[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by Ronnie Dobbs2

Not in the least, though the end of the season made up slightly for the truly boring and bad rest of it. I saw one TV critic on twitter recommending "stuck on the farm" as a phrase for a creatively stalled show from now on and I can't disagree. I like how this show will have the organic ability to change the cast as it goes on because right now there aren't many characters I give a damn about.

I wonder how much this "stuck on the farm" business has to do with the show's budget cuts? I remember some comment over the summer where AMC apparently wanted more interior shots and locations, and less outdoor action scenes and sets, to save on the budget. Keeping most of the action limited to the farm and the surrounding wilderness would likely save a lot of money.

Here's the piece I am referring to:

AMC's Crazy Ideas for Cutting Costs on The Walking Dead

AMC's decision to cut the budget dated to the previous fall, when the network instructed Darabont to produce 13 episodes for a second season, up from six for the first season, for less money. Not only would the show get a lower budget, but AMC also decided that Walking Dead would no longer reap the benefit of a 30 percent tax credit per episode that came with filming in Georgia. Now the network was going to hold on to that money.

At the time, a source says, the show's producers decided not to get into a confrontation. "To have a fight over a number when they didn't know what the show was going to do didn't make sense," says this source. But when Walking Dead began to break AMC records, those involved figured that a negotiation would take place and the cuts might be reduced.

But this source says that AMC had its own ideas about how to make the show more cheaply. The show shoots for eight days per episode, and the network suggested that half should be indoors. "Four days inside and four days out? That's not Walking Dead," says this insider. "This is not a show that takes place around the dinner table." That was just one of what this person describes as "silly notes" from AMC. Couldn't the audience hear the zombies sometimes and not see them, to save on makeup? The source says Darabont fought "a constant battle to keep the show big in scope and style."