Talera vs The Walking Dead
Posted 10th November 2010 at 10:27 AM by Talera
A policeman, figure of protection and safety, wanders through a deserted area filled with bodies and empty cars. He walks to a petrol station and just as he notices there is no fuel left, he hears a noise. Getting close to the ground we see slippers stopping and picking up a teddy bear. He has found a young girl. He calls to her, telling her he is there to help keep her safe. She turns, her bottom jaw half missing. This picture of innocence and all that should be protected and kept safe emits this guttural primal growl that sends shivers down your spine. Protection and safety is forced to murder innocence.
This is how the Walking Dead commences.
When I heard they were turning the comic series into a television show I had my doubts. Often when they are turned into movies, it fails to bring the feeling across, leaving us with two dimensional characters and storylines. Would this be any different? If the first two episodes are anything to go by then yes.
While the walking dead (they are not called zombies in the show) are shambling, they refrain from going Romero and having them emit words such as ‘brains’. They manage to bring sympathy for those who are now themselves killers because they were turned into such by circumstances outside of their control.
By starting with the ‘apocalypse’ already commenced and focussing on someone who was in a coma and missed it all, they have not had to explain how it happened or what caused it. In this respect the show does not have to come up with scientific reasons why it does not cause animals to be walking dead. I like this. Many zombie style flicks tend to feel contrived in explaining these things. With ‘Walking Dead’ it is just a given that this is how it is. Also, it does not have much in the way of gore, which will increase its appeal to those who are not normally fans of the horror genre, which in modern times seem to be reliant on the amount of fake blood used during scenes. The aim is the horror of their situation, both the survivors and the dead.
Normally I give a show 3 episodes to tell me what it will be like from there on in, allowing time for setting up characters and plot. I already like this one.
