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[Grakelin]

He meant their researchers, in their underground lab.

An island nation seems like it would be at a disadvantage, since we know from the comics that the disease is airborne and everybody who dies for any reason (other than head trauma) will come back.

[Javarock]

Well, that was a pretty good season finale, if one that has literally no representation in the comics, but...seriously, the French were the last to fall? I'd expect an island nation to hold out longer than one with several landlocked borders.

This is true , I did enjoy it though.

[nenjin]

Maybe I and the people I'm watching the WD with are just low brow, but man, we were starting to get seriously bored in last night's episode.

I mean, yeah, we got the drama.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Borderline insane researcher admits them to a death trap because he's caught between helping them and not wanting to sentence them to an early death. Later he rationalizes his decision, convincing some that death is the best option for them. The pricey special effects to show what the virus looks like acting on the human neural network was pretty neat though. And the fMRI headshot.

Still, we got bored watching them go through all that moral turpitude. And I had to laugh when EVERYONE YOU SAW HAD A BOTTLE OF WINE IN HAND.

I'll be interested to see what direction Darabonte thinks the show should go next season.

Also, we've dubbed this look from Dale as the "Dale's Kiss of Death." When Dale looks at you like this, you know you've seriously gone beyond the pale.

[SalmonGod]

I already made a thread about this after watching the first episode and half of the 2nd.  I've seen one more since then and little bits besides that since my wife is watching it religiously.

I just have to point out that it has really very little in common with the comic.  The general tone of it is completely different.  The drama hammer is about 100x heavier and more aggressive, and there is no build-up whatsoever.  The show had drama dialed up to 11 immediately, where the comic built it up progressively.  Only the major plot points of the comic have been retained.  Most of the content of the show beyond the very skeletal core of the plot is new material.  The cast is like 3 times larger, which also conflicts with the tone of the comics where survivors were much much less common and more sparsely distributed.

My biggest complaint, though, is how they changed the presentation of most of the characters.  This is what makes it unwatchable for me, and is a frequent problem I have with adaptations.  I read a book and develop this mental image of a character based on their written presentation.  Then I watch a show that I'm mentally relating to the book, and the visuals of the show supercede my previous mental image.  This is fine when the characters are done faithfully.  When they have completely different personalities from one to the other, it turns into a total clusterfuck in my head. 

Take Morgan Jones for instance.  When I think about the comic, I remember him as nothing but this friendly, helpful guy who was doing pretty well for himself and his kid.  He was the first and remains the most mentally stable survivor Rick meets, besides maybe Glenn.  (Remember that whole build-up thing?  Perfect example.)  But that memory can't compete with the stronger visual format of the show, where he's suddenly a paranoid freak in the midst of a massive emotional breakdown pointing a gun at the camera every 10 seconds.  It doesn't work.  It makes it really hard for me to enjoy either work because of this fight for memory dominance that erupts in my head.

And while they at least got most actors to really look like their characters, Rick in the show has absolutely nothing in common with Rick in the comic.  They're both white.  That's it.  That's the only common ground in look or personality.  I'm truly stumped that they didn't make even the slightest attempt at translating the main character.  They couldn't even get a guy with the same color hair ffs.  Seriously...

[Sowelu]

There's two kinds of adaptations:  "Let's make something that's a lot like X", and "I like X, let's use it as a jumping-off point".  You just gotta accept that this is the latter, and grumble about the *similarities* instead of the differences.  It's a different story, that just happened to rip off the comic book.

At least it's not as bad as Howl's Moving Castle...

[SalmonGod]

There's two kinds of adaptations:  "Let's make something that's a lot like X", and "I like X, let's use it as a jumping-off point".  You just gotta accept that this is the latter, and grumble about the *similarities* instead of the differences.  It's a different story, that just happened to rip off the comic book.

At least it's not as bad as Howl's Moving Castle...

True.  I actually thought about it after that last post, and it's kind of a good thing for me that the two version of Rick have nothing in common.  There's a lot less conflict over that character in my head because of it.

Honestly I really wish adaptations would be more honest about this.  Just come out and say "This isn't The Walking Dead.  That was just our main inspiration."  Name it something else, deviate the plot as much as you want, make characters who are similar or not but give them different names... everyone would be happy.  Fans of the inspirational source would still be drawn to it and have a much easier time enjoying, and it would be all the same to newcomers.  Producers would get to milk whatever successful source franchise and have creative freedom at the same time.  It seems like it would be common sense to me to approach things this way, but nobody does this.

[nenjin]

Remember too, the author of the Walking Dead is a contributor on the series. They've signed off on all the divergent plots and portrayals.

If there's at least one thing I appreciate about the continuation of the series, is that they're letting Rick get unshaven.

That **** has been bothering me since the beginning of the series. Everyone is so goddamn clean and pretty and stereotypically perfect. That gets less so in some places...but notice how the keynote characters always have just the right amount of makeup to look appealing? Even Shane. That kind of handling of the visuals pisses me off. I knew it was going to be the case because AMC has a major hard on for production values, but that's one point where the director should be going "no no no, he looks like he just walked out of makeup!"

You can basically determine who is a main character and who is supporting cast by how unrealistic their make up looks given what's going on. All the characters that have come and gone are, shock, the ones that look slovenly and unkempt and generally like they've been living in the apocalypse.

[SalmonGod]

Remember too, the author of the Walking Dead is a contributor on the series. They've signed off on all the divergent plots and portrayals.

Yeah, I'm aware of this.  I read an interview with Kirkman earlier today.  Doesn't make it any easier for me.  In fact it feels even wierder.  It's like the creator seduced me with his original work, then starts telling me how the knock-off is doing everything better, while continuing work on the original at the same time... it feels like he's halfway disowning the comic... I imagine this is how those L4D boycotters felt when the sequel was announced.

I don't know where to even begin absorbing the conflicting messages, so it's best for me to just pretend the show doesn't exist.  My wife keeps begging me to watch it with her, though.

[dragonshardz]

I've watched the show.

So far it's...okay.

Just okay. I definitely like the comic a lot better and will continue to buy the trade paperbacks of it.

As for the show, well, I'm gonna watch the rest of the recorded ones and then make a decision.