First, a disclaimer:

Apparently it’s become the latest Internet thing now to hate on “The Walking Dead”. The writers’ room bloodletting by Darabont certainly didn’t help. Comic-book writer and TV Producer (i.e., not some random Internet schmuck) Adam Freeman felt the show was good and we should stop trying to “torpedo” it. I agree. The show is good.

But it could be great.”Lost”-level great, in a way that even “Lost” wasn’t in the end. So while haters will hate, I’m not attempting to torpedo anything. It’s because I’m rooting for “The Walking Dead” that I’m airing my grievances. I want to the show to be awesome. Failing that, we at least, as writers, can learn something from its narrative missteps. [Spoilers abound but you should know that by now.]

Here are a few of Shawna’s observations from her blog with my additional thoughts.

Independent of any other source material, the group needs a goal; survival doesn’t cut it.

Without a larger narrative structure, “The Walking Dead” might as well be a sitcom. Seriously. “Survival” isn’t really a goal, it’s a situation. Hopefully an ongoing situation, if you are one of the living. As a goal, survival just isn’t enough. What is truly maddening is that as soon as a suitable, sustainable, dramatic goal is found it is almost instantly resolved. Rick must find his family — oh, there they are. Hey, we’ve got to go back and get the guns — got em. We have to save one of our own, so let’s risk everyone’s lives by taking Jim to the CDC and…oh, he doesn’t want to go anymore? We’re still going…okay, we’re in!

Guys, slow down. Getting to the CDC is a season-arc-worthy goal. Fraught with peril and potential divisiveness amongst our characters. It’s a chance to reveal our characters. What are they willing to do to get to the CDC? What motivates them to go? What sustains their struggle — faith, reason, loyalty, guilt? This is a huge missed opportunity in a show that is rife with missed opportunities.

Whither character logic?  I get why they had to go to Atlanta to get Rick’s bag of guns (and the radio inside), but if I were one of those other survivors in the group, I’d be like ‘hey, let’s go find another sheriff’s office or police department or a military compound and go get some guns.

As a character, Rick isn’t working for me. He’s a bit of a generic leader-man. He’s got a badge, a dead-eye for shooting (heh) and nice hat. But what’s he really about? Is he about his family? No. He’s willing to leave them in the lurch almost the instant they are reunited to retrieve a bag of guns and the one radio in the world that can talk to the other radio he gave to his friend that he knew for part of one episode.

No father in the world would leave his family like that. Not a chance.

Characters will die and there will be lots of mourning, but we only knew Amy for 4 episodes (less, if you consider how little we saw of any one except Rick in the pilot).

Part of the problem here is that it didn’t really matter if Amy lived or died. Yes, it mattered to her sister on an emotional level, but the death didn’t have an impact on the story or the decisions that the characters made. We have a word for that. Melodrama.

Logic dictates that if you are in a zombie apocalypse and that you want to go to, say, the CDC in a zombie infested city, you have a well defined plan of action — you don’t just all hop in the caravan and drive to CDC!….Their plan is all or nothing.  That’s no plan!  I’m not following Rick anywhere with his “well reasoned” planning.  On LOST when there was a big plan afoot, usually two things happened: a few people would disagree and follow a different course of action.  This allowed for great shenanigans between factions of the group.  Jack takes some people to the caves, Sawyer stays on the beach with other dissenters.  Both are right, in their logic, and we get to see it all play out.

One of the reasons that “Lost” was so successful is that it represented a larger struggle than the immediate situation of, say, “should we stay on the island or leave?” The answer depends on your world-view — are you a man of faith, or a man of science? Do you believe in destiny? Do believe even in yourself? Theme and character were inseparable “Lost”.

What is Rick’s worldview? What does it mean to him that the world has gone to hell? Is this punishment from God? Or does shit just happen? I have no idea, because he never has to defend his actions beyond his simple sense of duty.

Finally, I want to expand on one other comment.

One of the problems I have with “The Walking Dead” is that there is hardly anything unexpected in the way the narrative unfolds. It shambles dutifully from one plot point to the next. The best, most memorable moments on the show have been those rare surprises — such as Rick turning a corner in a deserted city and finding the biggest goddamn crowd of zombies creation has ever known. The resolution to that situation was equally unexpected and satisfying.

When the group arrive at the CDC, we know more about it than the group does. Not only have we been inside the CDC, we are all but directly told that we can safely give up any hope we had that it would save our group, let alone the world.

When we finally cut back to our group, we have no reason to think Rick won’t get inside. Also, we don’t rally care. The CDC was like the zombie crowd scene if we knew the crowd was already there, waiting for him. I would be much more invested in Rick’s character if we had stuck closer to his POV. It’s a wonderful shot of the big steel door opening and light pouring out — and what a thrill it would be, too, if we didn’t already know that  someone was there to open the door for him.

Again, this was a missed opportunity to reveal character and heighten conflict. When the group arrives at the closed and barricaded CDC, we need to see more than Rick scream and shout. We need to see his nemesis take control of the group and provide a sense of safety and protection for Rick’s wife and son that Rick has failed to give them. And Rick has to earn his way into the CDC, with his leadership of the group and his relationship with his family riding on that. Rick has to do more than beg and plead — he has to say the one thing that will get that door open, and it has to be something only he can say.

Despite my criticisms here, “The Walking Dead” has huge potential and I would love to see it succeed both commercially and narratively. Be sure to check out Shawna’s now epic two-part blog post for her full take on the series so far.

And return to this blog soon for a short review of my favorite zombie movie of all time that hardly anyone has heard of.

But it’ll have to wait.

I might be behind the curve on this one. I usually am. But it’s too good not to share. Point your peepers at J.J. Abrams’s break-neck presentation in which he wields a personally-meaningful yet universally understandable  metaphor to explain the power of story to engage us.

Also, he tells us what the island is.

Tip of the hat to Plot Point Zero, who got there first.

UPDATE:

Yeah. Okay. Abrams’s TED talk is old news. I get it. Sorry. Here’s something fresher and rarer, from a living literary Titan.

And it kinda jives with what Abrams was saying. Surprise is everything.

(Wait for the pompous windbag to stop talking, then listen to your Uncle Ray)