasons allow writers the time to craft solid, well-written stories. For me, this is the reason many cable series outshine most network series.

I don't think all the heads in the tank are Walkers .. and yes, I know the story very well .. and if they did not turn, then that opens up a whole new area .. that was the point of my post ..