Episodes that showed AMC Writers can be as good as Telltale Writers

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  • I can appreciate you trying to stick up for The Walking Dead but I dont think AMC has a stable of writers that they use for each show. Im pretty sure each show they feature has its own writers. AMC doesn't have anything to prove. They have excellent shows. Besides the Walking Dead, Breaking Bad was one of the best shows on tv. There are others but those are the only two Im caught up with. So, in spite of how much hate the show, and I guess AMC, gets on this forum, they are doing a good job.

  • edited February 2014

    To be fair, in the show if the Governor didn't attack again his "playing farmer" would have provided the group with enough food to sustain themselves and end the need to go on runs, thus making them self sufficient. Hershel mentioned that. So even though he was "just playing farmer" while the only threat was walkers that he was also shown taking care of multiple times, he was still doing a good job keeping them alive.

    Viva-La-Lee posted: »

    Well put.

  • The Hunters are coming anyways, they weren't using them before the Gov

    DougGreene posted: »

    I hate all of the TV incarnations of the comic characters. I hate the TV incarnations of the story arcs. I hate the filler characters and the

  • Yeah, fair enough. Compared to the other episodes where Walt is being a badass it does stand out as being one of the weakest ones, in my opinion. I'm surprised so many people liked too, it just seemed like a really dumb episode that shouldn't have existed in a series about a drug lord. But yeah, at least they had Pinkman and Walt bond more.

    DougGreene posted: »

    It didn't last a whole season though. Some parts of season 2 would have worked, if it wasn't a whole season's worth. Character development is good.

  • edited February 2014

    Ye don't like the TV version of Hershel?

    DougGreene posted: »

    Comic Rick is leaps, bounds, and sprints ahead of TV Show Rick. TV Rick started out as a whiny goody goody two shoes bitch with no moral compa

  • But it emphasized the fact that Walt was more than just a badass drug lord fella. That's why it was so great.

    Graysonn posted: »

    Yeah, fair enough. Compared to the other episodes where Walt is being a badass it does stand out as being one of the weakest ones, in my opini

  • But he wasn't taking charge and being the leader they needed him to be. That's the point.

    To be fair, in the show if the Governor didn't attack again his "playing farmer" would have provided the group with enough food to sustain the

  • TV Hershey was just Dale without his signature hat.

    Kryik posted: »

    Ye don't like the TV version of Hershel?

  • The point is at that point they didn't really need him to be the leader. They were doing runs, they were farming, things were basically under control. The sickness struck and what exactly could he have done? They put people in quarantine, and that's about all that could be done. The burnt bodies turned up and he found out who did it and sent her away for it, for better or worse he stepped up there. Then the Governor shows up, and he goes to the fence to try and negotiate peace. Where exactly before the Governor showing up was he needed to be the Ricktator again?

    DougGreene posted: »

    But he wasn't taking charge and being the leader they needed him to be. That's the point.

  • To be fair to the show they have to come up with enough story for 16 episodes and have to have a bunch of side plots to fill time. While telltale only has 5 eps a season. Its why I think the first season was the best for me. with only 6 episodes the season flowed very well and didn't have a bunch of filler.

  • He continued the conscience role but I think he was different enough. His acting more than made up for any scenes that were too similar to Dale

    DougGreene posted: »

    TV Hershey was just Dale without his signature hat.

  • The guy wasn't a bad actor; He was just not Comic Hershel, In any way, shape, or form. Might as well have been another person entirely. He was a more Santa-y Dale.

    Kryik posted: »

    He continued the conscience role but I think he was different enough. His acting more than made up for any scenes that were too similar to Dale

  • edited February 2014

    I think he was morestrict than Dale when he wanted or needed to be, like comic Hershel, but otherwiselike you say. You think it's because of Dale's actor leaving after Frank? They originally were going for Randall escaping and murdering Hershel, no mention about Dale being killed in S2. I suppose they wanted a new Dale

    DougGreene posted: »

    The guy wasn't a bad actor; He was just not Comic Hershel, In any way, shape, or form. Might as well have been another person entirely. He was a more Santa-y Dale.

  • edited February 2014

    IMHO Season 1 was the pinnacle of TWD tv show. It just overall had better character development and a better sense of where the show was trying to go. It wasn't perfect by any means but, it seemed to have a hell of a lot more direction and purpose with Frank Darabount in the mix.

    Despite AMC making a shit ton of money off Season 1, they pretty much screwed over everybody who contributed to that success. The shows budget was drastically slashed, actors involved took severe paycuts, and Darabount (the guy who helped bring the whole thing together) was axed. All the while, AMC asks for more episodes from the show while refusing to invest any additional resources into making that happen...

    After he got fired, things took a serious turn for the worse. The plot pretty much stopped progressing and characters as a whole just started doing things for no other reason besides the sake of creating "drama" (cough Lori and Andrea cough). It's definately not a bad show and still manages to have some pretty good episodes here and there but, overall it's not nearly as good as it could be. Honestly, I don't think the guy who took Darabount's job has any real idea what he's doing.

    Zyphon posted: »

    Season 1 seemed a bit "meh" to me. I think they've gotten progressively better, despite the pacing issues in Season 2. Also... I thought that clear was S3E13?

  • Lol personally I hated that episode of Breaking Bad but, to each his own I guess.

    Fly was one of my favorite episodes.

  • I just chalk all that up to terrible directing/writing.

    The actors do a pretty good job with the material their handed...it's just hard when the material isn't very good to start with.

    DougGreene posted: »

    But he wasn't taking charge and being the leader they needed him to be. That's the point.

  • My point is not to defend AMC at all, I just want to see what people think about these specific episodes, which I honestly think are the most well written.

    KCohere posted: »

    I can appreciate you trying to stick up for The Walking Dead but I dont think AMC has a stable of writers that they use for each show. Im pret

  • edited February 2014

    Glen Mazzara definitely wasn't the best, but I still personally think that Scott M. Gimple is doing a better job than even Darabont. So far, Season 4 hasn't had a single bad episode. Even all those "Infection" episodes were great. Especially Internment, the "Hershel Episode".

    IMHO Season 1 was the pinnacle of TWD tv show. It just overall had better character development and a better sense of where the show was tryin

  • They've cast the leader of the Hunters. don't worry, they're coming.

    DougGreene posted: »

    I hate all of the TV incarnations of the comic characters. I hate the TV incarnations of the story arcs. I hate the filler characters and the

  • Of course it doesn't, but it doesn't mean that it's bad either. Since they've been getting progressively better, I still stand by that it has incredible potential.

    Does is not make sense that a forum dedicated to a specific adaptation of TWD would be more biased toward the franchise? Let's say that s4p2 is incredible, that doesn't excuse all of the mediocrity that took place in earlier seasons.

  • Here is a full and complete list of episodes written by AMC that are as good as those written by Telltale.

    This concludes the full and complete list.

  • Completely disagree. I cant stand comic book Rick whereas TV Rick is my favorite character. His flaws and vulnerabilities make him feel more real.

    DougGreene posted: »

    Comic Rick is leaps, bounds, and sprints ahead of TV Show Rick. TV Rick started out as a whiny goody goody two shoes bitch with no moral compa

  • I agree that those episodes are well written and that the show is better than a lot of people give it credit for. I guess it just struck me weird the idea of trying to convince people that tv show writers can measure up to video game writers. I imagine they are such very different types of writing,a long running tv show with as opposed to a video game.

    Zyphon posted: »

    My point is not to defend AMC at all, I just want to see what people think about these specific episodes, which I honestly think are the most well written.

  • I never said the acting was bad. Character development is entirely up to the writers. And the writers were butts 80% of the time.

    I just chalk all that up to terrible directing/writing. The actors do a pretty good job with the material their handed...it's just hard when the material isn't very good to start with.

  • We didn't need a new Dale though. We had Dale to begin with. It was stupid writing, and he wasn't the same character at all. Comic Hershel was brutal and angry and violent and loving and human. TV Hershel was a fucking saint. Reasons aside, Comic Hershel>TV Hershel because TV Hershel==Comic Dale

    Kryik posted: »

    I think he was morestrict than Dale when he wanted or needed to be, like comic Hershel, but otherwiselike you say. You think it's because of D

  • The point of a leader is that he's always there, even when you DON'T need him, because at any time the need might arise. He could have kept order and done damage control with the sickness. He could have done a lot of things. He left it to everybody else. When he figured out that Carol was the murderer, and got rid of her, he tried to take charge again, in the middle of a crisis, which is selfish as fuck. He didn't need to be the Ricktator, you're right, but what would America do if Obama decided 'you know what? Fuck this shit, I'm going to go be a cashier for a few weeks, brb'?

    The point is at that point they didn't really need him to be the leader. They were doing runs, they were farming, things were basically under

  • But Comic Rick has his flaws, he has many of them, and they're more human and realistic than Bitch Rick's. His characterization is handled WAY better than TV Rick's, and he did it in less time, with less wallowing in sadness.

    KCohere posted: »

    Completely disagree. I cant stand comic book Rick whereas TV Rick is my favorite character. His flaws and vulnerabilities make him feel more real.

  • I just refreshed my comic knowledge, and I had my arcs mixed up. Hunters are way after the prison, for some reason I thought it took place during. My bad. Thanks.

    Zyphon posted: »

    They've cast the leader of the Hunters. don't worry, they're coming.

  • The same thing it always does, just maybe with more efficiency.

    DougGreene posted: »

    The point of a leader is that he's always there, even when you DON'T need him, because at any time the need might arise. He could have kept or

  • Comic Hershel was an entirely different character than TV Hershel, so you can't really compare them. Also, the reason Dale died is because Jeffery DeMunn was leaving the show. So you see, they did need a new Dale.

    DougGreene posted: »

    We didn't need a new Dale though. We had Dale to begin with. It was stupid writing, and he wasn't the same character at all. Comic Hershel was

  • A long running video game that will stretch several season split into different episode. Not all that different, at least in the set up.

    KCohere posted: »

    I agree that those episodes are well written and that the show is better than a lot of people give it credit for. I guess it just struck me we

  • That's what I've been saying, he wasn't Hershel at all, he was Dale. They could've just recast Dale as somebody else. Wouldn't have been that big of a deal.

    Zyphon posted: »

    Comic Hershel was an entirely different character than TV Hershel, so you can't really compare them. Also, the reason Dale died is because Jeffery DeMunn was leaving the show. So you see, they did need a new Dale.

  • Wasn't the best, but at least it didn't feature a character like TV Andrea...

  • Still, the characters are so different that you can't compare them. They're entirely different.

    DougGreene posted: »

    That's what I've been saying, he wasn't Hershel at all, he was Dale. They could've just recast Dale as somebody else. Wouldn't have been that big of a deal.

  • That's my point entirely though.

    Zyphon posted: »

    Still, the characters are so different that you can't compare them. They're entirely different.

  • Yes, but you're trying to compare them, you said Comic Hershel was better than TV Hershel, but they're entirely different.

    DougGreene posted: »

    That's my point entirely though.

  • Fair enough, I'll rephrase what I said; as separate characters, I found comic Hershel to be the more compelling of the two. I enjoyed his character more.

    Zyphon posted: »

    Yes, but you're trying to compare them, you said Comic Hershel was better than TV Hershel, but they're entirely different.

  • Okay. I also enjoyed Comic Hershel, personally, I'm more drawn to the more moral characters, so I liked TV Hershel better. Regardless, they're both brilliantly written characters.

    DougGreene posted: »

    Fair enough, I'll rephrase what I said; as separate characters, I found comic Hershel to be the more compelling of the two. I enjoyed his character more.

  • I suppose we didn't truly see enough of Darabont's episodes to properly compare the two.

  • edited February 2014

    3. S4E6 - Live Bait: (Written by Nichole Beattie, Directed By Michael Uppendahl) Live Bait is personally one of my favorite episodes, and the one that convinced a lot of people that S4 would do better than previous seasons. It featured the story of The Governor/Phillip Blake between Seasons 3 and 4. This is probably part of why it was so good, featuring one of the best actors on the show(David Morrissey) playing one of the best written characters.

    It also had an amazing intro, featuring "The Last Pale Light in the West" by Ben Nichols, which was a perfect choice for the intro scene that showed The Governor going back to burn Woodbury after his initial defeat at the prison. As The Governor walks aimlessly we hear a conversation between him and a woman, with him saying that he was part of a town, but had to leave when the leader lost it and killed everyone. Just in this one scene, we get the feeling that the Governor may truly be sorry for all that he did.

    For months and months, he walked, eventually fining a house with messages for "Brian Heriot" written all over it. The intro sequence ends when he collapses on the ground, but then sees a little girl in the window of an apartment building. He heads up to the apartment to find a group of survivors living there.

    The intro may be my favorite in any episode.

    The survivors in the apartment are Lilly, her dad David, her sister Tara, and her daughter Meghan. Lilly was the woman in the intro.

    Also, just to confirm, Lilly is not Lilly form Telltale's or Lilly from the comics/novels. She is a partially new character who takes the place of a character named April from the novel, "The Rise of the Governor".

    The first part of the episode shows The Governor, who introduces himself as Brian Heriot, interacting with these people as he at least decides to rest for a few nights in the same building. He's mostly unresponsive and doesn't talk to anyone. In this episode, we see him actually try to be a good person as he helps David find a board game he can play with his granddaughter Meghan, and later, as he goes to find more oxygen tanks for David, who desperately needs them.

    Though not orientated on action, the episode in very good throughout. The dialogue is well written, scenes are well directed, and it's incredibly well acted. At this point, it has stood out mainly with the Governor/Brian's character. I stand by the fact that TV Governor is a significantly better character than Comic Governor, who while he was more brutal, had little development. He was an easily hateable villain, and that was about it. Comic Governor was well-written, but there wasn't much complexity to him if you didn't go out of your way to read the novels, and even then, he still didn't have as much complexity to him as the TV Governor. TV Governor was frightening in that he was a better manipulator, and a better liar. He was still brutal, but not as much, and he actually seemed to love Penny still in Season 3, whereas in the Comics, his relationship with Penny was mainly used to freak out the readers(Ex: kissing her).

    I think that throughout S3, TV Governor's development was stronger, but it's this episode that makes people think that he's changed, and in some cases, may have had people sympathising for him.

    The rest of the episode shows the former Governor, now Brian, bonding with Meghan, and living with this group of survivors. Things suddenly change when he's forced to use an air tank to kill David after he turns and almost takes a bite out of Tara. This freaks out Meghan, and causes her to become distant to... Everything really.

    Not soon after, Lilly convinces Brian that they have to leave and find someplace safer. Whilst on the road, Brian and Lilly have sex(which I personally think is important not only because, once more, it shows us a Governor that can love without seeing it as a means to an end(Andrea), but Lilly survives, and I get the feeling she might be pregnant), and later on, the truck breaks down/runs out of fuel, and they have to continue on foot.

    Whilst on foot, they're attacked by walkers, and Brian saves Meghan, they run off into the forest and fall into a hole, one of the holes the residents of Woodbury used to use to capture biters. In fact, there are still biters there, which the Governor kills with his bare hands.

    Then, as a cliffhanger, we see Martinez looking at the Governor from above.

    I think that this episode is worthy of Telltale levels of writing because it made the viewers feel sympathy for a character like The Governor. It took material from the Novels and did it well. It was altogether an enjoyable episode that featured David Morrissey's acting prowess.

    Overall, there were several reasons why I think this is probably the third best episode. Simply put, the intro, a better Governor, good new characters/well adapted material, way above average on all accounts, reaching into incredible levels with some aspects(acting).

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