Add me to the "not a zombie fan but loved this" crowd...

And I have to say, after reading and seeing it got 5.3m viewers, is it just me is that absolutely ****ing absurd? When you consider Mad Men (which it seems like everyone watches) only got 2.44 or whatever and averaged like 2.3, and it was running against Boardwalk Empire, Sunday Night Football, a World Series game and other stuff, that just blows my mind. I hadn't even heard of this show until the other night. How the **** did 5.3 million people know?

zombies on halloween. the ratings are gonna fall, probably by a good bit.

From Sepinwalls blog:

The 90-minute premiere averaged 5.3 million viewers at 10 p.m. on Halloween, a number that goes up to 8.1 million if you add in people who watched the 11:30 p.m. and 1 a.m. airings. That puts it ahead of the 4.8 million who watched the premiere of "Boardwalk Empire," which HBO renewed the next day.

i'd imagine a lot more homes get amc than get hbo.

Halloween. Most people went out Sat for their Halloween related activities. It was advertised more than any other premier likely.

I don't know why you would prefer hbo over Amc since Amc is better right now. Breaking Bad is the 2nd greatest show ever and Mad Men is right up there. They spared nothing in the first ep. Blood. Boom headshots. Horse guts. AMC is in fire creatively now and I wouldn't want HBO gaying up TWD.

yeah amc is clearly giving them (and breaking bad and mad men) a ton of leeway. it doesn't need the word fk or boobs to be awesome. amc4life

I liked this a lot, I generally love post Apocalypse esque type stuff. I would like to know the rules for killing zombies, that 1 zombie had no lower half and was crawling through the park with organs hanging out, yet a bullet killed her?

also, I didn't even realize that the partner was shacking up with the protagonists wife and kid, lol @ me.

also do the zombies have super strength? they tore the horse apart which would seem to be hard to do with bare hands, but they seem to amble along slowly and didn't do anything of note to break into houses (like smash windows or kick in the door or something)

ya gotta shoot em in the head obv. the black guy and/or his kid told rick that the brain had to be destroyed (i believe right when he came out of their house in the morning and wailed on the one zombie's head with the bat). this is also standard zombie lore.

i don't think they have super strength. it didn't come up in the comic (or at least the first 20 or so issues). i'd imagine a bunch of normal people biting + not caring about what happens to their fingers/fingernails would probably quickly result in shredded horse.

Zombie 101: The only way to kill a zombie is by targeting the brain. Head shots or decapitation is mandatory.



The Walking Dead Zombie Rules (from AMC)

Zombie Rule #1: Ability to run is based on the amount of time a zombie has been undead, and how much decay has set in.

Zombie Rule #2: Zombies decay but at a much slower rate than humans, and it's still possible to differentiate between young and old zombies.

Zombie Rule #3: Zombies are like lions: if they've eaten, you can walk by them without fear, but a pack of hungry zombies will attack you. (Good to know. Good to Know...)

Zombie Rule #4: The quickest speed of any zombie is a shambling run. see Night of the Living Dead. NO sprinters exist. (Also good to know...)

Zombie Rule #5: Zombies are not dexterous. They cannot pick up or use any items more complex than a rock or a stick.

Zombie Rule #6: Zombies have poor eyesight but they do have a strong sense of smell.

Zombie Rule #7: Zombies cannot speak but can communicate by pack mentality. The herd tends to move together if they sight food. (Jeez!!! Crafty bastards...)

Zombie Rule #8: There is no overt recognition of people or places, there is a sense of familiarity that can dictate where a zombie moves.

Zombie Rule #9: There's no known cause of the zombie mutation, but it's suspected to be a virus or infection.

Zombie Rule #10: Once you're bitten you'll die and reanimate as a walker. How long it takes is related to the nature your bite.

it's gross that zombies don't care about their fingernails

Question here.

Since it's only 6 episodes, will every episode be 90 minutes with limited commercials like the premiere? That would be awesome.

My DVR shows the next episode as 60 minutes.

Awesome premier and loved everything about besides from the first ten minutes, can't wait for the next episode.

Ya I agree, I dont watch the AMC series but I know they are supposed to be good and HBO has been turning some shows to pure crap lately so AMC is the better choice.

also as one of 8 huge Jericho fans, I was super excited to see Hawkins in this show! I hope he is a recurring character

ya maybe i am wrong in hindsight. b/c it was surprisingly violent and graphic now that I think of it. as far as nudity; I generally hate nudity in shows. But... naked zombies and corpses could be cool? Obv some shows abuse HBO freedome, like true blood. But... that show doesn't take itself too seriously. TWD takes its self pretty seirously it seems, which is cool for a zombie genre.

Hmm... this is interesting and something I've never seen in Zombie lore. We haven't seen it explained yet in the show, either.

World War Z is being made into a movie. I heard the audio book, it should be exactly what you're looking for. It covers patient zero; the first intelligence agencies to figure out what was going on; refugees that move north in the winter and freeze; the only country that successfully quarantined itself (Israel); a group of celebrities that start a zombie shelter reality show; the mad struggle to get on cargo ships in India; a downed pilot that gets trapped in zombie territory; the first army attack on the new york zombie horde; the difficult task of taking back the world from the zombies.

And more, with a full cast of voice actors playing all the roles.

Talking about how to plot a show in a way that makes logical sense is hardly nitting it up.

When J. Michael Straczynski was writing the screenplay i was excited. An early draft leaked on the internet and was exceptionally highly received.

It getting re-written by M.M Carnahan leave me with less confidence. Hopefully he doesnt botch the work of JMS, who im a HUGE fan of for B5 alone.

They are taking a slightly different view on the WWZ concept and it wont be too much like the book. The plan is to us a central character (played by Brad Pitt, whose production company owns the rights) and tie into the elements of the book instead of it all being a bit unconnected.
(as i understand it, never read the book or heard the audio version, but ive kept an eye on the film adaptation since hearing about it)

Marc Forster is directing, which neither instils hope nor dread in me.

If brad pitt is doing it it should be good. What's B5?

Babylon 5. My fave show ever.

Even if you dont like it you gotta respect that before they started filming the pilot he planned the story for the 5 seasons it got with the progression of every season planned together for the overall story. With every character from day one having an end goal planned out and with them all having trapdoors so if the actors decided to leave they had a realistic way out set up from day one and it wouldnt impact the show overall.

He also wrote 90% of the scripts himself whilst working as the showrunner which is pretty much unheard of. Just pure dedication to the project.

So yeah, when he decided to make WWZ which a lot of people said was unfilmable it became a potential disaster to something to look forward to. Hopefully the well received early scripts he wrote are only improved on.

You called that from hospital scene? Why/how, did I miss something? I didn't think of it until they cut to the partner with that woman, and even then I wasn't sure that it wasn't just the gf he had been talking about earlier.