The Walking Dead (Season 2)

[MachoMyers]

Re: The Walking Dead (Season 2)

Comic book readers

Spoiler

Anyone else ultra disappointed how Rick revealed to his wife how he knew her and Shane were together. It was so well done and subtle in the comics while they were laying in bed in the prison and absolutely loved it. They made it so obvious that Rick knew that it cooled any coolness the reveal had.

[PFellah]

Re: The Walking Dead (Season 2)

Do none of you watch Talking Dead? I thought they provided some great insight as to why things played out the way they did.

I keep meaning to check it out, but it might work better if they aired it right after the show instead of having to wait it out through Hell On Wheels. That hour usually cools my interest (coughSkyrimcough).

[Kanobi]

Re: The Walking Dead (Season 2)

Talking dead

They mentioned the female barn zombie who caught the shotgun blast to the mouth was Herschel's wife...

[Kanobi]

Re: The Walking Dead (Season 2)

I would love for season 2.5 to open with a pre-credit flashback of life on the farm when the barn walkers were alive, especially Herschel's family.

Also, is it just me or did the first barn zombie to emerge have a slight smile on his face? im thinking maybe he was special ed when alive and was MR (mentally ********).

[tsalbysp]

Re: The Walking Dead (Season 2)

Comic book readers

Spoiler

Anyone else ultra disappointed how Rick revealed to his wife how he knew her and Shane were together. It was so well done and subtle in the comics while they were laying in bed in the prison and absolutely loved it. They made it so obvious that Rick knew that it cooled any coolness the reveal had.

Spoiler

I've never read the comics. How was it revealed?

[MachoMyers]

Re: The Walking Dead (Season 2)

Spoiler

I've never read the comics. How was it revealed?

Spoiler

Lori is in bed with Rick and she is crying. I don't remember it word for word but the conversation went something like:
Lori: Rick?
Rick: Don't
Lori: What?
Rick: Whatever happened, happened. I just don't need to hear about it.

That was the end of it and another reason why Kirkman is the freaking man.

[Brandwin]

Re: The Walking Dead (Season 2)

I wish this would have happened

I've remained a faithful devotee of AMC's The Walking Dead television series since its record-breaking debut, but I'll be the first to admit that the first half of the second season has been shaky, dominated by too little heartbreak and terror and far too much hemming and hawing over the search for a lost little girl. And with showrunner Frank Darabont's departure this summer, I don't have terribly high hopes for the season's remaining episodes. Despite some hitches, the first season made it clear that Darabont understood the zombie-filled world that he'd been handed, and what made a long-running zombie comic book series written by Robert Kirkman such a brilliant idea.

And the latest revelation from behind The Walking Dead's scenes solidifies Darabont's remarkable vision for series and makes me even more concerned for the show's future. Darabont recently revealed the stellar "Black Hawk Down with zombies" storyline he had planned for the second series premiere, a storyline his fallout with AMC kept from becoming a reality.


Actor Sam Witwer, who currently stars as the vampire Aidan in the Syfy remake of Being Human, recently revealed to HorrorHound (although the interview was posted by Paranormal Pop Culture) that he was, in fact, in the pilot episode of The Walking Dead, in an appearance meant to plant the seeds for that later storyline. If you've seen the pilot episode, you know that our hero, Rick, goes to Atlanta looking for his wife and son. When he's set upon by a horde of the hungry undead, Rick climbs into an abandoned tank for shelter, only to find himself sharing quarters with a zombified soldier. It's hard to tell under all that makeup decay, but that soldier is actually played by Witwer. Darabont's plan, Witwer said, was "to tell a prequel story about how Atlanta fell, do 'Black Hawk Down,' but with zombies."


Ain't It Cool News asked Darabont is he would confirm the storyline, and Darabont replied that not only was the prequel storyline in the works, he'd planned to open the second season with it. The episode would have followed an Army Ranger squad that gets trapped in the city as it is overrun by zombies. Here is how Darabont described the episode to AICN:

The idea was to do this with a very focused "you are there" documentary feel. Not going all shaky-cam, but still making it a bit rawer and grainier than the rest of the show. We'd start with a squad of maybe seven or eight soldiers being dropped into the city by chopper. They have map coordinates they need to get to; they've been told to report to a certain place to provide reinforcement. It's not a special mission, it's basically a housekeeping measure putting more boots on the ground to reinforce key intersections and installations throughout the city. And we follow this group from the moment the copter sets them down. All they have to do is travel maybe a dozen blocks, a simple journey, but what starts as a no-brainer scenario goes from "the city is being secured" to "holy sh*t, we've lost control, the world is ending." Our squad gets blocked at every turn and are soon just trying to survive. I wanted to do a really tense, character-driven ensemble story as communications break down, supply lines are lost, escape routes are cut off, morale falls apart, leadership unravels, mutinies heat up, etc. (Yes, this approach owes a spiritual debt to a number of great films, including Walter Hill's Southern Comfort.)

Darabont was also toying with the idea of reintroducing us to Andrea and Amy, showing us the very moment when Dale meets them by pulling them out of harm's way. But the real genius is in the sad and unnerving ending Darabont had planned. The Rangers inevitably fall to the zombies, until Witwer's character is the only one left alive. Unfortunately, by the time he reaches that now-familiar tank, he's already been bitten. As he grows sicker, he considers pulling the pin out of a grenade and killing himself, but ultimately succumbs to his fever. Then, Darabont told AICN:
After the soldier dies this squalid, lonely death...and after a quiet lapse of time...we do a shot-for-shot reprise from the first episode of the first season: Rick comes scrambling into the tank to escape the horde...blows that zombie soldier's brains out...now Rick's trapped...fade out...the end.

Whew. What a chilling way to start a new season. It's a very different brand of horror than we're used to seeing in The Walking Dead; Meredith Woerner at io9 aptly described it as "straight out of the Twilight Zone." But because it's such a classic kind of horror, it would have fit in happily with all of the flesh-chewing and loved ones dying. And it's amazing to think that Darabont had this planned from the very first episode.

Darabont says he had more episodes like this planned -- "wild card" episodes, he called them -- to give the series more of an anthology feel. (Honestly, that's what I originally thought was going on with the CDC episode at the end of Season One, right up until Rick and company showed up on the researcher's doorstep.) It's a shame that when AMC lost Darabont, we all lost out on that kind of smart horror in our zombie show.

Read More: Frank Darabont Reveals the Brilliant 'Walking Dead' Episode We'll Never See - ComicsAlliance | Comic book culture, news, humor, commentary, and reviews

Read More: Frank Darabont Reveals the Brilliant 'Walking Dead' Episode We'll Never See - ComicsAlliance | Comic book culture, news, humor, commentary, and reviews

[CaptainZombie]

Re: The Walking Dead (Season 2)

Crazy Dookie how things could of been much more different with what he had planned.

BTW, I picked up the S1 Walking Dead McFarlane figures over the last week and they are awesome. I can't find Daryl though and hope to see if another TRU has him this weekend. I'll take a picture of them and the walkers I have from S1 of the comic book. Very nicely detailed.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: The Walking Dead (Season 2)

I saw that the other day, but I kind of agree with the comments that say that idea wouldn't have gotten the show anywhere different as far as what the complaints are.

[CMH]

It's a nice second season starter but it does nothing to establish the present story which is what had to happen.

I like Darabont but coming out with this now is just attention grabbing. He says nothing of how he would have made the first half of season two any better. He simply says I would have had a great first episode. Who cares when the actual story matters most?


Sent from my mobile device.

[ckarlic]

Re: The Walking Dead (Season 2)

Crazy Dookie how things could of been much more different with what he had planned.

BTW, I picked up the S1 Walking Dead McFarlane figures over the last week and they are awesome. I can't find Daryl though and hope to see if another TRU has him this weekend. I'll take a picture of them and the walkers I have from S1 of the comic book. Very nicely detailed.

Found Daryl on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/McFarlane-Toys...pd_sim_sbs_t_1

Where did you find Shane?

[DickDalewood]

Re: The Walking Dead (Season 2)

It's a nice second season starter but it does nothing to establish the present story which is what had to happen.

I like Darabont but coming out with this now is just attention grabbing. He says nothing of how he would have made the first half of season two any better. He simply says I would have had a great first episode. Who cares when the actual story matters most?


Sent from my mobile device.

I agree with this. I've enjoyed this season just as much as the last. Could it be better in some areas? Sure, but what show couldn't?

It's pretty easy to come out with a grudge and spout about how differently you would have done things... it's another to have actually done it. The run is over for you, hold your head high and move on. Talking after the fact like this always feels petty and childish.

[Money99]

Re: The Walking Dead (Season 2)

It's a nice second season starter but it does nothing to establish the present story which is what had to happen.

I like Darabont but coming out with this now is just attention grabbing. He says nothing of how he would have made the first half of season two any better. He simply says I would have had a great first episode. Who cares when the actual story matters most?


Sent from my mobile device.

Agreed. I thought he was going to reveal how he would have progressed the story over how it played out.
While this idea of his sounds really cool, it wouldn't have helped how slow, monotonous and meaningless a lot of S2's episodes were.

[areobee401]

Re: The Walking Dead (Season 2)

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[Pared]

Re: The Walking Dead (Season 2)

Doesn't this restart soon?