The Walking Dead inspires

     AMC's newest series, The Walking Dead, is awesome. At least, the pilot is. Before I am jumped all over for expressing that opinion, I'd like to break down why I think it is such, and what the series has to offer.

     Zombie fans have had plenty of movies made over the years. Some of the more serious ones, like 28 Days Later, have been intensely scary. Lately, zombies have also been a fodder for comedy, with Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland, which have actually increased the zombie fan base. Personally, I have never been a fan of the genre, but the comedy attempts introduced me to enjoyable zombies, and I can take the more horror-driven if there is a good plot. The Walking Dead goes for the serious route, creating creatures that are gross and hungry for flesh. They are very dangerous, and out to eat you.

     While zombies are traditionally slow, more current films have imbibed them with supernatural speed, making them that much more deadly, and much harder to escape. The Walking Dead goes for a middle ground. They can move sort of fast when they need to, and when excited into a feeding frenzy. Usually, they move slow, or lie around until something disturbs them. The real threat from Walking Dead zombies are being trapped by a pack, and not having an escape route. This happened to Deputy Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln, Love Actually) at the end of the pilot, and he found refuge in a tank.

     Like speed, zombies' intelligence have been approached in different ways. Some are so dumb they can't even turn a door knob. Walking Dead zombies do not fall into that category. However, they don't seem smart enough to throw things through windows or use a sledgehammer to break down doors, either. They are not scared off by bullets, but I've never seen a zombie that was. Fire remains to be seen.

     What the scariest zombie movies do is build suspense, keeping a tight knot in your stomach for the duration. The Walking Dead certainly did that. Whether Grimes was walking down a dark staircase, or approaching a city known to be dangerous on a horse, my adrenaline never stopped pumping. The danger element was ever-present, and camera angles frequently kept the wide shot a mystery, making things seem even more precarious.

     The camera work was spectacular. AMC is known for making beautiful-looking shows. Blood, guts, and gore don't really count as aesthetically pleasing, but the landscapes were nice. And each shot was executed with care and precision. The pilot felt so well made, I couldn't help but be pulled in. Certainly, even if you are not a zombie fan, you can appreciate elements that fall into place with such care?

     The biggest question is, are zombies ripe for a series, and will fans keep tuning in week after week? I believe the audience for this type of show is limited. Plenty of people can't stand the genre, and few non-zombie fans (except, perhaps, myself) will be drawn into the premise. It will never reach a super-wide fanbase, but zombie lovers have bought enough tickets to sell many a movie, so perhaps they are abundant enough to sustain a weekly television show.

     I can't imagine The Walking Dead will not appeal to the zombie-philes. All of the traditional elements are there, in such rich detail. The pilot felt like an R-rated movie, with so much gore I couldn't believe I was watching basic cable. This is what they love, and so, as long as they can find it, there'll be some fans.

     A huge part of zombie stories, though, usually involves most of the main characters being picked off one by one. Here is where The Walking Dead has to be careful. Yes, characters have to die in order to keep interest and the sense of impending doom strecthed out for many installments. Yet, it would get old to keep finding new pockets of survivors. In this case, important deaths will need to be doled out slowly, not allowing the body county to rise swiftly. The longer the show goes on, the more attached viewers will become to their favorite characters, and each death will carry a risk of alienating fans of a certain actor. But if death is not a regular part of the show, more will tune out because the series will seem too tame for zombie fans.

     So far, everything looks great, and the people playing the survivors of the zombie plague are all decent enough performers. There is mystery, as the audience is still in the dark about where the pathogen came from or how it spread (I assume it's a pathogen; it often is). There seems to be a fairly large cast, which will support periodic killings, although very few had much screen time in the first episode.

     There is also human drama. Grimes is searching for his wife, Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies, Prison Break), who is holed up with his former partner, Shane (Jon Bernthal, The Pacific, The Class). They believe that he is dead, so it's not really cheating, right? Although Grimes has not yet found them, previews and pictures released online reveal that it won't be long before he does. Also, one of the most moving moments from the pilot dealt with Morgan (Lennie James, Jericho) trying to bring himself to shoot his zombie-wife.

     Smart writers will pull a Resident Evil, giving tidbits at a time of the backstory, and be willing to extend the universe periodically, with new directions that fit with what's come before, but still feel fresh.

     The first episode of The Walking Dead will re-run several times this weekend, and new episodes air Sunday nights at 10pm on AMC.

 

For frequent mini-reviews and occasional tv news, follow Jerome on Twitter.


Article first published as TV Review: The Walking Dead on Blogcritics.

Emmys were good, but a tad unsatisfying

     Last night was the 62nd Annual Emmy Awards, and this morning, the results are a mixed bag.  First, the broadcast itself.  Host Jimmy Fallon did ok.  His singing tribute to 24 and Lost was very cool, but his reading of twitter comments was beyond lame, and he did it multiple times throughout the night.  The cast of Modern Family participated in some funny retooling clips of their show.  The best part, naturally, was the opening sketch.  Jimmy and Tina Fey helped Lea Michele, Corey Monteith, Amber Riley, and Chris Colfer, all from Glee, form a Glee Club.  The other members they picked up included Jon Hamm (Mad Men), a very enthusiastic Nina Dobrev (The Vampire Diaries), the always enjoyable Jorge Garcia (Lost), Joel McHale (Community), the fantastic Jane Lynch (Glee), and last and definitely least, Kate Gosselin (Jon & Kate Plus Eight).  The bit also included appearances by the legendary Betty White, Tim Gunn (Project Runway), and Randy Jackson (American Idol).

     The comedy awards went in an expected fashion.  Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory) and Edie Falco (Nurse Jackie) took the lead awards, while Eric Stonestreet (Modern Family) and Jane Lynch (Glee) brought home the supporting statues.  While none of these choices was surprising, each was highly deserved.  It was also nice to spread out the gold among four different shows.  Stonestreet's TV husband, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, touchingly has tears in his eyes as Eric went up to the stage.  The much-talked about showdown between Modern Family and Glee for best comedy ended with MF getting the prize.  Again, not surprising, as MF is the more typical comedy of the two, although it was surprising that phenomenon Glee didn't garner more statues.  Most surprising?  Broadcast television swept this category.

     The drama awards were a bit more surprising.  Not the Best Series, which went for the third year in a row to Mad Men, even though I was really pulling for Lost in it's final year.  Although I must ask, for a series that has won top honors three times, why was a new episode aired last night in competition with the Emmys?  Did they want no one to watch it?  Thank goodness for TiVo.  Also, Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) kept his Best Actor streak going  But Best Actress went to Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer), a total mistake in my book, as I was rooting for every other actress in that category!  Cranston's co-star, Aaron Paul, got a well deserved Supporting Actor win, and Archie Panjabi (The Good Wife) rounded out the category.

     In the miniseries and movie genre, Al Pacino (You Don't Know Jack) and Claire Danes took home the top statues, the latter much more deserving than the former, and David Straithairn and Julia Ormond assured that Temple Grandin got three of the four awards.  Grandin also took Outstanding Made for Television Movie, while the Tom Hanks / Steven Spielberg epic The Pacific unsurprisingly won best mini-series.  Grandin and The Pacific were both fantastic, so no complaints there.

     I'd also like to mention that although it would have been oh-so-satisfying for Conan O'Brien's The Tonight Show to win, The Daily Show With Jon Stewart is a nearly flawless program that deserves every kudos it earns, so it someone had to beat Conan, I'm glad it was Jon.

The battle for The Pacific has ended

     HBO's latest miniseries, The Pacific, has come to an end.  As I commented on my twitter feed, once the bullets started flying, I had trouble telling the characters apart.  However, that did not hold true for all characters.  Some stood out.  And even if I didn't remember a good many of them as the ending credits rolled and told their stories, I was still plenty moved by the sequence.  I dare someone not to be.  Most of the soldiers depicted, as most soldiers who fought in the war, are now deceased.  But films like this one will surely keep the memory going.

     My favorite character was Robert Leckie (James Badge Dale).  I do have to say, I was sad that he didn't return to Australia and find the girl he was in love with there.  Sure, that would be more realistic in the movies than real life, but one of the other soldiers did it.  Leckie instead returned home, to continue writing for the local paper and marry the girl next door.  Very sweet, though not as sweet as my alternate ending.  Especially considering how his family treated him.  Oh, well.  It's hard to rewrite reality.

     I never did care very much for Eugene Sledge (Joe Mazzello), though he was most prominently featured at the end of the run.  I wonder what the real Eugene thinks of the show, assuming he's seen it.  I don't know why he wouldn't have, as his book was one of the source materials.  I am sure I will never understand his pain and what he went through, but he came off as kind of a jerk, before, during, and after the war, so it can't just be blamed on the experience.  He can be forgiven for his behavior at the end, then, but what about who he was in the first place?  I did feel bad for him, though, and his family, in particular, his father, was super supportive in the end.

     The third main character, and this one I didn't expect, so it hit me hard, was John Basilone (Jon Seda).  He was also a little bit too cocky for awhile, but he matured, and grew into an amazing soldier.  His quick courting and wedding was so wonderfully done.  When he died in combat, it was a shock, and a heart wrenching one at that.  I felt worst for his widow, of course, but I'm sure his entire unit took his death personally.  He was definitely a hero, re-enlisting and going back when he didn't have to.

     Kudos to HBO, and of course Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, for bringing us this awesome story.

The battle for The Pacific has begun

      In 2001, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg created a very popular ten part mini-series called Band of Brothers for HBO, which told the story of a group of American soldiers during World War II in Europe.  Now they've teamed up again to tackle the Pacific theater of conflict in The Pacific.  The story centers on three real life marines, and is based on books by two of them, as well as other true source material.  The marines are Sgt. John Basilone (Jon Seda, Close to Home), Pfc. Robert Leckie (James Badge Dale, 24), and Pfc. Eugene Sledge (Joseph Mazzello, Jurassic Park, The Lost World).
     In the first part of a ten week saga, it was hard to keep track of exactly who the main characters were.  Quite a few soldiers were featured, and as most of them were in one group that the bulk of the episode followed, they all sort of blended together for me.  In fact, a second group was introduced early in the story, and I looked for them repeatedly until they finally showed up again at the end.  However, even without being able to accurately track all of the people, it was still an intriguing show.
     The realism, tone, and pacing make this mini-series.  Right from the start, the men are getting ready to go off to war, and in fact, much of the first part is set in the battlefield.  The look is spectacular, and the emotions feel real.  Some soldiers were torturing a Japanese soldier they caught, shooting him over and over so that he kept suffering.  When one brave man stood up and shot him through the heart, it certainly made the point that the enemy would not be a one-note , stereotypical villain, but treated as people, too.
     I can't exactly say why I enjoyed The Pacific so much.  It was more the overall feeling it gave than a few characteristics that I can easily pinpoint.  Suffice it to say, it appears there is something really great here, definitely worth watching.
     The Pacific will air for nine more Sundays on HBO at 9pm.