I mean, personal taste is one thing, and to each his own on that front, but some of the complaints about what this show is surprise me.
You sound like you think you're the only one around here who has been into zombie fiction for a long time which is a bit silly considering where you're posting. I've been a zombie fan for 20 years, and I liked this show a lot.
Well, you didn't say that before, but that makes sense. I still thought it was a weak episode personally.I didnt say what i thought about the episode. I said the idea of gangbangers using their gangbanging skills to do good was an interesting take.
Ah, okay, so you were critiquing the supernatural/sci-fi genre overall. Gotcha.90% of supernatural works consist of worlds where the supernatural is unknown and we get this silly crap of, "What the hell is going on." That doesnt mean that everything else needs to go the same route.
See, this is where I am confused. The point of this show is to start with regular, boring, typical, mundane world, life as usual, when oh SHIT - ZOMBIES! I think the way it plays out gradually where people don't believe it or notice it at first is very plausible. I find seeing how it might realistically occur to be very interesting, and I think they nailed that on TWD. Normal average family is trying to do normal average family things and deal with non uncommon problem while this virus or whatever creeps in and starts messing things up. I don't think the world would instantly be overcome with millions of zombies on the first day with the imminent collapse of society soon to follow.What was fantastic about it?
The story had nothing unique about the genre that it's in.
It was so general that you could replace the zombies with any other monster and still have the same show happen with basically no changes.
Imagine if the show was werewolves.
The druggy wakes up and sees gloria with long fangs and pointy ears and runs.
He tells step dad about it, he goes to see, he comes back and tells mom.
The news report would basically play out the same.
The only hard changes would be how the last scene played out a bit.
Everything else could be left how it is.
The show showed NOTHING that made me think this was something unique.
The show did a good job showing how people would probably respond today - people who saw something alone would think they were going crazy. Footage would go viral but be thought to be fraudulent. People wouldn't believe because they wouldn't want to. Meanwhile, things are going down in the background while it builds up to a critical mass. You're right that how they reacted so far would be the same for pretty much any monster, but that makes perfect sense for where they are in the story right now. As more and more zombies break out and things get more out of control we will see more of the transition from regular society into the world of TWD - which is the point of the show.
To be fair, the last few seasons have mostly been pretty good. 1 was slow, 2 was mixed, 3 had some of the most bone-headed writing I'd ever seen, but second half of 4 was solid gold, as was most of 5.