We’re a big admirers of AMC’s The Walking Dead here at Seriable. To say that the small screen adaptation has been a success is a major understatement. But if there’s one thing I’ve frequently heard that just doesn’t sit right with me, it’s that Dead is the most shocking series on television.
Personally, I wouldn’t consider it to be the most shocking thing on AMC, let alone television.
There’s no doubt that Dead is gruesome, gory, and darn-right bloody. But I struggle to recall an instance where the show’s so-called ‘shocking moments’ have out-shocked those from Breaking Bad‘s box of delightful horrors.
To support my argument, I’ve tracked down 4 moments from Bad that pretty much out-shock any from the first season of Dead. All subjective, of course, but head past the jump to see whether or not you agree.
I should begin this by saying that the intention isn’t to diminish Dead in any way – anyone who follows Seriable regularly knows that we’re all about the zombie apocalypse series. But we’re also about keeping it real.
For context, here’s a list of some of (what I consider to be) the most shocking moments from the first season of Dead:
Rick shooting zombie girl in the head.- Rick eulogizing ‘bicycle girl’ before shooting her.
- Rick and Glenn covering themselves with zombie guts.
- Any moment featuring Daryl Dixon with a pick-axe or cross-bow.
- Merle’s hand-y work.
- Amy getting chewed on by zombie.
- Andrea blowing Amy’s brains out during zombie transformation.
- numerous other zombie attacks.
I’m sure you all have your own favorites, and possibly some that I’ve missed out. But I think that’s a solid list.
With that in mind, here are just 4 moments from Breaking Bad that I believe carry more shock-value than those listed above from The Walking Dead. (There are more, but I couldn’t find all of the necessary video clips):
“Acid In The Bathtub”
“Tuco Goes Nuts”
“This Is Not Meth”
“Half Measures”
It could be argued that these moments carry greater shock-value (if you agree with my opinion) because Breaking Bad is ground in a less fantastical world than the zombie-laden Walking Dead. While that may carry some degree of truth, I don’t fully buy into that idea because LOST, for example, had its fair share of fantasy trappings, yet it consistently left many fans wide-eyed and open-jawed.
For me, it’s largely about the characters and the way they approach the major moments in the story. In Bad, everything goes through our characters. We experience high moments of tension, absurdity (and humor, it has to be said) through Mr. White and Jesse, and their reactions to events. And let’s not forget the unpredictability of it all.
With The Walking Dead, while a lot of time is spent on character development, I don’t think they’ve quite hit that level of intoxication yet – and as I’ve touched on previously, the character reactions to crazy happenings don’t always hit their mark (Rick at the end of “Wildfire”, for example). This may, in part, be down to the very short 6 episode first season, but I do think the level of acting and writing is just a notch better in Bad.
That being said, it’s great to have both of these superb series returning for another chapter in 2011.
Do you agree with my opinion that Breaking Bad walks all over The Walking Dead in the ‘shock’ department? Or do you believe The Walking Dead‘s boots are made of sterner stuff? Feel free to share your opinions.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Without saying too much, I absolutely agree that Breaking Bad is much more shocking than The Walking Dead. I think the writing is better on Breaking Bad, and the higher amount of episodes also helps. The first shocking moment in BB was in the second episode, but their reactions were understandable because the horrific nature of what Walt and Jesse got themselves into. The unpredictability does play a major role in my opinion – and in a zombie world, although sometimes unpredictable, usually has the same atmosphere. For example, I can add two great moments to the Walking Dead that are ‘shocking’ to me. The first, when Rick and crew were in Atlanta and the other gang pops up and steals their stuff. And the second, when Rick and their leader are standing off and the grandma comes up, showing they are actually benevolent.
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“The first, when Rick and crew were in Atlanta and the other gang pops up and steals their stuff.”
That’s a decent shout. While I’m not sure I personally found it ‘shocking’, it was definitely a moment of high tension.
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It’s like you said the characters make it shocking on Breaking Bad, I think they’ve been working on that at The Walking Dead though, for example…
Shane killing Otis, it was shocking because it began Shane’s descent into bad guy territory.
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