Well, it’s no longer a potential spoiler. Following word that The Walking Dead was circling John Hawkes for the important role of the Governor, the actor’s publicist has moved swiftly to throw cold water on the notion.

“John is NOT appearing on The Walking Dead,” publicist Karen Samfilippo told TheWrap.

This follows makeup artist/actor Tom Savini‘s claims that while he wants the role for himself, the show has their sights on Hawkes (24, Deadwood, LOST) for what is sure to be an iconic part, given the character’s status in the graphic novels on which the AMC serial is based:

“Every time I see the graphic novel and I see a picture of the Governor, who looks just like me, I send Greg a picture. I just won’t give up. Last time I talked to him about it, when I was in Los Angeles, he said they were going after a name for that part. I said, “Who?” He said John Hawkes. Well, I never heard of John Hawkes.”

So, with Hawkes seemingly out of the running, who should get the part if and when it comes along? Would you like to see Savini get his wish, or  do you think another actor should fill the Governor’s boots?

MORE: The Walking Dead Season 2 Return — Watch The First 4 Minutes

A new promo for the Season 2 continuation of The Walking Dead teases the carnage and sorrow of surviving Sophia.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YihnFynwmB0

[via]

Watch First 4 Minutes of Nebraska

Is this former LOST and 24 actor being groomed as The Walking Dead‘s tyrannical Governor?

Possible Walking Dead spoilers may follow. Proceed with discreation..

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Fans of the Walking Dead graphic novel will be all too aware of the Governor, a monstrous survivor who rules over a community of settlers with a tyrannical fist. His onscreen arrival/transformation is highly anticipated by many fans of the AMC series. But who will get the part if and when it becomes available?

Actor/makeup effects maestro Tom Savini has spoken about his desire to land the part, and in doing so reveals who the show might actually be eying as the Governor. He told Dread Central:

“Listen, I have been campaigning to be the Governor on that damn thing with Greg Nicotero for over a year. Every time I see the graphic novel and I see a picture of the Governor, who looks just like me, I send Greg a picture. I just won’t give up. Last time I talked to him about it, when I was in Los Angeles, he said they were going after a name for that part. I said, “Who?” He said John Hawkes. Well, I never heard of John Hawkes. But then he reminds me that we were in From Dusk Till Dawn together. He is the guy at the beginning in the store that fires on them. Apparently he was up for an Academy Award; he was up for something called Winter’s Bone. That’s whom they are going after for the Governor.”

John Hawkes is a credible actor and certainly no stranger to the seriable screen, appearing in the likes of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, 24, Deadwood and LOST. Is he ‘Governor’ material? Hardcore fans of the graphic novel might be able to offer more insight in that regard.

Of course, this is very much rumor mill city and I wouldn’t expect to see the character for some while yet (assuming the Governor is not already amongst the current crop of survivors, given the show’s freedom to veer off the graphic novel path).

via: Blastr

Discover what happens immediately after Barnageddon with the first 4 minutes of The Walking Dead‘s Season 2 return — “Nebraska”.

After the destruction of his family, Herschel demands that Rick and his group leaves immediately. Shane and Rick’s differences begin to openly erupt.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjXklg5mnJE

[via]

A new FOX promo provides more insight into the continuing survival drama that is The Walking Dead Season 2.5. Contains new footage.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-5NtCQ237Q

[via]

Walking Dead EPs Glen Mazzara and Robert Kirkman discuss the challenge of satisfying the show’s “two different audiences” and tease the big payoffs that are coming in the second half of the season.

On the show’s fanbase, Kirkman believes they fall into two distinct groups:

“As far as the show goes, there are these two distinct audiences. There is the audience that loves watching zombies get their heads split open and there is an audience that just loves watching people kiss and deal with this horrific world they’re living in. It’s a fun game to watch them bounce back and forth between being really happy and unhappy.”

On satisfying the different fan groups:

“It’s kind of a strange thing that we have two different audiences watching this show, but we’re never going to make them happy at the same time. At the end of the day, we’re trying to do a cool show that they all seem to dig, so we’ve just got to keep doing what we do.”

Mazzara on laying the foundations for an action-packed second half of the season:

“If there’s a zombie attack in every other scene the show would play as a video game and people would not really respond to it. I think in our midseason finale, we were building to that climax to where Sophia comes out of the barn, remember that was a twist on already a big scene. That was by design and the entire season has been designed to have huge payoffs, smaller character moments and I think that there’s a lot of things in the show that satisfies many people in the audience. At the end of the run all fans will be happy with this show. It’s just packed, particularly in the second half of the season.”

Source: MTV Splashpage

The Walking Dead returns Sunday, Feb 12 on AMC

The Episode titles and story details for the final 5 episodes of The Walking Dead‘s second season have arrived to tease the trajectory to the third season.

Spoiler alert — do not read if you don’t want to know anything about the upcoming episodes!

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Take a look at the upcoming episode titles along with their outlines (and air dates where mentioned) below:

2.09 “Triggerfinger“: Rick, Hershel and Glen are trapped and fight to survive; Shane finds Lori in danger. Premieres Feb 19

2.10 “18 Miles Out“: Rick and Shane are in conflict over the fate of an outsider; Andrea helps Hershel’s daughter face a crucial decision. Premieres Feb 26

2.11 “Judge, Jury, Executioner“: Rick sides with Shane causing Dale to worry that the group is losing its humanity; Carl’s actions have unintended consequences.

2.12 “Better Angels“: Someone dangerous may be loose near the farm; Rick, Shane, Daryl and Glenn keep the group safe.

2.13 “Beside The Dying Fire“: Rick and Carl find the farm in jeopardy; the group is split up in the chaos; Rick’s leadership is questioned.

Source: Zap2It

Not a great deal to go on but certainly enough to give a general sense of where the second-half of the season is heading. Key points for me are the continuing conflict between Rick and Shane (we already know this to be the touchstone of the season); the introduction of various ‘outsiders’; Rick siding with Shane over an issue which brings his humanity (and that of the group) in question; Carl doing something that has unintended consequences (shooting someone, as hinted in the new promo?); and the group getting split in the finale, leaving us with Rick’s leadership abilities in doubt.

Before the action in these episodes, we of course have the midseason premiere to look forward to. “Nebraska” will see the immediate aftermath of Sophia’s demise — catch it 9/8c, Feb 12, AMC.

A new action-filled promo for the Walking Dead midseason return offers an exciting look at the upcoming episodes of the zombie serial. Contains new footage.

After the destruction of his family, Herschel demands that Rick and his group leaves immediately. Shane and Rick’s differences begin to openly erupt.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1mJLfhtSPk

[via]

Ever wondered what The Walking Dead opening credits would look like recut to the Growing Pains theme? Neither did I, but that’s just what someone has gone out and done. The result? An intro that’s sure to reflect new dynamics of the group following ‘baby-gate’.

Watch the ‘alternate’ credits in the player below:

It just goes to show how easily something can be taken out of context, but if the show’s not careful with all the baby-drama, this might soon be its actual intro. Just kidding, TWD.

Here’s the proper Growing Pains intro:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfPQ_yQKZ8o

Source: Movie Web

A new FOXLA promo arrives to tease the return of The Walking Dead. Take a new look at what the heart-pounding “Nebraska” has in store.

After the destruction of his family, Herschel demands that Rick and his group leaves immediately. Shane and Rick’s differences begin to openly erupt.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nC_hJ__s3I

HT: JD @ Especialista En Series

Word is that a certain actor on The Walking Dead is in negotiations to reunite with the show’s former executive producer, Frank Darabont, on his new period piece L.A. Noir. Can you guess who it is?

According to reports, Jon Bernthal, who plays zombie survivor hot-head Shane, is eyeing a role in Darabont’s TNT period drama, L.A. Noir.

Sources close to the situation claim that discussions are at a very early stage and there’s no guarantee a deal will come together. It would, however, mark a reunion between Bernthal and Darabont, who was fired from the show last summer after ‘disagreements’ over the show’s reduced second-season budget.

TNT have declined to comment, but we’ll keep you updated on any developments.

Source: Variety

Thanks to Robert A and Jill S for the tip.

Additional photos for the midseason return of The Walking Dead have arrived online, while stars Melissa McBride and Norman Reedus discuss life after Barnaggedon for our post-apocalyptic survivors.

Spoilers if you’re yet to see The Walking Dead midseason 2 finale!

First up, McBride and Reedus explained to MTV Splashpage what the loss of Sophia means for Carol and the fractious survivors going forward:

“For my character Carol, she’s got to deal with the grief and how she’s going to move forward.

I think keeping hope alive for her represented, even though all the odds were against finding her alive, you just sort of cling to that hope. [Sophia represented] that unseen thing that’s going to carry you through and to have her come through the barn the way she did, I think it’s really throwing a lot of doubt on faith. What unseen thing is going to help us through this? Is it really out there?”

Reedus adds:

“I think for all of us she was a symbol of hope. If we could hold onto her then [we'd] maybe save a little piece of ourselves as well. Once that went down, all bets are off and everybody’s miserable and homicidal at this point, especially [Carol].”

Source: MTV SplashPage

Meanwhile, two more promotional photos for the midseason premiere, “Nebraska,” have arrived — check them out below, along with the previously-released photos in the gallery:

Poor Dale, I hope he didn’t have to load the truck up by himself, seeing as this is pretty much Shane’s mess.

In case you missed this week’s new sneak peek and teaser, you can catch them both here. The Walking Dead returns Sunday, Feb 12 at 9 on AMC.

In his first proper interview since getting the boot from AMC‘s The Walking Dead, Frank Darabont shares his feelings about the exit, including why he feels he had “no choice” at an outcome that left him feeling like a narrator observing his own death. He also talks about his new project with TNT, L.A. Noir.

Darabont told TV Guide how L.A Noir came about:

I’ve loved noir my whole life, and I’ve always wanted to go into that area of storytelling. I’m a huge Raymond Chandler buff, which is actually why I grabbed this book off the shelf at LAX in the bookstore as I was about to get on a flight. It seemed right up my alley. I read it on the flight, and then the following day after I couldn’t put the darn thing down. When I got back from that trip I called my agent to find out if the rights were available and word came back to me that the rights were with [former New Line president] Mike De Luca, whom I’ve known since 1986. So I called Mike and said, “What are you thinking of doing with this?” He said “I don’t know, you want to do something with me?” And boom, it was that easy.

The strange confluence of good fortune extended beyond that because Mike had a meeting to go in and talk to Michael Wright at TNT, and no sooner had this come out of his mouth that Michael said, “I want this.” It’s a book he had read because he’s also obsessed with this era and this genre. He knew the book intimately and was quoting from it in this meeting. It should always be this easy. It’s not always, but this has been great.

On the focus of L.A. Noir and its central characters:

That’s going to be the fun of doing this, to invent that tapestry of characters. The very first character I came up with, an invention of mine, is a character named Joe Teague, who was on the police force. And he’s caught in that moral gray zone between the William Parkers of the world and the Mickey Cohens of this world. And what a great, fun gray zone to be in. Caught, as he puts it, between the white hats and the black hats.

On striking a balance between real-life and fictional events:

I think that’s yet to be determined. I’ve focused on writing the pilot script and I’ve got some sort of long-range arcs in my head, what would comprise the first season. Certainly Mickey Cohen and Bugsy Siegel and William Parker will be vital components of that. But where exactly the mix lands, that’s work yet to be done. Joe Teague is the lead of the pilot, he will be a good way to step into this world. And what’s a good noir without a great noir dame? I definitely have in mind a very, very nice, complicated girlfriend for Joe. It’s not quite a meet-cute scenario but they’re definitely going to have some heat to it I think.

On the value of long-form storytelling:

I love the oblique nature of how stories can be told [on television]. Rather than jamming everything you want to say into a two and a half hour movie, you go, “OK, this year we’re making an eight-hour movie.” We don’t have to get to the point right away. We can hint at it. We can come through the backdoor, keep the audience intrigued by something. It’s completely different because you can come at it from a completely different, sneakier angle or perspective and that’s really fun.

In a clear dig at AMC, Darabont says he’s looking forward to working with his ‘respectful’ partners at TNT:

They are by all accounts a fantastic place to work. They treat their creative partners with respect and dignity and humanity and integrity, and after the last two years I’m really looking forward to experiencing those things.

L.A. Noir is slated to begin shooting in April.

THE WALKING DEAD

Here’s what Darabont had to say about his much-talked about, yet not officially explained, departure from the zombie serial:

It was, for the sake of my cast and my crew, a tremendously regretful thing to face, to have to leave. But I was really given no choice. I don’t understand the thinking behind, “Oh, this is the most successful show in the history of basic cable. Let’s gut the budgets now.” I never did understand that and I think they got tired of hearing me complain about it. It’s a little more complicated than that, but that’s as far as I want to go with it because otherwise it’s just provoking more controversy and that’s not really of interest to me. I just want to keep my head down and do my job and be allowed to do my job, that’s key, and continue to, hopefully, enjoy it and do good work.

On the cast:

These people are like family to me. It has not been easy for anybody. Let me put it that way: It was like a death in the family. Only I was the dead guy. I felt like William Holden, face down in the swimming pool, narrating this thing.

Source TV Guide

Frank Darabont On His Season 2 Walking Dead Opener That Never Was

A new teaser for the second-half of The Walking Dead Season 2 staggers online like a plague. We also have a brand new sneak peek at the returning episode, “Nebraska.”

“Like A Plague” — Season 2 Teaser:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wy6oRUybpOw

2.08 “Nebraska” — Sneak Peek

www.youtube.com/watch?v=taQ8NnMqt3I

[via]

Who are our new friends and how will they impact the already fragile dynamic of the farm?..

Dead returns Sunday, Feb 12 at 9 on AMC

The Walking Dead Season 3 Gets Supersized

At Saturday’s press tour, the zombie serial’s showrunner weighed in on the aborted Frank Darabont Season 2 opener. There’s also the latest on what’s in store for part 2 of the season, the possible arrival of a fan-favorite from the graphic novels, and why fans interested in how the zombie outbreak started might be in for a disappointment.

Showrunner Glen Mazzara confirmed that ousted season 1 showrunner Frank Darabont‘s Season 2 premiere plans were discussed but set aside as it felt like a detour:

“That story was discussed internally, that was Frank’s pitch. We all responded to it. It was one of many ideas in the writers room. It felt like business too far away from our core characters. It was under Frank’s stewardship, when he was showrunner, that we moved off of that storyline. It was never written, it was never budgeted. It felt like a stall. We have a lot ideas like that. It’s just the nature of TV. That was not something that was rejected by another party.”

The ‘rules’ on how fast a zombie can move and the speed at which a dead person might change into a zombie, have evolved — and viewers aren’t necessarily supposed to know these rules, explained the graphic novel’s creator Robert Kirkman:

“It’s something we’re very mindful of. The speed in which you turn into a zombie is based on your physical health at the the time of death … while it does seem to be somewhat random, we are paying attention to that.

[The zombie resurrection rules] remain to be seen [in the show].  [Season 2 zombies aren't faster than their Season 12 predecessors] They get whipped into a frenzy if there’s a meal close by.”

On the speculated arrival of Michonne — the katana-wielding fan-favorite from the comic books:

Kirkman: “That’s not confirmed. I can say that’s definitely a character we want to work into the show at some point in the future. Whether that happens this season, i don”t really know.”

Note: True Blood’s Rutina Wesley recently denied she had been tapped to play Michonne.

Following the ghastly demise of the girl who ran, Carol will find new strength — and her relationship with Daryl will also be a point of development:

“She might find some strength in herself. Carol has always depended on other people … it forces Carol to stand on her own. One of the traps of that character is to just make her the grieving mom.”

Now for one that might be a tad ‘controversial’ — the writers don’t know how the zombie outbreak occurred, so we might not get an answer to that mystery for a while — if ever:

Mazzara: “Internally, we don’t know where the zombie outbreak started, how to cure it, anything like that. We haven’t really discussed it. We’re more interested in the continuing storylines.

That’s something that’s not really addressed in the book. And that’s something that we’d like to keep. “This show is about our characters. And about them trying to stay alive, hold on to their humanity, find a safe place, hopefully rebuild civilization. Just everything’s collapsed. So they’re under incredible duress. It doesn’t feel right that they would have those answers, and even if they did have those answers, what would they do with them?”

I think part of the success of the show is that it feels immediate. It feels like we’re following the little guys. And they don’t have the answers and they desperately need them to survive.”

Other bits:

• Rick Vs Shane will continue to be “the heart of the show” moving forward, confirmed Mazzara.
• As we reported earlier, the third season will contain 16 episodes, slated to land in the fall and will be sliced into two halves again.

Source: EW | The Wrap

The clock is winding down on Rosie’s Larsen’s killer — whoever than might be. At Saturday’s press tour, AMC announced the return dates for The Killing, Mad Men and set a ballpark return for Breaking Bad‘s fifth season and the second season of Hell On Wheels.

The cabler has also beefed up the third season of zombie serial, The Walking Dead.

The Killing Season 2, which continues the hunt for Rosie’s murderer while introducing a new case, begins with a 2-hour premiere on Sunday, April 1, at 8/7c. Would you believe it, the rain-drenched serial goes up against the second season of HBO’s epic fantasy, Game Of Thrones at 9PM.

Furthermore, AMC’s SVP original programming Joel Stillerman reiterated the plan to reveal Rosie’s killer at the end of Season 2:

“I can stand here and confirm that we heard everyone, and the killer will be revealed in the Season 2 finale of The Killing. We explored veering away from the original Danish model (following the controversy). At the end of the day, after significant discussion, we decided that resolving the murder at the end of Season 2 was the best plan.”

AMC has also confirmed Jon Hamm’s mention of the show’s fifth season — debuting Sunday, March 25 at 9 pm, with a two-hour premiere.

As for The Walking Dead, the cabler confirmed that the already (barn) locked third season will expand by 3 episodes, moving it up to a 16-episode season as opposed to the current 13. Season 3 will begin around October 2012.

In addition to all of that, AMC confirmed Breaking Bad will come back in the third quarter of this year along with the second season of Hell On Wheels in the fourth quarter.

Source: Deadline

AMC has unveiled a seriously-centric Rick Grimes poster for the Season 2 continuation of The Walking Dead.

The sobering poster reminds us (as if we’ve forgotten) of the kind of image Sophia saw before she was dispatched. Check it:

Source: Coming Soon

The Walking Dead returns this February with “Nebraska“

We cast our eyes back on the year that was by rounding up our best and worst from serialized TV in 2011, and take a peek at our most anticipated new seriables of 2012.

The Seriable team have come up with the the following list featuring the best and worst from the bowl of serial served up in 2011. Where did your favorite shows and characters rank? Read on to find out. Contains 2011 ‘spoilers’ for a variety of seriable TV shows.

BEST SERIALIZED TV CHARACTER 2011

1. Carrie Mathison (HOMELAND) – She had us from the moment she said: “maybe it is all in my head, but you’re in it now, Virgil, right up to your f— neck..” But victory wasn’t sealed until her all-encompassing implosion during the culmination of Homeland‘s first season. It was in these moments of total conviction meets utter despair that this character cemented herself into our seriable hearts. Not only is Carrie highly absorbing, she managed to have a ‘romantic entanglement’ and commit highly questionable acts without damaging the story or making her less interesting (other shows take note!). And we sense the surface has only just been scratched.

2. Gus Fring (BREAKING BAD) – Gus was pretty much everything you could ask for in a ‘villain’. In the fourth season we got to see what broke him bad for good, and that exploration, armed with a compelling set of circumstances and an explosive ending, almost took him to the top of the class.

3. Jesse Pinkman (BREAKING BAD) – With the help of Mike and the beloved Gustavo Fring, Jesse managed to overcome his many obstacles, transforming from a depressed loser into the show’s definitive moral compass. While his partner Mr White is sinking, Jesse is becoming stronger and stronger as an inspiring force within the grim boundaries of Heisenberg’s realm.

4. Nicholas Brody (HOMELAND) – If Carrie Mathison was great, Nick Brody wasn’t far behind. The former prisoner of war was compelling to watch, allowing the audience became ‘mini Carrie’s’ as we looked for cracks in his facade. Hero, villain or neither, Nick Brody certainly left his mark.

5. Eddard Stark (GAME OF THRONES) – People lost their minds when he lost his head, and while we don’t share the outrage over his demise, we share the appreciation for a character that swung high even when the chips were low. Eddard existed in a cold-hearted world ruled by politics, greed and power, but he found it within himself to be the difference, even though it cost him everything. Oh, sweet summer child.

WORST SERIALIZED TV CHARACTER 2011

1. Jim Shannon (TERRA NOVA) — The words ‘contrived’, ‘cheesy’, and ‘awful’ shouldn’t sting Jim more than the words: ‘unbelievable’ and ‘unearned’. Because for Jim Shannon to go an entire season without giving us reason to believe in his journey, or earn his supposed position as “sheriff” and ‘saviour’ of humanity, speaks volumes for how not to build a protagonist.

2. Elisabeth Shannon (TERRA NOVA) — In many ways worse than her husband Jim, less screen-time saved her from getting taking the unwanted spoils. Such a great opportunity for a strong, layered character gone to waste. Utterly contrived and without connection to the things that came out of her mouth, Elisabeth needs a complete character implant if FOX decide to bring Terra Nova back for another round.

3. Lori Grimes (THE WALKING DEAD) — Some of serialized TV’s most interesting characters are those who are questionable in their actions (think Carrie Mathison, Walter White, Walter Bishop, etc), but Lori is a rotten character who only exists to be rotten. Watching Lori play between Rick and Shane, wish her son dead, and squat down in a field of melodrama, was a life-bar-sapping experience.

4. Sean Walker/Leila Buchanan (THE EVENT) — Because they’re the same character, right? We’re not fooled by time or distance. The Event may have left the building in the first half of 2011, but we remember how much of a struggle it was to watch these characters flip-flop their way from one contrivance to the next, while expecting us to believe their central role in the supposedly HUGE ‘events’ that fueled..The Event.

5. Quinn (DEXTER) — He was a ‘filler’ character ever since he Quinned his way into Dexter, but that’s not a bad thing per se. Many newcomers have turned out to become the most memorable characters of a show (Benjamin Linus, yes!) – but Quinn suffered this year as his season 5 arc was left unresolved, with the show’s valuable time focusing on his pointless nightlife. Will he ever rise from the disposable pit?

Continue Reading on Page 2..

Being Human‘s Sam Witwer has revealed details of The Walking Dead Season 2 opener that never saw the light of day due to Frank Darabont‘s firing. Darabont has also weighed in to explain his plan for what certainly sounds like a great opportunity missed.

In the player below, Witwer shares details of his role in The Walking Dead pilot and how it would have paid off in the season 2 premiere had Darabont not been ousted. He also gives his thoughts on AMC’s decision to fire Darabont in July 2011:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCyjdBac6p4

[Paranormal Pop Culture]

Aint It Cool confirmed the story with Darabont himself, who explained his idea:

I wanted to kick off the 2nd season with the flashback episode Sam describes, which would have followed a squad of Army Rangers getting trapped in the city and trying to survive as Atlanta falls.

The idea was to do this with a very focused “you are there” documentary feel. Not going all shaky-cam, but still making it a bit rawer and grainier than the rest of the show. We’d start with a squad of maybe seven or eight soldiers being dropped into the city by chopper. They have map coordinates they need to get to; they’ve been told to report to a certain place to provide reinforcement. It’s not a special mission, it’s basically a housekeeping measure putting more boots on the ground to reinforce key intersections and installations throughout the city. And we follow this group from the moment the copter sets them down. All they have to do is travel maybe a dozen blocks, a simple journey, but what starts as a no-brainer scenario goes from “the city is being secured” to “holy shit, we’ve lost control, the world is ending.” Our squad gets blocked at every turn and are soon just trying to survive. I wanted to do a really tense, character-driven ensemble story as communications break down, supply lines are lost, escape routes are cut off, morale falls apart, leadership unravels, mutinies heat up, etc. (Yes, this approach owes a spiritual debt to a number of great films, including Walter Hill’s Southern Comfort.)

Along the way, I thought we could briefly dovetail this story with a few established characters from the show. Not to overdo that, mind you, because it could get silly and too coincidental if you load too much into that idea. But I thought it would be great to veer off on a quick narrative detour that brushes our soldiers briefly up against some people we know. Picture our squad arriving at a manned barricade where some civilians are being held back from leaving the city on shoot-to-kill orders to stop the spread of contagion, it’s a panicked high-intensity scene, and in this crowd of desperate people we find Andrea and Amy. The barricade gunners panic, the civilians start to get mowed down by machine gun fire, and in this melee the girls get pulled to safety by some old guy they don’t even know. It’s Dale. He’s nobody to them, just some guy who saw the opportunity to do the right thing and reacted in the moment. This would have been perhaps a minute or two of the episode, just a cool detour like the various outposts the soldiers encounter in Saving Private Ryan, but we would have witnessed the moment that Dale meets Andrea and Amy, seen where that relationship began. I also felt it would be a great way to get Emma Bell back into the series for a moment, because she was so wonderful and we were all so sorry that her character died and she had to leave the show. (Of course if this “brush with established characters” idea didn’t work in the script stage, I’d have tossed it out. You try a lot of ideas like that as you go, see how they play. But I thought this one stood a pretty good chance of being engineered to work well.)

So the story follows these soldiers through hell as the city falls apart and the squad implodes, with Sam’s soldier being the main character and the moral center of the group. He becomes the last survivor of the squad, and he finally gets to the map coordinates they’ve been trying to get to from the start: it’s the barricade at the Atlanta courthouse intersection from the pilot where Rick later finds the tank. The soldier is still alive when he gets there, but he’s been bitten. He’s accomplished his “simple” mission, but he’s gone through seven kinds of hell to do it (including being forced to frag his squad leader), and now he’s dying. And he crawls off into the tank just to get off the street and under cover. As his fever builds and the poor guy starts to hallucinate, he pulls his last grenade and considers ending his life. He sets the grenade down on that shelf for a moment to reflect on all the shit and misery that brought him to this sad end-point of his life, and to dredge up the courage to pull the pin…but before he can act, the fever burns him out and he dies.

The kicker comes in the last moments of this episode:

After the soldier dies this squalid, lonely death…and after a quiet lapse of time…we do a shot-for-shot reprise from the first episode of the first season: Rick comes scrambling into the tank to escape the horde…blows that zombie soldier’s brains out…now Rick’s trapped…fade out…the end.

The notion was to take the “throwaway” tank zombie Rick encountered in the pilot, and tell that soldier’s story. Make him the star of his own movie, follow his journey, but don’t reveal who he is until the end. The idea being that every zombie has a story, every undead extra was once a human being with a life of his/her own…was, in a sense, the star of his own life’s movie. And we’ve followed this one particular guy and seen how his life ended; we witness his struggles, see his good intentions and his failures, and we experience his godawful death in this tank. That’s why I cast Sam as that tank zombie in the first place instead of just casting some extra. I had this story in mind while filming the pilot, and I knew I’d need a superb actor to play that soldier when the time came.

And then starting with Episode 202, we’d be back with Rick’s group and back in step with the flow of the established story from last season.

I always had in mind to throw in a “wild-card” episode every season, maybe as a season opener or closer. Just a separate story more in the feel of an anthology series, one that appears completely off the track of the regular series but actually does wind up tying in somehow by the fade-out. They did that sort of thing on LOST on occasion, and I really respected it. It always seemed like a bold choice that trusted the audience and rewarded their loyalty with a totally unexpected surprise episode every so often.

That’s it from me. I hope things are well on your end.

Best,

Frank

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Whatever the ins and outs of Darabont’s firing, Witwer’s right in that this opener is a loss of a fantastic idea, one that shows a great level of foresight that we don’t see in enough shows — including The Walking Dead, as it goes. It is a somewhat LOSTian concept (although not confined to that show) that, I think, would have been great to see — the kind of narrative fusion that would have sprinkled a little backstory while increasing viewers faith in the creative energy of the show. So in terms of great ideas, it’s certainly a shame that the show has been deprived of that.

Seriable Round is a round-up of stories and tidbits from the world of serialized TV that didn’t quite make the front page of Seriable.com over the past week or so.

This week’s Round includes: American Horror Story, Awake, Doctor Who, Game Of Thrones, Once Upon A Time, Ringer, The Walking Dead, and more.

AMERICAN HORROR STORY

The American Horror Story season 1 finale scared up a series high, attracting 3.22 million total viewers and averaging 2.19 million viewers in the adults 18-49 demo. [Deadline].

AWAKE

Awake co-stars Jason Isaacs and Wilmer Valderrama talk about the midseason reality-melding series with Mingle Media. Watch on the player below:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7frsgalCjiM

DOCTOR WHO

Check out this new Doctor Who Christmas Special clip which aired during Matt Smith‘s appearance on The Graham Norton Show earlier this week (clip begins around 2:40):

Matt Smith on Graham Norton Xmas 2011 by doctorwho-tv

Producer Marcus Wilson and actor Bill Bailey share their thoughts on the Doctor Who Christmas Special:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBGLd6Fm758

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jiKxlG26_8

While director Farren Blackburn provides some additional hints in an interview with SFX:

I would say there is a [mixture of tones]. It goes through several worlds. It’s most definitely a classic action-adventure but I think it merges into the Edwardian children’s story and there’s a sort of Tim Burton-esque magic about it as well. I think there’s a magic throughout the episode, but there is an underlying suspense and tension and darkness to it as well. So I think it merges those three things with an awful lot of Christmas about it.

Steven was very vocal initially saying he wanted it to be the most Christmassy Christmas special ever, and I’ve tried my best to give him that. So there is quite a lot of snow which was fantastic but painful all at the same time.

Favorite sequences to direct:

I think that there are two moments. The opening is just fantastic. It’s full on action-adventure. [He expands on this more in the magazine article.]

But there is also… I can’t say too much about where we go, but there is a turning point in the story where the young boy, Cyril, is attracted to this big glowing parcel under the Christmas tree and he does what every young kid is told not to do and he opens the parcel before Christmas Day. And it’s revealed that it’s a entrance into another world.

Once you get into that other world that’s where the magic really starts for me. So all those sequences beyond that were fantastic to shoot. That’s where all the Tim Burton moments take over and I really felt like I was making a movie at those points. The director of photography and I, between us we talked about how we wanted this world to look and it’s ended up just magical – beautiful and dark at the same time so that was thrill as well.”

GAME OF THRONES

Charles Dance, who plays Tywin Lannister on HBO’s Game Of Thrones, discusses the complexity the show’s characters and storylines. He also drops a potential spoiler (certainly in relation to the books on which the show is based) concerning the fate of his character, and says filming for Season 3 begins May/June 2012. You can watch the interview in the player below (via Blastr).

Game Of Thrones Season 2 fight choreography and stunts video:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOXvWRmaOfo

ONCE UPON A TIME

THR has posted an additional tidbit on Amy Acker‘s late winter appearance on Once Upon A Time as Grumpy/Leroy’s love-interest:

She’ll play a potential love interest to Lee Arenberg’s character Leroy/Grumpy. Yes, she’ll be playing the dual role of Astrid in the “modern” world of Storybrooke and Nova in the fairy tale world in a late-winter episode.

RINGER

Ringer has cast Matthew Del Negro to recur as Agent Grady Torrence. He’ll bump heads with Agent Machado. The newbie is described as cocky, slick and smooth. According to EW, he has his own agenda. He’ll make his Ringer debut in the March 6 episode.

THE WALKING DEAD

Two new FX UK promos for The Walking Dead Season 2 — “Life Goes On. Again”:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9OjUFxVD3E

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxuGrgyd0uI

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Projects In Development

EYE FOR AN EYE

Ice Cube is set to star and executive produce Eye For An Eye, a drama series in development at FX. Does it have Seriable potential? We’ll see. As reported by Deadline:

Eye For An Eye centers on a complex man, played by Ice Cube, who is a veteran paramedic. After too many years of leaving the scenes of violent crimes with a victim struggling to live in the back of his ambulance, he snaps and starts going eye for an eye. When his thirst for revenge proves addictive, his personal life spirals out of control as he tries to reconcile it with his newfound life as a vigilante.

Dexter is the most pirated TV show of 2011 with 3,620,000 downloads per single episode. More serialized TV shows join Dexter in this year’s top 10.

According to Bit Torrent news site Torrent Freak, Dexter is the most downloaded TV show of the year, with Game Of Thrones coming second with more downloads than television viewers in the US.

The rest of the top 10 is made up of fellow seriables The Walking Dead, Terra Nova, True Blood, and Breaking Bad. See the graphic below for the full list:

Despite the above figures, the overall number of TV show downloads is leveling off in the US, according to TorrentFreak. This is partly due to the availability of time-shifted viewing mediums such as DVR, Hulu, Netflix, and others, that allow viewers to consume episodes at their convenience. The ongoing challenge for networks is to leverage the power of time-shifted platforms within a business model that doesn’t lose revenue. This in turn would be good for serialized TV shows, which tend to produce strong time-shifted ratings.

Doctor Who iTunes Most Downloaded Show of 2011

Piracy of TV shows outside the US remains particularly strong, however, as fans often have to wait a while before their favorite show airs in their country. Many turn to Bit Torrent to be right up to speed on the latest plot twists and developments.

It’ll be interesting to see what next year’s picture looks like, as I suspect time-shifted platforms will continue to grow in significance.

Source: Torrent Freak

We’ve taken a look at our favorite and least favorite serialized TV trailers of 2011, now its time for the promotional posters. Like movie posters, TV one sheets are designed to capture a show’s most enticing/impactful visual message possible within the confines of a single sheet — but which posters rose to the occasion, and which failed to generate the buzz machine?

Worst Serialized TV Posters 2011

5. V — Season 2

The “V” represents the show’s title, but why is it floating and why are the characters casually sitting and standing on it? The disproportionate mother ship doesn’t help matters and there doesn’t appear to be a relevant theme in mind. Not even the presence of Queen Anna makes this blissful.

4. Alphas — Season 1

I understand and appreciate the desire to include the face of each Alpha team member — and that each face, in turn, represents its own separate poster, but there’s just way too much JJ. Abrams lens-flare going on. While this Alphas poster carries a ‘super’ element, it’s not very aesthetically pleasing and doesn’t convey a great deal about the show, beyond the fact that the characters are apparently great at doing the impossible. Can they fix this poster?

3. Once Upon A Time — Season 1

I quite like the idea of character-centric posters, but this Once Upon A Time poster of Prince Charming embellished in random purple isn’t just bland upon a time, it’s bland forever after.

2. Dexter — Season 6

Back in the early seasons, having Dexter about to take a sip of irony from his “have a killer day” mug, with blood splattered over his face and kill bag unzipped, might have landed a bit better, but this is season 6, people!

1. The Secret Circle — Season 1

The grungy look of this one sh..eet should have remained a secret. This Secret Circle poster doesn’t make me want to join the circle, but bury it forever.

Continue to the Best Serialized TV Posters of 2011..

Robert Kirkman drops a few more teasers on what to expect when the second half of The Walking Dead‘s second season continues in February.

The following contains spoilers if you have yet to see the first six episodes of season 6..

Speaking to The Walking Dead Fanclub, the exec. producer specifically touches on the first episode back, “Nebraska” — which he says has the best ending the show’s delivered so far — along with Episodes 11, 12 and 13:

I will say that it’s kind of fun. We knew that the break was coming in this season, so we wrote to it. So the first half of this season that everybody has seen does kind of fit as an arc. Everything was deliberate and it was kind of cool to end with the Sophia reveal. Coming into the second half of the season I think that we kind of hit the ground running, and there’s a lot of stuff going on. I actually just watched episodes 11, 12 and 13 to review them, and it’s just non-stop all kinds of cool stuff. I can’t reveal much, but I will say that when we come back in February the first episode back has the best ending that I’ve thus seen. I was just super-thrilled when I got to that. It’s just gonna be really cool stuff. We’re gonna be introducing some new elements and some new characters, and some big things that you may not be expecting. It’s gonna be pretty awesome.

As for rumors about major character death being imminent, Kirkman remained coy but played the game, pointing out that bodies will hit the floor on this show:

You know, it’s The Walking Dead. I’m not guarantee it, but I’m gonna say that it’s safe to… People are gonna die. Whether they’re gonna be main characters I can’t really say. I don’t know what people consider to be a main character, but there are human characters on the show that will be not surviving. By the end of this season… We start with a cast on our second season, and we will end with a somewhat different cast. That’s kind of what The Walking Dead is. So we’ll see.

Producer Greg Nicotero recently warned that the second half of the season would be ‘mind-blowing’:

I think it’s gonna be great. I have that I have to wait for the middle of February for people to see it, because the second half of the season is mind-blowing.

Source: The Walking Dead Fanclub

The Walking Dead Season 2 picks back up February 2012 on AMC

The final moments of The Walking Dead‘s midseason finale will have affected Daryl Dixon more than most of the survivors. Norman Reedus weighs in on those dramatic events and how they’ll impact on his character going into the second half of Season 2.

The following contains spoilers from The Walking Dead’s midseason finale, “Pretty Much Dead Already”..

After a long and grueling search for Sophia, who went missing in the Season 2 opener, the group were shocked to see her emerge from the barn o’ horrors. A search that was questioned the loudest by Shane on the principle of putting the group at risk for the life of one, ended with Rick putting a bullet through Sophia’s brain.

Speaking to MTV News, Norman Reedus shares his take on the storyline in relation to his character and how the demise of Sophia will impact Daryl going forward.

On Daryl’s motivation for continuing the search for Sophia, even though it was unlikely she would be found alive..

A couple of things. First off, in that scene I mentioned with Carol, I’m covered in scars. You couldn’t see them super up close in that scene, but I’m shredded with scars. There’s a backstory with Daryl that he was a beaten child and he was [abandoned], and I’m really trying to play that up. He’s a very damaged person. When Sophia gets lost, he takes it upon himself to look for her, to clear up some of the demons he has. He took it very personally. Besides, he can handle himself in the woods. He doesn’t really need these people for survival — he’s looking at them for a very different kind of survival, for interaction that he’s not used to, which is a new world for him. Looking for Sophia alone in the woods isn’t a scary thing for him; he can go out there himself. But he took it personally because that girl represented something to him that was larger than just this world we’re living in, trying to survive. He went after her with a lot of gusto.

On what it was like to film the Sophia barn scene..

That day sucked, because I really like Madison. She’s such a cool little girl. It was really emotional. Jon [Bernthal] had a lot of dialogue and was doing his amped-up thing. Melissa [McBride] was doing her emotional oh-my-god thing, and [Andrew Lincoln] was doing his “no, stop!” thing. [Chandler Riggs] was doing his “no, I can’t believe that’s true!” thing. And Daryl’s just like, “Let’s kill somebody!” Then [Sophia emerges] and there were a few different ways you could go. With Melissa running in, for Daryl to take her on — damaged people gravitate toward damaged people, and he took it upon himself to hold her. I know there are lots of rumors about [Daryl and Carol] having a romantic affair, but I think it’s more than that. I think it’s more of a protection thing, which I find much more interesting than kissy-kissy sexy-sex stuff. That day was big. It was a large day. We shot it for a few days, actually, to get it all down.

On how Daryl will react to Sophia’s demise when Season 2 continues in 2012..

It’s going to be interesting. It sets him back in certain ways, in that the hope’s gone. That little girl that he’s looking for, if she’s one of them, he doesn’t really give a crap anymore. You can have these so-called leaders of the group saying “do this, do that,” and he doesn’t really need them anymore. So you find out that Daryl sort of separates himself a little bit. He reacts violently to anything emotional revolving around that story line. There’s another side of that in that he’s looked upon more as one of the leaders now, so there’s a new set of responsibilities that Daryl has to deal with. Whether he wants them, whether he wants to take them, [is another story]. But it’s interesting to see him looked upon as a leader. Fireworks fly. It’s not necessarily something he wanted or asked for. He’s not super thrilled about it.

Source: MTV News.

Ever since The Walking Dead small screen adaptation was announced for AMC, fans of the original graphic novel have been anticipating the arrival of Michonne, the popular character from the books. But when can fans expect her to appear in the show?

Possible Spoilers Follow. Continue at own discretion..

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The latest rumor mill whispers suggest that fans might not have too much longer to wait.

According to unconfirmed sources from The Walking Dead fan club, True Blood actress Rutina Wesley has been tapped to play the fan favorite Michonne and is set to appear in the last episode of Season 2. If this is true, it would probably mean that the character is introduced as part of the season 2 cliffhanger, with her involvement being further explored in Season 3. Though, of course, they could introduce Michonne at the top of Episode 13, but a cliffhanger might be more buzz-worthy going into the break.

It goes without saying that this information has not been confirmed. Both Michonne’s Season 2 arrival and Wesley’s rumored attachment might be wide of the mark. However, it’s worth mentioning at this time as Michonne’s arrival has been anticipated since the show began, with Season 2 or 3 being popular guesses for her introduction.

For those not up to speed on the comics, Michonne (‘Me-Shawn’) is in her late 20s/early 30s and is a mysterious survivor who enters the comics in issue 19. Michonne wields an iconic katana and knows how to use it.

Ultimately, it will be interesting to see who the show casts as Michonne (whether its Wesley or someone else), as she’s an important character in the comics and fans will certainly expect someone who is capable of filling her boots.

UPDATE: Rutina Wesley has since claimed that the rumors about her playing Michonne are false. As per her representatives, she “Likes the show, but not true.” (via: The Vault).

The Walking Dead Season 2 continues February 2012 on AMC

Sources: Craig | The Walking Dead Fan Club | Walking Dead Wiki

Promotional trailers often provide the first tangible peek at the upcoming or returning serialized TV shows that we spend our days anticipating (mostly) and dissecting. Some hit the spot and get us excited for more, others confuse the issue, and a few dampen our enthusiasm.

It’s only right, therefore, that we take this time to look back at our Best and Worst Serialized TV Trailers from the past 12 months.

Our list is based on the effectiveness and originality of seriable TV trailers released in the past 12 months. We’re mindful of the fact that the primary goal of a trailer is to get the show’s target audience amped up for the finished product, ensuring their viewership for at least the first episode, and to create that most viral of sensations, buzz. Wearing retrospective goggles, we’ve looked back at every single trailer/spot released for a seriable TV show in 2011, and selected the 5 best and worst trailers at meeting this requirement from a serialized perspective.

So, which trailers got us excited for their respective shows, and which lowered our enthusiasm? Let’s find out..

WORST SERIALIZED TV TRAILERS OF 2011

5. V Season 2

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZNJ7aCD3Ns

This trailer automatically gets bonus marks simply for featuring Morena Baccarin, but you can’t live on that and expect to make the Seriable Top 5. Instead, this V season 2 trailer is relegated to the worst list because of its lackluster sequencing, contrived voice-over-guy narration, a jumping visitor made more for the trailer than the story, and a soundtrack that just doesn’t do it any favors. Although all of that is nothing compared to the sinful fake-out of Tyler’s early demise. I know it was in the show, but minus points for getting our hopes up!

4. Alphas Season 1

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RnYtm01Qn4

Not a fan of the music on this one as it makes the show feel too airy. Ironically, this is what the show went on to become, so perhaps that was the intention? A more serious, focused tone would have done more to sell the show’s best bits/concepts, which is what a trailer is supposed to do. We’re also taking off points for the utterly contrived cast commentary.

3. The Killing Season 1

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZg34UArZyM

The Killing is a bleak show, but that works because the topic matter is not a cotton candy one. But while we appreciate the long-format of this this preview/trailer, it does the show few favors. The final minute or so is actually pretty good, if you haven’t lost interest by then.

2. Once Upon A Time Season 1

www.youtube.com/watch?v=15__iA1MTqc

Anything that makes such bold use of “FROM. THE. WRITERS. OF. LOST” (along with horrible sound effects) as a means of promoting its series deserves to come in the bottom five. It’s distasteful, unoriginal, a waste of valuable trailer time, and my eardrums still haven’t recovered. By all means put a little insertion in there but don’t go crazy on it. Aside from that, the “Good vs Evil” grab was so 1990s.

1. Falling Skies (German TV Spot)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ulk-EMH2TE

It’s not technically a trailer but this ‘exploding walls’ TV spot always struck us as being a bizarre way to represent the series. It still makes little sense and gives virtually nothing about the show, story or characters. If this is your first time seeing this and you start suffering from ‘wall’ nightmares, we do apologise.

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BEST SERIALIZED TV TRAILERS OF 2011

5. Falling Skies Season 1

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjroVVhe8G0

Take out the cliched cast quotables and that lamentable slow-mo footage, and we’re left with a really exciting presentation topped and tailed with one of the best trailer soundtracks of 2011. What makes this trailer particularly worthy of its place in the top 5 is that when it landed it shed a light on a project that suddenly seemed as though it had legs — and I don’t mean skitter legs. Well, actually I do, because while it would have been easy to play all cloak and cloverfield by concealing the aliens (nothing necessarily wrong with that), the trailer put them on the stage without taking away the mystery. Ultimately, this is a trailer that introduces the audience to an overarching journey of people vs an unknown force, and, once it gets going, reflects the best of what the show had to offer.

4. The Walking Dead Season 2

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vIL0VJiKGE

Cinematic and intense, while also eliciting grit and isolation — this trailer uses a variety of techniques deliver a truly excellent introduction to the second season. Reminding us of what happened in the first season, while driving forward into a transition mid-way through and (eventually) unleashing one of the most intoxicating soundtracks you’ve ever heard, over tense and fraught scenes from the season 2 opener. Once again we have effective narration, and by the time we’re done watching we realize that the trailer has told a story in itself, and we’re about ready to break open the popcorn. And did I mention the fantastic final image?

3. Touch Season 1

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvQ_qJYZ-7A

This trailer is great because it uses effective narration and involves the audience by asking the questions that the show itself will seek to explore. It doesn’t shy away from what you might call the ‘mystical/science’ aspects, instead highlighting the universal patterns and connections as mysteries, while giving enough attention to the family/relationship drama without overselling it. You want to go on this journey with Kiefer Sutherland and his kid, primarily because the material looks good, but also because the trailer packages it in a way that stimulates both the mind and the heart. The score is fantastic and — along with subtle sound-effects — helps sell the emotional beats, driving the trailer into an exhilarating final third.

2. Doctor Who Series 6

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vIsQ25Krq8

This trailer has just about everything: action, adventure, humor, romance, typical Doctor Who quirkiness, and a cliffhanger. The material is superbly pieced together and comes charging out of the gate with River Song’s narration and great sequences. The trailer does a fantastic job at teasing a story-arc-filled journey while underscoring key moments and themes of the upcoming chapter. Inclusion of the following line is the icing on the custard: “Fear me, I’ve killed all of them.”

1. Awake Season 1

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfPVoiQKFvk

From the first moment to the last, this Awake trailer draws you in and just doesn’t let you go. Set to a mesmerising soundtrack, the trailer skillfully blends organic narration and well-chosen scenes from the pilot to tell a story about a story — in-keeping with the show’s dual reality premise. The strength of the material is leveraged through great transitions and prominent focus on some fantastic lines from the pilot, lines like: “while your brain should be resting, you’re using it to hold up a detailed alternate reality,” and “..I have no desire to ever make progress.” This trailer is over 4 minutes long but what a four minutes. If there’s been a better trailer for a seriable TV show in 2011, you really have to let us know.

What do you think, do you agree or disagree with our choices?

Walking Dead producer and SFX designer Greg Nicotero believes we’re in for a “mind-blowing” second half of the season, when the AMC post apocalyptic serial returns next year.

Speaking to FearNet, Nicotero teased more gruesome zombies, more action, and more mind-blowing moments are in store for the second half of Season 2:

The second half has a couple of fantastic walkers in it. I love the walker in the RV in the first episode, that Andrea kills. I love the well walker. The thing is, being on Hershel’s farm, it’s not like last year where we were running around downtown Atlanta. Hershel’s farm is a little bit of a safe haven. So the advantage is that in the second half of the season we’ll get a little bit more zombie action going. I think it’s gonna be great. I have that I have to wait for the middle of February for people to see it, because the second half of the season is mind-blowing.

I’ve been impressed with the zombie SFX so far this season, the show may have a relatively reduced budget but some fine work has gone into the walkers.

Source: FearNet

If your stomach can handle it, relive every zombie death from the first half of The Walking Dead season 2.

And yes, THAT one is in there too.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWgHU3HW3lg

Credit: GOWJamie

The budget for this season may be reduced, but the make-up and prosthetics department are doing an excellent job with the zombies.

Another sneak peek at The Walking Dead midseason premiere plants us in the aftermath of ‘Barnageddon’.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCPjg_74o5E

[via]

Sneak Peek 1 – 2

“Nebraska” premieres February, 2012 on AMC

We review the overarching story developments, and extract the good and the bad from The Walking Dead​ 2.07 — “Pretty Much Dead Already”.

OVERARCHING STORY DEVELOPMENTS — WHAT WE LEARNED

• The rest of the group learn that the barn is full of zombies, initiating highly-charged conflict amongst different members, none more so than Rick and Shane.

• Rick tells Shane that Lori is pregnant. Shane believes the child to be his, even though he has no definitive way of knowing.

• The search for Sophia reaches a staggering conclusion, after she creeps out from the Barn O’ Horrors to leave us all misty-eyed, as Rick kills yet another little zombiefied girl.

THE GOOD

• There’s much to be said about how important conflict is in driving a story, especially one supposedly operating on the edge like The Walking Dead. While it’s always been there to some degree, it suddenly emerged to good effect as plot threads and character motivations/anxieties collided.

• I had grown somewhat jaded of the Sophia plotline, but credit where it’s due, it seems more worth it now. That’s not to say that the previous 4-5 episodes couldn’t have been delivered in a more engaging way (they could have) but is was satisfying to see this particular drawn out experience redeem itself somewhat.

• The final scene with Shane O’ Nuts going crazy was one of the season’s very best moments. At that moment the story suddenly felt important again, even though, in truth, the survivors were only doing what they’d done for most of the series – kill zombies. What made this feel so momentous is the complexity of the human motivations that underscored ‘Barnageddon’. This was Shane reacting to finding out that he might have a little Shane Bun in the Lori Oven; this was Glenn protecting his new-found love; this was the group going against their beloved leader and aligning with someone, in that moment, they felt offered the greater chance of survival.

• And of course, the reactions. By this point the zombies had been somewhat ‘humanized’ through Hershel’s belief that they were ‘sick’ and the fact that they were his friends and family. As the group massacred his family right in front of his eyes, you could see the fabric of the man tearing from him in every which way.

• Sophia’s childlike emergence from the barn, the group’s reactions, and Rick shooting her in the head was wonderfully captured, performed and scored. Fantastic, yet tragic stuff.

• The ending sets the story up nicely for the continuation. There’s a real energy going into the next episode, which is where serialized TV should live; momentum and purpose.

THE BAD

• Not all of the character actions and reactions felt natural. The Daryl/Carol scenes, for example, played too visibly towards that final scene. The Shane/Daryl flare-up also felt a bit contrived.

• Does Carl have super recovery powers, or is that boy up and about a bit too quickly?

• Carl’s desire to protect the group may stem from his recent run-in with Otis’ bullet (and his desire to be like daddy), but I find it a bit forced. His desire to find Sophia also seemed rather contrived, as I can’t recall them having that much of a bond. Still, Carl isn’t as annoying as Annoying Henry on Once Upon A Time.

• T-Dog is terribly underserved, as he has been for pretty much the entire season. (If not for the cut arm ‘drama’, he might as well be a red shirt).

• While I generally like the way this episode was filmed, some of the shots felt a bit too grandiose within the context; a wee bit forced. For example, the close-up on Rick when finding out about the Barn O’ Horrors.

SURVIVOR NOTES

• As I feared a few episodes back, there’s definitely something brewing between Carol and Daryl. It’s not a good sign, though, when Daryl verbally abuses her. She’s moving from one abusive man to another? Daryl’s still evolving but that wasn’t a good look. That aside, it must have got his goat that she could just give up on her own daughter while he was still invested.

• But doesn’t this also something about Daryl’s motivations? Sure, he’s put himself on the line for Sophia, but he’s also done it for himself. Just as Rick partly needed to find Sophia alive because of the decisions he had made. Everyone needs a purpose and for that purpose to hold firm, particularly in the apocalypse.

• It’s interesting that Rick didn’t tell Shane that he knows about the affair with Lori. He’s keeping that under his hat for now. It’s also interesting that Rick has been keeping his suspicion of Lori and Shane’s affair from the audience.

• Back in “Chupacabra” I speculated that Sophia (and/or Otis) might be in the Barn O’ Horrors, but it was still moving to see that be the case. I felt a wee bit sorry for Carol. Not that she strikes me as the best mother in the world (after all, she contributed very little to the search).

• I worry for Dale, but props to him for standing his ground and trying to out fox Shane. It’s interesting how much Shane’s ‘mask’ has slipped with Dale. This should make for some useful conflict going forward. Moreover, I find it almost fascinating that people are wearing masks in the post apocalypse. A means of survival?

• The Hershel/Maggie scene was their best of the season. It wasn’t perfect, but overall I liked what it did for both characters. Hershel didn’t try to deny that the apocalypse had changed him, which I thought was refreshing. All the same, their talk did affect him enough to change his mind about the group staying. Not that this would ultimately matter, but at the same time it did because it heightened Shane’s actions.

• Glad Maggie reminded Hershel that Glenn’s name isn’t “that Asian boy”. About time too.

• This episode highlights the idea that the zombies are ‘sick people’. An interesting perspective. What I also got a real sense of in this episode is the sickness of the survivors.

• One of the most interesting questions to come from all of this for me is who was right? Was Shane right about stopping the search a long time ago, or was Rick right to continue. Further to that, did Shane take the correct course of action over the Barn O’ Horrors, or was Rick’s diplomacy the better move?

• It’s about perspective, no doubt. But personally, while Shane’s argument has credibility in a certain context, Rick still has my backing. He’s still the best leader the group has. Shane may be beating his chest right now, claiming to be the best protector, but what kind of protector leaves his fellows when the going gets tough? He left Rick for dead. He wanted to leave Sophia for dead. He left Otis for Oatmeal. It’s only a matter of time until the likes of Carl or Lori either become so important to him that no one else matters, or so unimportant that they don’t matter enough.

• That’s the problem with Shane O’ Nuts, there’s not much middle ground, and very little humanity. He’ll get you by for a while, perhaps a long while, but before long the group would be stripped, the weak left to die, and only those in his inner circle left ‘alive’, with empty hearts and emptier humanity.

• All that being said, I do think he’s important as a counter-balance to Rick; he gives Officer Friendly something to think about, helps him to peer outside of his own world-view. But with Shane now going over the top of the top, I do worry how much longer Rick can sustain the group’s and his own humanity and togetherness. Perhaps that’s the old way of looking at things, maybe humanity matters squat when all is said and done? It’s a consideration the show needs to explore, and one I’m intrigued to see play out when Dead continues.

• There was an interesting little moment during Barnageddon where Maggie nodded to Glenn, giving him permission to start shooting the zombies. I take it this as Maggie letting go and essentially allowing him to protect her, as per their earlier conversation. Still, is it slightly weird that he’s complicit in the massacre of her family members?

• It was quite telling that Rick was the one to step up and kill Sophia; perhaps it was an admission of guilt, certainly he will feel responsible. It was also an interesting hand-over, as the trigger-happy survivors froze in their tracks as a recognizable face appeared, leaving it to the diplomat to clean up and potentially seal his own murky trajectory. The adaptation of Rick Grimes continues.

• Did Hershel know about Sophia? He must have had a hunch.

• My episode ratings for most of this season have been 8/10. This episode justifies that, for me, as PMDA was a notch above everything else in an otherwise good, but not great, season up to now.

• RIP Sophia. You were Carol’s daughter. You had a teddy. You moved from the dang hole when Rick told you not to. We spent seven episodes looking for you. We didn’t really know ye, but RIP nonetheless:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgyQ0KwOOfI

9/10 Seriable Stars

Another sneak peek at The Walking Dead midseason premiere arrives to provide an extra look at “Nebraska”.

Dale and Lori have a little ‘chat’ about Shane..

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcaG0haFvDs

[via]

“Nebraska” sneak peek #1

The Walking Dead continues February, 2012

If you thought the first half  of the season was crazy, the second half of season 2 “gets crazier,” according to the cast of The Walking Dead. Find out what they have to share in this new video looking ahead to Season 2.5.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZp92B2EDio

[via]

The Walking Dead continues February 2012 on AMC

More quotables from exec. producer Robert Kirkman on the midseason finale of The Walking Dead.

This piece contains major spoilers from the midseason finale, “Pretty Much Dead Already”..

Specifically, Kirkman talks about the detours the AMC series has taken from his graphic novel telling of the post apocalyptic story, and how this will affect the second half of the season and beyond:

Was killing one of the comic’s original characters an easy one?..
Kirkman: When a good idea comes up, you have to go with it. Sophia is a character who is still alive in the comic book series and who has contributed quite a bit to the overall narrative and informed a lot of story lines for a lot of different characters. Having Carol (Melissa McBride) survive her daughter as opposed to the other way around as it is in the comics is going to lead to interesting but different stories.

It’s almost like a tradeoff for not killing Shane in Season 1..
Kirkman: Exactly. There are going to be things that are exactly like they were in the comic book series, there are going to be things that are radically different. We’ve have a lot of very different things this season: Otis survived a lot longer and wasn’t killed by Shane; Sophia; the fact that Shane is still alive — there are a lot of big fundamental differences between the comics and the show. Yet Glenn (Steven Yeun) and Maggie’s (Lauren Cohan) relationship is almost exactly the same, Hershel’s keeping zombies in the barn, the fact that they go to the farm — there’s a lot of things that are taken directly from the comics.

How will Sophia’s death alter Carl’s development?..
Kirkman: One of the major story lines in the comics is Carl’s (Chandler Riggs) dissention into a darker role; he’s forced into adulthood to make terrible decisions. His character evolving over the course of the comic book series is really going to be accelerated by the absence of Sophia. That will remain largely intact and be sped up. There’s going to be more darkness creeping in to the series in the second half of the season. Now that the Sophia question has been answered, they’re not going to have that hanging over their heads and that’s not going to be bogging them down making them have to devote time to that.

Source THR

In other news, the midseason finale delivered 6.6 million viewers on Sunday night, down on the 7.3 million that tuned in for the season 2 premiere, but the second highest since then [EW].

If you missed it earlier: Kirkman on midseason finale shocker, return episodes.

As winter looms, The Walking Dead takes shelter from in a barn for the next couple of months, but to whet your appetite for the returning instalment, “Nebraska,” check out the official promo photos.

[AMC]

We’ll update the above gallery as more photos are released.

The zombie serial’s executive producer Robert Kirkman weighs in the dramatic events in the midseason finale, “Pretty Much Dead Already”, and previews the “awesome stuff” coming up when the season resumes in February.

This piece contains spoilers for “Pretty Much Dead Already,” you may want to watch the episode first before continuing..

So, the survivors never-ending search for Sophia has come to an end. Unfortunately, the girl who didn’t know how to stay put had been long turned into a walker. SHOCKA!

EP/writer Kirkman shared his take on “Barnageddon” and teased the remainder of the season to EW. To the barn quotables..:

On the Zombie Sophia shocker..

It’s good to know people didn’t see it coming. That’s a big concern when you have this kind of story line and you are leading to that kind of reveal. You don’t want people to be expecting it, especially in the Walking Dead. I pride myself in the fact that, when you pick up an issue of the comic, you don’t know what’s going to happen at any time. So any time we can work that into the show and maintain that in a television environment, it’s very exciting for me. I’m glad people are being caught off guard.

On whether the season’s slower pace was intentional with this episode’s revelation in mind?..

Possibly. It’s weird. It’s not like we sat down and decided that we were going to move at a slower pace. But I guess you can’t really dispute that. We were kind of talking our time with things. It was always supposed to be this episode that this was revealed.  There wasn’t any kind of milk-things-for-all-they’re-worth decision. I think we were just moving at a deliberate but somewhat relaxed pace.

On whether Hershel knew all along that Sophia was in the barn?

You can certainly assume that.

On whether Hershel was, in part, trying to prepare Rick for Zombie Sophia by referring to the Walkers as ‘sick people’..

If I were to put on my detective hat I would say that, if Hershel did know that Sophia was in the barn, he might have just said, “Oh yeah, that girl’s sick, we’re keeping her in the barn.” So it’s entirely possible that he didn’t know. We’ll find out very early on in the return episode coming up this February.

On Jenner’s whisper..

When we reveal exactly what Jenner whispered, we will reveal what Jenner whispered. It’s not going to come in like an “Oh, was that it?”-kind of way. You’ll know that we’re revealing that when we do it.

On the possibility of romance developing between Daryl and Carol..

Look, there’s not a lot of people in this world and people are going to start pairing off. Whether their relationship is a very strong friendship or if it’s something romantic remains to be seen. But there definitely seems to be something going on between those two.

On what’s coming up in the second half of the season..

All kinds of awesome stuff. These people are going to be pitted against each other now. Hershel’s been keeping these walkers a secret and now they find out that Sophia’s been in the barn the whole time. Shane isn’t going to suddenly calm down. That’s something I should probably point out. I mean, he was pretty angry there at the end of this episode. He was probably a little shocked by Sophia coming out of the barn but I wouldn’t expect him to put his gun down and be like, “Okay, well, I’m good now.” So there’s going to be tremendous amounts of conflict that comes from that and there’s going to be a lot of aftermath dealing with the shocking revelation and there’s going to be a lot of crazy new stuff thrown into the mix. I think we’re going to see some new characters very early on, introduced in our first episode back. There’s going to be a lot of cool stuff coming up.

Source: EW

The Walking Dead Season 2 continues February 12 with “Nebraska”. You can watch a sneak peek here.

It’s Walking Dead‘s turn to use the title “Nebraska” (following Dexter). Get an early look at the February return of Season 2 with this sneak peek.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuHF1AO0nKY

[via]

“Nebraska” premieres Sunday, February 12 at 9/8c on AMC

The Walking Dead continues with the remainder of season 2 in February. Here’s the promo.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIBCIi2Kgz8

[via]

Things are heating up in The Walking Dead‘s second chapter, but as we stagger into Sunday’s midseason finale, will the survivors find themselves without a barn chance, and what about Lori’s ticking time-bomb? Sarah Wayne Callies weighs in with her thoughts.

Speaking to TV Guide, Callies touches on a few of the ongoing issues that will develop in the midseason finale, “Pretty Much Dead Already”, and teases the returning 2012 episodes. To the quotables:

On how Shane will react to the pregnancy — will he assume it’s his..

That’s her biggest fear right now, because there’s no way to be sure whose baby it is, unless it turns out that she’s two months pregnant and it happened before Rick was shot. But at this point, there’s no timeline, so she’s really afraid. Quite frankly, one of the reasons that she considered terminating the pregnancy is because it has the ability to tear these men apart, and that has huge implications not just to her personal life, but to everyone’s safety. There’s a part of her that’s afraid they might kill each other. This is the kind of thing men kill each other over.

On what will Shane do to fix himself in Lori’s life..

For a while now, Shane has been trying to protect her and Carl (Chandler Riggs), and has been doing that from a distance and trying to take Rick’s place. He’s posturing. I’m thinking of the Planet Earth films, where the men of a species are trying to demonstrate to the females that they’re bigger, stronger and better. Shane has a new level of investment in Lori’s safety, if he does believe it’s his child that she’s carrying, and that means Rick’s protection of Lori has to be that much more complete. It all gets very futile. At a certain point, this culture has devolved into a place where, as a woman, maybe you have to decide who you’re with based on who can keep your child alive, rather than who’s the best communicator, or who makes the best spaghetti Bolognese.

On how the survivors will deal with the barn situation in the midseason finale..

It speaks a lot to what we were discussing before about Rick and Shane. When people find out what’s going on, there are very different perspectives on how we should proceed because there are different perspectives on what the true danger is. Is the true danger a bunch of walkers in the barn? Is the true danger Hershel throwing us off his farm? Could Hershel even do that? We outnumber them, we’re armed, and who do we become if we make that kind of decision? Those become the questions that are raised with the barn and it deeply, deeply, deeply divides people. The whole thing blows sky-high.

On the second half of the season..

The first half of the season is interesting because you have the illusion of safety for a minute, for a few episodes. You have people experiencing the problems you’d have when you’re not necessarily running for your life every second. What the barn does is bring us back into a world where everybody realizes that we’re not safe and we’re not going to be safe. While it’s the end of the first segment of the second season, the second half of the season has a very different character because of what the barn represents and how the situation is handled.

You can read more from this interview over at TV Guide.

Things will certainly get divisive for the survivors, as further illustrated in this preview clip (English subs):

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTeyVAsKNpo

A 3 minute sneak peek has made its way online to provide another look at The Walking Dead midseason finale, “Pretty Much Dead Already.”

The clip is in Spanish but there’s also English subtitles:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTeyVAsKNpo

Thanks: EspecialistaEnSeries

Watch another clip from The Walking Dead midseason finale here.

We thought it would be a good time to send a message of gratitude to some of our most appreciated serialized TV heroes (and villains).

MILD SPOILERS may follow..

In no particular order, here are just 10 serialized TV characters we’re grateful for..

John Locke

For never giving up (well, aside from that time he almost hung himself) and for the orange smile that made us peel into his mystery. Thanks for the adventure, John.

Dale Cooper

For those damn fine cups of coffee, keeping our collective concentration levels high throughout the overarching journey. Dale, we’re so thankful.

Olivia Dunham

For being our guide through many worlds. Thank you Olive, for always being the strong one.

Rick Grimes

For doing right when it would be easier to do wrong. Cheers Rick.

Sydney Bristow

For making us care in her journey. But most of all, Syd, thanks for training us in the art of high-heel combat.

Eddard Stark

For having honor in the face of corruption and for lending us his big, shiny Seriable Sword. Thanks Ned, it will serve us well in the ongoing serial-procedural battle.

 Walter White

For allowing us to witness one of the most compelling (and scary) character journeys of the past decade. Yeah, Mr White! .. for opening our eyes.

William Adama

For leading and protecting humanity against the Cylons.

Queen Anna

For making the rebooted V worth enduring, and for totally winning. With peace, Anna.

The Doctor

For being all timey-wimey. Thanks, sweetie.

And of course, we thankful to our ever-growing seriable community for making the journey with us! Long may it continue..

Which serialized TV characters are you thankful for?