THOUGHTS ON WALKING DEAD #1: MISTAKES
Steve Cole writes:
I started watching this new AMC series (having never been a fan of zombie movies) because of advertising saying it was well written. I'm having some doubts about that claim of quality writing, even if I enjoy the show. The writers keep including fairly dumb technology mistakes, cliché storylines, and glaring plot loopholes. Here are some thoughts:
1. Why did the hero not use the powerful radio at the sheriff's station (or the military radios at the hospital) to try and contact anyone? For that matter, why did he do no research (newspapers, recorded television programs) to determine what happened?
2. Why did the black guy and his son not move to the better-defended sheriff's station after the deputy left? Electricity, hot water, steel doors, what's not to love?
3. I can understand the sheriff's humanity in tracking down the half-body zombie and shooting her, but leaving his car and wandering off with only one gun and no spare ammo is just suicidal and stupid. It also really doesn't make any sense considering how many other zombies were around that also could have been put out of their misery. (I wouldn't go anywhere without a rifle, two pistols, and a machete.)
4. Why did the sheriff not watch his gas gauge and change vehicles before he ran out of gas? Being law enforcement, he is probably aware that every gasoline pump in America (by law) has a manual-crank pump system inside of it, allowing gasoline to be obtained from the tanks during national emergencies without electricity.
5. Where are the guns? America is awash in firearms. At least one house in three (in Texas, four out of five) have at least one gun (in Texas, an average of five). Why has no one made any real effort to find guns in houses? For that matter, look in the phone book and find a gun store (there are at least ten in Amarillo alone). But there is another question: why did the sheriff's office still have guns? Had not the sheriff and deputies deployed those for defense already? (If there was time for the military to set up shop at the hospital, the sheriff had already deputized men he knew and given them guns.)
6. Why are the survivors sending expeditions into Atlanta to "get stuff" when they could get anything they need from less populated areas? Here is my point. Some percentage of the population turned into zombies, and the zombies only move to find food (and slowly at that), so it seems logical that most of the zombies are not that far from where they were pre-zombie. That being the case, the best grounds to scavenge would be isolated farmhouses, then small towns. What does a department store have that you need? (Unless it has a gun department, which it probably doesn't.)
7. Tanks cannot sit idle for more than a day or so with their systems active without the batteries going dead, and that tank has been there for several days. Police walkie talkies cannot talk to military tank radios. Even if they could, the odds that they would happen to be on the same frequency would be pretty slim unless maybe the Asian guy had scouted the tank earlier, turned off the systems, and put the radio on a frequency his walkie talkie could reach.
8. Zombies apparently won't eat dead zombies. They will, apparently, eat living animals (death and being eaten in either order as long as they are in close proximity). So why is there an uneaten dead body laying on top of the tank? (Is it a dead zombie?) Assuming that the battle position was overrun and the soldiers were eaten, why are there no weapons scattered around? The tank hatches were open, and apparently a soldier inside the tank was bitten, slumped down inside, died, then turned into a zombie. Why did no zombies climb through the tank's open hatches to eat him before he died? (BTW, real M1 tanks do not have that much room inside, or floor hatches.)
9. The dead body (zombie) inside the tank had a pistol in a holster, but no ammo pouches for spare magazines. The hero searched him for more ammo (and did not check most of his pockets), but did not find empty pouches. (Sloppy prop department. A real soldier would have had at least a spare box of ammo in a cargo pocket.)
10. The colony of survivors has clearly done almost no thinking about selecting a safe and defendable colony site, even after one zombie walked in. (Episode 4 proved this to be dumb.) There was no reaction plan for a zombie attack, and most of the people did not have a weapon with them.
11. Why did the guy who is most careful about avoiding zombies drive a car with a screaming car alarm all the way back to the colony (leading zombies to it)?
12. The racist didn't have to saw off his own hand to escape. The hacksaw would have nicely cut that bolt the handcuffs were clipped around.
13. Why did the four-man rescue team walk home from Atlanta instead of just stealing another vehicle?
14. Having found a CDC doctor, why did they not get more information from him? Where did the outbreaks start? How fast did they spread? Will any place they go be safe? What were the last nearby places known to hold out? Why did they never mention the helicopter (proof of some kind of viable bastion) to the doctor (which might have cheered him up)?
Apparently, the writers think it's "great writing" to include the wife who thought her husband was dead (and had an affair with his best friend), the racist whacko who cut off his own hand, and the grieving husband who cannot shoot his own wife now that she's a zombie. These just sound like stale clichés to me.
I started watching this new AMC series (having never been a fan of zombie movies) because of advertising saying it was well written. I'm having some doubts about that claim of quality writing, even if I enjoy the show. The writers keep including fairly dumb technology mistakes, cliché storylines, and glaring plot loopholes. Here are some thoughts:
1. Why did the hero not use the powerful radio at the sheriff's station (or the military radios at the hospital) to try and contact anyone? For that matter, why did he do no research (newspapers, recorded television programs) to determine what happened?
2. Why did the black guy and his son not move to the better-defended sheriff's station after the deputy left? Electricity, hot water, steel doors, what's not to love?
3. I can understand the sheriff's humanity in tracking down the half-body zombie and shooting her, but leaving his car and wandering off with only one gun and no spare ammo is just suicidal and stupid. It also really doesn't make any sense considering how many other zombies were around that also could have been put out of their misery. (I wouldn't go anywhere without a rifle, two pistols, and a machete.)
4. Why did the sheriff not watch his gas gauge and change vehicles before he ran out of gas? Being law enforcement, he is probably aware that every gasoline pump in America (by law) has a manual-crank pump system inside of it, allowing gasoline to be obtained from the tanks during national emergencies without electricity.
5. Where are the guns? America is awash in firearms. At least one house in three (in Texas, four out of five) have at least one gun (in Texas, an average of five). Why has no one made any real effort to find guns in houses? For that matter, look in the phone book and find a gun store (there are at least ten in Amarillo alone). But there is another question: why did the sheriff's office still have guns? Had not the sheriff and deputies deployed those for defense already? (If there was time for the military to set up shop at the hospital, the sheriff had already deputized men he knew and given them guns.)
6. Why are the survivors sending expeditions into Atlanta to "get stuff" when they could get anything they need from less populated areas? Here is my point. Some percentage of the population turned into zombies, and the zombies only move to find food (and slowly at that), so it seems logical that most of the zombies are not that far from where they were pre-zombie. That being the case, the best grounds to scavenge would be isolated farmhouses, then small towns. What does a department store have that you need? (Unless it has a gun department, which it probably doesn't.)
7. Tanks cannot sit idle for more than a day or so with their systems active without the batteries going dead, and that tank has been there for several days. Police walkie talkies cannot talk to military tank radios. Even if they could, the odds that they would happen to be on the same frequency would be pretty slim unless maybe the Asian guy had scouted the tank earlier, turned off the systems, and put the radio on a frequency his walkie talkie could reach.
8. Zombies apparently won't eat dead zombies. They will, apparently, eat living animals (death and being eaten in either order as long as they are in close proximity). So why is there an uneaten dead body laying on top of the tank? (Is it a dead zombie?) Assuming that the battle position was overrun and the soldiers were eaten, why are there no weapons scattered around? The tank hatches were open, and apparently a soldier inside the tank was bitten, slumped down inside, died, then turned into a zombie. Why did no zombies climb through the tank's open hatches to eat him before he died? (BTW, real M1 tanks do not have that much room inside, or floor hatches.)
9. The dead body (zombie) inside the tank had a pistol in a holster, but no ammo pouches for spare magazines. The hero searched him for more ammo (and did not check most of his pockets), but did not find empty pouches. (Sloppy prop department. A real soldier would have had at least a spare box of ammo in a cargo pocket.)
10. The colony of survivors has clearly done almost no thinking about selecting a safe and defendable colony site, even after one zombie walked in. (Episode 4 proved this to be dumb.) There was no reaction plan for a zombie attack, and most of the people did not have a weapon with them.
11. Why did the guy who is most careful about avoiding zombies drive a car with a screaming car alarm all the way back to the colony (leading zombies to it)?
12. The racist didn't have to saw off his own hand to escape. The hacksaw would have nicely cut that bolt the handcuffs were clipped around.
13. Why did the four-man rescue team walk home from Atlanta instead of just stealing another vehicle?
14. Having found a CDC doctor, why did they not get more information from him? Where did the outbreaks start? How fast did they spread? Will any place they go be safe? What were the last nearby places known to hold out? Why did they never mention the helicopter (proof of some kind of viable bastion) to the doctor (which might have cheered him up)?
Apparently, the writers think it's "great writing" to include the wife who thought her husband was dead (and had an affair with his best friend), the racist whacko who cut off his own hand, and the grieving husband who cannot shoot his own wife now that she's a zombie. These just sound like stale clichés to me.
posted by Federation Commander at 8:18 AM
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