The Walking Dead - Season 3

[yaksplat]

Zombie was in a meat coma and had to loosen his belt.

HA.....Meat Coma.


I love it.

 

[Howard_Casto]

So, after Rick finds the zombie that presumably ate Lori..  are we to assume that he somehow ate her whole..?  I mean, even the bones and skull..?  LOL, maybe I missed it but I didn't see anything left on the floor except for the blood trail leading to the zombie

On the one hand, thanksgiving zombie was hilarous.... on the other that had to have been the stupidest thing I've ever seen.  We talked about this during season 2 but people flamed me for it.  (Dale's death.)  Ignoring the fact that Lori is just too much person to fit in that one zombies belly, it's just physically impossible for a human to completely eat another human without tools.  Compared to other members of the animal kingdom we are pretty pathetic physically.  We have the weakest bite strength of any primate... it's so weak that most cats and dogs have a stronger bite than us.  In other words we can't bite through bone... or at least not through some of the larger bones in the human body.  We don't have any claws either, so we have a hard time tearing off flesh from a corpse as well.  Mind you with a dead body just lying there, you coudl eventually chew all the flesh off, but it would take FOREVER... since Rick immediately goes back inside to butcher zombies, it couldn't have been long enough for Mr. Sleepy to strip here corpse bare, much less go for second and zomehow swallow the bones.    Also keep in mind we are talking about a rotted corpose eating a person, which is much weaker, slower and more fragile than a normal person.  When Merl pulled out that one zombies teeth without any effort it showed that these guys are indeed rotten, and don't have zombie super powers. 

Where they found Carol's knife didn't even look like part of the Prison (or at least not a part they've visited yet), but she escaped simply because the show's writers aren't that good and it's a predictable plot point.  People forget that she passed through a door into blinding light, which was supposed to quite blatently foreshadow that she went outside and she ran away (probably assuming that the zomibes got everyone). 

Also Merl's a pro wrestler..... somehow the whole world makes a little more sense.    My new reason for watching the show is Merl... he practically winks at the camera he's so in on how dumb the show is.  I mean it's nearing Ashely Williams levels of awesome for him. 

[dre-w]

When Merl pulled out that one zombies teeth without any effort it showed that these guys are indeed rotten, and don't have zombie super powers. 

Funny you should mention that.. because when I saw the bones missing, that was the first thing that popped in my head.  Merl pulling their teeth out with hardly any effort, other than just having to hold it down.  Tooth practically fell out, not to mention all the zombies look like they're missing teeth already half the time..  let's see how they fix the error this time.  Just like they had to do with the grass lawn in the prison being freshly cut upon arrival..

Yeh for Carol I knew she went outside the doors, hence the lighting,  but that doesn't rule out that she could have went back inside due to some unforeseen event.  (zombies outside the door, went in a different door, hearing Lori screaming after waking up, etc..) as for the knife I just didn't care enough about the show to look online for the next episode trailer to juxtapose the scenes lol.  I don't think she'll bail though, not without her man Daryl lol

[Howard_Casto]

Heh... don't get me started about the prison.  The grass is bad, but all the walkers wandering around was even stupider.  The place has three fences around it, multiple guard towers and if I recall correctly all of the fences were locked when they arrived and yet everyone inside were STILL attacked, even considering if they were in lockup it would have been impossible for the zombies to attack the prisoners?  Prisons are supposed to keep people out as well.... those guards in the towers would have been picking off zombies left and right as they approached the facility and evne if they ran out of ammo, those fences are never opened at once, so they should have never made it past the yard. 

I mean what, are we to assume they all starved to death and came back?  Why were all of the blocks open?  Were all of the dozen or so of riot gear guards bitten prior to puting on their gear because you can't tell me that those guys at least could have escaped. 

[ChadTower]

You're thinking about this way too much.  There are a million possibilities.  They could have died of anything.  Dyssentary, chicken pox, poison gas during a riot, food poisoning, excessive butthurt on a forum thread.  We don't need to know why or how they died.  We only need to know they are dead now and thus need to be avoided or destroyed.

[Howard_Casto]

You're thinking about this way too much. 

Never a more sad sentence has ever been typed.  Thinking about things can only lead to knowledge or understanding.  Most of the problems in the world today result from people having that kind of attitude.  In this instance, television programs would be held to a higher standard if more people found plot holes and complained about them. 

[Louis Tully]

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[ChadTower]

Never a more sad sentence has ever been typed.  Thinking about things can only lead to knowledge or understanding.  Most of the problems in the world today result from people having that kind of attitude.  In this instance, television programs would be held to a higher standard if more people found plot holes and complained about them.

I mean, seriously, who would have guessed a malnourished pregnant woman could be so osteoporotic that her bones were easily consumed by a zombie in a fictitious post apocalyptic pop culture television show?

Enjoy it for what it is, man.  It's just a TV show.  It is not high literature.

[yotsuya]

For the record, I don't watch this show at all, but I follow it vicariously through this thread. 

[lordnacho]

Why is there no Game of Thrones thread? 

[ChadTower]

Why is there no Game of Thrones thread?

Because the thread would probably get all feudal?

[Louis Tully]

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[lordnacho]

It says very close to the source material, so Howard can't  to much.

I've been reading behind the show, but I stupidly read a website and jumped past spoiler alerts.  Caught a major death, so pissed.  So I jumped to Book 3.

[Louis Tully]

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[Howard_Casto]

Never a more sad sentence has ever been typed.  Thinking about things can only lead to knowledge or understanding.  Most of the problems in the world today result from people having that kind of attitude.  In this instance, television programs would be held to a higher standard if more people found plot holes and complained about them.

I mean, seriously, who would have guessed a malnourished pregnant woman could be so osteoporotic that her bones were easily consumed by a zombie in a fictitious post apocalyptic pop culture television show?

Enjoy it for what it is, man.  It's just a TV show.  It is not high literature.

That's the whole point..... it COULD be high literature, if they'd hire decent writers.  Tv is a superior medium to books, so it would be nice if they actually put superior shows on it. I mean the books are better written, and they are comic books, with maybe 5 minutes of dialogue per issue.   

I do enjoy the show btw because sadly, it's still one of the most original shows on tv.... hbo and showtime series are superior though.  Boardwalk Empire, despite it's sometimes cheezy gangster vibe, might be the best show on tv.   

lordnacho1:  Nope... the prison is different in the comics..... The prison is mostly abandonded save the guys locked in the kitchen.  This makes more sense because you have to remember that it takes months for the zombies to overwhealm the city.  During that time there would have been a prison transfer, like in any real-world disaster.  On the show basically the entire prison population, including guards are zombified while still locked inside the facility.   

This is THE major problem with the show btw.... they follow 75% of the memorable plot points of the comics, so there's no sense of mystery or suspense to those who have read them, and the 25% they do change is vastly inferior and less logical than the comic version. 



GOT did have a thread btw.... we don't talk about the shows in the off-season. 

[ChadTower]

Tv is a superior medium to books

That is an interesting, and highly debatable, point of view for another thread. 

[yotsuya]

Tv is a superior medium to books

That is an interesting, and highly debatable, point of view for another thread.

See, and I was just going to say that it was ---That which is odiferous and causeth plants to grow--- myself. 

[lordnacho]

lordnacho1:  Nope... the prison is different in the comics..... The prison is mostly abandonded save the guys locked in the kitchen.  This makes more sense because you have to remember that it takes months for the zombies to overwhealm the city.  During that time there would have been a prison transfer, like in any real-world disaster.  On the show basically the entire prison population, including guards are zombified while still locked inside the facility.   

Must be someone else, I didn't mention the prison.  But I'll answer this, too many what ifs here, you don't know it's the entire prison population and you don't know if it's all the guards either.  Maybe some escaped. 
You also don't know how the zombie infection started.  Maybe people just turned suddenly or communication was out after military intervened, so people just bunkered down.   Actually not sure why I'm debating this.  Very few zombie movies tell how it started, they just follow a group of survivors.

This is THE major problem with the show btw.... they follow 75% of the memorable plot points of the comics, so there's no sense of mystery or suspense to those who have read them, and the 25% they do change is vastly inferior and less logical than the comic version. 

I welcome the 25%.  I don[t see it as inferior, just different.  I find the dialogue much better in the show, the comic I just want to barf sometimes and just skim through it.

GOT did have a thread btw.... we don't talk about the shows in the off-season. 

Cool well I'm seeing ads on buses here, so it's time to start the resurrection spell.

[Howard_Casto]

Tv is a superior medium to books

That is an interesting, and highly debatable, point of view for another thread.

See, and I was just going to say that it was ---That which is odiferous and causeth plants to grow--- myself. 

Well it's not.  If you can instantly make that statement then you are just a book snob.  I'm not knocking books at all, but the more tools you have to tell your story, the better it can be.  Books have words... that's it....  Comics have pictures and words, but the amount of dialog is limited, so books are on about the same level as comics.  Highly illustrated books are superior to both becuase there can be a lot of dialog AND pictures.  They are a rarity though.  With tv/film you have dialog, and sound effects, and video...ect.....  you have more to work with, so the potential is there to make a more immersive experience. 

That isn't to say that a show is better than a book just because it's on tv, quite the opposite is true in most cases, but in terms of just the format, all things equal, tv can be much better than your average book... thus why books are always getting adapted to tv and film.  Action stuff in particular...  ever read about an explosion?  It's just not the same. 


Zombie movies are an hour and a half long... they don't have time to explain things.  This is an ongoing series, so they don't have the luxury of skimming over plot holes.  I think you are missing the point of the argument it doesn't matter if it was most of the population/guards or all of them, the point is the prison was locked down so it's unlikely that there would be ANY zombies the way they had it set up in the show and there are quite a few. 

The reason it bothers me is a little bit of thought would have fixed this.... they could have have both gates wide open as well as the prison doors or a hole in the fence or anything that would have suggested that zombies somehow got into the prison, all the scenes thus far could have went just as they are for the most part and it would have actually made sense.  Just like the guards that couldn't have gotten infected because of the suits.... leave the body armor off the arms an put a huge bite on it... poof!  Plot hole solved!

The director who fudged it up (and also fudged up Dale's death btw... so it's primarily his fault) said that the instance of the guards he made up because he thought it would look cool and had never seen it done before.  First I would direct him to any video game... it's been done to death.  Secondly, worry about it making sense first then you can do something that looks cool to go around it.  I mean yeah, it DID look cool, I'm glad that the head-popping effect was in there, but at the same time everybody I know called b.s. when they saw that scene. 

[Well Fed Games]

Meh, movies and TV have budgets, real world limitations on time, location, computer hardware, etc., actors guilds and worker unions, etc. I would hate to give up written Sci-fi that is only limited by an author's imagination or my mind's eye. It seems silly to contrast one medium vs another... they are created differently, and consumed differently, with different strengths and weaknesses. I think the only relevance to this thread is that the Walking Dead seems to be an narrative that is (IMHO) achieving quality in two different mediums, which happens far too rarely.

[ChadTower]

Well it's not.  If you can instantly make that statement then you are just a book snob. 

I stopped reading his point of view at the insult in the first line of his post.   

[RandyT]

The director who fudged it up (and also fudged up Dale's death btw... so it's primarily his fault) said that the instance of the guards he made up because he thought it would look cool and had never seen it done before.  First I would direct him to any video game... it's been done to death.  Secondly, worry about it making sense first then you can do something that looks cool to go around it.  I mean yeah, it DID look cool, I'm glad that the head-popping effect was in there, but at the same time everybody I know called b.s. when they saw that scene.

Meh.  It was cinematic artistic license.  It added some drama and the viewer got to ask themselves how they were going to get past an armored zombie.  The funny thing was, the armor not only protected the zombie, but also, to some extent, it's potential victim.  That part was what I found amusing.  BTW, did you count all of their fingers to make sure none were bitten off?

Jeez, Howard, if you look at all entertainment in such a critical way, I'm not sure why you bother.  Granted, I can't bear to watch movies which revolve heavily around computers, because I know enough about them to know that much of it is implausible.  So I usually don't bother.  But seriously (?), we are talking about a show about a zombie apocalypse.   I have a hard time understanding why it's so easy for you to leap precariously past the ludicrous premise in order to pick out tiny "unrealistic" details as it unfolds .

[yotsuya]

I don't watch the show so I don't want to derail the thread (which I enjoy reading), but there is no way I would call TV a superior medium to a book. There is so much more that can be done with a book if the reader's mind is open to it. With TV, it is what it is. You can have a great script but lousy actors and/or effects budget, and there goes the story. With a book, the only limit is how you visualize it.

Back to your zombie talk while I sit in the corner.

[CpCaveman]

I love the walking dead, (and game of thrones dont wanna start a "fued" ) but i`ve seen its getting too mainstream, *spoiler alert* series 4 of walking dead will involve a 20 year old wizard with a scar that just discovered women *spoiler end* on the books versus tv theme, are the game of thrones books as good as the tv or just hard work? and the walking dead any good author for those or is it still just graphic novels? (I know certain types hate the word "comic`s) hurry up and fix pratchett thats what i say... gonna sit back and watch now

[Hoopz]

I've been reading behind the show, but I stupidly read a website and jumped past spoiler alerts.  Caught a major death, so pissed.  So I jumped to Book 3.

Things are not always what they seem in that series.... Just sayin'.   

[lordnacho]

are the game of thrones books as good as the tv or just hard work? and the walking dead any good author for those or is it still just graphic novels?

Game of Thrones - insane amount of detail but enjoyable.  Keeping track of all the characters is impossible, so I end up skimming over mention of a lot of the backstory characters.
Walking Dead - I'm not a comic book guy, but I find the dialogue annoying and unrealistic.  I guess you have to do this in comic books with single frame scenes.  So I guess it's unfair of me to compare to a book.

[Generic Eric]

FWIW, The Walking Dead (Game) is on sale during Steam's Sale now for 50% off.  I haven't played it myself, but I have heard "good" things about it.

[CpCaveman]

the walking dead "arcade" game on xbox is enjoyable , seems ok but i`ve been leaving it alone until ALL the 5 episodes come out as i can play it all the way through a few times and see different outcomes in one go (and earlier episodes will probably be cheaper ), they dont announce the release dates of new episodes and it was 2 months between 1st and 2nd was really annoying and lost momentum for me, as for the comic`s (sorry graphic novels ) never seen one, but i`d be interested in a good book version.

[zanna5910]

i guess everyone feels about the same way i did about the second part of this season. 

it seems TWD has turned into a lackluster drama.  I miss the first two seasons that really gave you that anxious feeling for the survivors that around every corner your death awaits you day and night.  survival was foremost.  now its just bickering.

did anyone notice in the final shot of the finale that all the group came out, and no one was holding the baby?  dont worry about the tombs and zombies or anything.

i have to admit i didn't realize what the governor was going to do in the finale.   I sure hope that season 4 returns to the survivalist roots with more hording zombies that can actually cause damage.  We probably just get another entire season of the governor going crazy though.  sigh.

[RandyT]

We probably just get another entire season of the governor going crazy though.  sigh.

Yeah, this was my thought too.  I also think Merle would have been a good addition to the group, and could have added a lot more to the story dynamic moving forward.  But his end was not unexpected.

I'll still probably watch until I can't stand it any more, but given the rash of utterly crap programming nowadays, that will probably be a while in coming.

[zanna5910]

Also, remember the first episode (i think) of thefirst season  when the zombies are turning door handles trying to get in?  Now they just beat on the gates, fall helplessly into spikes, stand behind swinging doors in the dark, and so forth.    Did they also get stupider or something?  What happened to this dynamic?

Also, remember how fearful they were to shoot off a gun, since all zombies in a 10 mile radius would slowly descend on their position.  You have gun fire going off like crazy at Woodbury, and only a trickle of like 1-2 zombies a day show up?  What the hell?!

I agree with you Randy.  While the show has gone downhill from what it once was and what you would turn into see, its still better than most things on TV.  Although its slowly turning into the same drama on every other channel.

I hope the next season starts with Rico shooting every grenade into the jail, thereby blowing it up and forcing all those survivors into the woods.  All the noise hopefully attracts hordes of zombies, eating most all the new survivors.  That would peek my interest and get us back on track.  I'm still waiting for  scene where the baby is crying and attracting zombies and they are trying to keep her quite.

[yotsuya]

Mad Men starts up again this weekend.

That's all I have to add. 

[Vigo]

I thought Season 3 was an improvement from Season 2 where they spent the whole season looking for a girl who was dead in the barn the whole time. I was happy there was an actual villain this season as oppose to season two where the only danger was when somebody stupidly stormed off the farm and into the woods alone.

[Sparkolicious]

I finally watched the show.. every episode from 1 til season 3 ending..  Not a bad TV show really. Season 3 ending was weak, but it is what it is. A show about zombies. Probably was more entertaining being able to watch them all in a short amount of time.

[Howard_Casto]

I never started this thread up again, because not a lot happened this season that I didn't expect (as usual, this show has poor writers for at least 80% of the episodes).

I found the talking dead far more entertaining.  The host and the guests are so frikkin stupid that it wasn't even funny.  I love how they said the Governor didn't start out as a classic villain on that show even though he gunned down people in cold blood in the very first episode and then lied about it.  Imho that makes him worse than the one in the comics.... at least he owned up to what he did. 

Then he went full on Freddy Krueger during the last few episodes which isn't scary, but rather, comically funny.  And as nearly everyone predicted, the battle at the prison was pathetic due to budget constraints.  Couldn't they have at least brought the tank?  You know the tank they "rescued" from said gunned down innocents during first episode of the season?  Also as a surprise to no one, they totally chickened out in regards to all of the best scenes of this story arc.  No baby killing, no prison raping/killing.  No creepy pedo-governor, no severely mutilated governor, ect... ect...

Imho only two episodes were worth watching.  The one where rick goes home to visit his friend (which was actually outstanding) and the one where Merle dies. 

I don't know how anyone couldn't have predicted his death though, at least by the beginning of the episode you should have known.  The show kills off any character who expresses their feelings and then grows as a character.... thus why the primary cast feels so stagnant.  It's a shame because he was the reason I watched this season.  I liked the character and figured that he wasn't as bad as everyone said he was, or else he wouldn't look out for his brother as much as he did.  But OMG he said racist things, so me must be evil. 

Andreas's death WAS a surprise.... it and the fact that they let the Governor live were the only two surprises for me.  Andrea's death was a welcomed one though.  Hopefully they realized what a whiny blonde bimbo they had turned her into and decided to cut their losses.  It's a shame because the comic version of her was so strong.

I think the show has a problem at this point, because they've blended a lot of what happens further down the books with the season finale.  And this next stretch of the comics is particularly bad.  It's actually only picked up over the last few months.   

[Louis Tully]

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[Howard_Casto]

To be fair to "The King"  when the zombie apocalypse happens, I'm totally going to the zoo and getting me a Tiger.  Or maybe a Polar Bear with a saddle.  Because I mean... if the word has no rules, new rule #1 is I get a frikkin Tiger!

[Howard_Casto]

I thought Season 3 was an improvement from Season 2 where they spent the whole season looking for a girl who was dead in the barn the whole time. I was happy there was an actual villain this season as oppose to season two where the only danger was when somebody stupidly stormed off the farm and into the woods alone.

Maybe you were watching a different show, but the main villain in season 2 was the same main villain in season 1... namely Shane.  That cowardly, selfish, lying s.o.b. was almost as bad as the Governor.  I agree that season 3 was better though, it's just that isn't saying much. 

[ChadTower]

That's one point of view.  IMO the main villain in Season 2 was Laurie.  She manipulated Shane every chance she got until he finally broke and turned on his only real friend.  Yeah, he was a flawed man, but he tried to coexist and every time he started to find peace Laurie decided to feed her own ego by destroying him all over again.

[Vigo]

Daytime soap operas have more unstable and dangerous characters than Shane. An unstable character might be the beginnings of a villain, but until they hit their breaking point, it is still only group drama and waiting for things to get worse. Otherwise, season 2 was pretty much boring life on the farm waiting for Shane to really snap. Any sense of danger for the whole group was gone.

If you are going to call an dangerously unstable character a villain, then you got to call Rick in Season 3 a villain as well. He has done far more to endanger the group than Shane ever did.