Why I Hate On The Walking Dead So Much

I’ve been asked that question before by friends of mine. They know I love zombies and zombie movies. They know I write books about them. They watch the show and can’t understand why I have such a problem with it. I try to explain, and bits and pieces come out, and after I’ve been asked that question I lie awake at night pondering the answers to that very question. Why on Earth do I, a zombie lover, hate on the Walking Dead so much?

I think, for me, it all has to do with missed potential. This show could be great. It should be great. The zombies are awesome, the effects are great, they have, uh, actors, they have an incredibly popular comic as their source material; there is no reason why a story set in a zombie apocalypse that has good effects should make me so angry. But these writers have figured out a way.  I’m going to try to make this somewhat organized, to keep my thoughts in order. Maybe I’ll learn something from all this, What Not To Do In a Zombie Story. In no particular order, here are some of the things that I think make the show so much worse than it should be.

The Zombies: The zombies look awesome. Unfortunately, over this season the zombies seem to be less important, an occasional threat. It’s like they’ve drained the show of any real fear of zombies, since the characters in the show don’t seem to be afraid of them anymore, at least since they got to the farm. Andrea gets accused of shirking important duties like laundry because she wants to watch for zombies, which gets dismissed with a sniff as “sunning herself”. Only when the characters venture out do they have to deal with the threat, and it’s so infrequent that it seems like the writers have a timetable in their head – “Been two episodes since a good zombie fight. Send the characters out for no compelling reason.” Instead, the show centers around the domestic issues with the group, which somehow just aren’t as compelling as “Hey, everyone, we could be overrun at any time by walking corpses. Let’s put up a wall or something.” The fact that everyone is sprawled out on the farm, not worried about anything, letting their kid run around unsupervised, helps dispel any notion that the zombies are truly a threat. Christ, anyone with a screwdriver is capable of finishing off a couple. Except Dale. Hahahahahaha, Dale.

Dale: Anyone who’s read my reviews know that I hated Dale. He was talked up to be the “conscience” of the group, but his actions never really lived up to that billing. He was manipulative. He lied to further his own beliefs about what was the Right Thing To Do, like pretending that the RV was broken down to ensure that the group kept fruitlessly searching for what turned out to be a dead girl or taking away the group’s guns and planning on hiding them so he could get his way. Instead of just talking people into doing the right thing, he had to misdirect and lie. Andrea wanted to kill herself, but when Dale forced her to essentially kill him to do it, she backed down, not wanting to be responsible for the guy’s death. When he got his chance to convince others about what was Right with the kid from the rival gang, he couldn’t, because he had no arguments. Saying something is Wrong doesn’t cut it, nor does invoking Civilization when none exists anymore. He was nosy, ferreting out information and then turning around and dispensing it as he willed, despite being asked not to. He was written as an awful human being that we are still somehow supposed to be attached to and consider a Good Guy. Based on what? What did Dale ever do that was an asset to the group. He never even put the Psychic Powers he obviously has, based on his ability to deduce that Shane killed Otis on the basis of absolutely zero evidence whatsoever, to any use at all.

Carl: The poor kid. He adds nothing to any scene. He’s a MacGuffin to bring the family to the farm. The writers clearly have no idea what to do with him, except make him as annoying as humanly possible. The best episodes with Carl in them were when he was in a coma. The kid is uniformly awful. He does have a magic hat, as Mirwyn posted in a comment to the DaleFace episode, one that brings him ridiculous luck because otherwise his dumb-shit antics would have gotten him killed. Further evidence that it is magical: like any magic item, it resizes itself to fit its wearer. Or Carl has had some kind of weird head growth thing happen to him.

Lori: Holy fuck, where do I start? She’s a shitty mother, based on the fact that she takes no responsibility for her only child’s whereabouts in the middle of a fucking zombie apocalypse, whether they are on an isolated farm or a road filled with abandoned cars and zombies. She is an insult to anyone with any kind of feminist inclination whatsoever by indicating that all the ladyfolk should be doing is laundry, cooking, and lying on their backs for the menfolk. She’s a plotter and instigator, the kind of person to convince someone to stay with the group in order to ensure her and her unborn child’s continued safety, and then whisper to her husband that the person she convinced to remain is trying to take over Rick’s place in protecting her, and that Rick needs to deal with him. She is, without question, the worst human being in the world. I am sure I don’t need to tell you that, if you’ve watched any of the show. Seeing her face makes both me and Baby Jesus cry.

Rick: Rick was an awesome character, driven by one thing: finding his wife and son. We felt his pain as he struggled through a zombie-ravaged town, meeting other survivors with their own heart-wrenching tales. We rooted for him as he tried to escape Atlanta, felt glad when he met other survivors, and thought that maybe he and the blonde girl Andrea would make a decent couple as he struggled with the idea of finding his wife but finding comfort in the arms of another. But then we find that the blonde’s group includes his wife, and that’s when Rick begins to unravel. He is crowned Leader for some reason, even though he is clearly ill-fitted for the role. He worries too much, struggles to make decisions, and insists on doing everything himself – and then when he can’t carry through with what he thinks is best, he changes his mind. A friend of mine had a discussion with me and my wife, and he argued that Rick is a good leader because he insists on doing everything himself. In this way, he proves that he isn’t an aloof armchair general, making decisions that puts others in harm’s way. While I understand what he means, I feel like the leader of a group can’t leave the group every time something needs to be done, because then you have a group with no leader while he’s gone, and one without a leader if something should happen to him. Also, insisting on doing everything yourself sends a clear message: I can’t trust any of you to accomplish what I want done. That doesn’t help a group. It creates a group that wonders why their “leader” isn’t just off on his own. It creates a group that will decide to follow someone else. Except on The Walking Dead. Rick has been reduced to a hen-pecked, haunted-eyed Hamlet, unable to make decisions and unable to back up the few decisions he does make. He looks ready to snap, brittle, and is still supposed to be the “hero”. I don’t get what the writers want us to think about him.

T-Dog: I’ll use him as the poster boy for the underutilized characters on the show. Why is he here? They give him nothing to do but lurk in background shots. They’ve made no effort to make him interesting or compelling. Again: then why is he on the show? Same with some of the people who suddenly appear and disappear from the farm. For one episode there’s a 17-year-old guy, then he’s never seen again. Why have these people if you have no use for them? Pare them down and work with those you’ve got, then. I don’t get it.

I imagine I could keep going forever with this, but the problems above are the main problems I have with the show. Maybe, someday, someone will sit down and figure out what to do with this. Like I said in my last review, the show seems to be going the Heroes route: a strong start, then the realization that they had no fucking idea what to do after it became a hit. Heroes struggled with what it wanted to be and petered out into a nothing show until it slunk away, leaving us to wonder just why we liked it in the first place.The Walking Deadis shaping up to be the next hit series that does it, because the show just seems completely directionless. What is trying to say to us, show us, tell us? I don’t think they know what they want to say, either. They gone away from the source material but retain some of its trappings, for no particular reason I can fathom. It’s become a zombie version of the comic series, wearing its form but lurching around aimlessly, grabbing onto whatever storyline or bit that looks interesting, sucking the life out of it, and moving on to the next thing. Maybe that’s their intention. Maybe it’s an avant-garde expression, a TV show about zombies acting like a zombie itself.

Yeah. Somehow I don’t think so. Maybe it’s a hit, being run by suits, and now just sucks ass.

About Alan Edwards


Posted on March 20, 2012, in Rantin' and Bitchin' and tagged , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink. 61 Comments.

  1. If they’re going for an avant-garde mojo, then they need better music and choreography to match it. We could handle less plot if the show ran more like an awesome music video. Hell, hand it over to that douche Jared Leto for some aural ambiance and let Darryl and Andrea rock out the zombie carnage while Lori and Carl die. Hell, throw in Milla Jovovich and the fight scenes would really amp up.

    I could watch that for a few eps. But yeah, all your points are spot-on man. No arguments from me. Except now I want to go watch me some Resident Evil.

    Conversely, now you could grace us with a post on movies/shows that have done zombies well. 😉

    • Milla Jojovich would make it all worthwhile. I’d watch every epsiode and defend every indefensible thing they decided to do with all the power and fury at my disposal. Now I need to watch Resident Evil again too.

      You know, that’s probably a good idea, a post about the zombie things that did it right. That’s a kick-ass idea. Probably not as fun to write as a pissy little rant, but I think it would be a good idea.

  2. By far and away the absolute worst thing about this awful series is the writing. I am always put off by anything in which people act like idiots just so they can get into “situations”, and that’s all this crap is. Oh, I guess there’s also the wonderfully deep and mesmerising exploration of the complex emotional states of ordinary people thrown into an extraordinary situation. No, actually, it’s just a string of ridiculous actions in order that bad shit can happen.

    I caught it by accident today for ten seconds, and guess what, there’s a zombie stuck in the mud, the kid is pointing a gun at it from about fifteen feet away, the kid edges closer “for some reason”, the zombie struggles to get free but cimply can’t, the kid edges even closer “for some reason”, the kid edges so close that the zombie knocks the gun out of the kids hand and grabs the kid’s leg. Oh no, the kid’s been grabbed by the ankle and has lost his gun and there’s no one around “for some reason” and how many more times will people get themselves into life threatening situations when all they had to do was just walk away, or shoot, or not f***ing wander off miles from everyone else for no good reason whatsoever and then not f***ing do things that even the most moronic person in the history of this earth would do.

    Some people can suspend their disbelief to infinite levels, it seems. Personally, I spent most of season one shouting, “Noone would ever f***ing do that, ever!” or “Why don’t they just f***ing stay there / slowly walk away / not go in there when there’s no reason / get enough food from the supermarket for more than just a light lunch / stop wandering off alone for miles / do one solitary thing that is based on reason or logic or common sense” and season 2 added a boredom factor I wouldn’t have believed was possible.

    If TWD is supposed to be about escaping / avoiding zombies, and you can’t afford hordes of zombies for the weight of numbers danger, then give them something else like the ability to walk faster than a stoned sloth. If TWD is supposed to be about “relationships” then get actual actors in, and give them actual characters with motivations that run beyond, “We need you to get caught in the woods on your own so…er…you’re gonna argue with him about the beans being cold and then storm off…unarmed…into the woods…and no one is going to try and stop you because..er…they…er…they…er..okay ACTION!!”

    The Walking Dead is utterly and completely dreadful if you demand even the slightest semblance of reality in how people respond to situations and each other. I hate it with all my heart and soul. It ranks up there with Vanishing on 7th Street for absurd and completely unbelievable stupidity just to drive a series of happenings that together are supposed to make a “plot”.

    Whenever I hear people talking about TWD and how they like it, I have to leave the room as I know that the ensuing conversation will have me loathing and despising even very close friends for not being able to see this for what it so obviously is.

    Thank you for your time and have a lovely day.

    • I have a pretty healthy Suspension of Disbelief ability, but this show has just strained it beyond all hope. Especially over the second season. I now spend more time rolling my eyes at the bizarre things that they do, none of which really makes all that much sense or is even remotely plausible, in all the instances you illustrate. It definitely gives a feeling of “hey, nothing has happened in a while, we have 3 zombies in the budget, so let’s have somebody do something idiotic to get them alone with them.” I can deal with a lot of things – just please, make them plausible and I’ll go along with you. I’m still astounded that people enjoy the show, honestly. I don’t think I can do a third season. The addition of the obligatory Katana-Wielding Badass doesn’t fill me with any level of excitement whatsoever – just another eye-roll.

    • get out of my head!!! Every point you make is exactly why I hate this fucking show.

    • Amen! Couldn’t have put it better. Never got past the first season. Camping in open fields in canvas tents they all deserved to die. I didn’t like any of the characters. Basically a soap opera .Potential squandered, horrible writing, such a disappointment.

  3. Walking Dead is setting out to destroy the concept of zombies, you know, they’re finishing what the Resident Evil movies started

  4. Did you seriously ask why T-Dog is in the show? Because he’s black! That’s it! Not only are white people the protagonists of so many movies, shows and games they also make the best enemies.

    The reason why serial killers are all white is because they are the supreme race. Black people can’t feel that intense superiority that white people can. Serial killers are white and male, the best sex and race. That’s what leads them to kill.

    We are taught early on that skin color doesn’t matter but it clearly does or Rick would be black.

  5. JD, you’re an idiot. You sound like a racist moron. And for your information there have been black serial killers.

  6. Lets not forget the fact that Lori is a whore. I mean how long could Rick have possibly been in the hospital and not die of dehydration? She waited like what a whole week before screwing his best friend, which might I add was a better father, husband, and leader than Rick could ever hope to be. I may catch a lot of flack for this but I liked Shane. I didn’t always agree with his methods, but he had the right frame of mind when it came to survival and protecting the group. Now the only good character on the show is Daryl, and for some God awful reason now hes all aboout being Rick’s right hand man. Rick is a weak screw up who lucked into a leadership position. His own wife, though a slut, couldn’t even stand him.

    • I agree with everything you say here. I liked Shane a lot, and Rick is worse than he is in every way. I’m really disappointed by how Daryl has become Rick’s yes-man in Season 3 as well. Wasted opportunity. And yes, Lori is still the worst.

    • I disagree with that, I think it’s Ricks sorry dumbass for not forgiving his wife and just moving on and get over it, it’s a f***ing zombie Apocalypse for crying out Loud, and she could die at anytime(Which she did), yes Loire is a bitch in SO MANY WAYS, but I think Rick was throwing a high school tantrum over the fact that Shan Slept with Lori, big Freaking woop, it’s not like he abandoned Rick in the hospital for the soul Purpose of getting Lori, no he tried to help Rick but it was a no win, I can’t Speak for Shan after Rick came back, but the last time I checked I thought they where adults not high schoolers and could resolve their differences like adults and not like Whiny teenage vampires.

  7. I’m curious on your thoughts after seeing season 3. It seems like a lot of the stuff you hated is gone and problems you had previously are now at least better. (in my opinion).

    • I only made it through 3 episodes of Season 3. The scene where the Guardsmen – who (in our reality anyway) are combat veterans with multiple tours and have managed to survive through all of this up until now – are caught completely flatfooted because some guy waves a baseball cap at them, to the point where none of them even have a weapon ready in what could potentially be a hostile situation, and are cut down without ever firing a shot. That broke me, combined with the Michionne Glares At Everything episodes.

      • I did 6yrs in the Marines with 2 tours to iraq under my belt, I totally agree with you about the guardsman, in the marines I heard a quote from a general “be polite, be professional, have a plan to kill everyone you meet”. I see it that we are not nitpicking, we just want some realism, look at how well Blackhawk down did as a movie, I’m a combat vet and I can still watch it and not feel like I’m watching GI Joe or one of the 80’s underarm gun blazing hit every guy and never reload movies. really when I watch the walking dead it feels like I’m watching the last two seasons of LOST and the cast of TWD just are a sad Pathetic group of British LOST Wannabes.
        all I’m asking for is for the writers, the actors, the directors and Robert Kerman(especially Robert Kerman) to wake up and see that they are Alienating their true fans and just appeasing the zombie bandwagon folks.

        • I think realism – at least enough to make actions or events seem plausible – really would have made a huge difference in my enjoyment of the show overall. I’m just glad I’m not the only one (most of my friends view my opinion on TWD as little short of blasphemy).

  8. This show has so far disappointed me, the bad gun handling AKA Rick and his python revolver waving it around and flagging everyone wile he gives pointless speeches, the way it jumps back and forth from the prison to Woodbury, the way it makes you care very little about the caricatures if not at any. I was hopping for more out of this series, less TV drama, bad acting, whining and more story, more plot… I don’t know it just feels like TV is just throwing something at the wall and seeing what sticks with a genre that I’m a very big fan of, I love zombie movies… Good ones like Remero’s night of the living dead, dawn of the dead, and Robert Kerman does a outrages job on his Comic book but this falls so shot it tripped at the starting line, being a real zombie fan I can say this with out being labeled as a hater because I really wanted to care about this show and I gave it a chance and showed my support with my money, but so far it just does a bang up job of making me hate it even more.

  9. You have fair points. I personally enjoy the show because — why not? I’m already emotionally invested in the characters, and I have faith in season 4.
    I want the group to stop hiding. They are paralyzed with fear and brew in their misery until someone randomly places him or herself in unnecessary and reckless danger that the group must approach. Rick is unstable throughout most of the third season — same with the crew in general. They are on the edge of their sanity. How can the group be capable of defending itself, not only from a zombie apocalypse, but a town led by a belligerent psychopath, if they can’t even find stability among themselves? I say the writers need more of nature vs. man. I’m assuming most don’t watch the show to merely see how characters mingle with one another; an entire world has gone to shit!
    Another fair point you had — the zombies have become less menacing. They are more of a distraction and just linger around waiting to be finished or to prey on characters in the most inconvenient and random time. In fact, the zombie threat is so mitigated, that they are now being “weaponized” in a war of humans vs. humans.

    Actually, I still love the show. As you said, a lot of potential exists, and I wouldn’t say the show is bad. The show is exciting for me, but I thank you for this blog. I do see much needed improvements to the show now.

    • (Mis-posted, see comment below for full post)

      • Okay, I specifically looked up criticism of the show to find a medium between fans and negative critics.l I even pointed out many aspects of the show that I agree with Allan, need improvement, and you say I’m just one of the bandwagon folks that will hug anything with zombie stamped on it? You’ve got to be kidding me, dude. I don’t care about your opinion; I love the show for what it is — so what?

        Have a good day, dick.

        • Sorry that happened. I appreciate and encourage people to have different opinions without getting into personal attacks, so I’m sorry that you got hit by a random comment drive-by on my blog. That’s not what it’s here for. Again, I apologize.

      • I appreciate your viewpoint, and generally agree with you, but can I ask that the personal attack-type stuff get left out? Everyone’s got an opinion, and I’d rather have people be able to express them without getting attacked for them. I pondered over whether I should remove the comment entirely or what, but I’ll leave it here for now in the hopes that we can resolve this all civilized-like instead.

        • If my response was taken as a personal insult or attack I am sorry to Austen, the bandwagon statment was out of line and I am sorry, I still have my opinion on the show as a representation of my walking dead crushed dreams but if you like the show you are Entitled to like away, so have a good day. and thanks Alan.

          • I apologize as well. Alan, please delete my previous comment — I don’t want to pollute your blog with profanity.

    • sounds like your just one of the bandwagon folks that will hug anything with zombie stamped on it, do you even care about good acting, good showmanship or half descent wrighting for that mater?! really I’v been a zombie fan since I seen Remaro’s first night of the living dead back when I was 10, and after that I cared about zombies, I F-ing hate those worthless peace of shit and money B or C rated movies you might find on Netflix that have one star or a half, and TWD belongs it that group, all AMC did is pay off Robert Kerman and stamp his name and his comics name on it and package it to all the bandwagon retards that will throw money at anything that Hollywood force feeds their sorry asses, I’m sorry but The Walking Dead is a Walking peace of SHIT designated for the bargain basket in Walmart with all the other shitty shows that TV just keeps pumping out, the only thing diftrent is TV has never done Zombies be for so leave it to all the mindless bandwagon zombies to lay down on their faces and worship it like it a freaken Demi god. TWD is the only game in town and they have no real competition besides zombie movies, so they find that they have no need to try at all, how is season 4 going to be any better when they think that they are the best thing since Game of Throns when in reality they are just the same old thing just LOST repackaged and sold with zombies and bad acting, it’s like that old story ahout the Kings New Suit, where the king gets coned by some conmen to paying for a robe of nothing and walks down the street naked and every one just keeps claping… well this is TWD but can’t hear the kid saying “wait this is a peace of B rated bullshit”. I’v said in my last comments that I really do want to care, I am a true blue zombie fan all the way and want to care about TWD and love the show… but I know good and bad Writing, acting and showmanship, and I can’t ignore that TWD is all of that raped up in grate makeup art and zombie acting. TWD has… had so much potential but it’s head jammed so far up its own ass it can’t hear the sound of Criticism, on the account of being high on the smell of its own shit.

    • Thanks for coming here and sharing your opinion. I like being able to talk to people about the show, especially since most of them feel differently about the show than I do. I’m glad you still like the show – most of my friends do too, and I honestly wish I still did. Thanks for not trashing me because we have a difference of opinion, heh. I hope Season 4 is excellent and you keep on loving it. Even if I don’t care for the show anymore, I still have to root for zombie entertainment in general.

      • I apologize if my comment was taken as a personal attack, and the bandwagon remark was out of like, I understand that everyone is in titled to his or hers opinion on what they like or hate my remark was not intended to be focused on showing hate for someone so I am sorry that it was taken like that, so sorry Austen for attacking you and sorry Alan for abusing you blog and thank you.
        ps you can delete the first comment it was a miss post.

        • It’s cool, man, thanks for coming back and apologizing and all that stuff. It actually warms my cold shriveled heart to see people acting civilized on the internet, heh.

  10. I don’t know how to spell very well, so my “attacks” come across as even sadder than they might otherwise be!

  11. I have incredibly low self-esteem, and come onto websites to make myself feel better by acting like I don’t care, when in reality I’m sobbing and cutting myself.

    • What’s your problem dude? I personally came hear to find ppl that have a love of zombie entertainment and have a problem with bad zombie entertainment, I have no idea of Where your going or coming from with your points of view, so you don’t like TWD… Why? Elaborate on the reasons, why you just down right hate the the show, are you a fan of zombies or just hate everything zombie.
      And it’s sad your just attacking someone outright, my prevues comment was never intended to be a personal insult to someone. Don’t be i in mature dude.

      • I think it’s impossible for whoever this is to figure out maturity. Maybe someday. In the meantime, I’ll be creatively editing all of the posts.

        • I wish the same would be said for the bad writing of Robert Kerman and the writers of TWD, I just wish that some network would throw up a zombie TV show, so TWD would have to Compete with someone and have to give their viewers a better product

  12. This is really interesting, You’re an excessively skilled blogger. I’ve
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    • It’s just quite sad that Alan and the rest of us can’t and might never get that much attention so that the Series might get better, that’s the grate thing about TV shows unlike movies they can take feedback and implement it in the new season, wile with movies it’s already blown its load and can’t go back, but sad to say TWD can’t and will not Listen to Criticism over the sound of the fans that think its good as is, but what they don’t realize it we have the power together to request a really good zombie TV series that pleases both true blue old school Remero zombie fans and the ones that just find it a cool fad, I just hope TWD will stop with the drama and stop firing their Writers and let them make a better show the season 2 and 3 and maybe just maybe season four will be something special… Maybe

  13. i can not stand the walking dead !! it was a lame excuse to make a hit show on TV , and your right they just ended up down playing on the zombies to me its like a soap Oprah that i really could care less about , but for some reason people worship this show more then our God!

    • I agree, it’s like ppls standards are thrown right out the window with the appearance of one good zombie actor and the badass makeup artiest that helped, I’m mean come on this is not even good drama, I really really wanted this to be good but I can’t ignore just how unprofessional this show is, and the (not to be insulting) bandwagon zombie fans that are just hear because zombie is the new vampire keeping this thing going. Really I just with like with law/police, MD and reality TV show I just with The Walking Dead was not the only game in town, at lest one other zombie TV show by HBO or Show time try cashing in and make something better that we can compare this pile of shit to.

  14. lol ya .. trust me i know how you feel on all of that , i mean im so into vampires and i guess some zombie stuff, but it seems like tv kind of ruins all of it . and the only good places to get good zombie and vampire action are IN the movies ! witch i love some good old vampire movies like interview with a vampire and blade , like even the lost boys was so cool .

    • I’v found any time you differ from the source material like smart zombies or sparkling vampires you get a back lash from the true fans that don’t like the ingredients of what they know and love being messed with, I know I don’t.
      With the walking dead, they didnt fall to far from the tree besides the zombies that know how to open doors and use rocks to smash windows, but a good zombie story is never about the zombies, it’s about the ppl and when this ppl are unrepeatable and stupid, then the zombies are all you got… And that’s sad.

      • what is a good zombie movie? i never really watched to many in the first place , i guess resident evil and stuff like that.. their was that new one called warm bodies and in my opinion i think there just making fun of how dumb some guys and girls can be lol , like secretly i mean who would waste 10 bucks to see that crap .. i could just go to a bar at 2 in the morning and most people their are zombies .

        • Well to start with watch George A. Remero’s Night of the Living Dead the remake is better in my opinion, then move on to the Dawn/Day of the dead and the Dawn of the Dead remake for starters and the only good resident evil was the first one after that it was more of a just making its self a joke, now its more like the fast and furious movies.
          Some may say 28 days later is a good zombie movie but I really don’t count that as zombies and more as a virus/infection movie like the REC. movies but they still are very good.
          As for warm body’s, it was more like Shawn of the Dead as like a parody of the genre, but Shawn of the Dead was by far way better, even to go as far to say it is up their with Remero’s dead movies.
          I was never one to want to sympathize for the dead, especially when they want to eat you.

  15. This is an old article but all I have to say is everyone has different preferences when it comes to a drama series. The Walking dead does a great job of capturing these characters and thats what’s so great about it for me. Some characters I hate, some characters I love, and some characters I hate and love.
    I see you’re not comfortable liking a show where you hate a character, it ruins your experience. As far as the zombies not being a central theme in the third season, I think that’s very much needed ib a series such as this. I personally find it just as entertaining watching these characters encounter the threat of fellow humans just as much as the threat of zombies. But as long as you know that the threat of flesh eaters are still present, you know that attacks can happen at any time.
    They’re portraying something that is ultimately more realistic than any other zombie film or show I’ve seen. I’ve fell in love with all these characters, and the morality each character holds on to is unique. This gives me something to discuss with fellow walking dead lovers, something a show has never done before for me.

    • The walking dead dose a shitty job of portraying these characters.
      i’v been a die hard zombie fan since the 90’s when I watched my first Romero film, since the i’v been rooting for the shambling dead, but this show has made me hate a man i’v came to love when I picked up his first book back in 2004 and since then the comic and the shitty portrayal of his vision are night and day, I have no problem hating a character in any show, but when every character in the show is the one you hate and you find your self rooting for the zombies because there the only ones with the real acting talent, you realize they’ve turned your own genre agents you, it’s as if they’ve high jacked it and now you must watch as other with no real understanding of it, mutitate it and have to sit by as everyone declares it the best show on TV.
      at least the vampire crowd only had to suffer threw 4 shitty movies but us zombie fans will have endure how ever many episodes they can shell out.
      As for you and your opinion, you have a right to it, but all I ask of you is to look at this from the point of view as someone such as my self, I have every volume of the walking dead from 1-18 and still love ever book, I about shat my self in excitement when I herd their was going to be a tv show, and I have dumped my hard earned money in to every episode thus far in hopes of it getting better, but alas with no a vale. I want it to be good but this show its all pointless drama filled with ppl you wouldn’t want to be stuck on a bus with in the best of situations for 5 minutes.

      Ps ill never forgive Rick for telling the new cop in the very first episode to “take the safty off” his Glock…. Really?! Who do you think would be watch a show about zombies and ppl blowing their heads off?! Hippies?! Ant-gunners?! Or ppl that love guns and love to shoot? At least know your props and how to use them.
      It’s the least you can do.

  16. I disagree with you on Dale, he was really the only one keeping the group from turning into grade A douchebags. After he died, they went all the worse.
    I get how the writers are trying to make it morally grey, but they do so miserably. Rick locks a guy in a room with a bunch of zombies because his friend tried to kill him. He and the black girl leave a begging hiker in the middle of the road, before finding his guts on the road with the backpack. They stop to take the backpack. That isn’t morally grey: that’s just evil. While I’m not for black/white stories, I prefer protagonist who can at least partially be sympathized with.
    The blonde chick, next to Rick and the Asian, are the worst.

  17. i loved dale that is the point civilization is gone but we have to press forward taking in what we learn and advancing ourselves.


    • I have several reasons.

      ^ on top of all that I think anyone who watched S4E12 could counter your statement just by bring this episode up.
      It’s like the writers are laughing at you, they could write any amount of bullcrap into the show just short of unicorns or a “cure”, this show doesn’t just have no depth it is just short of being racist and sexist, don’t think so?
      Women in this show serve one purpose, to make irrational dissections, cause problems or fight about things that make no sense, witch in real life women serve more of a purpose then just a plot point, they do things they are smart capable and can think for them selfs and make dissections with out a man… And good ones at that.
      Don’t think it’s racist?
      Watch S1-S3 and keep count of the black guy quota, every time a new black guy shows up the old one dies.
      I’m guessing the writers are a bunch of old whit guys that never really excepted the civil rights movement or women’s rights as things that happened.

  19. you’re full of it is all I have to say. Just about EVERYTHING you said on here is worthless and has no point. I wouldn’t buy a single book from you 🙂

  20. I agree a100% I have tried to watch and enjoy this show, but it is horrible! The pacing is terrible an hour show feels like 5 hours. I root for the zombies,! i am stunned at the viewership. I just hate it!

  21. this is stupid your reasons don’t even make any sense this show has come a really long way from 2003 to 2015 and you know how old i am … i’m 11 and i have seen shit like this and haters hating for good reasons but not this bullshit.

  22. I’ve actually found people who agree with me. Feels pretty good. I actually made it to season 5, and I really wonder how I did that. I completely agree with you about Heroes. I think I’m going to coin this Heroes Syndrome. Shows that start out amazing, but fail miserably. The first season was pretty good, I thought. However, they keep doing the same thing over and over again.

    I know that shows have formulas that they follow, but this is boring to me now. For the Walking Dead its: be on the run for a while, find safe haven, safe haven is bad, kill people in safe haven, and then on the run. Most of the characters just aren’t that interesting to me, and the plot is pretty bad. You’re also right about the zombies. The zombies are barely in there, and when they are, they’re not much of a threat. And of course you get the fans who get mad when we complain about no zombies. They’re like, “Well, this is show isn’t really about zombies.” Why is it called the Walking Dead if there are barely any zombies in it? Sure, there a few good moments ever now and then, but it doesn’t make up for 90 percent of the show being boring.

    I personally thought Lost was a great show, even though it did have some direction issues. At least the plot, and characters were interesting enough for me to stay tuned.

    Spoilers below:

    I thought Terminus would be interesting, but they got rid of that one after four episodes. And Terminus actually had potential. I just hate shows that have no direction in them, and the Walking Dead. Once Eugene said that he had a cure. I thought that this show would pick up again. It would actually have some direction to it, and pick up. Of course this was too much to ask for. Eugene was outed as a fraud, and no more direction. I stayed a while, but have now given up.

  23. all those extras are just people they can kill off when the seasonal horde comes. I feel you put too much of your own views on life and whats right and wrong into your dislike of dale, by the way everbody manipulates just to differnet degrees. AS for the tv show over all i hate it because there are so many things in the comic that they dont have that are important events for example the gated community which is where the twin boys not girls loose there mom and starts the one down his sick path to killing his brother. Now the show just had 2 twin girls come along and for no reason the one is obbssed with death they lack the story driven events that ,make the comic so amazing. I know they didnt want to do the comic in a tv show but your already doing the comic changeing this romoving this but keeping %85 of the comic for the show is following the comic just half assed. I guess what i am saying is i wouldnt hate it if it was compleatly differnt in everyway but zombies from the comic and you maybe ran into people from the comic here and there but they never stick around oh and then there is shane in the comic carl shoot shane and that is so important for carls development into a bad ass himself whos not afraid to take a life but no they had him kill a zombie shane not a liveing breathing talking human.

  24. Okay…

  25. Good, I can post a comment without having do jump through hoops with email and all kinds of other BS.
    I hate The Walking Dead for all the 5 reasons this topic is about and so much more. I’ll try not to rehash the original gripes and others that have been pointed out since, but… well:

    Bad acting. Really bad acting, all of it. Aside from Carol and Daryl every single actor in this show did an incredibly bad job of acting and that blows my mind considering that a handful of the actors who have appeared in the show are actually good actors (I base this opinion on their performance in other things they have been in). Still, Melissa McBride (Carol) and Norman Reedus (Daryl) actually do an ever so barely adequate job of playing their roles It’s a real let down to me to see such talented actors perform like half asleep stoned high-school drama students.

    Bad writing. I am assuming there was actually a script but it would not at all surprise me if it came out that there never really was one. I have watched every episode to date and honestly the whole time, every time, I was thinking in my head that “this has all gotta be improv”. There is no continuity whatsoever throughout the entire series so far and the formulaic plot devices that are so successful in these types of repetitively mass produced churned out garbage TV shows don’t even work with this one – and that’s actually impossible, but there it is. 1) No continuity – The characters don’t have their own personalities, in the sense that they don’t have the same personality from one episode to the next. Hell they don’t even have their same back-stories – it contradicts itself. They don’t even have their same memories. Example: The hospital Rick woke up in has been in 4 different states, 3 in the reruns, and still 2 on the DVDs (how did the producers miss that considering they were already aware of the discrepancies)? 2) Plot devices – “Big Bad” is always anticlimactic weather defeated or not, breaking the formula the device itself is trying to employ. “Someone goes missing” every time is meaningless because the show shows the viewer where they are the whole time. “The lovers quarrel” doesn’t count because those two aren’t never were actually lovers (except for Glen and Maggie, who never did quarrel).

    Lack of production value. Perhaps I shouldn’t mention this as it goes without saying. I’m sure everyone has noticed that in almost any given horde of zombies some of the zombies are doing things like drinking bottled water, smoking cigarettes, talking on their cell phones, showing each other things on each others cell phone screens, picking things up off the ground, looking behind themselves, pointing at things, putting their hands in their pockets, adjusting their hair, adjusting their clothing, using zippers, buttoning their shirts, unbuttoning their shirts, reading papers, scratching themselves, licking their lips, putting their hand over their mouth to cough, cleaning their glasses, sneezing, checking their watch, picking their nose, and even passing items to each other. Also in the time of the show in the course of a 50 second of conversation (and this is just one example of this sort of nonsense) the camera goes between 3 characters and Hirshil changed his shirt once, Glen got a haircut, and Maggie managed to have 3 different colors of nail polish without anyone even getting out of their seat in Hirshil’s living room at the farm.

    The lack of the word “zombie”. Yes. There, I said it and I mean it. Sure the zealot who made that decision did so intentionally and somehow we’re supposed to go along with it and consider that move, which alone obviously qualifies him as an idiot, is somehow artistic or at least noteworthy. No! It’s not. It’s stupid. Are we really supposed to believe that in the universe of The Walking Dead that the word zombie does not exist. Are we really supposed to believe in that universe where cars, magazines, Nickelodeon, that poster of Sunset Boulevard, an Atari 2600 joystick, a pair of Buster Brown velcro sneakers, and MTV all actually exist, that the moment Carl realized what was really going on he wouldn’t have said “hey Mom, I think zombies are real” ?
    No? That’s probably a hate crime. -Not very politically correct. We have to call them “Walkers”

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