WALKING DEAD SPOILERS!!!
Hi there. I’m JB Love and this is my first review for POP CULTURE BEAST. So its going to be a little awkward. If things go according to precedent, I’m probably going to talk about myself too much, spill a condiment on my shirt, and, when I try to kiss you on the cheek before its over, I may accidentally nose-poke you in the ear hole.
Consider that fair warning, Sexy.
Last night I was lucky enough to attend the LA Premiere of THE WALKING DEAD pilot. Now, before I get to my review, it seems necessary to take a moment to describe the event itself. This way, once you understand how Gonzo-weird things got, you can feel free to toss aside my opinions as delusions brought on by surreality.
First off, I wasn’t on the list. I’d entered a contest at AMC.com only to discover my name was on neither of the lists the officious and overstressed young lady at the check-in table possessed. Luckily, she took my word for it, and me and my guest were wrist-banded and shuffled off to a loose line of fellow nerds, hipsters, and other...um...sub-VIPs. Then, after a tense half hour or so of wondering if we were really getting in or we’d just been moved to the line for AMC.com-contest-winner-impersonators, we were finally ushered to another line. Happily, this was in the thick of the VIP area, so we were able to play Spot-The-Celebrity while we continued to wait.
(Sidebar: David Zayas, who plays ‘Lt. Batista’ on Showtime’s DEXTER, is awesome. Just sayin’.)
The waiting, which took what seemed like at least an hour, was luckily made tolerable by our unique pre-show attendants, Zombies. Yes, a group of lucky actors had been transformed with professional-level gore makeup into shambling, bedraggled, less-than-morning-fresh corpses. They shuffled up and down the line, mimicking in that dazed, zombie/junkie way the actions of the ‘living’ around them -- and occasionally sneaking up on an unsuspecting victim and hissing loudly in their ear. (This happened most often to attractive women. Definitely LA zombies.)
Finally, the last of the VIPs arrived, the Zombies were herded away, and we entered the theater. Unfortunately, my Guest and I were not given adjacent seat assignments, but a very nice guy switched with us so were were able to sit together. As we started to sit down, I looked around me and realized that there had been no separation of the VIPs from the rest of us. There was Carlton Cuse, the co-creator of LOST, a few rows back. And Norman Reedus, who will be joining the TWD cast later this season. And a few other faces I recognized but couldn’t name. Lots of nice suits and professionally aligned postures. We sat down. Right next to SNL’s Cheri Oteri. She smiled. I checked my pulse and ate some popcorn.
Momentarily, the show started, and, with some effort, I extricated my brain from the fog of this very particular brand of LA Surreality and focused. I was going to write a review of this thing. I needed to turn on my critic’s eye. I sat my complimentary popcorn on the floor and settled in.
Then I knocked over my popcorn.
Mild Spoilers Ahead! Click the Rawr for the full review!
Dark Horizons is reporting that one of the greatest comic books in decades is in development as a TV Series for AMC. That's not all. It seems that none other than Frank Darabont has finalized the development deal that would have him writing and directing the show.
The Walking Dead is a brilliant comic from Robert Kirkman about a group of people surviving in a world infested with zombies who discover that the zombies may not be nearly as dangerous as the other survivors.
I cannot even express how excited I am for this. AMC has shown itself to be a premiere network for great Television like Mad Men and Breaking Bad.
It might be a hard show to produce for basic cable, but if anyone can do it, it's AMC.
