Part of me likes the way The Walking Dead (the TV series) isn't sticking plot point-by-plot point to The Walking Dead (the comic book). It's nice not being able to predict everything that's going to happen, and it allows writer Frank Darabont to give us scenes like the one in last night's episode where Rick gives a little eulogy for the corpse he's about to use to throw the walkers off. (Andrew Lincoln is really good in this role, by the way.)
At the same time, I think "Guts" might have worked a little bit better had it not introduced a bunch of characters that don't appear in the comic and probably won't be around very long. (This isn't based on any foresight into what's coming; it's just that the cast only has so many names in it, and other than Glen and Andrea, none of the other folks Rick meets in Atlanta are on it.)
So rather than spending time with all these bland, disposal characters, I would have rather spent the whole episode with just Rick and Glen, or -- better still -- learn a bit more about the folks Shane, Lori and Carl are traveling with. This show can't just be Man Vs. Zombie every week. The drama will eventually have to come mostly from the characters, so it would be nice to start getting to know some of them.
Other thoughts:
- I guess the acid bath from season one of Breaking Bad no longer holds the title of "grossest scene on an AMC drama."
- Hey, it's Michael Rooker playing a hateful southerner. Maybe Zeljko Ivanek can show up next week to play a creepy white collar guy.
- I really, really want to stop making comic-to-show comparisons, but like I said last week, this is the first non-superhero comic series that I like to be successfully adapted for TV. As such, it has me thinking a lot about how -- again, this assumes they don't deviate from the comic at all -- Darabont and co. will handle the book's overwhelming bleakness. Let's hope they're watching Zombieland and Shaun of the Dead as much as they are Romero movies.
Tom Coombe
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