The Walking Dead (Season 2)

[scrooloose]

I wonder how she trained them not to try and bite!

-Mike

[Lou Sytsma]

Not too enamored with The Walking Finale as most seem to be.

Comes down to not caring about hardly any of the characters. Which leads to having to sit through repetitive zombie scenes with everyone being expert marksmen making headshot after headshot. And how about Herschel with the bottomless shotgun?

When the promo material started showing the farm last season, word on the street led me to believe some good things were coming up in Season 2.

Very little did.

Now the prison is getting everyone excited all over again. If the show fails to deliver on the goods in that locale, and the characters remain as unlikable and DUMB as they have been this season, next season could be very well be my last for tuning in.

These made me do a spit take:

[asif9t9]

Yeah you just reminded me of the perfect headshots, and Herschel's bottomless gun. I think last season I was under the impression this was a zombie show that was made to be "realistic". Regular people, at least. In general, they all have unlimited ammo. Enough to waste time at the practice range. And even when speeding around in a vehicle, the passenger can reach out and make every shot count in the head. I always say, stuff like that is lazy writing. It's just unnecessary. Those scenes could be re-written so easily to be more realistic.

[rfielder]

I don't understand the comments about Herschel's "bottomless shotgun".

He had to stop and reload several times - about the only comment that might be appropriate is how he could have so many shotgun shells in his pockets - and about how the pockets never bulged despite of the huge number of shells he pulled out.

In fact, the zombies were getting closer and closer to Herschel because he had to stop and reload. That is why he had to run at the end.

I can understand the issue about perfect headshots - that is just very bad/lazy script writing. With a handgun at just moderate distance under ideal circumstances, a headshop is very difficult even for the best marksman. The way they were presented in the show was just plain stupid.

However, with that shotgun, getting hit anywhere would put most humans down. It should put a zombie down as well, with limited ability to get up due to damage. Might not kill them, but put them down for sure.

[Proteosome]

I echo many of the comments from the last few posts.

The perfect accuracy with the shotgun while riding shotgun and hanging out the window required too much suspension of disbelief. I was also extremely annoyed with the wife who one minute is advocating for murder and the next is mortified when her wishes come true (even when in self defense).

A great zombie book for those looking for a more "realistic" interpretation us world war z by max brooks IIRC. In one part he describes using fire to kill zombies. He suggests it's a bad thing since they feel no pain fire takes too long to incapacitate them. Zombies just become walking fireballs setting fire to everything in their path. It's all I could think of when the barn went up in flames.

[talljak]

could be re-written so easily to be more realistic

Everyone knows this is a zombie show right? Aka not real to begin with.
Its meant to be entertaining, its not a documentary. Guns always have unlimited ammo for the good guys its a Hollywood rule.
The good guys always get their man in 1 shot, while the bad guys unload clips and hit nothing but air.

[Proteosome]

Isn't that an easy excuse for mediocrity? Why can't we expect and hope for more?

[Lou Sytsma]

Isn't that an easy excuse for mediocrity? Why can't we expect and hope for more?

Agreed.

I can actually handle action beats the stretch reality but a show has to give one characters to root for. Characters that are not made to act stupidly to allow for some of those action beats to happen.

[asif9t9]

I remember enjoying 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later just because there was no effin around. Those zombies got you and you were finished. And fwiw, Walking Dead is like that many times, too. People get torn to shreds.

But yeah, the scene with Herschel just didn't have to be so long. Let him run out of ammo sooner. Or heck, show him with a bucket of ammo beside him. Just do something small like that to make it more real. And absolutely, show the zombies getting hit in the chest and getting knocked down at least. For the purpose of those scenes, it's not like it mattered if they killed the zombies. Either way they were going to get overrun and have to hightail it. There's just this fine line that writers insist on crossing, purposely making things unrealistic at certain times. And I don't get it.

[scrooloose]

In real life, in the same situation, that entire group would all be dead long ago. Doesn't make for an interesting story.

-Mike

[hugh]

Isn't that an easy excuse for mediocrity? Why can't we expect and hope for more?

Agreed, I can live with a fictional universe where Zombies live and eat people but, to be great, it shoud have an established continuity and internal logic that is adhered to throughout the story. I don't believe Superman is real but I can still enjoy the show provided I know that Kryptonite will always bring him down!

I have a love hate with TWD. Love the whole idea but hate the facts that:

1. The zombies seem to be moving a lot faster in season #2. In the initial episodes, a brisk walk would keep you ahead of the them. Now you have to be an Olympic runner to outrace them or they will drag you down from behind.

2. They don't seem to any sense of smell anymore. In season #1, our heroes had to cover themselves in dead zombie parts in order to get by the zombies undetected. Now you can just hide under a car and they walk right by.

3. In season one, which took place months after the original infection, it took 18 hours or so to become a zombie after you died. Heck, the CDC documented the whole process. Now its a few minutes! If we have always been infected then why the change now?

4. If the human race is dwindling, where is the food coming from to keep the zombies alive? Shouldn' all the zombies in the inner city and small towns be gone by now?

5. And don't get me started on the miraculous headshots!

[talljak]

I still stand by my point, in basically all tv shows and movies guys have endless bullets. This show is definitely not unique in this aspect.
You can hope for better, but doesn't seem to happen.
I still love the show, I just am not bothered by the unlimited gun and good aim.
Could it be more realistic? Sure, will it be? Doubt it.

[MarcP]

Spoilers alert... Be warned....