Season 1: Hospitals, Zombie Guts, and Disease Control

[ghoulina]

I might feel that way if I hadn't been thrown out of a number of episodes with the split format. I think it was especially damaging to "Killer Within," but also weighed down a few episodes late last season...

 

Oh, see I disagree. I liked the way Killer Within was done. It was such a tense episode, I feel like I would have had a nervous breakdown if they had done all the prison crap at once. 

 

He just sort of lost me as time passed in that season. I actually groaned out loud during "Vatos," not only from the CBS crimetime drama circa 1987 plotline of our friendly heroes coming to peace with a gang who turned out to be nice guys underneath, but because of poor Jim getting those awful, "IT WAS IN MY DREAM!!" lines to close out the episode.

 

Again, disagree. I actually loved Jim's bit about the dream, I found it to be really creepy. It made me want more of Jim....but alas we lost him. 

 

Funny how different people's perspectives can be. 

[JBody]

It is true. I like the Vatos story. I didn't watch much teevee in the '80s though so it didn't seem derivative to me. I am more than willing to see where Gimple et al take us but I do maintain AMC screwed up with Darabont. I followed the situation fairly closely and couldn't find anything other than money and possible tensions with Kirkman so if kikismom has more intel on that do share, please! I have no vested interest in it beyond curiousity, however.

[ghoulina]

The Vatos storyline was great. It really cracked me up. Bless that little abuelita. I also found it very plausible. It's great that those guys wanted to hang on and take care of the old people, but you can't protect what you've got by being nice guys. Hence the gangsta front. Which, maybe, wasn't totally a front. They weren't innocent angels, but they weren't what they were purporting to be either. There would be a lot of grey area in the ZA, and in retrospect, I find it refreshing that they ran across another group who WASN'T evil. I'd like some more of that, please.

[JBody]

Re. racism in S1 and scumbag Merle (and Merle Jr., a.k.a. Daryl), that was simply who he was, as written, and he continued to be a racist douchecanoe until his demise.  With T-Dawg, it's hard to tell... I suppose it can be seen as pandering, but the fact is he didn't get much development over S2 or S3 so we'll never know.  I don't consider S2 to be Darabont's season really, as he was shitcanned too early to receive credit for it.  AMC wheeled him out to promote the show at ComicCon 2011 and had him packing days later.  I remember on TWOP getting into a debate with someone on how Darabont was sexist as well because all the women cooked and ironed trousers and only the menfolk went on dangerous missions.  I reminded them that Jacqui and Andrea were on one of those "dangerous" Atlanta missions.

 

Ha, I just read what Kurt Sutter wrote back in 2011.  He blames Mad Men.  Dude has quite a way with words.

 

"darabont reacted strongly to slashed budgets. he made mistakes, he was fired," the outspoken Sutter wrote on Twitter Thursday. "no creative in town will trust AMC to back up their artists," Sutter wrote on Twitter."i don't know MW, got no beef with him. just hate that darabont is being demonized. no one has the balls to tell the truth. MM gutted AMC," he then added.
…
Sutter says: "why darabont got fired - weiner. he held AMC hostage, broke their bank, budgets were slashed, shit rolled down hill onto gilligan and frank…
"no one else wants to f--king say it, but the greed of mad men is killing the other two best shows on tv -- breaking bad and walking dead," added Sutter, referring to AMC's  long negotiations Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner and Breaking Bad showrunner Vince Gilligan.

Sutter later defended his comments on Twitter.
"i have trouble determining the line between honesty and brutal frankness. i usually get pushed past it by bullshit and injustice," he said. "apparently speaking one's mind is outrageous, troublesome and self-indulgent. man, this is a town full of silent, terrified dicksuckers."

 

 

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/walking-dead-frank-darabont-kurt-sutter-222649

[mandolin]

I did love that little grandma too. "Glenn? You mean the Asian boy? Come...come..."

[ghoulina]

LOL! And all the Vatos have these "oh shit" embarrassed looks on their faces. I just got my 60-year-old mother into this show over Halloween weekend, and she laughed so hard during that entire reveal. 

[Pete Martell]

Oh, see I disagree. I liked the way Killer Within was done. It was such a tense episode, I feel like I would have had a nervous breakdown if they had done all the prison crap at once. 

 

Again, disagree. I actually loved Jim's bit about the dream, I found it to be really creepy. It made me want more of Jim....but alas we lost him. 

 

It's not that I minded a break from the prison scenes, it's the decision to have Andrea and The Governor sharing drinks in the downtime. I think having them hook up was such a detrimental decision for Andrea's character, and that was mostly where it started.

 

I loved Jim and I thought Darabant did a good job with the character. I just thought the episode had already done a decent job establishing his dreams without him literally shouting it out for viewers. Right around the time Shane was dying, they had him having weird hallucinations about walkers - to me that was an effective use of horror or precognitive horror or whatever the term may be.

 

It was just the whole theme-without-buildup that tended to stick in my craw. For instance, I really liked Jacqui too, but it rankled me that we didn't even hear her speak in her last episode until right before she killed herself. It felt like she was just there to die. 

The Vatos storyline was great. It really cracked me up. Bless that little abuelita. I also found it very plausible. It's great that those guys wanted to hang on and take care of the old people, but you can't protect what you've got by being nice guys. Hence the gangsta front. Which, maybe, wasn't totally a front. They weren't innocent angels, but they weren't what they were purporting to be either. There would be a lot of grey area in the ZA, and in retrospect, I find it refreshing that they ran across another group who WASN'T evil. I'd like some more of that, please.

 

I like the idea of a few decent groups out there. It's why I decided to ignore the deleted scenes that had the group slaughtered. It was the execution which mostly got in the way for me. Tense standoff with guns, check. Melodramatic hostage crisis, check. Kindly but tough grandmother who solves everything and we learn that these men are actually decent at heart (saints, really), check. The way it was handled made me keep an eye out for The Equalizer or Vinnie Terranova to pop in for a chat. It really felt like something from a completely different show.

[Pete Martell]

Re. racism in S1 and scumbag Merle (and Merle Jr., a.k.a. Daryl), that was simply who he was, as written, and he continued to be a racist douchecanoe until his demise.  With T-Dawg, it's hard to tell... I suppose it can be seen as pandering, but the fact is he didn't get much development over S2 or S3 so we'll never know.  I don't consider S2 to be Darabont's season really, as he was shitcanned too early to receive credit for it.  AMC wheeled him out to promote the show at ComicCon 2011 and had him packing days later.  I remember on TWOP getting into a debate with someone on how Darabont was sexist as well because all the women cooked and ironed trousers and only the menfolk went on dangerous missions.  I reminded them that Jacqui and Andrea were on one of those "dangerous" Atlanta missions.

 

I tend to credit him with most of the first episode or two, as he was still around then, IIRC.

 

I think even they were aware of some sexism, as I think that's one of the reasons they took out the scenes set at the Vatos ruins, where literally every man talked about important business, while the women were all with the kids/asleep. 

 

I don't think Darabont's period on the show was as sexist as much of season 2 (which wasn't his doing, presumably), which had the terrible "Andrea wants to be tough but lol she shot Daryl and she thinks being tough means getting some!" and "Lori enforcer of laundry duty" sequences, along with skirting the edge of painting Carol as some type of unstable group burden. I think there were some problems in season 1 with the portrayal of women, but not a ton. It just feels more problematic now, to me anyway, because we've had more variety since that time. 

 

I don't think the T-Dog scene was an attempt at pandering as much as it was a mostly white production team needing to use a black character to teach us about racism, and it just soured me, somewhat, because they really didn't use him for anything else. To be fair, Darabont did use T-Dog more than anyone did afterward - some bits on the roof, with Jacqui, with Daryl, etc. - but I just thought it was questionable that this was one of the only times they had the character given major lines. 

Edited November 15, 2014 by Pete Martell

[Constantinople]

I'm still greatly amused that one of the first things Glenn ever said or did was to call Rick a dumbass.  I also loved it when Glenn floored it out of Atlanta on the highway.  I miss that Glenn.

 

And it does appear is if TPTB are pretending CDB never visited the CDC.

Edited November 15, 2014 by Constantinople

[Maverick]

And it does appear is if TPTB are pretending CDB never visited the CDC.

 

 Which makes it even odder to bring up Jim and leaving him by the side of the road now.  You know, since they left him by the side of the road on the way to the CDC an all.  

[Pete Martell]

I'm still greatly amused that one of the first things Glenn ever said or did was to call Rick a dumbass.  I also loved it when Glenn floored it out of Atlanta on the highway.  I miss that Glenn.

 

And it does appear is if TPTB are pretending CDB never visited the CDC.

 

As fun as those scenes were, there was also a whiff of patronizing writing in there (he's smart after all!) Maybe they intended to build on that and have him become more than the group's errand boy, and Daryl's popularity gave him the role Glenn might have had.

[CarpeDiem54]

But he's not that smart. After all, he drove all the way back to camp with the damned car alarm on. That's always bugged me.

[Pete Martell]

Product placement trumps walkers.

[Nashville]

But he's not that smart. After all, he drove all the way back to camp with the damned car alarm on. That's always bugged me.

 

Not me; after all, it's not like he could blast the radio any more.  Take what noise you can get.

[JBody]

I agree that Jacqui was a wasted character. If they needed to show someone opting out, and I imagine more than a few would, considering, I wish it had been Andrea, knowing now how they assassinated her character later on. I just recently saw the deleted scenes re the Vatos, and agree all the men in the stairwell planning was annoying.

[ChipBach]

Anyone watching the marathon?  I noticed on the episode/scene where Daryl first makes an appearance that there is this man in a blue shirt and white ball cap, maybe in his sixties or seventies, standing in the back listening to the Rick/Daryl exchange.  I reviewed the scene prior to and after that scene.  This dude never shows up again...  Mistake?  Continuity error?  I should get a life?  Anyone?

[Constantinople]

Anyone watching the marathon?  I noticed on the episode/scene where Daryl first makes an appearance that there is this man in a blue shirt and white ball cap, maybe in his sixties or seventies, standing in the back listening to the Rick/Daryl exchange.  I reviewed the scene prior to and after that scene.  This dude never shows up again...  Mistake?  Continuity error?  I should get a life?  Anyone?

 

A scientist observing how the lab rats react to the zombie experiment.

[kikismom]

This is the only older man I could find that wasn't Dale.

http://blogs.amctv.com/the-walking-dead/photo-galleries/the-walking-dead-season-1-episode-photos/#/11

 

(next to the older lady in the hat.)

Edited January 2, 2015 by kikismom

[walnutqueen]

Anyone watching the marathon?  I noticed on the episode/scene where Daryl first makes an appearance that there is this man in a blue shirt and white ball cap, maybe in his sixties or seventies, standing in the back listening to the Rick/Daryl exchange.  I reviewed the scene prior to and after that scene.  This dude never shows up again...  Mistake?  Continuity error?  I should get a life?  Anyone?

 

I haven't met a marathon I could resist, ChipBach.    Because of an untimely self injury (and a The Wired marathon), I still have 26 episodes to watch, which considerably lessens the pain of a broken foot.   If I could walk, I'd be walker bait!!!  :-)

[ChipBach]

This is the only older man I could find that wasn't Dale.

http://blogs.amctv.com/the-walking-dead/photo-galleries/the-walking-dead-season-1-episode-photos/#/11

 

(next to the older lady in the hat.)

That must be him.  About the right age and size.  I guess he and the hatted old lady were both killed in the Zombie over-run?

[kikismom]

That must be him.  About the right age and size.  I guess he and the hatted old lady were both killed in the Zombie over-run?

Old people are slow.

 

Except for this one:        http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/crime/man-pleads-la-z-boy-dwi

[walnutqueen]

Old people with a broken f'ing foot are even slower.  I'll be your walker bait.  Avoiding the emergency room because God help them if they try to keep me.  Are you allowed to bring machetes & ulus into such a place?  Just askin' for a friend.  :-)

[CarpeDiem54]

Old people with a broken f'ing foot are even slower.  I'll be your walker bait.  Avoiding the emergency room because God help them if they try to keep me.  Are you allowed to bring machetes & ulus into such a place?  Just askin' for a friend.  :-)

Holy shit, walnutqueen, I'm going to have to move in with you to slap you into shape. I'll be in charge of the weapons while they fix you foot.

Plus, I still can't find a place to live and have a week to vacate my current premisis. Good thing I have an SUV since I may be sleeping in it. My 4,000 pee breaks per night may be problematic.

Get your broken foot to the doctor, you silly goose!

[kikismom]

Old people with a broken f'ing foot are even slower.  I'll be your walker bait.  Avoiding the emergency room because God help them if they try to keep me.  Are you allowed to bring machetes & ulus into such a place?  Just askin' for a friend.  :-)

 

Holy shit, walnutqueen, I'm going to have to move in with you to slap you into shape. I'll be in charge of the weapons while they fix you foot.

Plus, I still can't find a place to live and have a week to vacate my current premisis. Good thing I have an SUV since I may be sleeping in it. My 4,000 pee breaks per night may be problematic.

Get your broken foot to the doctor, you silly goose!

I don't have an SUV so it's going to get very...acrobatic soon.

I can be your night nurse and horticultural attendant. *snickers*

 

As far as wondering if you are allowed to bring machetes et al. into ANY place, I say:  If I have a machete who's gonna stop me?

[lulee]

I haven't met a marathon I could resist, ChipBach.    Because of an untimely self injury (and a The Wired marathon), I still have 26 episodes to watch, which considerably lessens the pain of a broken foot.   If I could walk, I'd be walker bait!!!  :-)

Tara? Is that you?

[walnutqueen]

Holy shit, walnutqueen, I'm going to have to move in with you to slap you into shape. I'll be in charge of the weapons while they fix you foot.

Plus, I still can't find a place to live and have a week to vacate my current premisis. Good thing I have an SUV since I may be sleeping in it. My 4,000 pee breaks per night may be problematic.

Get your broken foot to the doctor, you silly goose!

 

Et tu, brute?  You can pry the weapons out of my cold dead hands.  And then feed my cats.

 

I just missed the bucket & peed on the tile floor.  Go on with your soon to be homeless self!  :-D  Come on down - the weather is sunny & mild, and it is a BEAUTIFOOL day in sunny SoCal, eh!

 

But I eschew doctors and hospitals - I have more issues than Rick-in-a-coma.  ;-)

 

 

Tara? Is that you?

 

Tara is the place Scarlett O'Hara called home.  I am, and always have been walnutqueen.  Couldn't fake an alias to save my soul.  :-)  But in case Tara is a cool chick, I'll take this as a compliment.  hee

[lulee]

Tara is the place Scarlett O'Hara called home.  I am, and always have been walnutqueen.  Couldn't fake an alias to save my soul.  :-)  But in case Tara is a cool chick, I'll take this as a compliment.  hee

 

Sorry to have been obscure - just referring to Seasons 4 and 5 Tara and her repeated foot/ankle injuries.

 

[walnutqueen]

OMG I am SO fucking stoopid!  Tara & the foot injury, where's my Glen?!

[kikismom]

I thought about asking if you were on pain meds...but we've all had holiday amnesia!

[CarpeDiem54]

walnutqueen, I was going to use your weapons to keep the doctors from throwing your ass in the hospital after they fix your foot. I'd even break you out if necessary.

Of course I'll feed your cats. You have to clean up your own pee, however.

I need the GPS coordinates of the Cally Grey Gardens. Wait...I don't have a GPS.

[walnutqueen]

I thought about asking if you were on pain meds...but we've all had holiday amnesia!

 

The pain meds ran out in 2007, along with the useless workers comp injury docs.

 

 

walnutqueen, I was going to use your weapons to keep the doctors from throwing your ass in the hospital after they fix your foot. I'd even break you out if necessary.

Of course I'll feed your cats. You have to clean up your own pee, however.

I need the GPS coordinates of the Cally Grey Gardens. Wait...I don't have a GPS.

 

Nevermind then, I'd be fuckin embarrassed to let my sick old Mum see me in this state.  The offer of heir apparent to this this sorry excuse for a Grey Gardens West still stands - I've cleaned up my own pee.  Take a left at Hwy 78 & call me.  :-)  I am still armed & dangerous. 

[CarpeDiem54]

[quote name="walnutqueen" post="691504" timestamp="1420248016"

 

 

 

Nevermind then, I'd be fuckin embarrassed to let my sick old Mum see me in this state.  The offer of heir apparent to this this sorry excuse for a Grey Gardens West still stands - I've cleaned up my own pee.  Take a left at Hwy 78 & call me.  :-)  I am still armed & dangerous.

I'll be the old broad in the Ford Explorer with a spiked zombie catcher on the front and a gun turret mounted on the roof. I have a 20 lb bag of cat food, too.

[kikismom]

 I've cleaned up my own pee.

What's the big rush? I've got a recipe here for making gunpowder from urine.

(also, neurologists have found that they can make brain cells from pee. You could save the whole damn world!)

 

"Ah heeyr therez sum siiiiiiigntisstz at thuh SayDaySay workin' on a keyuuure..."

 

http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2013/04/urine-facts/

ETA:

Don't miss this fabulous poem------

http://civilianmilitaryintelligencegroup.com/12836/that-when-a-lady-lifts-her-skirt-she-shoots-a-horrid-yankee-the-story-of-confederate-womens-urine-and-the-manufacture-of-gunpowder

Edited January 3, 2015 by kikismom

[walnutqueen]

Next you're gonna tell me it was OK to let my dying cat shit on the pee pads I lined my dining table with, kikismom!

 

BTW - LOVE Ya!

[walnutqueen]

I'll be the old broad in the Ford Explorer with a spiked zombie catcher on the front and a gun turret mounted on the roof. I have a 20 lb bag of cat food, too.

 

20 lb bag lasts less than a week around Casa de Deplorable, but I am in love with your spikes and gun turrets, so you're golden to me.

[CarpeDiem54]

20 lb bag lasts less than a week around Casa de Deplorable, but I am in love with your spikes and gun turrets, so you're golden to me.

I also have about 30 super heavy duty disposable cat boxes I'll bring. I can be in charge of cat food runs to the store.

[walnutqueen]

My cats cannot be contained.  They were trapped once to have gonads removed and right ears nicked (free - thanks to the Feral Cat Coalition).  A few of them let me touch the pussy.  Bring your weapons - I could use some fresh ammo for the 44 mag that has stagnated in my gunsafe for lo so many years.  Nickel plated Lew Horton special something-or-other; the only thing of my ex's I didn't destroy.  And I DO believe it will fire, but my tableside machete is still da bomba!

[kikismom]

 Casa de Deplorable

Disgraceland?

[kikismom]

Anyone watching the marathon?  I noticed on the episode/scene where Daryl first makes an appearance that there is this man in a blue shirt and white ball cap, maybe in his sixties or seventies, standing in the back listening to the Rick/Daryl exchange.  I reviewed the scene prior to and after that scene.  This dude never shows up again...  Mistake?  Continuity error?  I should get a life?  Anyone?

 

 

This is the only older man I could find that wasn't Dale.

http://blogs.amctv.com/the-walking-dead/photo-galleries/the-walking-dead-season-1-episode-photos/#/11

 

(next to the older lady in the hat.)

 

 

That must be him.  About the right age and size.  I guess he and the hatted old lady were both killed in the Zombie over-run?

Oh no! That's not him! I found him, I found the guy:

 

 

Very far right upper frame ----is that who you meant?

Edited January 4, 2015 by kikismom

[Tippi Blevins]

When Daryl comes back to the group after his hunt, he asks the group where they left Merle. Lori tells him, "Rick will show you." Then two seconds later, she gets upset when Rick agrees to do just that. She's mad because Rick is leaving. But what the hell? She's the one who volunteered him! Did she mean that Rick would show Daryl... on a map? Point to it over yonder? Dance out the specific location like a scouting honeybee? 

[Nashville]

Oh HELL no don't get me started on Lori again.

[CletusMusashi]

That's what Shane said.

[mandolin]

Actually Lori said, "Rick will SHOW you" (or maybe it was actually "he'll SHOW you, won't you?") all sarcastically in typical Lori fashion wih maximum bug eyes.

Edited January 10, 2015 by mandolin

[AngelaHunter]

You all are car-aaazay! No wonder I love it here so much.

[iRarelyWatchTV36]

[4.5 seasons late to the party, but finally started watching and marathoned all 59 aired episodes a few days ago.  Can't believe it took me this long to check this series out.]

 

How could [were] you not be a combination of shocked (in both good & bad ways), intrigued, and in awe of a TV series putting on display a zombie that resembles a young girl getting a bullet in the forehead, in the opening minutes of its premiere??   Right from the get-go, you're flat out given the forthright knowledge that this show will push its allowed limits to the very straining edge.

 

What an absolutely unimaginably horrific feeling it must be to wake from a coma to a world gone to complete shit ZA; wife & son gone, if not dead.

 

I think the most disturbing images to me in the whole episode were;

- the very beginning (of course)

- Rick & Morgan's walker-wife having a stare-down in the door's peephole, after she tried opening the damn door!  Don't know why, but that scene creeped me right the F out.

- and then the horse being zombie chow.  Call me batpoop crazy, but animals being ripped apart and eaten disturbs me more than the people.  What is wrong with me!?  lol.

 

As much as I really liked the opener, I still had a few personal nitpicks:

- You're telling me that - outside from behind the 'Don't Open' doors - there was not one walker to be encountered between the amount of time taken between when Rick woke up and his finding the bike??

- How unnecessary was that whole dark stairwell scene?  If there is nothing lurking in the dark, its a total waste of time and "drama!!".

- Duane hitting Rick in the face w/ the shovel and then just standing there, like that was all it took to dispatch a walker.  If Rick had of been one, that kid was toast!

- Of all the things that Rick has already witnessed since his reawakening, coming upon the house with the 'opted out' couple seems to greatly disturb him.  Cmon, of everything going on, suicide should be about as expected as anything.

- Chasing after a helicopter full bore, on a huge racket inducing animal, in a huge metropolitan city in the middle of a ZA.  Yeah...... 

- Dead soldier that Rick kills in the tank.  That guy had been dead awhile - or certainly looked so - and it took it that long to notice fresh meat was sitting right next to its reanimated self; and it had, what, 'dozed off'??   ugh.

 

 

Watched all the available eps and plan to keep watching, but this was overall a really good hour+ to kick off the whole shebang.

[iRarelyWatchTV36]

Having marahoned the whole first 4.5 seasons a few days ago, I actually started out being apathetic to Lori.  Could take her (in preferably small doses) or leave her, but she wasn't a show killer.  By about mid-S2 though, I felt she could 'exit stage death' at any time.  I have to admit some satisfaction in the scene where she tried to call out Andrea about not doing "woman's work" and then Andrea telling her off for trying to be all 'first lady-like' while basically calling her a cheating slut was Awesome!

 

Getting a bit OT since this is about S1, but I will say that

the writers & PTB gave Lori a decent exit.  Redeemed herself slightly, with Carl at least

.

Edited January 25, 2015 by The Crazed Spruce
spoiler for a later season

[Tippi Blevins]

I remember getting kind of a chuckle out of Rick riding away on the bicycle, his open gown flapping happily along behind him. It just seemed so weirdly cute, given the circumstances. 

[iRarelyWatchTV36]

I remember getting kind of a chuckle out of Rick riding away on the bicycle, his open gown flapping happily along behind him. It just seemed so weirdly cute, given the circumstances. 

 

Yeah.  Not to mention him having to scrunch into kid size to ride it.  lol

 

If I ever have to remember or make repeated references to that half-Walker he first encountered near the bike, I think I'll call her 'Legs'.

[kikismom]

Yeah.  Not to mention him having to scrunch into kid size to ride it.  lol

 

If I ever have to remember or make repeated references to that half-Walker he first encountered near the bike, I think I'll call her 'Legs'.

She's actually quite well-known in TWD universe as "Bicycle GIrl".

[iRarelyWatchTV36]

She's actually quite well-known in TWD universe as "Bicycle GIrl".

 

Apropos.  

 

Thanks for the info.  I just recently started checking out the TWD forums and discussions, as you can imagine.