The Walking Dead Post Mortem: [Spoiler] Reveals the Real ‘Reason Why I’m Not Alive’

11 February 2015

We’re STILL kind of sad about this one. (OK, me, of the two of us at Horror Boom, I’m the Walking Dead fan, the other one got his shoulder cried on by me). I’m not sure Chris Hardwick has ever been as close to starting to weep on any episode of The Talking Dead before (and he knew it was going to happen). We also read a news item that Andrew Lincoln said the first two episodes of the second half of the season would be “really brutal”, (oh goodie, next week should be cheerful too) but we thought he we talking about violence. Not …this.

(SKIP TO AFTER THE PHOTO IF YOU HAVE NOT GOTTEN TO THE PRISON ARC IN THE COMICS YET AND PLAN TO)

One good thing: the character got a more peaceful send-off than he did in the comics. In the comics, he got Herschel’s death, but it was even uglier and seemed to take more hacks. If my recollection was correct, he was still conscious until the last hack. He wasn’t sitting there smiling serenely like Herschel’s …who also was not exactly cut down in the prime of his life, and had recently given wise life advice to the people I loved the most (and who needed it). I would prefer being painfully bitten (horrible as a couple of the bleeding-out hallucinations were), even twice, if it was followed by my friends saving me, cutting off my arm (by which time I was pretty worn out and not in pain so much as really, really worn out, carrying me (albeit not altogether smoothly), holding on to me, and then seeing a group of people I cared deeply about who had died recently smiling, comforting me, singing to me, and telling me it was okay to let go, in fact things would be better) in the minutes before I let go. So hey, that last part was peaceful.

Anyway, this is well worth a read if you are a fan of (SPOILER ALERT!)

Chad Coleman (already one of our favorite actors from The Wire), because it reminds you yes, it’s just a TV series, and also, no matter how big-hearted and cool of a guy you thought he was before, he’s even cooler (and very zen about the whole end of the character).
Click “View original” in the lower left to see the whole exclusive interview on TVline.com!

‘The Walking Dead’ Star Norman Reedus on ‘Devastating’ Midseason Finale and Daryl’s Sexual Orientation (EW.com) SPOILERS!

1 December 2014

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EW.com: What does the loss of Beth do to Daryl and to the group moving forward?
Reedus: She was such a beacon of hope, that girl. She sang and she had a positive outlook and she was hopeful. All these little slivers of hope are being taken from this group one by one. It just gets worse and worse and worse. Humanity and the goodness in people is slowly being evaporated from their world. I think she was a big beacon of hope for us, and to watch her go is just devastating.

-Norman Reedus, in the EW.com interview with Dalton Ross.

Goddammit, Entertainment Weekly, why did you have to be right? Yeah, that was rough. Watching Emily Kinney get teary on Talking Dead when she was talking about leaving the show was rough. This was the only Walking Dead episode to ever make us cry, and probably the only Talking Dead that will do the same (it was the stupid Memorial Reel that got to Mrs. Horror Boom. Check out this interview with Norman Reedus, who also says we “ain’t seen nothing yet” when it comes to the back half of the season. Click on “View original” on the lower left for the complete article …and if we find any other great pieces on the mid-season finale, we’ll re-blog those too.

Who Will Die On ‘The Walking Dead’ Midseason Finale? EW.com Has Some Good Guesses…

30 November 2014

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Oookay. We’re really hoping it’s not Beth. For one thing, Maggie seems to have completely gotten over her already which we have been pissed about since, oh, the mid-season premiere of S4. She also won us over singing “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up” back in the prison to baby Judith. Before the episode she sang it in was even over, though (and it was towards the end), we were strongly concerned it was foreshadowing. We don’t want to see Carol go for the same reasons everyone else does, and we really don’t want to see another black character killed off. They threw some not-too-subtle hints about Father Gabriel our way during last week’s episode (titled “Crossed”), and since he only showed up recently it’s possible. But come on, they already killed off a black character, and we were getting really attached to Bob. We hope Noah sticks around (because he actually went out of his way to be genuinely kind to Beth in a building full of varying degrees of selfish assholes). They better not even think about killing off Tyreese; his character has a way to go and he’s very easy on the eyes. Would they really heap Abraham losing Rosita on top of having his (remaining) hopes and dreams ripped out of him and burned to the ground (The Walking Dead: Where Hopes Goes To Be Sodomized), at least this soon? Probably.

Ok, let’s face it… we don’t want to see anyone die yet in the list EW.com gives, really. The only ones we did predict before the actual episode started were tied in with the comics — either the character died in the comics and there was no way they could keep them alive because they’d done too much horrible shit or were a threat (The Governor) or we saw one character clearly replacing another in a specific comic story arc (Herschel, Bob).

COMICS SPOILER AHEAD: If Carol does go, at least she will have lived longer, done way more good, and died a less hideous, blood-curdling death than she did in the comics.
As far as how someone could die, there has been a ton of speculation online (most of it sensible and backed up by good points) about zombies coming back as a threat in a big way. Only one character (who was a regular, anyway) was killed by a zombie –Bob apparently got bitten or badly scratched in that fucking horrible watery pit in the food bank by one of the zombies that were rotting like a “Ghastly” Graham Engels sketch in an E.C. comic, only way messier. He did more or less get a chance to go out on his own terms, though …less one leg, that is.
Click “View original” in the lower left to read the entire article by Dalton Ross on EW.com, and definitely be sure to take the poll and see how the voting has gone so far (people are pretty sure they know who it is). The only character not to have a single vote from anyone thinking she was in danger of being on the kill list? Our girl Michonne.

‘The Walking Dead’ Star Seth Gilliam Reveals Where Father Gabriel Is Going (EW.com)

24 November 2014

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“It’s a show about people in extreme circumstances after a zombie apocalypse — I don’t think anybody’s got a real long shelf life, you know? So I am prepared every script that I get to see “…and then Gabriel gets his throat ripped out.” And I’d be fine with that, and if and when that happens will make it the most compelling or grisly or shocking or sad or joyful — if people hate the character — moment that it could possibly be. So I can’t really feel that chest of hope that “Hey, he’s alive in the thing so I’m going to be here until they close this show down for good.” It just doesn’t work that way.”

-Seth Gilliam (Father Gabriel) , in the EW.com interview with Dalton Ross

Check out this entertaining interview with Seth Gilliam (who you might remember from HBO’s “The Wire” and “Oz”, among many other TV gigs). We’re not sure what’s next on the agenda for Father Gabriel, but there’s no way it can be any good…

Click on “View original” to read the entire piece on EW.com, by Dalton Ross.

Walking Dead Director Greg Nicotero Explains How They Pulled Off That Premiere -SPOILER ALERT (EW.com)

20 October 2014

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EW.COM: When you were shooting stuff like that throat slitting scene, was part of you like, “Yeah, we’re never getting this on the air?”

GREG NICOTERO: When Scott Gimple pitched the episode we had a long conversation and I said, “Listen we have a great opportunity to put a little red herring in here because [MAJOR COMICS SPOILER REMOVED BY HORROR BOOM] So we set that up specifically to tease to the audience that Glenn might go. And so that is a perfect example of Scott and I taking something and just continually ramping it up. And the way that we accomplished the blood gags were that we put a tube around the actors’ necks and we shot the entire scene with the tube there, and then the actor came across with the knife and we sprayed the blood out, and the visual effects went in and erased the tube. So the tube was there the entire time. So we shot the whole scene and it was easier than putting a prosthetic on and trying to hide the tube. Again, a really good marriage of practical and digital and it’s so shocking. I had that low angle with Robin Lord Taylor — who is in Gotham — that was him, because he played the character Sam in episode 4 of last year. People will hopefully notice that that’s him. That’s where Rick gets his watch back. So we just put the tube on and shot the scene and I had this low angle where the blood sprayed the lens and they were like, “You’re never going to get away with that. They’ll never let you do it.”

This EW.com piece, in which Greg Nicotero spills stuff about everything from that post-credits tease in the premiere, to wondering if they’re going to get away with certain gore, to the emotional re-unions of characters on the premiere, plus a big comics spoiler we had to remove! They didn’t bother with spoiler alerts for the comics, so when you read this piece on EW.com, BEWARE OF SPOILERS FROM THE COMICS UNLESS YOU ARE PAST ISSUE 100!

Click “View Original” in the lower left to read the entire article.

‘The Walking Dead’: Steven Yeun on what’s next for ‘resilient’ Glenn

10 February 2014

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EW: What is the aftermath for everyone in terms of seeing Hershel executed? Obviously there’s been a lot of death on the show but this one wass so brutal — this kindly creature to be killed off in a savage way. Plus he’s the moral compass, plus he’s your fiancées father, and everyone had sort of a front row seat to watch it happen. What is that loss going to do to Maggie and Glenn?

YEUN: Glenn doesn’t actually know that Hershel is dead. He’s probably the only one who doesn’t know. And for him, where he last left off with Hershel is…a lot of people have helped shaped Glenn into the person he is at this point and he’s taken bits and pieces from all of them, but none more than Hershel. And the last episode, where Glenn almost dies, the action that happens between Hershel and Glenn kind of solidifies that relationship and solidifies Hershel’s legacy as being passed on to Glenn. Just as easily as the symbolism of the watch was, just passing it onto him saying, “You are now part of this family. I accept you,” it’s that same thing. Glenn really felt like things were over. He was in dire straights and kind of subjecting himself to the negative portions of that. He was saying, “Hey, what’s the point of living? We’re going to get taken out by a glorified cold,” and Hershel is the one that keeps hope alive for him.

Gee, that’s …something else really depressing that didn’t occur to us. We do like the ‘individual stories’ thing that they’re trying so far, just hoping they balance the dark ones out with some hope.

‘The Walking Dead’: Danai Gurira discusses Michonne’s past and THAT scene

10 February 2014

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‘The Walking Dead’ cast, producers tease ‘more brutal world’ in second half of season 4 — VIDEO

27 January 2014

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Oh, it’s going to be dark and brutal? Nice change of pace from the last couple seasons, which have just been a non-stop feel-good jamboree. And by the way, we’d like to add YO, KIRKMAN and GIMPLE! Listen up: YOU BETTER LEAVE GLENN ALONE! And don’t get cute and whimsically decide to trade his fate in the comics with Tyreese, either. However, unless you mess with him, Daryl, or Michonne, we’ll look forward to the premiere.

In the screencaps we put up here from the trailer, it looks like Rick is either hallucinating or having nightmares again, or attacked by a wild animal (not infected with the zombie virus, obviously. Can you imagine how much shorter (but action-packed) the series would be if fish, deer, possums, birds, snakes, dogs, house pets, horses, and the rest of the animal kingdom were infected? They could only stretch that out to two seasons, tops, and that’s with a warehouse-sized armory of weapons and ammo, not to mention canned food.*

(See below screencap) DARYL! HEADS UP! TURN AROUND! Actually, I doubt anyone who has been smart enough to survive up till now, even if they were really bored, would get close enough to a LIVE Walker to hang a hand-written sign around their neck, so he’s probably OK. Better be. OK, of course he will be. I think the creators are wise enough to know that if they killed off Daryl, they’d have mobs (including plenty of enraged females) coming at them with torches and pitchforks.

aaand unless they’re a thin, rickety enough actor/actress to portray the Walker below, looks like we’ll get more animatronic Walkers coming up! We’re all for practical effects.

*There’s a great book series (it may only be comprised of two) out there from approximately a decade ago where yup, the animals are infected too; it includes an amazing, harrowing fight for survival by a lone woman hiding from her bloodthirsty HUMAN attackers in a zoo and getting in way, way over her head. As I recall, the female character is also going through heroin withdrawal at the same time, as if being chased by a gang of rapist homicidal drug-dealers through a zoo where all the cages are open, including the lion’s, wasn’t shitty enough. I’m blanking on the author’s name and the title (I want to say Bryan Smith authored them, but I don’t think I’ve got the last name right), so post a comment if you like brutal, bleak, gruesome and well-written post-zombie apocalypse survival novels with likeable characters, and I’ll get off my butt and get the info on the novel for you. It was so intense I couldn’t read the whole thing in one sitting; I needed sanity breaks.

‘The Walking Dead’: Showrunner Scott Gimple on what’s next for the Governor

11 November 2013

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Give Michonne a crack at him, and it’d be a very short comeback!

By the way, there were dozens of very irate comments on the EW.com website when this posted because there wasn’t a spoiler alert (which of course ignited a big, heated debate on whether or not the pissed off people who wanted a spoiler alert were right or wrong, so I think I’d better err on the side of caution and give a SPOILER ALERT just in case.

‘The Walking Dead’: New showrunner Scott Gimple calls season 4 ‘a greatest hits approach’ (horrorboom.com)
‘The Walking Dead’: A reason for optimism (wisinfo.biz)
Top 10 TV Highlights: Harrison Ford Pierces Fallon’s Ear; Halloween Takes Over (twcc.com)
‘The Walking Dead’ showrunner was “sick” of David Morrissey’s Governor (digitalspy.co.uk)

‘The Walking Dead’: Showrunner Scott Gimple weighs in on Rick vs. Carol debate

10 November 2013

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EW: Tell me about the decision to make the virus storyline such a central part of the first half of the season. Where did that idea come from?
SCOTT GIMPLE: When we were making the episode “Clear” it was kind of a long drive to the town that we were shooting it in. And I was like, you know. I’m going to better myself. I’m going to listen to Camus’ The Plague. You know, it’s not just gonna be comics. I’m gonna get back into literature! And from The Plague my mind just drifted off to The Walking Dead. I was like, man, that’s a cool book and that’s a pretty cool idea. So there was that, and it was in my mind and I was thinking about how in third world situations, things break out — cholera and dysentery and bubonic plague. Then I had taken a trip to Edinburgh shortly after that at the end of the season to visit my wife’s family and there was this tour underneath the city and there was a lot about the bubonic plague and how it had broken out, how it was treated, and how they burnt the bodies. And it all sort of came together with the theme of safety in this place. It was just one of those things where you’re like “Oh, wow, that could be cool.”

-From the EW.com piece by Dalton Ross

Well, I don’t know how “cool” the infected characters think it is to have blood dribble from their ears, nose, eyes, and mouth before their lungs finally fill with blood until they drown choking on it, but it is a good way to raise the stakes. I kind of laugh a little when Herschel talks about elderberry tea helping the symptoms–it’s not just a flu. This horrible thing is on a par (on my list of Diseases I Don’t Even Want To THINK About Getting) with Ebola or a flesh-eating virus as nasty as the one in Cabin Fever. Sure, herbal tea is just the thing for that. Hey, if it works for some of them, great, but I’d be yelling for someone to please get their hands on some morphine for me NOW, even if it made me cough to keep yelling until I got it. Or some vodka. Anything! Just seeing the people in the middle stages of infection coughing makes me wince in sympathy and think God, where’s Merle‘s narcotic stash from Season 2 that Daryl ended up keeping on him?
Anyway, I hope Carol will be back, in fact I think it might happen this season. Let’s just hope she’s not a zombie when we see her again… read the EW.com interview with Scott Gimple for more!