tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-585323794423400780.post3640235222762064097..comments2024-02-10T10:52:58.614-05:00Comments on THE DIG: A Walking Dead Season Endercinemarchaeologisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13507603255666191405noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-585323794423400780.post-58728284651385344132014-04-03T04:34:24.113-04:002014-04-03T04:34:24.113-04:00Max, the comic is not only not "the major dra...Max, the comic is not only not "the major drag on the show," it has almost nothing to do with the show. If the comic had been literally adapted--as literally as the pilot adapted it--it would be regarded by pretty much everyone as one of the best shows on television. Creators of an ongoing series obviously don't want to be that tightly bound down, and that's understandable, but if one is going to depart from the source material, one should at least try to capture something of its essence, and do something at least as good. TWD, after the pilot, has never been as good as the comic, and all of its serious problems as a series became serious problems during the Mazzara era, a time when the show was so entirely divorced from the source material that they may as well have just given it a different name and claimed the intellectual property on it.<br /><br />Gimple has drawn a lot more from the comics this season than Mazzara, but the futility of that is in the fact that the comic is entirely character-driven, whereas the characters on tv don't even remotely resemble their comic counterparts, nor does the line-up. The comic plot proceeds because of who those characters are. That's not who those characters are on tv, though. To use moments from the comic on tv--moments dictated, in the comics, by the characters' personalities and the group dynamic--one has to fudge the chasms that exist between the two. Sometimes that can be done. Most of the time, it doesn't work. But being overly tied down by the comic is NOT among TWD's serious problems.<br /><br />You're right about the flashbacks and continuity--I'm going to append some remarks to the article to address it.cinemarchaeologisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13507603255666191405noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-585323794423400780.post-76359084053474806012014-03-31T01:49:18.599-04:002014-03-31T01:49:18.599-04:00As good as the comic is, I really believe it is th...As good as the comic is, I really believe it is the major drag on the show. I think TWD has proven that a straight adaptation of a comic book to television is futile. A comic book can efficiently put a day, a week, a month of plot on a single page. A TV show has to fill time with something. And sometimes the TV show just aches to go its own way. But then when it tries to include elements of the comic, it goes astray. Such as the mentioned heart-to-heart between Rick and Daryl, a clear nod to the comics.<br /><br />Anyway, tonight's episode wasn't too bad in my opinion. Seems like everyone knew the Terminus people would end up being cannibals. But I didn't realize until the episode was running that Glenn, Maggie, and Co. were in possible mortal danger. So when that turned out to be true, it was exhilarating to think Gimple might have the balls to kill off... half of the main characters! And off screen to boot. And Beth's fate is unknown. So she is still alive. (If Beth had died, I would have stopped watching.) One problem I've realized after thinking about it, the flashbacks are probably filled with continuity errors. Woe.<br /><br />I have hope for next season. Stupendous badass Rick, leading a group of stupendous badasses, hopefully that will keep the show away from painful, cringe-worthy dialogue. Badasses don't bare their souls to each other, do they?<br /><br />Also, given my comments above about the comic book dragging on the TV show, I am optimistic about the spin-off AMC has confirmed. A fresh start without baggage might be what TWD needs to blossom on television.John Rottenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07736420410333742002noreply@blogger.com