WALKING DEAD: What's Next? - Guest Post

 

The final scene at the end of the second season of "The Walking Dead" overjoyed fans of the long running comic book and caused newcomers to the material to instantly begin buzzing about the mysterious cloaked figure. Because it is practically impossible to avoid spoilers on the Internet, the majority of the show's non-comic book fans quickly discovered that the person in the cloak was none other than fan favorite Michonne. Her upcoming full introduction in the third season has fans eagerly counting down the days until the season premiere, as does the pending introduction of The Governor, most commonly referred to as the nastiest character of the entire series.

What Can Fans Expect from Season Three?

The third season will find the group of survivors seeking asylum in a large prison. Although there will be a lot of zombies to contend with, Rick and the rest of the group will be all too tempted by the lure of a fully enclosed safe haven, and they will take whatever steps are necessary to fortify their new home. Unfortunately, the prison's entire human population will not have cleared out when the zombie apocalypse hit, so there will be some interesting issues brought into play by these new characters.

Michonne will prove to be both an invaluable fighting ally and an unstable individual. Her penchant for chopping heads off will definitely endear her to those who consider the zombies to be their biggest threat, but some of the other characters will see her as a personal threat. This will cause a strain on some of the currently established relationship dynamics, and it will help the show retain its important core of human emotions.

Daryl's brother Merle will return to the scene, and it is a given that he will be looking for revenge. Although Daryl does feel a very strong tie to several of the other survivors in the group, especially Carol, his familial tie is strong, so it will be especially interesting to see what choices his character makes.

How will the Show Differ from the Comic Books?

Fans of the comic book have been buzzing since the very first episode about how difficult this particular season would be to faithfully adapt for television. The comic book was always dark, but as soon as The Governor was introduced things took a drastic turn for the worse. It will be interesting to see how far the show's creative team is willing to go, but it is almost guaranteed that some of the harsher elements from the comic book will either be skipped or downplayed. As an example, there was an extended sequence in the comic book in which one of the female characters was brutally beaten and raped multiple times. It is difficult to conceive of this occurring on the TV show, but AMC has not shied away from gore or difficult topics yet, so they might surprise the viewers with just how much they decide to include.

It will also be very interesting to see whether or not Rick makes it through the season with both of his hands intact. If the show is going to follow the comic book, then one of his hands has to be forcibly removed. The show's creators might choose to skip this, however, if only to avoid having to put two of their actors through the process of working with only one hand.

Basic Season Three Information

The first episode of the third season will debut on October 14, 2012. The new season will be split in half, with eight episodes airing this fall and the following eight airing in the spring.

 

Lindsey Davidson is an avid pop culture fanatic and is always one of the First to Know about the latest hot topics.

Comic-Con 2012: THE WALKING DEAD Season 3 Trailer

I'm a big fan of The Walking Dead and although the first part of the second season started a little slow I still think the second half more than made up for it. Now, thanks to Comic Con 2012 I have the official trailer here for the highly anticipated season 3 which starts on AMC October 14th at 9pm. If you caught the season finale then you'll know that unbeknownst to the survivors they have set up camp right next to a Federal Prison, I never reviewed that episode as I find it hard to write about people running from zombies for some reason. The last episode reviewed by me was "Pretty Much Dead Already" which was the very impressive reveal that Sophia had been a zombie in Hershal's barn all along. Don't want to check that out, then check out the season 3 trailer below and we'll talk some more afterwards.

Now, I've never read a comic book in my life so I don't know weather this follows the flow of it or not, but I'm lead to believe that this is the case. I don't think this trailer is anywhere near as exciting as the Dexter season 7 sneak peek that we got from Comic Con on Thursday but the trailer has introduced us to some more story lines. First off introducing David Morrissey as The Governor of the prison that I mentioned above. Rick and his band of survivors discover that the prison is in fact the gate way to a new civilisation so to speak as The Governor has taken a town named Woodbury and made it secure from any zombie invaders, although there do seem to be a lot of them prowling the perimeter fence. Just a guess but who thinks The Governor isn't actually a prison Governor at all? Maybe he's a prisoner who found freedom thanks to the zombies. One thing is for sure season 3 of The Walking Dead is going to see another massive power struggle for Rick as he fights to take control of the prison, after all "blood was spilt".

Look Who's Back!

Comic-Con will be bringing us plenty more tralers in the next couple of days so you can be sure I'll be posting all the one's from our favourite TV shows including Breaking Bad and Person of Interest. Following this trailer I'm really looking forward to the new season of The Walking Dead.

TV Preview: THE WALKING DEAD Returns February 12th 2012 on AMC

The Walking Dead is back on the 12th February with it’s eighth instalment of the second season “Nebraska”, if you caught my reviews of the show last time round then you already know that other than the last episode “Pretty Much Dead Already” that I haven’t been that impressed. I didn’t watch the first season though so it took me a little while to
catch up with just who everyone was and what they were about, I’m probably still figuring it out.

The season 2 premiere was a fantastic episode with that scene on the freeway where all the cars had just come to a stop and been abandoned, the group of survivors where then
encountered by a massive group of zombies in what was a very impressive scene. Since then though The Walking Dead hit some-what of a dead end when they all landed at Hershals farm, they just didn’t move from there which turned the show from a promising road trip into a bit of a bore.

Now we are hoping things will move on a little with the return of the second season, just to wet your appetite a little I have posted the trailer for the returning episode below, take a look and let me know what you think.
 

Review: THE WALKING DEAD 2.7 - Pretty Much Dead Already

Ok so I missed The Walking Dead off the reviews last week, no reson really other than what was there to write about?  I mean you have this group of survivours of the zombie apocalypse who at the beginning of he season were on a road trip, that stalled a couple of episodes in when Sophia went missing and they ended up on Hershal's farm.  This week the action really seemed to get going again though with Glenn (Steven Yeun) standing awkwardly in front of the group and announcing "Um, guys, so....The barn is full of Walkers", it was an impressive start to what has been a pretty mondaying experience since the season 2 premiere.

Leader of the survivours Rick (Andrew Lincoln) now knows that it's in his best interests to try and convince Hershal that they should stay on the farm as they can help protect it from Walkers as well as his wife Lori being pregnant.  Hershal has only ever seen what is going on in the outside via the news when they were still broadcasting, Rick assures him this is no longer the case and the world is not the place it used to be, the Walkers are not as Hershal thinks "sick people" they are no longer Human.  However if Rick wants to stay on the farm then he and the rest of the clan have to allow the Walkers to live in the barn, an idea or suggestion that is not seconded by Shane (John Brenthal).

All concerned parties also know about Loris (Sarah Wayne Callis) pregnancy, Shane included, finding out from Rick his mind was ticking from the word go.  Shane knows there is no possible way that Rick is the father and the baby must be his, little does he know that Rick knows about his little fling with his wife, but does Rick know that the baby may not be his, it's something that would appear not to have crossed his mind yet.

The tension has been building for a couple of weeks now, more so between Rick and Shane, there is clearly a power struggle going on and this week Shane may have just tipped the scales of power.  It was a mighty impressive outburst from former cop Shane who gathered the guns gave a rampaging speech, handed them out and then released the Walkers from the barn in front of Hershal's eyes.  Hershal at that point seemed resigned to the fact that his campers were right, the Walkers are no longer Human, after all no Human could withstand the hail of bullets that were pumped into the Walkers recovered from the bog.

Then came the big reveal, a little zombie, Sophia.  They finally found her, she has been in Hershal's barn all along and the search is now over after Rick finished her off with one final bullet to the head.  I have to say this whole sequence was porobably one of the most emotional scenes I have seen in any TV show, it was handled superbly by the director and all actors involved gave a great sobering performance to the reality of their situation.

This was by far the best episode of the second season since the premiere, it was the mid-season finale and unfortunatly The Walking Dead will not be back on our screens until February 12th 2012.  What will that bring?  Well hopefully now they know Sophia is dead they can move on and get the show back to where it was in the first two episodes, a road trip.  Should they stick it out on Herchal's farm for another 6 episodes then I think boredom may well set back in.

The Walking Dead continues on AMC Sunday 12th February 2012 at 10pm.

Review: THE WALKING DEAD 2.5 - Chupacabra

I haven't posted about this show for a couple of weeks now, no reason other than I find it quite difficult to write about zombies, what is there to say really.  I did make notes on last weeks show but due to the decorating I mentioned in posts earlier this week I never got time to do anything about them.  So I'll give it a try this week.  I really like this show having just got into it at the beginning of the second season, I'm finding that I'm starting to learn more about the characters and their backing stories.

Where were the military bombing?  That was a flashback to the first season I presume, because there weren't that may survivors last week.  This episode was all about the search for Sophia, the 11 year old girl who got lost in the zombie infested woods back in episode one.  What are the chances she's still alive?  Pretty slim I would say but, there are plenty of clues leading us to beileive that she is. 

In the mean time The rest of the gang have been allowed to stay on the ranch but they have to live in tents, I'm not so sure I would like to be sleeping in a tent when there's zombies knocking around, would you?  The ranch owner is a pretty shady dude, he clearly wants a divide between his people and Rick's people.  I don't know if that's just a trust issue or maybe something to do with the little zombie hoarding operation he's got going on in the barn.  He may well be a little racist to.  He clearly stated he didn't want his daughter to have anything to do with the Asian guy (Glenn).  Luckily for Glenn, his daughter has chose to ignore him.  After all he's got 11 condoms left, good times!  Don't do it in the zombie infested barn thought Glenn, you might get bit in the ass. 

I noticed right from the first episode that not everyone liked Rick, Shane and Darryl would clearly be the leaders of that little pack.  With Shane I don't know if it's rebellion or more on the side of guilt over what he did to Otis.  Shane beileives that they should give up on the hunt for Sophia, he tends to agree with me, what chance has she got.  I can't beileive that he had the nerve to speak with Rick about married women, he slept with Lori, Ricks wife who is now pregnant probably with Shane's baby.


I liked the scenes with Daryl this week, I really didnt know to much about him.  This week I learned plenty and we met his brother (who I presume is dead), the show took a little Dexter type turn with his brothers ghost's jibes willing him on to climb up the hill.  His borther looked a little like John Locke from Lost, you think?  Is Daryl going to carry out his brothers request though and put a bullet in Rick, I'd say probbly not but, in the Walking Dead no one's safe so you never know.  Maybe him and Shane will hatch a little plan for a takeover. 

An injured Daryl finally made it back to the camp, only to be shot by a friend, luckily for him she's not a very good shot even with the rifle scope and she only managed to graze him.  Daryl seems to think he's Dolph Lundgren now, he has started collecting ears of his zomibe kills, makes you think he is possibly becoming a little unhinged where he might go and do something crazy.  One question, what is a Chupacabra?  We did get a little laugh thanks to the attempted shooting of Daryl, "I can't beileive I shot Daryl", "don't be to hard on yourself we've all wanted to shoot Daryl"

This was a really good installment of the show, one thing though I was kind of enjoying the movement of the show in earlier episode's where they were actually heading somewhere.  Now they seem to be stuck at the ranch whilst the search for Sophia goes on.  Hopefully they will get moving before long, I mean the guy who owns the ranch doesn't want the there anyway.

Review: THE WALKING DEAD 2.1 - What Lies Ahead

Ok first off I have to apologise, I have not seen any of the first season of this show.  Is that a good or bad thing?  I’m not sure.  I took to this season after reading so many rave reviews regarding the last instalment I thought I really couldn’t miss it. 

So what does lie ahead for this show?  Plenty would be my opinion, I didn’t think a show on people killing zombies would be all that capturing but I was wrong.  I have read plenty already about AMC having to cut down the budget for the show, this has impacted mainly on the special effects.  During this season 2 opener the special effects where great especially for TV and I can’t see them being any better first time around.  Not only are the zombie effects (facially) great but, the sound is also brilliant.  The squelching noise that comes over when cutting open zombies plus the noise they all make whilst migrating to wherever they are off to.

Like I say I haven’t seen the first season so I may need a little help in answering some questions.  I take it from the first episode set in Atlanta, Georgia that the capital of America's south is dead, well zombiefied any way.  There are a group of survivors led by Rick (Andrew Lincoln), they don't all get along great and some of them have an issue with Rick.  Rick was talking to someone named Morgan on the Radio, well actually no one was talking back.....Who is Morgan?,  clearly I needed to see the last episode of the first season to figure that one out.

The group of survivors are heading for Fort Benning, is it safe there?  Along the way they run into a little snag turns out even when no humans live in Atlanta the traffic on the interstate is still terrible, then the RV breaks down, what are the chances!  Next thing a load of walkers come trudging through with the group forced to hise under cars and in bathrooms.

That brings me to the first bit of quite impressive gore, the walker finds Andrea hiding in the toilet of the RV, luckily for her she had just been handed a screw driver from Dale who managed to hide on the roof, she stabs the walker straight through the eyeball, great shot.  Just as she is doing that Daryl is outside helping out T-Dog, he manages to stab a walker right in the brain stem.  It didn't look to me like they where withdrawing the special effects budget, and the moments the walkers were walking by provided a really gripping couple of moments.

Amogst all the madness a little girl named Sophia has to run off into the woods, she is being hotly persued by two walkers, I mean it was no where near as imperssive as the "zombie massive" taking a stroll along the Interstate which by the way is a real interstate in Atlanta where the crew housed themselves for 4 days along with 150 zombie extras.  Back to Sophia it was some trek through the woods but they still haven't found her, there were more than her fair share of zombies in there too but, hopefully she will show up next week.  One thing we do know is that zombie did not eat her, it was pretty throughly disected.  There was that gun shot though, right at the end.

The reviews that I have read up to now have throughly lived up to their expectations and this episode provided my with a great hours worth of TV, I have to say I am The Walking Deads new biggest fan.  TV like this just simply can not be missed and I can't wait for the next installment.