I can't help feeling like The Walking Dead is on the verge of "jumping the shark".
My gut feeling is based on the preview for the season finale and to be perfectly honest the non-canonical storyline looks really, really lame.
I feel like AMC has missed the mark here, especially because the source material is so strong and seems so easily adaptable to television.
Some might argue the excessive violence of the graphic novel essentially kills any chance of a faithful television adaption, but I think the violence and sexual undertones that appear in the source material could be easily toned down while retaining the best elements of the original story.
Ross, I'm curious as to what you think?
I'm glad someone else thinks this based on the preview. I was very disheartened by the microscope scene with the two stupid cells fusing and doing something assy looking. As a scientists, it was just ridiculous. They should not try to explain the outbreak and the upcoming episode is worrying me greatly. I won't judge it without seeing it, but the last two episodes have not gone the way I would want them to.
I don't think it has to stick to the comic story line. I do think it should stay in line with the tone and ideas presented. It has so much potential to be amazing and so much potential to totally ruin itself. Let's hope for the former.
I like the show and I like the addition of Norman Reedus and Michael Rooker's redneck brother characters. I think they are a good addition to the cast even though they are not a part of the actual comic books. Norman Reedus' character has a sort of simplistic, honest approach to the group that I think was left out in the original story, and the fact that there are non-comic book characters takes away the railroad feeling that I know exactly what is coming...
Having said that, I think this show could be a victim of the "20th Century Fox/Xmen question": Do you make the big budget show for the lesser numbered comic book nerds that made the series popular, or do you make the big budget show for the masses that will take it a step further with far more opportunities for profit? Now, Fox completely fucked up the X-men but sold a hell of a lot of DVDs and movie tickets, video games, toys, etc to previously NON comic book fans at the expense of the Claremont era X-men fans that made making an X-men movie worthwhile to begin with.
I think as nerds we've suffered some pretty heinous bullshit in the past 10 years. Lucas murdered Star Wars, Fox killed the X-men and gave Deadpool laser-vision, comic book movies are getting very lame, and I think that "jump the shark" feeling might be that we're tensing our abdominal muscles in anticipation for a kick in the balls?
I like the show. I like some of the character additions and the writing so far has been knocking it out of the park. Until that changes I'm going to relax and enjoy it but I know what you mean. I'm nervous about the shark-jumpage too.
