The Walking Dead and latest Writer's Room

[BlackListedB]

On cable here in America at least, a new short series called The Writer's Room talks with TV show creators and writers about their shows, a whole episode concentrating on The Walking Dead and it's soon to commence spin off series, and I'd like to share that with fans here, the news from that recent show the past week is that the comic series WILL continue and the spin off will supposedly cover a different group of survivors of the current 'zombie' plague in another part of the American 'world' in which the Walking Dead takes place, it's odd in a way that it will play the concept so close to the original show, as I envision it at least, another group of survivors in a different USA geographical region in which we will follow how they cope in episodic fashion, may seem even too similar to some, but I have a high regard for Robert Kirkman's success and ideas thus far, and I think a lot of people do too. The season finale had major ratings success.

 

Casting may be a critical factor, but I think any change in geography in the same setting circumstance can add interest from the downtime between current episodes. Hopefully not too much of a good thing though! Weigh in on the comics and the series here, if you've been captivated by Zombie Fever

 

Just to touch on another interesting aspect, the word Zombie is never referenced during the actual show, I believe not based on what I missed, but rather the concept of the show, in that using Zombie terminology in the show would be somehow defeating in the premise in that it's already established as a fictional historic 'horror or monster' mystique for the modern culture, or as long as it's been in the public parlance of our time! hahaha

 

By that I mean if you brought up 'Zombie' to someone, they'd know what you mean, there's already ideas about what a zombie is, since the success of George Romero's vision of the modern living dead brought back to life, needing flesh to consume for whatever motivates their instinct, killed with a wound to the brain, or head.

This is also done on the show by discovery over the course of dealing with threats from the Walking Dead 'biters' etc.

Anyway, getting somewhat sidetracked, I want to be clear on what I mean with that, I was told in earlier discussions about this subject that Robert Kirkman or others related to the show brought it up, but most recently with The Writer's Room, everyone used the term, whether discussion was of the original and continuing comics or the show itself. Kirkman's original concept was to solely have a successful comic book in which he could continue without normal constraints, and having the success spill over from the live action show, video game, etc, he is set to continue the comics. He also says this keeps plot plans kept private from the actors and even writers on the TV series, this is most interesting to learn from the show, but his motive is to plot things out as things go, nothing planned too far down the line, while the idea of wrapping up a series or story line was also brought up, the comics are likely to continue even if the original or spin off shows wrap up, but I suspect that's a long way off!

Edited May 25, 2014 by BlackListedB

[Trevor_Philips]

The reason the word "zombie" is never used is because, as Kirkman has previously stated, Night of the Living Dead and other such works of George Romero's were never made, and thus zombies never made their way into the TWD universe's mainstream fiction.

[BlackListedB]

What I've gone over both here and on the similar TWD thread at GTAForums is my idea behind this, that seems to concur with my hypothesis. That by referring to Zombies, or say, minions of Dracula ('blood sucking freaks' type creatures perhaps based on the legend of Countess Bathory or Vlad the Impaler), werewolves, other then more direct circumstances like Frankenstein and Dracula where a type of monster or demonic entity comes from book reference, but Kirkman's show stems from his own comics, inspired as you say, from others previously.

 

The idea more or less fits in with creating a unique and fresh take on something that's already been explored in past horror vehicles. By making no direct connections or comparisons or allowing such things to happen in the course of the new stories.

Still as I suggest in humor, the show which airs on Sundance channel; The Writer's Room, they all referred to Zombies in the classic sense that everyone accepts it seems. In terms of definition of what they represent.

Edited May 27, 2014 by BlackListedB