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shadowkatWatching The Walking Dead ...makes me miss Stephen King's mini-series The Stand for some reason. Possibly because it was better written. It is oddly amusing in somewhat the same ways as Ringer...the dialogue is so cheesy and you can feel the writers working really hard to get the characters from point A - B. Also very pulpy - but hey, based on a series of comic books. It is supposed to be pulpy and cheesy, what are you expecting Mattheison? Or Shakespeare? Please. It's fun in places. Drags in others. I don't take it too seriously, and enjoy it for what it is like everything else I watch. It's a bit like reading - some days you are in the mood for Dosetovosky's Crime and Punishment (yet to happen for me - but I have the book just in case), and some days you are in the mood for well George RR Martin (which I'm plodding through), and other's...Jim Butcher or Harry Potter or Bridget Jone's Diary.
Or that some guilty pleasure romance novel. Or fanfic erotica. Tv? The same thing.
But in comparison to other pulp novels and series? It could be a lot better. Lacks a bit of punch. American Horror Story has more punch to it. As does Supernatural. Examples of shows that enjoy their pulp status and don't drag quite so much. Vamp Diaries is another example. Best horror series on at the moment is Vamp Diaries.
I laughed out loud at this line:
Dale: Spit it out, boy, stop being all melodramatic.
Glenn: There's walkers in the barn, and Laurie's pregnant.
Dale (expression - WTF? Guess he had a reason to be melodramatic)
LOL! So next ten to fifteen minutes are spent with Dale wandering around checking out Glenn's story. First he talks to Herschel...who tells him that yes, there are walkers in the barn, they are there because Herschel and his family are in deep denial and think the zombies are just sick people who can get well eventually and killing them is murder. Dale tries to reason with him - you heard the news reports, but we know more than you do...but to no avail. Apparently the corspe-like appearance and rotting smell, hasn't clued them in otherwise? For a vet, Herschel is deeply stupid or insane.
Then Dale...talks to Laurie (apparently the blond's name isn't Laurie, Ric's whiny wife's name is - so, I'm now confused about the names. Not a good sign, if you can't remember the character's names is it? Blond is Andrea.). Laurie asks ifthe Asian guy (oh Glen) told him, Dale - "the boy has no guile." LOL! Actually I love Glenn, he's one of my fav's, him, the blond Andrea, and Darryl (the comic book redneck stereotype).
Oh look, as Laurie takes her abortion pills to get rid of Shane's kid, Shane has hot sex withthe cool blond Andrea in a car, after she kills a bunch of walkers - on yet another dead end search for Sofia.
Sofia's mom: anything?
Andrea: not today (secretive smile - but hey I had sex, and shot a lot of people - so life is good.)
Dale decides that now is the time to argue with Shane, because he figures out that Shane and Andrea got it on, also knows about Laurie and Shane. Not a smart move, Dale. As Shane informs him. Shane: If you think I could kill my best friend who I regard like a brother, what do you think I'm going to do to a guy I don't even like? (Seriously Dale, Shane is bad news. Back off. Oddly I like Shane more than Dale, he has personality. Dale's becoming a bit of cliche and making me miss Ray Wise who played a similar role, far better, in Stephen King's the Stand.)
These characters make the dumbest decisions. But they always do in horror stories.
Very rare to see a smart character in a horror tale. Because in order to get them into danger - they have to do things that no one with any wit of sense would do. Like wander down into a basement in an old deserted house while there are zombies wandering about. Or holding a bunch of zombies in a barn and feeding them chickens. Or...wandering around in the woods at night with zombies wandering about, looking for a lost little girl. Or staying in a house that you know has had a lot of murders, and nasty things have happened, and is horribly haunted (that's American Horror Story - which has been a whole lot more clever in coming up with ways to keep the family in the house than Walking Dead has in getting its characters to do dumb things). I can go on. People in horror stories do dumb things. I love Kevin Williamson's horror tales because he makes fun of it. So did Whedon. The good horror writers, like Sam Rami seemed aware.
At any rate..I can't quite decide what I find more amusing the series, or the fact that there are people who keep insisting on comparing it to critically acclaimed emmy-award winning series that are outside the genre. Folks? That's like comparing the Avengers comics to Art Spieglman's Maus or Persepolis or Watchman. Come on. It's pulp. OR a better example? Mozart's Opera to a Busby Berkely musical. Love it for what it is. Or not, as the case may be. You really can't compare literary fiction to the pulp genre, people read them and watch them for different reasons. It's like comparing eating a filet mignon steak to eating a hot-dog or hamburger. Both are wonderful but for different reasons.
Walking Dead compared to Stephen King or Tales from the Crypt? It's not that good. Tale from the Crypt was creepier and scarier. And Stephen King's The Stand...far more entertaining. But it is better than Jericho, which bored me. And a lot more entertaining than all those George R. Romero films - which I can't get myself to watch (I know blasphemy, but there it is - me and zombies unmixy things). In some respects I like it better than Zombieland...which was great to start, but got a bit tired in the middle. Walking Dead has some of the same problems as Zombieland...it drags when we get into the human drama.
Or that some guilty pleasure romance novel. Or fanfic erotica. Tv? The same thing.
But in comparison to other pulp novels and series? It could be a lot better. Lacks a bit of punch. American Horror Story has more punch to it. As does Supernatural. Examples of shows that enjoy their pulp status and don't drag quite so much. Vamp Diaries is another example. Best horror series on at the moment is Vamp Diaries.
I laughed out loud at this line:
Dale: Spit it out, boy, stop being all melodramatic.
Glenn: There's walkers in the barn, and Laurie's pregnant.
Dale (expression - WTF? Guess he had a reason to be melodramatic)
LOL! So next ten to fifteen minutes are spent with Dale wandering around checking out Glenn's story. First he talks to Herschel...who tells him that yes, there are walkers in the barn, they are there because Herschel and his family are in deep denial and think the zombies are just sick people who can get well eventually and killing them is murder. Dale tries to reason with him - you heard the news reports, but we know more than you do...but to no avail. Apparently the corspe-like appearance and rotting smell, hasn't clued them in otherwise? For a vet, Herschel is deeply stupid or insane.
Then Dale...talks to Laurie (apparently the blond's name isn't Laurie, Ric's whiny wife's name is - so, I'm now confused about the names. Not a good sign, if you can't remember the character's names is it? Blond is Andrea.). Laurie asks if
Oh look, as Laurie takes her abortion pills to get rid of Shane's kid, Shane has hot sex with
Sofia's mom: anything?
Andrea: not today (secretive smile - but hey I had sex, and shot a lot of people - so life is good.)
Dale decides that now is the time to argue with Shane, because he figures out that Shane and Andrea got it on, also knows about Laurie and Shane. Not a smart move, Dale. As Shane informs him. Shane: If you think I could kill my best friend who I regard like a brother, what do you think I'm going to do to a guy I don't even like? (Seriously Dale, Shane is bad news. Back off. Oddly I like Shane more than Dale, he has personality. Dale's becoming a bit of cliche and making me miss Ray Wise who played a similar role, far better, in Stephen King's the Stand.)
These characters make the dumbest decisions. But they always do in horror stories.
Very rare to see a smart character in a horror tale. Because in order to get them into danger - they have to do things that no one with any wit of sense would do. Like wander down into a basement in an old deserted house while there are zombies wandering about. Or holding a bunch of zombies in a barn and feeding them chickens. Or...wandering around in the woods at night with zombies wandering about, looking for a lost little girl. Or staying in a house that you know has had a lot of murders, and nasty things have happened, and is horribly haunted (that's American Horror Story - which has been a whole lot more clever in coming up with ways to keep the family in the house than Walking Dead has in getting its characters to do dumb things). I can go on. People in horror stories do dumb things. I love Kevin Williamson's horror tales because he makes fun of it. So did Whedon. The good horror writers, like Sam Rami seemed aware.
At any rate..I can't quite decide what I find more amusing the series, or the fact that there are people who keep insisting on comparing it to critically acclaimed emmy-award winning series that are outside the genre. Folks? That's like comparing the Avengers comics to Art Spieglman's Maus or Persepolis or Watchman. Come on. It's pulp. OR a better example? Mozart's Opera to a Busby Berkely musical. Love it for what it is. Or not, as the case may be. You really can't compare literary fiction to the pulp genre, people read them and watch them for different reasons. It's like comparing eating a filet mignon steak to eating a hot-dog or hamburger. Both are wonderful but for different reasons.
Walking Dead compared to Stephen King or Tales from the Crypt? It's not that good. Tale from the Crypt was creepier and scarier. And Stephen King's The Stand...far more entertaining. But it is better than Jericho, which bored me. And a lot more entertaining than all those George R. Romero films - which I can't get myself to watch (I know blasphemy, but there it is - me and zombies unmixy things). In some respects I like it better than Zombieland...which was great to start, but got a bit tired in the middle. Walking Dead has some of the same problems as Zombieland...it drags when we get into the human drama.
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Date: 2011-11-22 11:39 pm (UTC)