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Description from IMDB:
"What did the world look like as it was transforming into the horrifying apocalypse depicted in "The Walking Dead"? This spin-off set in Los Angeles, following new characters as they face the beginning of the end of the world, will answer that question."
The first episode just aired tonight. The characters are pretty interesting and well-written so far. There's the typical "oh I'm divorced and my kids hate me" trope that a lot of apocalypse films have, and the first episode was a little slow. But the slowness is to be expected while they set everything up.
What did you guys think?
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1001 YEARS KESPAJAIL22272 Posts
Moved to Media & Entertainment
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The family and characters are nowhere near as interesting in this show, as opposed to The Walking Dead, because they are made that way solely for the point of being a nauseatingly diverse group that represents an extremely small portion of the population. If you wanted to find a family like this, it would be a needle in a haystack in L.A. Really if you wanted to be realistic, these folks would all be hispanic. personally did not enjoy the forced PC crap loaded into the show...
blended family? check.
alpha white wife? check.
beta ethnic dad? check.
genius chick who got a scholarship into Berklee and dating a black dude? check.
her college flunkie junkie brother? check.
In one scene with Madison and Travis (I think after Travis checks out the junkie commune where the attack happened and finds blood on the floor), it's weird how much the dialogue and body language between them was exactly reversed from, say, what happens in a 1950's movie where a woman loses her cool and the man has to calm her down and act like everything is under control. In the scene, Madison calms him down and plays the cool, logical head trying to explain it away as the commune just being a violent and drug-infested place (explaining the guy freaking out and the blood), while Travis plays the emotional head who is freaking out like a chick who just broke a nail. Her dominant body language, holding the back of his neck and holding his arm, pulling HIM in the for the kiss. just lol...feminist undertones anyone? but i guess that's what today's media is all about...coming up with fictional characters like this so it's perceived as the "norm" of American society...LOL.
It's just annoying that these days, on TV shows especially, families like these have to be contrived and put on TV just in an effort to be "diverse." How is a situation like this relatable to the vast majority of people in America, or hell, people in L.A.? it's really not, other than the fact that there's a 4-person family involved.
I personally enjoyed The Walking Dead much more because the characters were more relatable. Then again, maybe it's because I'm from The South. (i'm sure some people will probably say "surprise surprise!" ;p
At least Rick and Carl had balls right? In fact, looking at even The Walking Dead, there is not a single "weak" female character other than Carol at the beginning of the show and her daughter. The way they are presenting the characters, they are leaning toward the wife being the alpha leader of the group...which...let's face it... if the shit hit the fan and a real zombie apocalypse happened? There would be virtually no female leaders in groups with men around. That's the way it worked back in the caveman days, and when society disintegrates, GUESS WHERE WE ARE? Men in general are more physically able and would take on the vast majority of leadership roles in this situation. When society disintegrates, survival is based on strength. Especially when the vast majority of groups are so dispersed and small in number. So I wonder...IF I'M RIGHT and Madison ends up being the leader (more or less) of their group, how are they going to pull it off in a believable way? Is she gonna be the one picking a fight with other chick leaders or getting in fist fights with dudes? LOL
the show is alright, and i'll probably watch it just because season 6 of walking dead isn't until october.
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Underwhelming series premiere...
Guessing that my expectations were a bit too high...
Hope the action picks up a bit more in upcoming episodes...
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cops screaming "stay in your car", proceed to open the door.
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I knew this would disappoint the moment I read the nauseating try-hard review on Grantland.
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The series was supposed to start out slow. I just hope they don't stay in the city for the entire season while the Apocalypse is starting and perhaps throughout next season they find some place and try to eek out an existence while trying to survive.
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Honestly this episode did not contain much of what it "should" contain but as this was the first episode I can see why. What is interesting is how they will showcase the break down of society and how the virus spreading (I actually had no idea this show started and what it is about. But I assume this?)
While I am not completely sold on the characters and the "small scale" zombie start (like how did the virus get in to that junk house to start with?) I will definitely watch the next few episodes to see how it develops.
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I'll keep watching, but that was kinda dull.
Alright here's the thing. Walking Dead is interesting because it's about human relationships as they exist in the apocalypse. But it's not necessarily the relationships or drama that are interesting, it's how the situation calls into focus what people find important. The most fascinating moments in TWD are how people treat each strangers and friends when the world is ending and every day is a struggle for survival. Because it shows what people are like at their core and how that nature claws out of them.
But this just feels like "hey, let's put some generic family drama and then have zombies in the background", which misses the point completely. I hope it picks up as the season goes on, but that was not a good showing for the first episode.
I'm still infatuated with the Zombie genre, even with how bloated it's become in the past few years. I just hope this lives up to what it could be.
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The episode was alright. I expected it to be slow since we're getting to see the outbreak. I like how in the beginning of the pilot episode, it started out as a normal day, but as the episode progressed, we see signs of the zombie apocalypse slowly creeping up such as the sirens, numerous helicopter patrols, etc. I'm not exactly fond of the characters so far, and I'm not quite familiar with the cast besides the lead female being the detective from the movie, Gone Girl. I think it's neat that this spinoff takes place in California since it gives a nice compare and contrast to TWD's region. As the episode was going on, I thought to myself what the TWD characters were doing at this time. The high school student said that there have been the same case of this virus in 5 different states, so I'm assuming Rick got shot already, and is in the hospital.
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Yeah if the entire series stays inside the same city and only manages to focus on the start of the outbreak i.e. there is still some parts of civilization left standing out while the outbreak gets bigger and bigger then AMC gambled and lost.
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Cant really believe that the apocalypse starts so slowly. I guess the chick in the beginning had an overdose, died and turned.
Since then a couple of days passed and alot of people die in LA every day so there should be alot of chaos already but instead everything is still in order...
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Didn't like that the drug addict brother will probably be a focal point of the story until he eventually becomes a walker. That alone makes me unexcited about the show. Really don't know how the rest of the series will go, but I'm sure it can't be worse than this first episode. Basically was just a family drama dealing with a drug addict, almost nothing to do with the Walking Dead.
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On August 24 2015 18:11 LtCalley wrote:
The family and characters are nowhere near as interesting in this show, as opposed to The Walking Dead, because they are made that way solely for the point of being a nauseatingly diverse group that represents an extremely small portion of the population. If you wanted to find a family like this, it would be a needle in a haystack in L.A. Really if you wanted to be realistic, these folks would all be hispanic. personally did not enjoy the forced PC crap loaded into the show...
blended family? check.
alpha white wife? check.
beta ethnic dad? check.
genius chick who got a scholarship into Berklee and dating a black dude? check.
her college flunkie junkie brother? check.
In one scene with Madison and Travis (I think after Travis checks out the junkie commune where the attack happened and finds blood on the floor), it's weird how much the dialogue and body language between them was exactly reversed from, say, what happens in a 1950's movie where a woman loses her cool and the man has to calm her down and act like everything is under control. In the scene, Madison calms him down and plays the cool, logical head trying to explain it away as the commune just being a violent and drug-infested place (explaining the guy freaking out and the blood), while Travis plays the emotional head who is freaking out like a chick who just broke a nail. Her dominant body language, holding the back of his neck and holding his arm, pulling HIM in the for the kiss. just lol...feminist undertones anyone? but i guess that's what today's media is all about...coming up with fictional characters like this so it's perceived as the "norm" of American society...LOL.
I hope the mother and drug addicted son die. They both annoy me. Why the fuck does the guy limp everywhere?
The dad is better when no one else is around. As soon as the mother shows up with him there he turns into a backup character that serves her.
Mother character reaks of being a mary sue. Makes the police her bitch, then a scene later is caring and understanding towards the troubles of a teenage boy. Super investigative skills at the crime scene, just knows something bad happen, then into super protective mom mode when she finds her son.
Also dad's other son served no purpose being introduced this episode.
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On August 26 2015 13:36 killa_robot wrote:
I hope the mother and drug addicted son die. They both annoy me. Why the fuck does the guy limp everywhere?
The dad is better when no one else is around. As soon as the mother shows up with him there he turns into a backup character that serves her.
Mother character reaks of being a mary sue. Makes the police her bitch, then a scene later is caring and understanding towards the troubles of a teenage boy. Super investigative skills at the crime scene, just knows something bad happen, then into super protective mom mode when she finds her son.
Also dad's other son served no purpose being introduced this episode.
yeah I also really hate both of them, so annoying. Unfortunatly theyll be around longer I guess...
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On August 26 2015 13:36 killa_robot wrote:
I hope the mother and drug addicted son die. They both annoy me. Why the fuck does the guy limp everywhere?
The dad is better when no one else is around. As soon as the mother shows up with him there he turns into a backup character that serves her.
Mother character reaks of being a mary sue. Makes the police her bitch, then a scene later is caring and understanding towards the troubles of a teenage boy. Super investigative skills at the crime scene, just knows something bad happen, then into super protective mom mode when she finds her son.
Also dad's other son served no purpose being introduced this episode.
the guy limps because he got hit by a car remember? =/
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Why are some sites calling Gloria patient zero. The kid with the knife seemed to know that this was happening in other states.
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+ Show Spoiler [because i don't know if we can s…] +
Well... it seems like a teen version of Walking dead. The first zombie you see with a brushing and hot vampire lenses (kind of) was a first shock.
I liked how you can hear the sirens and chopper all around and all the scene when you think : "THIS IS IT" and it's not (like with Artie). But there was so much of 'em...
Also what i really really didn't like is the zombie part with Calvin. They just stand there and are like : "Well it's weird." There's no panic, no fear no nothing.
The cliché family was a let down but then after 10 minutes i realized that it's supposed to be the walking dead and that they can die when the fuck they want to.
Basicly :
- The mom as no charisma to be a leader. But so does Rick before season 3.
- The Dad is too kind to survive but i like him.
- The drug addict is.. weird. There was a lot of "no suprises" with him so i can't say.
- The girl is... well she seems a bitch. Like Andrea. Remember what happens to Andrea ?
- No character seems to be as bitchy/useless/annoying/freaking ANNOYING as Lori.
- The plague spread sooooooo slow. 'cause if they are in the church. By the day after they should be zombies roaming everywhere and reports on TV from attacks from small groups etc...
- i like that it's the begining and this show could be more for history than for character.
- There's something but the pilot isn't on point.
TL;DR
If you haven't watch it, the pilot is a little underwhelming and you should wait for the second episode to come out to start watching. (because i feel there will be a lot more stuff in episode 2)
Also it's a new story so it's slow. Do not expect character complexity because there is 5 seasons of character development in the walking dead. it's the first episode of a new serie so characters are as much diverse and complex as Walking dead S01E01. Meaning : annoying douches and charisma of a door knob for every character. But hey. Rick took 3 season to become charismatic 
On August 26 2015 18:08 malcram wrote:
Why are some sites calling Gloria patient zero. The kid with the knife seemed to know that this was happening in other states.
Because people are dumb ? The flue vaccine is so much present in this episode that you know there's no patient zero.
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I don't expect a ton of character depth right away, but they just feel like really predictable cliches. And not even fun ones, ones that were chosen to appeal to modern sensibilities. Alpha woman type. Non-standard family. Druggie guy who no one believes and will probably get someone killed over a drug fix. Teenage girl who is actually smart but is disenchanted with everyone around her.
Rick has been fun because he started off without a defined cliche - he was just a dude trying to make sense of things. In fact, the S1 gang from TWD was full of pretty interesting characters. The ones that were cliches (like S1 Carol) were background enough that it didn't bother me. The main characters (Lori, Rick, Shane, probably Dale/Glen/Andrea) were all pretty interesting in their own ways. I really don't get that from what is supposed to be our main FTWD cast.
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EPT![[image loading]](http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMjMxMDA0NDM5NV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNDMwNTIxNjE@._V1__SX1455_SY662_.jpg)
