The Walking Dead...

[bayonetbrant]

Well, a couple of them were just dead now

[Hofstadter]

Dude why was the seconds death so excess. I mean the show is gory yeah but that was a tad...sadistic

[ghostryder]

Snuff TV does not equal good Drama. It's one thing to watch a dead zombies' head turn to mush but to do it too a living human being that was a beloved character is far too much over the line. Then the whole thing about. "look, he's trying to talk" was beyond sadistic. If they were trying "sell' the bad guy it was a complete fail--he's actually hard to dislike---a complete miscast. It would have been better to go with an unknown actor. Then there's honest writing. That's a huge issue that has been plaquing the series for 2 seasons. You get these "cliff-hangars" that are rather dishonest----and a huge one tied to Glenn to boot- didn't we already mourn him in one? And wasn't that last one containing the line, "If anyone moves take the kid's second eye and feed it to his dad." Well someone moved....and it was all forgotten--I quess we're really kill Glenn to have....less effect? Nah, let's force the audience to watch it for more impact now!

It really didn't. It was more like watching Hostel-- and it's not so much being removed from the character from a dishonest cliffhanger but moreso being removed from the writing the series enjoyed when Frank Darabont was at the helm...and by the way also co-wrote 4 of the first seasons 6 episodes. AMC excecs cut the budget-when you add in the tax credits they now kept with the cuts at 25 percent-forces Darabont out and they bring in the lady hung up on shock and cliffhangers--the writing be damned.

Unlike HBO-who has consistantly upped the budget on their runaway hit Game of Thrones AMC cuts it's 3.4 mil down 25 percent (per episode) - and it certainly shows. It restricts the writers in what they can do when the producers are mere yes men to the execs--who want to cash in rather than grease the hand that feeds them.

They'll drag it out too--moreso than the Governor--until Rick finds a way to defeat Negan. Which..BTW...even by those that don't read the comic -- is a pretty good obvious quess.

[GDS_Starfury]

Dude why was the seconds death so excess. I mean the show is gory yeah but that was a tad...sadistic

that was exactly what happened in the comics thats why.

[Steelgrave]

Yeah, sorry but I'm squarely in the "if you don't like it, don't watch it" camp. I don't think they could have done a better casting job than Jeffrey Dean Morgan. I think he's going to be a classic bad guy, the dude owns the part. And in the comics, Negan was very charismatic. As for the gore, this is The Walking Dead. I saw a list last week where they compared ten scenes in the comics to the show and the comics were more explicit in every way. TWD is hitting it's stride. I still expect some wasted episodes where nothing happens, because they just can't help themselves. But there's a reason why this show is so damn popular and why we were all waiting for Negan. I'm more concerned about where the show goes in a season or two when Negan is finally done in by Rick....because you know it's gonna happen.

[mirth]

I don't think they could have done a better casting job than Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

I don't even watch the show and I agree with that.

[Steelgrave]

I don't think they could have done a better casting job than Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

I don't even watch the show and I agree with that.

My youngest son doesn't watch it either, but he let me talk him into watching the last 15 minutes of last season's cliffhanger just because he knew I was so wowed over JDM's performance. My son was so blown away that he caught last night's premier simply to watch Negan. He doesn't know shit about the show or the cast, he just wanted to see where the writers took Negan.

Yeah, my boy (30) worries me sometimes, but he's a good kid. Really   

[bbmike]

Great episode! I think it sets the proper tone for this season.

[GDS_Starfury]

Unlike HBO-who has consistantly upped the budget on their runaway hit Game of Thrones AMC cuts it's 3.4 mil down 25 percent (per episode) - and it certainly shows. It restricts the writers in what they can do when the producers are mere yes men to the execs--who want to cash in rather than grease the hand that feeds them.

this is based on your vast experience in film/tv production right?

[ghostryder]

No Starfury...my ability to 'read'. Google it...or if your too lazy...and we know you are---I'll link a couple of stories:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/walking-dead-creator-frank-darabonts-852491 - on darabont's diplosition


Darabont says, "I remember Joel Stillerman [president of original programming and development for AMC], in a meeting in my office, when we were all discussing the issues of the upcoming season, we said to him, 'Surely that the success of the show, which, by the way, you guys are bragging about because we keep getting e-mails saying, 'Hey, we're breaking viewership records in 120 countries around the world by hundreds of percent, in some countries by over 1,000%,' at the same time we're hearing how successful the show is for you, you're telling us that this, this budget issue is not going to budge at all. And he said, 'The success of the show has no bearing on this discussion,' in a rather icy manner."

According to Darabont, AMC cut the budget "from 3.4 to 3," referring to the millions it takes to produce episodes of Walking Dead.

"That was bad enough, but then they dropped the bomb on us that, oh by the way, they're keeping the tax credit," he testified. "They're going to pocket the tax credit. So, between the two you've got a full 25% cut across the board."



http://www.forbes.com/sites/hayleycuccinello/2016/04/22/game-of-thrones-season-6-costs-10-million-per-episode-has-biggest-battle-scene-ever/#773922404b22 on HBO's budget

The upcoming season of HBO series Game of Thrones has a production budget of $10 million per episode, according to Entertainment Weekly. This means that season six, which premieres on April 24, cost approximately $100 million to produce. This is a $4 million increase from the reported budget of $6 million for season two; how paltry.

http://www.gq.com/story/the-walking-dead-season-7-premiere-recap -- and here's some interesting thoughts on season 7 episode 1

Part of the problem with the premiere is structural. The mistakes begin with the long-awaited solution to the cliffhanger, which seems even more misguided now that the solution has been revealed. (At the very least, The Walking Dead could have ended its sixth season by clearly depicting the death of Abraham, which would have been significantly less anticlimactic and might have tricked fans into believing that Glenn was safe after all.) The baseball-bat executions—which, due to an inexplicable story structure, don't actually begin until 20 minutes into the episode—are extraordinarily grotesque but also kind of what you've been expecting, since Glenn's death is basically a shot-for-shot adaptation of a thing that happened in the comics in 2012. And the promo campaign for the seventh season did the TV show no favors with the obnoxious, relentless hype for Negan and his signature baseball bat, which treated a character's death like the title bout of a boxing match. Were we supposed to be excited about the prospect of watching one of the show's most likable characters get beaten to death by a baseball bat covered in barbed wire? If so, The Walking Dead certainly goes out of its way to rub our noses in our collective enthusiasm for the bloodsport it created.

Why doesn't this work? By way of comparison, let's talk about Game of Thrones' Red Wedding—another highly anticipated, exceptionally bloody episode of television in which several major characters were killed off at once, with the added pressure of sky-high fan expectations. But the Red Wedding wasn't split down the middle between one season's finale and the next season's premiere. It wasn't hyped so aggressively that it lost its sense of suspense. And in the end, the Red Wedding had a massive impact on the show itself. It wasn't just the deaths of characters we knew and loved; it was a full-blown shakeup of the show's political climate, upending power structures with implications that are still playing out three seasons later.



"I'll say this for Jeffrey Dean Morgan's performance: It's not boring. That doesn't make it good—since we've only seen Morgan deliver corny, expletive-laden monologues so far, it's hard to judge what else he might do with this role—but it's a welcome burst of color in a series that tends to paint the world in the same dull grays."

For a show that just killed off two major characters, this was a brief, by-the-numbers episode that told us absolutely nothing new about our heroes or our villains, and set no clear arc to build anticipation for the rest of the season.

Over the months since the season 6 finale aired, this Negan cliffhanger has transformed into an albatross around the show's neck. Short of Negan killing every single character, turning to the camera, and flipping the audience the bird, it was basically impossible for the premiere to live up to its self-generated hype—


I'm not alone in my dislike for the episode. View Amazon's reviews--at least half...if not more are along the same lines--many claiming they are done watching it.

[bbmike]

This show has been on six years and all of a sudden people found this one episode that too offensive and a case of bad writing?  ::)

[ghostryder]

No...the last 3 seasons have steadily declined with jump around time lines to cliff hangers---and bad writing - contrary to how the comics tell the story. This episode actually portrays the scene in the comic...the problem here is THIS IS NOT AN ANIMATED COMIC SERIES--they use real live people. You cannot equate comic violence with this---many viewers aren't even aware this is derived from a comic. Once you step up the realism to actual people a whole new set of lines get drawn. Gore doesn't really bother me to be honest--but the selling of Gore does---and that's what the entire episode was about--that's what the hype focused on--as for the character themselves they were reduced to props.

[mirth]

Gore doesn't really bother me to be honest--but the selling of Gore does

The selling of Gore bothers me too

https://www.amazon.com/Inconvenient-Truth-Planetary-Emergency-Warming/dp/1594865671

[Steelgrave]

Seriously, I go back to "if you don't like the show, don't watch it" thought. I've never seen a show, no matter how well received or even loved, that didn't attract some Amazon whiners or self-indulgent reviewers aka thehollywoodreporter.com who create nothing but fill their lives trying to trash what someone else has been successful at creating. Anyone can be a critic, but how many critics have ever created something other's loved and flocked to? And if you really dig into Amazon ratings, look at the number of one-star reviews that have nothing to do with the show whatsoever but rather complain about Amazon instead.

And Darabont? Has it come to anyone's attention that the show has become more successful since he left? Hell, name a show that makes the top ten or twenty all-time lists, including The Wire, Madmen or The Sopranos and there's always someone out there who has something nasty to say or thinks their writing a blog or posting a "review" on Amazon makes them an expert. And all the people who say they will never watch TWD again? Yeah. Never heard that one before.

[GDS_Starfury]

No Starfury...my ability to 'read'. Google it...or if your too lazy...and we know you are---

heres the deal sunshine....  producers always complain about the money they get.  the fact is that at this point the show isnt as expensive to make as it first was.
the make-up dept is a well oiled machine that can now churn out practical effects.
CGI is as cheap as its ever been.
filming locations in Georgia are easy to come by and cheap.
Georgia has huge tax incentives for film/tv production.

your ability to read and understand is only matched by your animation skills.
so keep reading and I'll keep talking to people I know in the industry that actually work on the show and in the field.
btw, I have IMDB credits, do you?

you may respond after you've mopped up Azz's latest attempt at snorting viagra.