DVD Review: The Walking Dead: The Complete First Season.

The Walking Dead: The Complete First Season.

(Released 2011 by Anchor Bay Entertainment)

Another Looong DVD Review by Joe Torcivia

After the events of 2010, I solemnly vowed to never again become involved with one of today’s ongoing, continuity- heavy, fantasy/ sci-fi/ adventure TV series. The unexpectedly abrupt ending of HEROES, the non-ending of FLASH FORWARD, and the short (un-happy?) run of HAPPY TOWN very likely cured me for life.

Alas, poor HEROES!

The only way I would ever take the plunge again would be if a series became a proven winner, and would “stick around” long enough to make any involvement on my part worth my while.

The already dim (if not outright forgotten) impressions of such series as THE CAPE, THE EVENT, TERRA NOVA (not even worth the effort of doing LINKS!), and more cancelled carrion continue to prove the wisdom of such a course.

If such a series emerged that delivered both the “goods” and reasonable longevity, thought I, DVD could “catch me up” and then become the medium through which I would follow it to its conclusion. FRINGE has proved to be such a series – and I will follow and enjoy it to its end, which will come in just one more DVD set.
 

Another such series, into which I’ve just taken the plunge, is AMC’s THE WALKING DEAD!

The AMC brand has already firmly established a reputation for quality, thanks to MAD MEN (a series I very much enjoy) and others, and said quality is fully realized in THE WALKING DEAD.

Did someone mention MAD MEN?

THE WALKING DEAD began life as a comic series by a creator named Robert Kirkman. I can’t say I gave it a spin, simply because of my general disenchantment with the state of the comics industry – and, for reasons best discussed in other forums, its publisher Image Comics in particular.

But, Kirkman clearly produced something special with his flesh-eating zombie tale, that caught the eye of producer Frank Darabont (“The Shawshank Redemption”) and the studios of cable giant AMC.

And, so… On Black Friday 2012, for the palrty sum of EIGHT DOLLARS (!), I ventured into the world of THE WALKING DEAD with this DVD set – and am I ever glad I did!

The set contains all six episodes of the inaugural season – a 90 minute pilot and five 60 minute episodes – with loads of Extra Features, for what would be the smallest fraction of the price of actually watching them on cable. (If it weren’t for my spouse and sports, I wouldn’t even have cable – but that, too, is best discussed in other forums).

THE WALKING DEAD is the story of King County, GA Sheriff’s Deputy “Rick Grimes” (played by Andrew Lincoln), who is hospitalized and in a coma after a car chase shoot out, and wakes up to find the world has changed.

Meet Rick Grimes

 The hospital is abandoned and is in complete disarray, as is the rest of the outside world – which just happens to be overrun with walking zombies and dead bodies all over! …Eeeek!

What was left of the Hospital!

Rick heads for his home, and finds that his wife “Lori” and young son “Carl” appear to have escaped whatever has happened. Along the way he takes refuge in a boarded-up house occupied by Morgan Jones and his young son Duane. Morgan tends to Rick’s wounds as best he can, fills him in on what little is known about the “Zombie Apocalypse” (very little), and the two part company.

See Rick walk!  Walk, Rick, walk!

On Morgan’s (inaccurate) advice of a safe haven, Rick heads for Atlanta – on horseback (!) after his automobile fuel runs out – only to find the city is completely taken over by the “flesh-eating fellas” that have come to be referred to as “walkers”. There is clear evidence that even the military has been overcome and run out of downtown Atlanta. Rick hides himself in an abandoned Army tank, as the “walkers” savagely devour his horse – leaving him in an episode-ending cliffhanger of classic proportions!

Visit Beautiful Atlanta with Rick Grimes!

The “walkers” appear to only eat living flesh (the Living SMELL differently from the Dead – so the “walkers’ get olfactory-alerts as to their quarry). But, if the Living are in such short supply, what DO the Dead EAT to keep themselves alive… OH, WAIT! Check that! They’re DEAD! Perhaps food is not required for sustenance – but is more like a physical addiction.

Also, as incongruous as this may sound, the “walking dead” can be “killed” by a gunshot (or other blunt or piercing blow) to the head.  If you are attacked by a “walker” just forcibly shove a screwdriver through their eye-socket (or sumpthin’) to get free! 

Oh, and a BITE from a "walker" will not only kill you -- but, eventually, cause you to become one of them, too! 
   

Rick and Friend.   Pass the screwdriver!

 Over the course of the next five episodes, Rick meets up with other “Living” survivors, joins a small survivor camp outside Atlanta – led by his former cop-partner “Shane”, who has temporarily taken up with Rick’s wife and son (Can you say “awkward?!”), and leads a band of survivors to The Center for Disease Control for one heck of a season finale!

Each episode ends with that same type of gut-kicking, “Gotta-See-The-Next-Episode-NOW!” type of moment that one routinely experienced when watching LOST!

Indeed, THE WALKING DEAD gives me that same overall feeling I got from LOST. The struggle for survival, the shifting character dynamics and interactions. There are even near-exact character parallels with LOST and THE WALKING DEAD:

Do those guys down there seem familiar?

 

Do those guys up there seem familiar?

Jack = Rick. Kate = Lori. Sawyer = Shane. (Forming something of a replication of LOST’s famous Jack/Kate/Sawyer Triangle). Locke = Dale or Daryl. Juliet = Andrea. Claire = Amy.
   
There’s even a correspondence with LOST’s “Desmond and The Hatch” in the CDC episode. Apologies to those reading this who have not seen LOST, or are unfamiliar with the characters of one or both shows – but, trust me, there ARE parallels aplenty. I can't wait until THE WALKING DEAD unleashes its version of Ben Linus!


Oddly, I get ANOTHER classic-TV vibe while watching THE WALKING DEAD… and that would be that it is also strangely akin to Irwin Allen’s LAND OF THE GIANTS!

Marooned and isolated survivors in a hidden camp, that could be attacked and invaded at any moment by an enemy that surrounds them – and occupies all of the rest of the known world. The ever-oppressing knowledge that you are NEVER TRULY SAFE! And, the intrepid human spirit that keeps them alive, despite the perils. That ability to have brief moments of joy before the next surprise danger leaps out at you -- be it a zombie or a giant. THE WALKING DEAD actually gives us an indication of how a property like LAND OF THE GIANTS could be reimagined for today’s audience. I hope someone gives it a try someday.

Make no mistake, THE WALKING DEAD features lots of explicitly graphic (and, frankly, GROSS) zombie action! That’s WHY most of us are here, after all. But it also offers a surprising amount of compelling, character-driven story to go along with it.

The iconic "Bicycle Girl" - You'll never forget her!

And, like LOST before it, we are left with many more questions than answers – not the least of which is the story of the “Zombie Apocalypse”. NO SPOILERS, PLEASE! I’m enjoying this well “behind the curve” and want to remain surprised at whatever may follow!

As a DVD package “THE WALKING DEAD The Complete First Season” offers many Extra Features. Among them:

“The Making of THE WALKING DEAD”. (Runs 29:53) includes contributions from Producers Frank Darabont, Gale Anne Hurd, and Greg Nicotero (who is also responsible for the show’s incredible make-up work), Creator Robert Kirkman, and Andrew Lincoln (Rick), Sarah Wayne Callies (Lori), Jon Bernthal (Shane), Laurie Holden (Andrea), Steven Yeun (Glenn), Jeffrey DeMunn (Dale), Lennie James (Morgan), and other cast members.

The cast!

 Darabont describes the classic film “Night of the Living Dead” by George Romero as “The Book of Genesis” for the whole idea.
        
Nicotero calls it “The TWILIGHT ZONE of our generation!”
  
There are 5-6 minute featurettes dedicated to looking behind each of the six episodes, with participation from producers and cast.

No episode commentaries are included in the particular set I discuss here – but there has been a subsequent, more deluxe version that does include commentaries.

Other features and a commercial trailer round out the set.

There's even an eleven and a half minute distillation of a 2010 Comic-Con International San Diego "Walking Dead" panel with creators, producers, and cast members, that took place during the shooting of Episode 4. 

The familiar sights, sounds, and overall feel of those huge packed San Diego Convention Center meeting halls brings back memories of my being at similar panels for things like the Batman and Superman Animated Series!  Ah... Those were the days!  Needless to say, creator Robert Kirkman is loved by all of the fans of his comic that make up the crowd. 

One major “CON”:  There is NO LISTING OF EPISODES on or inside the package.  You can only get this information off of the disc menus!   With only SIX episodes contained herein, why should this be the case?

 THE WALKING DEAD has been very enjoyable (…indeed, unexpectedly so!) thus far, and I look forward to Seasons Two and beyond.

Serialized vs. Episodic TV.

Blog reader and friend Ryan Wynns posted a comment on today’s “serialized” format for hour-long TV shows vs. the more classic “episodic” format of days gone by, to the post on the series finale of LOST. As this post is nearly a month old as I write this, perhaps you missed the exchange.

I don’t usually cheat like this, but I thought the subject was good enough for a Blog post of its own. So, here are my comments to Ryan, as they appeared in that comment thread. I invite comments of your own…
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If ever I were “on the fence” between the episodic and serialized formats for TV series, 2010 would clearly place me on the episodic side!

People will debate the merits (and lack of same) of the finale of LOST for some time to come. And, it will be little more than just “people’s varying opinions”. One thing you CAN say for LOST, is that, regardless of your view of it, it HAD an ending after taking us on a six-year ride.

But, where I’ve recently determined that the serialized format does NOT work, is for series that do not have the luxury of choosing their own “end time”.

Just before NBC dropped everything for the Olympics, HEROES had just set up the storyline for its fifth season. Now, it’s not coming back! Perhaps, if one chooses to purge one’s memory of the final act of the final episode, one could say HEROES had an ending. But, the bad taste of being left unsatisfied after following it for four seasons remains.

ABC was once pushing FLASH FORWARD as the successor-in-interest to LOST. They aired half a season, took a break, released a DVD of that half season to hook people for the return… and wrapped up a great ongoing, weekly mystery series in a way that resolved nothing and made little or no sense – other than to arbitrarily fulfill the plot’s earlier prophesies. There is NO DOUBT that the producers of FLASH FORWARD intended to go into another season – and were forced to cut it off now.

On the other hand, when episodic TV ends with a poor, or at least “less worthy”, final episode, you don’t feel nearly as shortchanged for your investment. Of my pronounced favorites from “days of old”, I’d say STAR TREK (The Original 1960s Series), LOST IN SPACE, THE WILD WILD WEST, TIME TUNNEL, and THE INVADERS all had “average to poor” final episodes – compared to what each series did at its best.

But, on the whole, I don’t much care because the “ride as a whole” was great and (very important point) was NOT dependent on the quality of the final episode!

VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA had (what was for its time) a great closing episode, with even a hint of finality to it – or, at the very least, sufficient satisfaction at how it wrapped. They even titled it “No Way Back” for good measure! I’d say that might have been because they knew the show was going to be “retired” at the end of the 1967-1968 season.

THE FUGITIVE is said to have had the greatest such closing episode of the era, but (more’s the pity) I never saw it, and so cannot comment.
 

UPDATE for 2012: I have since seen the final episode of THE FUGITIVE – and was it ever great… especially for its time! 

The final two episodes of LAND OF THE GIANTS were actually two of the best of the series, but that was probably more a case of “luck of the draw” than design.
     Perhaps the best compromise would be a series like STAR TREK THE NEXT GENERATION, which walked a fine line between “episodic and serialized”, knew when it was going to end – and had a superb final episode ready for the occasion!

So, what say you all? Do you prefer the “Serialized” approach, with the crushing disappointment of a potentially poor final episode to show for your investment?Or, are you partial to “Old School Episodic”, with little in the way of week-to-week continuity and cliffhangers to intensify your interest?

Or, some sort of “hybrid” of the two? And, if a hybrid, how many successful ones have there been?

The Comment Section is open all night… Please stop by!

Where Have All the Titles Gone?

This post is to commemorate the series finale of LOST, and the unfortunate cancellation of both HEROES and FLASH FORWARD. They will be missed.

It is also to remember all the great shows of the past that led us to this point.

…On with the Show(s)!
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Say “City on the Edge of Forever” to folks of a certain persuasion (…the “persuasion” that would read this Blog, anyway), and they would immediately think of STAR TREK.

Ditto for “Amok Time”, “The Menagerie”, or any number of other Trek-titles ingrained in our collective memories.

Try some others: “Time Enough at Last” = TWILIGHT ZONE. “The Zanti Misfits” = THE OUTER LIMITS. And, for better or for worse, “The Great Vegetable Rebellion” = LOST IN SPACE.

Some series were better known for their “title format conceits” than for individual episode titles.

PERRY MASON = “The Case of the (Fill-In-The-Blank)”

BURKE’S LAW = “Who Killed (Fill-In-The-Blank)”

THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. = “The (Fill-In-The-Blank) Affair”

THE WILD WILD WEST = “The Night of the (Fill-In-The-Blank)”

BATMAN (1966) didn’t “fill in any blanks”, but the title of “Part Two” most often RHYMED with the title of “Part One”.

Mention one of these conventions and, chances are, someone will know which series you’re referencing. Okay, maybe not BURKE’S LAW… but you know what I mean!

Even 20 years after the fact, titles like “The Best of Both Worlds” or “The Inner Light” mean STAR TREK THE NEXT GENERATION.

As late as the early/mid 2000's, with STAR TREK ENTERPRISE, we've had titles. Though that may be more of a STAR TREK "tradition" than anything else.

The point of all this “Title Talk” is that TV episodes (for the most part) no longer display episode titles!

This seems particularly odd, given the proliferation of “fannish-types” who talk, text, tweet, and Blog about their favorite TV programs. We LIKE referring to episodes by title, don’t we? …Leastways, ‘round these parts we do, sure as shootin’!

Shows from my current list like LOST, FRINGE, FLASH FORWARD, and even THE SIMPSONS and FAMILY GUY do not exhibit episode titles. A notable exception is HEROES, which always displays “Chapter Titles” (individual episode) or “Volume Titles”(overall arc) – but that’s probably a stylistic tribute to its “comic-book roots”.

These episode titles DO EXIST, of course. They can be found at network, series, or TV episode websites and the on-screen listings of your television provider. They form the contents listings of DVD sets, and identify episodes available to download. So why are they never seen as part of an episode?

Wouldn’t the fifth season premiere episode of LOST have an even greater impact if we all saw its title, “Because You Left”, on screen? Or, if you referred to the final episode of that season as “The Incident”, you might be firing-up a collective memory of what happened at the end of the show. (Hint – Something very big went Boom and everything turned white!) Then we waited for another season to tell us what, when, where, and how.

…Come to think of it, mere days before the series finale, we’re STILL trying to figure this out.

As a writer, as well as a fan, I like to give everything a title. It always helps “set things” in my mind. Also, creating humorous and appropriate titles is one of my favorite aspects of the Disney comic book scripting work I do.

It’s a funny thing… Because of this situation, I don’t find myself referring to episodes of LOST and its contemporaries by episode title, while I still do for their more classic counterparts.

Anyone see “The Trouble with Tribbles” or “Journey to Babel” lately? How ‘bout the one where Ben kills John Locke? …See what I mean?

It just seems as if we lost something when an hour-long, sci-fi or adventure based TV drama does not lead off with an episode title. Especially when said title appears everywhere except on the episode itself. (At Left: A title from HEROES!)

…Your thoughts? (…and I REALLY want them!)

Disney Comics Invade Prime Time TV!

I wouldn’t have even brought this up, if not for the unusual coincidence of ideas, images, or key scenes from Disney Comics (fittingly one from Floyd Gottfredson and one from Carl Barks) turning up on two radically different prime time television series, no more than three days apart. One on Thursday, April 22 – the other on Sunday, April 25.

I’m certain many of you recall the Phantom Blot’s death trap for Mickey Mouse, where a gun is aimed directly at Mickey – controlled by strings and a mechanism that will fire the gun if Mick moves a muscle. This, of course, is from Floyd Gottfredson’s 1939 newspaper comic strip epic that was titled “Mickey Mouse Outwits the Phantom Blot” for its appearance in Dell comic books.

This past Thursday, on ABC’s FLASH FORWARD, FBI Agent Demitri Noh was in exactly the same fix as Mickey – staring at a complexly wired trigger mechanism set to kill Agent Noh, with the gun of Noh’s partner Agent Mark Benford! This masterpiece of the macabre was the demented product of the insane genius Dyson Frost, whose skills in the art of death-trapping clearly put the Blot’s to shame.

As great a character as Demitri is, he’s (pardon) “Noh” Mickey Mouse (Sorry!), and required the literally last minute heroics of Benford to survive the day on which the series’ “gimmick” (the titular “Flash Forwards”) indicated that Noh would be killed.

As has sometimes been the case with the Phantom Blot (and much more so with The Joker), Frost appears to have been killed for his transgressions – but I don’t believe that for a moment.

Oh, and I suppose there’s something fittingly cyclical about a Disney television series (billed each episode as “An ABC Studios Production”) showing some influence from an old Disney comic.

Sunday night on FOX, THE SIMPSONS commemorated the 40th anniversary of Earth Day with an episode where Homer converts his home to wind power – in the expected way and with the expected results.

…And he leads the usual cast of Springfieldians in the effort to assist Lisa in helping an incapacitated, beached whale (magnificently rendered by the Simpsons artists and animators – and all the more so when seen in HD!) return to the sea.

Less well-known than the Phantom Blot story, but something of an “End-of-Silver-Age-Classic” in its own right, is the Carl Barks-written (but not drawn) Junior Woodchucks tale “Whale of an Adventure” from 1970’s HUEY, DEWEY AND LOUIE JUNIOR WOODCHUCKS # 7. Released in July, 1970.

In it, the ‘Chucks, Chickadees, and Duckburg’s faithful battle Scrooge McDuck (with visions of whale oil and other byproducts in his avaricious eyes) over the whale and the freedom most of the characters feel it deserves.

Oddly, this SIMPSONS episode goes against type, by NOT casting Mister Burns in the “Scrooge Role” – and by making Homer unusually well intentioned all around.

Nevertheless, especially on the heels of the Phantom Blot parallel, thoughts of the Junior Woodchucks tale were inevitable.

Though I presently watch more prime time network TV than I have in many years (see THIS POST), my viewing is still on the relatively meager side by the standards of the “Average American”– but I was presently surprised to see (whether intentional or not – presumably not) these Disney comic concepts and images reflected back at me in prime time High Definition!

Not Since 1966!

Not since 1966 have I regularly watched as much Prime Time Network Television as I find myself doing in 2010!

Yes, it’s as much of a surprise to ME as it is to you! Just sorta quietly snuck up on me!

1966 was full of imaginative shows and animation. There would never be another year like it. Or, so I thought…

In 2010 I find myself regularly watching: The Simpsons, Family Guy, The Cleveland Show, Lost, Heroes, Fringe, Batman the Brave and the Bold (Yes, it counts as a prime time series!), Mad Men (thanks to Esther) and now I intend to add Flash Forward to the list, as detailed in the last post.

Imagination, adventure, animation, and clever humor have somehow taken hold of prime time again – after years (even decades) of things that, at their very best, interested me only marginally! It’s 1966 again… only I’m not 11!

I don’t know how it happened, but I’m glad it did!

Gotta go... It's time for LOST!