So was this as terrible as Zom made it out to be in an advance review? Well, yes and no.Rick and Shane's conversation about women never happens in the comic (in fact, on a quick flip-through, I couldn't find any basis for it whatsoever). It needn't have turned up in the tv show at all, and leading off with it was a spectacularly awful choice. If the comment thread to this post at Jezebel is any indication, the comic has a strong female following that was excited to tune in to the show. Slapping them in the face with that kind of dialogue within the first ten minutes is just boneheaded, and sure enough, it's as alienating as anyone could have predicted.
I think the purpose of it is to draw a contrast between Rick and Shane, so we'll know who to root for in the love triangle subplot, but what comes across about Rick isn't that he uses less flagrantly degrading words for women, so much as that he joins Shane in complaining about them. Really, everything to do with the Rick/Lori/Shane subplot in the show seemed dumbed-down, oversimplified, way more on-the-nose than in the comic, and just plain clumsy (as Zom mentions, "There’s a scene late on where Shane tells off [Rick's] wife for wanting to help other people, accuses her of jeopardizing the life of their child, and not only does she come round to his way of thinking, she also decides that this is in fact a very sexy moment.").
Whatever purpose that dialogue is meant to serve, it does sound like straight-up misogyny, and since that's almost the first thing viewers encounter, if they tune out or let it define the whole rest of their experience of the show, the creators have only themselves to thank for that.
Whilst I'm on my PC high-horse, I might as well mention that I wasn't too thrilled, either, with the way Morgan and Duane were depicted. They seemed like fairly broad stereotypes of black southerners, much moreso than in the comic. It wasn't just the accents (though they were pretty awful); the characters were also played with a more deferential manner toward Rick than I imagined on my reading. It didn't ring true, and I didn't care for it.
Having said all that, I could still appreciate the zombie effects, the action, and occasional moments of truly haunting beauty. That scene of Rick riding a horse into Atlanta was a great choice for a promotional image, because it just has "instant icon!" written all over it. And Rick's dealings with that hideous yet pitiful crawling torso were surprisingly poignant and touching, amplifying the power of those scenes in the comic by whole orders of magnitude.
And so, this pilot definitely got off on the wrong foot, and was disappointing in other ways as well, but a lot of it was very promising too, and of course the source material is rock-solid. I'll certainly tune in next week, and I sure hope the more awkward elements improve as the series continues.
11 comments:
Everything seemed like a cliche to me ... but the strangest thing was it not being established what has happened. When the main character wakes up, he acts very confused, as one might expect, but when he meets up with the other characters, it seems to me his first question would be: "What the hell is going on?" That never happens.
When Rick woke up from his coma, he had beard on his face, but a shaved neck. EPIC FAIL! I don't care if vampires shine, I don't care if zombies run, but I take my beards seriously!
Being a southerner; born, bred, and proud, AND from near Altanta, I found the accents a bit confusing. I wasn't even aware it was set in the south until they mentioned Atlanta. Hollywood southern accents are almost always awful, but these were a new kind of bad. Just muttled and weird.
Other than that, I liked it. First episodes are usually the weakest. So if it keeps up and improves it should be a good watch.
Wow. This is as harsh as my blog about the sci-fi movie "Downstream". I have to admit, you're right in some respects, but I think people aren't ready for something cerebral. Prime time audiences always cook sci-fi or fantasy quickly, or need to scuttle it off to late nights, Lost being one of the few exceptions to the rule. It was cliched, but I think that the feeling was there moreso than the depth of the story. Besides, it could only last one season. Why hold back now?
Great, honest review. Thank you.
It’s Alive: Big Audience for Debut of ‘The Walking Dead’
By DAVE ITZKOFF
(...) The first episode of the show, which had the good fortune to make its debut on Halloween night at 10 P.M., was watched by 5.3 million people, AMC said, making it the largest audience for any original series on the channel. (By comparison, the season finale of the AMC drama “Mad Men,” on which the dead do not reawaken and are simply made fodder for black comedy, drew 2.44 million viewers.) Not surprisingly, “The Walking Dead” performed particularly strongly with audience members aged 18 to 49, drawing 3.6 million viewers in that demographic. In a statement, AMC president Charlie Collier said, “It’s a good day to be dead,” and we’ll just leave it at that.
I watched parts of it but it seemed like what I've seen before only drawn out more. I mean it's well-done but not remotely what I look for in horror. I'm just not up for zombie soap opera, which I don't mean pejoratively, just that I'm not into the ongoing drama thing for horror. The comic never got me to care enough about the characters.
Nice to know I'm not alone in questioning the show's treaement of women. That's the sort of stuff that gets obscured by all the geek-triumphalism.
(I'm a geek too, but I recognise the problems of geek culture)
Anonymous--I didn't miss that so much, I guess because, having read the comics, I wasn't looking very hard for it.
Jaakko--I know! The beard just looked too well-groomed in general.
Hellbilly--I hope you're right! I'm on board for at least this season.
AFare--I've reconsidered the harshness, and linked to a more positive review I largely agree with in another post.
Aaron--did you ever get to the "Made to Suffer" arc, with the Governor's assault on the prison? That really ramped up my engagement with the comic, and retroactively made the previous issues more poignant.
Zom--the more I think about it, the more I see that early conversation as lazy characterization. I'm pretty sure we're expected to disapprove of Shane's sentiments (so we can disapprove later of his hooking up with Lori--but then, this also makes her look considerably worse for hooking up with him, so even more fail), but then Rick's response muddies the waters and makes the whole conversation come off as a woman-bashing whinefest. I'm not as inclined to view the whole rest of the episode in light of that, as you seem to have done in your review, but I certainly agree they need to do better on this score.
Yeah the pacing is zombie-like ( the opener edited for an hour slot in reruns?) and that opening conversation was 5 minutes too long (but don't you think it's to lay groundwork for the partner's affair and probable later comeuppance?) Never read the comix, don't care to now, but I'll keep watching the show. Way better than the cliche-riddled Dead Set.
They should the first ep here last night. I am not familiar with the comics but as a standalone TV show this was a major disappointment. I'll give it one, maybe two more eps before I give up on it.
It was soooo derivative. The whole first ep was 28 Days Later... which means that it was Day of the Triffids.... but without the slightest bit of excitement. I have never been less frightened by zombies. Ever.
I also cant't say I fancied the Makeup effects: They looked pretty harmless and fake.
You are spot on about the initial dialogue (worse than being misogynistic: it wasn't witty) and the depiction of the father/son duo.
Curt: Thought you and the other commentators nailed a lot of the problems I had with the initial episode, which a number of reviewers held up as the strongest of the initial six-pack. Glacial pacing, derivative plotlines, ham-handed dialogue, telegraphed "twists"... if this is the best the series has to offer I'm more than a bit concerned.
Post a Comment