The Walking Dead needs some new writers

Dear producers of The Walking Dead,

You have got to get a better writing staff.

[For those of you reading this not a producer, FYI there are WALKING DEAD SEASON THREE SPOILERS AHEAD]

Season Two obviously dragged on, but the first half of season three was showing us that all bets were off and that there will be high paced action.  It delivered a new dangerous setting, new characters, and even a new danger--other people.  

I should've known that when the second black guy in a row dies only to be replaced by a new black character, things were only going to get worse.  (And no, I definitely wasn't the only one who noticed that.)

I don't know what it is, but your minority and female character writing is hit or miss.  Michonne is still awesome, Carol has grown incredibly, Maggie is a solid part of the front line.  But what the hell did you think you could with Lori after you dragged on the love triangle through half that previous season like a roadkill stuck on the grill of a truck?  Of course you had to kill her off.  There was no redemption possible with a character as inconsistent as Lori.

And now you've gone and done the same thing to Andrea.  She got hypnotized by Governor dick and only in the second to last episode in the season does she realize that this dude has serious issues.  Oh my god, hasn't she figured out she's attracted to the crazies?  Forget the tanks full of heads or the locked up zombie daughter or the farming and entertainment of keeping walkers in a town you promised to protect or lying to you about attacking your friends... but you find a make-shift torture chair that Milton decided to show you and now suddenly you want to leave?  You couldn't trust the woman who saved your life multiple times when she told you that the place is shady?  This could've been a more captivating story of friends with different survival structures, but instead you made Andrea a confused symbol of whatever the hell the writer wanted to exemplify for 10 minutes of the episode.  I did not mourn her death because even in death, she needlessly hesitated over some bullshit!

My conclusion is not that you can't write female characters, you just don't know who to write conflicted characters well.  Ever.  Look at Rick's wavering in the second and third season, which is suppose to show how hard it is for him to be good.  NO IT'S NOT!  It's just when he thinks more than five seconds is when people die, but when he uses his conscious do things work out they way they should for his group.  Well, at least this season, but let's not talk about how you tried to present Shane as crazy in season two when he was just angry and adaptive to his environment.  

Did your writers not know what to do with all these new characters?  Why introduce the holed-up inmates if you end up killing ALL of them?  Why only have Tyreese for four episodes of the season?  Why wait until right before the finale to have us empathize with the Governor's henchmen?  Why develop Milton that late on as well?  Gah!  Too many whys that only distance me from the show and it's world, not make me any more interested.  

This finale definitely left me as a fan on a down note.  There was a lot of wasted potential, especially for those of us who actually read the goddamn comic.  Below I'm going to list everything that disappointed me, partly as a fan and partly as a writer.  

-Tyreese and Sasha were ridiculously under-utilized.  We need their moral sanity to balance the crazy Rick bought to the table.  Herschel is more spiritual, Tyreese is more practical.  More of him and Sasha.

-Even with the Governor surprising everyone, he cannot gun down twenty people by himself!  Especially when half of them have guns!  

-It was way too late to introduce the Carl rebellion subplot.  Should've done that episodes ago, even if it won't blow up until next season

-Am I really suppose to believe there were enough people who just decided to immigrate from Woodbury with the enemy they were told to avoid?

-HOLY CRAP YOU LEAD US TO BELIEVE SHIT WAS GOING DOWN AND WE ONLY GOT FIVE MINUTES OF ACTUAL CONFLICT?!?!?!?!

What a cop-out.  And now that Rick has even more people to be responsible for, how the hell are we going to start next season?  They're stuck in the jail with these children and old fogies to protect now?  Rick is suddenly just letting any old person into the group?  As much as Carl is on the path to being a murderous dick he has a point--you can't just trust people these days anymore.  So we're going to let half a town of strangers in a compound that you can't secure? And now others are going to think you're going to have open arms to accept them?  Word is going to fucking spread and you know it, you dumbasses.

I'm afraid next season, I may find myself not giving a shit.  I'll probably still watch it because it's zombies, and if zombies are involved I'm interested.  But I imagine instead of one in thousands, I'll be one in dozens.  Until you get some writers who can do something inspiring with this setting.  Because right now, you're story is begging for an actual story to tell.  

Sincerely

d20 Sapphire

P.S.  What would I write to save you?  Nuh-uh, no freebies.  Let's sign a contract and I'll give you some pointers.  The only tip you're getting is that if you haven't read World War Z already, you should and be ashamed that it took you this long.  

Zombie in a Penguin Suit.

It really is that simple.



It gets poignant when you get to the credits. P.S. This is a short film by Chris Russel, who luckily has tapped into my re-burgeoning zombie love.

The Walking Dead, Season 1.

You would think that by now, I would've watched this series already.  I am a fan of zombie genre, and especially the modern incarnations of it.  But it wasn't until a friend of mine was talking about how he was excited for season 2 that I was finally compelled to see season 1.  

Totally.  Worth. Your time.

You don't have to be into zombies to appreciate the themes in the story.  It mainly follows Rick Grimes, in his quest to find peace in this new zombie world.  Throughout the story you not only follow Rick and the group he's surviving with, but there are also little vignettes of other's lives and sacrifices, and it's tears through your heart.

For those of you looking for a general review, I highly suggest it.  I always go on and on about how well written TV is in short supply, and the Walking Dead gives me hope.  Characters that have depth, setting that doesn't feel forced, and dialogue that isn't ridiculous.  If there are cliches, they are hidden very well.  

It's a well produced show, gross enough for a zombie epic without trying to be over the top.  Nothing is done merely for spectacle, even though spectacle is a tool used.  

If you haven't seen it, and you like a good story, watch it.  Consider the zombies as an extra bonus.

SPOILERS AHEAD

For those of you have watched the show... I am seriously saddened that I can't watch season 2.  Season 1  was brilliantly executed, which although started the way many zombie sagas start: Guy waking up in a coma in the hospital, doesn't know all about zombies.  However Rick Grimes is smart enough to survive the first 2 hours to get to home, and then almost gets eaten.

Throughout the series, helpful strangers seem to be the theme.  We first meet a father and son team that teach Rick about the world.  Then Glen introduces Rick to the idea of escape.  There's the "gangsters" that took over the abandoned old home, the group that took in Rick after he screwed up their escape plan, the scientist that lets the group into the facility on a whim.  Kindness is not lost in this world.

Nor are the stresses of regular life.  Siblings squabble.  Spouses argue.  Bigotry infects.  It's all just amplified with the new stresses of having the undead trying to eat your face off.  And there's no therapy session to help you work through it.  The people who end up surviving in this situation are tough not only on the outside, but on the inside too.  Their convictions are keeping them through.

There's also a good mix of characters to "like" and "hate".  There aren't ones specifically designed to feel  one way or another, throughout the 6 episodes you can empathize with them all.  Shane just wants the comfort of a family, and took it from Rick when he was "dead".  With Rick back, his opportunity of having that is now completely gone.  Who's going to be making a family now?  Jim was probably never going to be fully sane anyway with his survivor's guilt on top of his general traumatic experiences.  Darryl flies off the handle, but he probably has the best survival skills out there.  They get on your nerves, but you can never fully hate them.

And now I'm kicking myself for not being able to see season 2.  Season 1 made it sound like there's no hope for an actual cure, or at least a sanctuary, but I'm still hopeful.  The bullets will run out, the cars will stop moving, and I'll still think they have a chance with their bare hands.  That's just me.  And the show helps you have hope too.

So if you're watching Season 2, don't tell me a thing.  I'll hold on to hope until the last minute of the series.

Possible awesome zombie movie

I didn't find out until last night that they're making a World War Z movie.  

THAT'S RIGHT!  A movie about one of the most realistic fictionalizations of a zombie apocalypse.  Part of the reason I like it so much is that it is so thoughtful about what would happen on a global scale.  And now they're doing a movie about it.

Some of you would be like Mystic and somewhat skeptical about how they will redo the movie, knowing that they'll have to cut out something.  But I do have some hope.  The movie is still keeping the interview style of the book, as Brad Pitt as the UN appointed author that conducts the interviews.  There will be flashback.  Sure, they're not going to use every interview in the book to tell the story, but there are definitely going to be some awesome moments.

Set to open December 21st, 2012.  One of the few movies I'm definitely doing a midnight showing.  Who's with me?

Why can't it be simple! I just want a zombie RPG.

I'm on a zombie kick recently.  I love playing Left 4 Dead 2 (want to play with me on steam?), I loved reading World War Z, and I apparently can't stop thinking about post apocalyptic settings at night.  Not to suggest I'm having nightmares, but still.

So I went to Games Plus this Sunday, I tried to find a good Zombie RPG.  I am sure I could find something online, but I wanted to support a business that has been doing a good job for years.

I saw two games there.  Unfortunately neither one really got to what makes any zombie game good: bare bone grittiness.

I forgot the name of the first one(edit: Hippe Mama reminded me below that is was called Dead Reign), but I knew I couldn't use it.  Apparently zombies don't carry an infection... they feed off of your "life energy" or something similar when they attack you.  That seemed way too mystical for what I wanted, and convoluted.  So zombies don't need to kill me to get what they want?  How are they dangerous then?  Why do they need to attack and kill?

The other one is All Flesh Must Be Eaten, which I had seen around before but never really read.  Once again, though, there was illusion to mystical super powers.  I figured I could avoid that but then the way the used the d20 system was needlessly complicated.  And I've played 3.0 D&D, so I do not say that lightly.  I didn't even want to try it out.

This is all I want from my zombie RPG: stats for zombies, stats for players, ways for combat, idea for making the setting interesting and not just try to recreate L4D (because it's a fun video game, but needs substance for an RPG)

I'm going to look for another one before I give up and make my own.  But I don't want one with magic, with weird stuff on how zombies feed on not people, or any other weird hokey pokey.  Just a fucked up world with zombies.

World War Z: Need to Read Nerd Book.

World War Z by Max Brooks is the scariest book I have ever read.  It's not because of zombies being scary in general, it not because of violence, and it's not because it brings something new and exciting to an old monster.  It's because it's a scarily accurate prediction of what were to happen if the zombie apocalypse were to happen.

Brooks essentially takes the world the way it is now and figures out what would happen culturally, politically, psychologically and even geographically with a zombie attack.  The infection starts in China, and over time spread across the entire globe.  There's no explanation as to why the infection starts, nor why it works the way it does.  But it is devastating, partly due to people acting the way people do.

I have to applaud the future world that Brooks creates, and the knowledge of the rest of the world necessary to paint such a perfect picture.

It is structured as interviews taken after the declared success of World War Z.  Each person interview talks about a piece of the experience from different parts of the world.  It's perfect for a zombie apocalypse book since it's the entire world that's affected.  You hear about regular family experiences, military forces, people in special positions.

It is gruesomely true to humanity--all of its strengths and flaws.  The strengths help us actually see the ending of the book, but the flaws help show how gruesome and scarily truthful civilization falls due to the situation.    And that is why this book is scary.  It's extremely truthful.  As a reader, you can see where Brooks gets it right.  It makes you hope that zombies don't happen, because it'll bring out the worst of people, a side you don't want to see.

The political predictions are accurate as well, and makes you see the current world differently.  The split in China, the newly formed Holy Russian Empire,  USA pushing the war effort, and the eeriest thing is what happens to North Korea... but I don't want to spoil it.

If you want a sneak peak of the book, listen to this reading of a chapter by Mark Hamill, about the Battle of Yonkers.  I suggest people read it.  It is enjoyable, and it's the kind of scary where you can still sleep at night (even if you think zombies do exist).  I think it'll be a nerd read necessity soon, added to every geek library.