Favorite TV Show(s)

[newtogolf]

I just finished the World War Z book, it was excellent.  Unlike WD, it presents real life situations to how the world would react to such a situation, where zombies are the result of an epidemic and how each country reacts to the spread of it.

[JetFan1983]

Originally Posted by Clambake

Quote:

Originally Posted by JetFan1983

IMO, the best zombies are a mix of fast and slow, depending on various factors such as 1) how long they've been a zombie 2) how athletic they were as people before turning. For example, the zombie Lebron James would likely be a fast zombie for a number of weeks upon turning, whereas my great aunt Meriel would likely be a slow zombie from the start.

Frankly I haven't been following this thread, but on a quick glance I saw this paragraph and just have to say that this is one of the best pieces of writing I've read in a long time.   There is a Dali-esque surrealism to it that is simultaneously very amusing and deeply thought provoking.     If you were a screenwriter and ran into a producer in Hollywood at Spago and used this as your 10 second pitch, you'd get a callback to the studio offices, and maybe a multi-picture deal.     Very nicely done!

Thanks! That's really nice of you to say. This made my day.

On a different note, going back to the WD for a second, I'm all caught up now, and the story is definitely improving. I think it was the doldrums of season two that threw me off for this long, but it's gaining speed.

Newtogolf: How crazy would a TV show be for WWZ? The trailer mostly shows the Battle of Yonkers, which was only 3 or 4 pages in the book. I could see a TV show in the vein of the Twilight Zone being effective -- meaning characters and settings change each episode or every few episodes or something, with the occasional connecting thread here and there. The Wire actually did a good job of doing this jumping from the police, to the ghetto, to the docks, to the politics, to the school system, and finally to the media over their five seasons.

Unfortunately, it looks like a lot of entertaining sub-plots are going to be left on the cutting room floor when telling WWZ in movie form.

[newtogolf]

The book would be difficult to do justice in the movies because of the way it jumps from country to country.  Most good books get butchered in the movies, but given they are doing it as a trilogy gives me some hope they can do it justice.  What I find interesting about WWZ is that the zombies are treated almost as an epidemic and I've never seen a zombie movie really approach it that way.  I remember about 5 years back when the news was obsessed with the Swine flu and the panic associated with it.

I could see real world case of zombies, not where the body is actually dead and re-animated, but where the brain is compromised to the point by a virus or bacteria that it resorts to it's most primitive functions where cannibalism is considered an option for survival.

Originally Posted by JetFan1983

Newtogolf: How crazy would a TV show be for WWZ? The trailer mostly shows the Battle of Yonkers, which was only 3 or 4 pages in the book. I could see a TV show in the vein of the Twilight Zone being effective -- meaning characters and settings change each episode or every few episodes or something, with the occasional connecting thread here and there. The Wire actually did a good job of doing this jumping from the police, to the ghetto, to the docks, to the politics, to the school system, and finally to the media over their five seasons.

Unfortunately, it looks like a lot of entertaining sub-plots are going to be left on the cutting room floor when telling WWZ in movie form.

[JetFan1983]

Originally Posted by newtogolf

I could see real world case of zombies, not where the body is actually dead and re-animated, but where the brain is compromised to the point by a virus or bacteria that it resorts to it's most primitive functions where cannibalism is considered an option for survival.

It's funny you mention this because there is such a thing in nature. It's called ophiocordyceps unilateralis . It's a fungus that infects ants, devours its non-vital soft tissues and infects its brain to the point where it can control the ant. Its spores need to reach these high hanging leaves of a particular plant in order to grow, so it "commands" the ant to get there so it can complete its life cycle. It is at that point the ant is killed.

It has been known to destroy entire ant colonies.

I can't remember their names but there are a few parasites out there that work in this "mind control" fashion as well. Creepy stuff!

[newtogolf]

That is interesting.  I figured there had to be something similar out there in nature and the microbe world.  It is creepy given how we seem to discover more an more strains of virus's and bacteria (especially the flesh eating ones) that are resistant to our antibiotics.

Originally Posted by JetFan1983

It's funny you mention this because there is such a thing in nature. It's called ophiocordyceps unilateralis. It's a fungus that infects ants, devours its non-vital soft tissues and infects its brain to the point where it can control the ant. Its spores need to reach these high hanging leaves of a particular plant in order to grow, so it "commands" the ant to get there so it can complete its life cycle. It is at that point the ant is killed.

It has been known to destroy entire ant colonies.

I can't remember their names but there are a few parasites out there that work in this "mind control" fashion as well. Creepy stuff!

[sacm3bill]

Originally Posted by newtogolf

One thing that's unique about [Walking Dead] is they have no issue killing off main characters to move the story along.  We like the unpredictability that creates but it also makes it more difficult to invest time into characters that could be gone in a week or two.

Unusual but not unique - Game of Thrones has done it.

[nevets88]

Unusual but not unique - Game of Thrones has done it.

Just getting started. Just wait till next season. Just you wait... :-)

[Beachcomber]

Walking Dead was pretty good last night.  The Governer is a pimp.  Rick lost his mind.  And Merle is still a racist.  Who knew!?

[mvmac]

Quote:

The midseason finale of AMC's "The Walking Dead," "Made to Suffer" aired on Sunday, December 2 and drew an unprecedented number of viewers, causing a record 15.2 million viewers total for the night. According to a press release from the network, "The Walking Dead" is the first cable series in television history to beat all broadcast and cable entertainment series, including "The Voice, "Modern Family," "X Factor," "Two and a Half Men," "The Big Bang Theory" and "Grey's Anatomy."

The 15.2 million viewers who tuned in are a combination of the 10.5 million who watched the 9:00 P.M. premiere, the 3.6 million who tuned in at 10:00 PM and the 1.1 million gained during the midnight encore of the episode. According to AMC, "The Walking Dead" to date is the number one ad supported drama series in the history of basic cable among total viewers. The network also announced that the "Talking Dead" post-"The Walking Dead" show will extend to one-hour beginning Sunday, February 10.

"Representing both the studio and the network as AMC does on this project, I speak for so many when I say 'thank you' and congratulations to everyone involved," said Charlie Collier, AMC's president via press release. "The records that 'The Walking Dead' shattered today represent an enormous achievement of which we are so proud."

[nevets88]

Great closing episode, so much happened, Carl grew up real fast, Glen is epic, weaponizing dead zombie parts, Rick is barely holding on, we get Merle and Daryl meeting up, new group leader is from The Wire, fight between Michonne and the Gov, wow. Michonne still needs more lines though.

[jamo]

Oh c'mon. You can't give yourself that sort of pat on the back the same week you give The Killing a third season. ;-) EDIT: I meant AMC, FWIW, not mvmac.

[JetFan1983]

People sure love themselves some zombie kills. Show's not even that good either. Just like with the success of Pirates of the Caribbean, I think people are more enamored by the core concept than they are the actual story. Pirates hadn't really been done in decades (besides Cutthroat Island, but let's forget about that one). Zombies have never had a TV show. It's kind of unfair really, having this kind of blank canvas to work with. Oh well, I still enjoy it, even if I think the writing is just one notch above mediocre. Again, I love me some zombie kills, and I don't think there's a person out there who hasn't thought about what they'd do in the event of a zombie apocalypse at least a few times.

PS- How great is it that they added Cutty to the cast? I thought they deleted the Tyrese character from the story, but here he is. Cutty was my favorite character on the Wire.

Sunday's are the best though between WD, Dexter, Homeland, and Boardwalk.

I think Boardwalk Empire gets my vote for best season out of all the shows I regularly watch.

[Beachcomber]

Originally Posted by nevets88

Great closing episode, so much happened, Carl grew up real fast, Glen is epic, weaponizing dead zombie parts, Rick is barely holding on, we get Merle and Daryl meeting up, new group leader is from The Wire, fight between Michonne and the Gov, wow. Michonne still needs more lines though.

Highlight of the season!  Wow is right.  I can't wait to see how they come back in February.

[JetFan1983]

Shameless! Great show!!! I got the season 2 finale tonight. Loving this show!

[nevets88]

Originally Posted by JetFan1983

Shameless! Great show!!! I got the season 2 finale tonight. Loving this show!

The British show that this is based on is on Netflix Instant. I couldn't get through the first episode because of the thick accents. Then the close captioning became available and it is pretty darn funny. I'll watch the American version, but there's 8 seasons of the British version.

Netflix Instant just got It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia. Plus the political drama House of Cards with Kevin Spacey is coming. Lots to catch up on.

And the first two episodes of Justified were pretty darn good.

[JetFan1983]

Originally Posted by nevets88

Quote:

Originally Posted by JetFan1983

Shameless! Great show!!! I got the season 2 finale tonight. Loving this show!

The British show that this is based on is on Netflix Instant. I couldn't get through the first episode because of the thick accents. Then the close captioning became available and it is pretty darn funny. I'll watch the American version, but there's 8 seasons of the British version.

Netflix Instant just got It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia. Plus the political drama House of Cards with Kevin Spacey is coming. Lots to catch up on.

And the first two episodes of Justified were pretty darn good.

Yea, I knew it was a remake because I researched the show to see if it was worth watching prior to seeing any of it. I think there are actually ten seasons of the British version. I doubt the American one will last that long. I'm curious about the original version though -- I already saw that they were on Youtube. I'll check it out at some point in the next few years.

[colin007]

[JetFan1983]

Originally Posted by colin007

Thumbs up on both these shows. Freaks and Geeks was a great one.