MovieChat Forums > The Walking Dead (2010) Discussion > Does anyone remember just how scary this...

Does anyone remember just how scary this show was in the first season?

posted 2 months ago by holly61 (980)
29 replies | jump to latest

The show became garbage later on, we all know. But the show in its first season had an entirely different tone. It was a highly atmospheric and incredible frightening experience for the viewer. It gave you both a feeling of despair and great fear. As you watched it you felt as though you were watching the entire world end (especially the first episode) and you felt terrified.

That was my experience back in 2010. Back then I watched the show with my Mom and Dad in real time on AMC. We were all mesmerized by it and terrified at the same time. There was also so many heart wrenching moments. The euthanasia of the "bicycle zombie" and of course Amy's death and re-animation which my Mother and I both cried uncontrollably over.

The show was so powerful in its first season . Such a shame it turned into a meaningless pile of absolute garbage.

[–] aavfreak (3366) 2 months ago

This show was never scary, frightening, nor terrifying.

However, it did elicit a visceral response due to the atmosphere it set. The despair was palpable. It was very good at setting the tone for the feeling of dread and hopelessness.

[–] DoctorThirteen (14636) 2 months ago

I watched the first season. Really liked it. Didn't hang around too long after that one. It really did start to feel like a soap with a few zombies in it.

[–] JoWilli (20942) 2 months ago

THERE IS NO SAOP IN WD.

[–] DoctorThirteen (14636) 2 months ago

Trump wasnt impeached.

You can edit and re-edit all you want, Jo! 😂

But this is not the place. Take it back here

https://moviechat.org/nm0874339/Donald-Trump/650dd72305dcec6c54b589d3/Trump-autographs-womans-tank-top-shirt-at-Iowa-campaign-stop

[–] Lord Rake (4509) 2 months ago

I agree, even the first season had too much soap for an end of the world scenario. The Director/writer is to blame for that. If you watch The Mist it has the identical bullshit melodrama in it that The Walking Dead has, people will be bickering and fighting about who is taking Barbra to the prom, or how many slices of cake is allowed while a monster is trying to eat them.

I think the original Night of the Living Dead, Dawn and Day of the Dead showed how to handle the drama and atmosphere of an end of the world zombie apocalypse without getting silly. If only the visuals and makeup in those films were comparable to Walking Dead.

[–] legnadibrom (6365) 2 months ago

corny from the get,
case in point:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MB3inHJO2FM

1st scene of the show, i watched its debut, i think it was halloween night,
the lead up to the lil girl being a zombie is cringe, the fact that he shoots her right in the head - 1 shot, the CGI blood, the slo-mo shot of her falling to the pavement with more CGI...
dead giveaway that it was not top tier TV

[–] aavfreak (3366) a month ago

Man I completely forgot about that. The girl stops to pick up her bunny. Then when Rick gets her attention, she turns slowly, then stops and stares at him for a while.

That's so out of character for this show's zombies.

Usually, when critical fans discuss this inconsistency, the narrative is around Morgan's wife turning the doorknob to their house or the one trying to break the glass door with a rock at the department store. But I forgot about this.

[–] CommonSense (319) 2 months ago

Yeah, never scary to me. But it was better at the start. Alot of that was it being new and fresh.

Back in the day on "imdb" discussion pages i use to make a thread for each new episode. I would name all the unrealistic stuff in the episode. Stuff like the "magical ambulance landing on its wheels scene". People would comment in things they saw that i missed and if what they saw was a legit issue id edit my post and have the updates at bottom and the person who noticed it. I never took credit for other peoples stuff. But obviously if people suggested stuff like glass half full, and empty from 1 shot to next, i didnt list all that.

I really miss those days. Were alot of fun. But the grammar police and trolls get to be too much

[–] jriddle73 (387) 2 months ago

Ha! The IMDb Walking Dead board was a riot. It drew so much attention it would sometimes overload IMDb, and if you were critical of the show--as I was--people really wanted to fight you over it.

[–] CommonSense (319) 2 months ago

Yes they were. Lots gave me crap on my post. And i was really into the show. I enjoyed it at the time. But it still had obvious bullcrap in each episode. i honestly thought they did it on purpose, lol.

I understand why imdb shut the message boards down, but i miss it. Its hard to discuss anything these days though.
1. There's just not near the volume of people on 1 message board like there was on imdb.
2. People get so butt hurt over nothing.
3. The trolls are just as ridiculous as ever.
4. People are cruel just cuz they dont like your idea or thought.

Its insane

[–] aavfreak (3366) a month ago

That was the greatest part of The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead. Coming to the IMDb forums to review the nonsense and watch the fanboys ignite with anger.

Any criticism was met with accusations of being a hater or a troll, even with the criticisms were perfectly valid.

Followed by "if you hate it so much then why do you watch?" Exactly because I hate it so much. LOL.

[–] CommonSense (319) a month ago

I couldnt have said it any better. If i had a time machine, that certainly would be a good time to back too. Lol

Did you finish both shows till very end?

[–] aavfreak (3366) a month ago

No, I stopped TWD on season 7 and FTWD on season 3. Mostly because of the IMDb shutdown. But I've posted elsewhere the issues I had with Season 7, which were too much to bear for me, and I lived through the magic van flip of season 5. 😂

[–] CommonSense (319) 20 days ago

Id have to look i either quit twd after season 9 or it was halfway through 10. Ftwd i stopped halfway through season 6 i think.

My biggest struggle with both these series is these walking dead couldn't or wouldn't take down any army. Its a joke to think so.

I dont even think the zombies on world war Z could take on the army, but at least those zombies have a far better chance.

[–] aavfreak (3366) 19 days ago

I'm enjoying this whole thread and conversation, because it reminds me of those early days and discussions. I convinced myself that the only way the breakdown could have occurred was if there were a large percentage of the population that spontaneously turned at the outbreak.

There's nothing in the show to indicate this, but the fact that it started where it did leaves me with only that conclusion to allow my mind to immerse in it.

I'm willing to suspend disbelief for the premise, like the dead rising and civilization falling from slow moving zombies, but viewers relied on "suspension of disbelief" too much to explain so much other nonsense. It's okay for establishing the setting, but not the rest of the bad writing.

[–] CommonSense (319) 16 days ago

Its been awhile since the early days of both shows, but from what i remember and gathered, the early part of people turning into zombies caught people off guard and in disbelief at first. Which would most likely spread somewhat quickly at first, but once word got out, it would slow very fast. It wasnt hard to stay away, get away or kill the zombies.

So yes, unknowing and panic would get some unexpected. Alot of people could've gotten away easily. its not like a contagion that spreads. Its just when a person dies, they turn. So, once it became known whats happening, all our agencies could have swept, exterminated and controlled the problem easily.

I mean, if you watched the early episodes of ftwd, they show reserve guys firing 50 cals into a crowd of zombies. Nice thing about zombies, they are lined up well and dead flesh is easier to penetrate than live flesh. So they'd be mowing down zombies. You don't need head shots. Yes, head shots kill, but the zombies would be tore up beyond useful to be harmful. Yet they showed the weapons to be useless. Actually they showed bullets bouncing off chain link fence more than hitting zombies but the fence stayed intact (LMAO). Also, what were those portrayed zombies gunna do against tanks and big army trucks. Even if there was a horde of zombies and your in a tank you wouldnt need to shoot. Simply run them over. It be far more effective.

You could've simply pulled out the heavy construction equipment and go for a spin. These zombies would just be squished by the thousands.

This show showed SO MUCH DISBELIEF it was absurd really. But i watched both almost to the end. Some of the parts that are well known and took the cake are the magical van episode and the Glenn surviving. One part i really hated but i dont think got talked about as much is the episode that the governor must have had a gps tracking device on Andrea, cus he tracked her down throughout with ease.

Feel free to reminisce and jot down your memories of ridiculous unrealistic scenes of the show.

[–] CommonSense (319) 16 days ago

I actually just started a new post with this exact same message for people.

https://moviechat.org/tt1520211/The-Walking-Dead/6776e9a5af05146f76874404/Reminiscing-the-Disbelief

[–] jriddle73 (387) 20 days ago

I stopped the original series--both watching it and writing about it--upon Rick's departure. I gave up on FTWD somewhere early in the 2nd season. I was writing about it too, and it was arguably even worse than the original. Its big initial selling-point was that it was going to show how it all started, how the dead overran the world while Rick was in his coma, then it just skipped over all that. Par for the course.

[–] aavfreak (3366) 18 days ago

"Nine days later" was such a cop out. According to the show's description, it was supposed to explore the onset of the apocalypse. But what we got was monopoly in the house and a time skip behind a chain link fence.

Also, military evil. Bad. guys. derp.

[–] jriddle73 (387) 18 days ago

And it was ridiculous before it even got that far. The central characters are absolutely losing their minds, almost from the beginning, for no apparent reason.

[–] [deleted] 2 months ago

I do. Frank Darabont just finished with the Mist. The Comic was well known. Zombie movies were just over their peak. Having a TV Show dedicated to Zombies was a huge get.

But, the show suffers from the same lack of hope the comic suffers from. That's why Z-Nation failed better. It has hope. Aside from the last season, that was a lot of fun.

[–] jriddle73 (387) 2 months ago

Z NATION was always fun. After it had been on for a while, TWD started to emulate it, doing some of the same sort of crazy, anarchic things that felt totally out of place on TWD but were definitely highlights (because by then, TWD sucked).

[–] scannerdarkly (1397) a month ago

Z-Nation was a thrill ride and an amazing show! I agree the last season of the show was terrible, but up until then it was something great to see! I like the simple explanation that you gave that truly separates the shows. HOPE. Z-Nation had a guy from the very beginning episode that gained immunity from the zombie virus, and we joined the adventure of seeing if the world could be saved. In Walking Dead there is no relief. It really is rinse and repeat of the group finding safe haven only for it to crash and burn either through zombies, infighting, fighting an outside group, or all three combined. As much as I enjoyed Walking Dead, I noticed I took a long break from the show before returning and then the final season didnt feel like a real ending. We got no conclusion with any of the main characters stories. Now we gotta watch all these spinoffs to see? I have mixed feelings about this as Im glad there is more to see, but are we gonna see real conclusions?

What I was waiting on, other than walking dead people finding a real cure and not lies from a conman Eugene, was for them to encounter zombies that somehow gained sentience. Then we could have a bonified war between humanity and zombies with a great final conclusion. But even if walking dead did this it would be copying Z-Nation as they had sentient zombies. Also we already had "the whisperers" group that pretended to be real zombies. Final season of walking dead teased that walkers were regaining the ability to think through obstacles and even climb but it was too little too late by that point.

[–] jriddle73 (387) 2 months ago

The pilot film directly replicated the first few issues of the comic, in a way almost no comic-to-screen adaptation ever does. SIN CITY is the only other example that jumps immediately to mind. After that, it's pretty hit-and-miss, with lots of errors and miscalculations, but a really good series could have been born of it.

Unfortunately, everything fell apart in season 2 as dramatically as a truck full of pianos going over a cliff.

[–] aavfreak (3366) a month ago

This reminds me of Fear the Walking Dead, when Strand playing the piano in the hotel lobby drew the walkers off their balconies to fall and splat on the ground outside.

Like of all the things in all the world that make noise, the piano in the lobby is the thing that makes them go over the balcony rail?* Okay!

* A balcony rail specifically designed to prevent you from accidentally falling to your death.

[–] CommonSense (319) a month ago

The question i always asked myself during the twd and ftwd was, "sounds attract zombies, so with the wind, trees, birds, animals, the zombies would be bouncing all over the place wouldn't they. But most the time they were aimlessly wondering until humans were there."

[–] BobbyNiner (441) a month ago

First season best season, they actually were surviving and doing things. The rest of the seasons was just them cooped up somewhere talking about their feelings constantly, it turned into basically party of 5 + zombies.

[–] jriddle73 (387) a month ago

The show's creators just fundamentally didn't understand the comic, which featured very strongly written characters and is essentially an anthropological study of how this zombified world changes them over time. The show tried various approaches to the material but eventually settled on a soap melodrama model that entirely eschews characterization and focuses on trying to provoke emotional responses from viewers, fundamentally changing the characters from episode to episode if it's necessary to get those responses. So there are, in effect, no characters, and there's no progression. More to the point, there's no story. I wrote a piece at one point called something like "The 8 Ricks of the Walking Dead" that went through the different versions of Rick and showed that they were just arbitrary creations to serve the melodrama needs of the moment and couldn't be said to be the same character.

[–] BobbyNiner (441) a month ago

and how many dream sequences did we have of the dead mother?