Day Sixteen: The Walking Dead Super Post
Sorry about how late this blog is, but I wanted to wait until I watched the Season Two Premiere of AMC’s The Walking Dead before I posted this. Not that I want to offer up spoilers, but I will say that as a huge fan of the graphic novel, I continue to be underwhelmed by this show. I really liked about half of the first season, but after that point, I felt the show kind of lost direction and got a bit hokey. Plus, the finale at the CDC was completely unnecessary, especially with how many engaging, and completely devastating storylines Kirkman has written in the comic that would be great to see adapted. Sure, I get the fact that it’s not possible (hell, it may not even be desired) to do straight adaptations, but in my opinion, the majority of the writing for the television show on Season One just doesn’t hold up to the source material.
Still, overall, it was a good show with a lot of potential. I was excited AMC renewed the show for an entire season. Everything was great. Season Two just had to touch on Herschel’s Farm (which production stills confirms), and Michonne and The Governor would definitely need to show up, right? With how far the TV show has already strayed from the source material (Shane Walsh anyone?), it’s hard to say how they’ll treat the next phase in the group of survivor’s journey. All I know is that if they end up turning Merle Dixon (I do think his brother – Daryl Dixon – kicks ass though) into the Governor, I’ll be completely pissed – especially after reading Kirkman’s stunning, and absolutely terrifying, origin story for The Governor (read it ASAP – seriously…one of the best zombie books since World War Z). Seriously, I was speechless after finishing it; I felt uncomfortable (in a good way) as the story unfolded; and I had horrific nightmares on more than one occasion after reading a chapter or two each night.
READ THIS BOOK ASAP!
So, to me, season two of Walking Dead has the deck stacked against it. Not only is Frank Darabont no longer involved with the project, but the show’s writing staff was fired and weren’t replaced. Instead, writing duties were handled episode by episode. I wonder if not having a dedicated writing staff will make the show feel disjointed. Only time will tell. And, no matter how hard my fan boy radar is going off, I will do my best to distance the world of the comics with the world of the show.
Episode one of season two kind of dragged a bit for my taste (and it almost seemed like they were trying to push the boundaries of violence without having to change the rating to TV-MA), but I completely realize it was essentially a bridge between the finale of season one and the set up for the first major conflict of season two. All I can say after watching the first episode of the new season is BRING ON HERSCHEL’S FARM!
And, the best thing about waiting for episode two of The Walking Dead is that AMC has started their annual Fear Fest, so there’s plenty of good stuff to watch in between episodes.
UPDATE: In very sad, completely bummer news, I came across this link, which confirms Season Two will not include Michonne, Tyrese, or The Governor. That sucks.
