So I want to run a scene by you guys and see if you like the idea:
The valiant heroes locate a couple henchmen and follow them into an abandoned building (smart)
The henchmen are surrounded by the heroes. The heroes promise to let them go in exchange for information on whereabouts of the big bad
While remaining unseen but nearby, the big bad gives a rousing speech to the henchmen and more henchmen somehow appear, surrounding the heroes
The henchmen rush the heroes but are easily dispatched
The big bad reveals himself (smart) but sets off a trap and attempts to flee while the heroes are distracted by the trap
The heroes capture the villain
On a scale of 1-10 how exciting is that for you guys?
TV Shows
Re: TV Shows
I'm watching The Walking Dead: Dead City (the one where Negan and Maggie are in a bizarrely electrified New York City)
And I gotta say, I am entertained. The actors are phenomenal, their characters are decent, but the plot of the show is a bit of a trainwreck. So much stuff happens without logic or seemingly any sort of motivation.
Let me just run something by you and see if this passes the smell test: there's a bar where a guy lived alone and in that bar are walkers that he immobilized because it's bad to be lonely in the world. He talks to them Governor-style, which is just a weird little quirk of his and nothing too bad. He survived by raising turkeys, seemingly without ever leaving the bar. For literal years. Now, I'm not a nutritionist, but I'm pretty sure that wouldn't work. And the smell...
Okay, so let's give all that a pass. People move in and he adjusts surprisingly well to suddenly having lots of people to talk to. Not sure it'd shake out like that realistically, but again, a pass. Real, living people take drinks from a surprisingly well-stocked bar (again, give it a pass) and they ask him about keeping walkers around (he moved them downstairs so as to not spook people). They want to go see the walkers. So they go downstairs and everyone's cool with just hanging out with the walkers. If memory serves, he eventually moves them back into the bar because people are so cool about it.
Everyone in this setting has lost people to the walkers. Maybe everyone they knew before. They are the #1 threat, though arguably raiders take that spot at times.
Realistically, every single person would have some sort of either intense aversion to walkers or hatred of them. They would absolutely clear the barn, I mean, bar. No questions asked. No hesitation. Almost no one would be cool about it.
This is where the writing is at. Nothing really makes sense if you think about it too long or has any sort of internal consistency. It has this sort of dream-like quality where I'm not really sure what the hell I'm watching half the time but I like it because Jeffrey Dean Morgan is so damned entertaining. But he could sit around and play Gears of War many years into a zombie apocalypse and I wouldn't question it.
Oh and the secondary characters are so poorly fleshed-out that they're introduced in a weird heist-intro montage, which is a hell of a whiplash for a fairly grounded zombie apocalypse show.
This is something I would've done as a joke before writing them in properly.
While It's nowhere near the level of writing the main show had in seasons 1-5 or even The Ones Who Live, it's also not as atrocious as the other stuff. So, C- writing, I guess.
This sort of stuff oddly makes me feel better about my writing. Because I agonize over every little thing thinking that if it's not Shakespeare, it's garbage. Meanwhile, big corporations put out - and these are whole teams of people working together - basically make the equivalent of a hamburger helper meal and call it fine dining. And people sign off on this before it comes out. No one says "hey, does this make sense?" Bizarre. But hey, it is watchable and I'm watching, so I guess they got me. *shrugs*
And I gotta say, I am entertained. The actors are phenomenal, their characters are decent, but the plot of the show is a bit of a trainwreck. So much stuff happens without logic or seemingly any sort of motivation.
Let me just run something by you and see if this passes the smell test: there's a bar where a guy lived alone and in that bar are walkers that he immobilized because it's bad to be lonely in the world. He talks to them Governor-style, which is just a weird little quirk of his and nothing too bad. He survived by raising turkeys, seemingly without ever leaving the bar. For literal years. Now, I'm not a nutritionist, but I'm pretty sure that wouldn't work. And the smell...
Okay, so let's give all that a pass. People move in and he adjusts surprisingly well to suddenly having lots of people to talk to. Not sure it'd shake out like that realistically, but again, a pass. Real, living people take drinks from a surprisingly well-stocked bar (again, give it a pass) and they ask him about keeping walkers around (he moved them downstairs so as to not spook people). They want to go see the walkers. So they go downstairs and everyone's cool with just hanging out with the walkers. If memory serves, he eventually moves them back into the bar because people are so cool about it.
Everyone in this setting has lost people to the walkers. Maybe everyone they knew before. They are the #1 threat, though arguably raiders take that spot at times.
Realistically, every single person would have some sort of either intense aversion to walkers or hatred of them. They would absolutely clear the barn, I mean, bar. No questions asked. No hesitation. Almost no one would be cool about it.
This is where the writing is at. Nothing really makes sense if you think about it too long or has any sort of internal consistency. It has this sort of dream-like quality where I'm not really sure what the hell I'm watching half the time but I like it because Jeffrey Dean Morgan is so damned entertaining. But he could sit around and play Gears of War many years into a zombie apocalypse and I wouldn't question it.
Oh and the secondary characters are so poorly fleshed-out that they're introduced in a weird heist-intro montage, which is a hell of a whiplash for a fairly grounded zombie apocalypse show.
This is something I would've done as a joke before writing them in properly.
While It's nowhere near the level of writing the main show had in seasons 1-5 or even The Ones Who Live, it's also not as atrocious as the other stuff. So, C- writing, I guess.
This sort of stuff oddly makes me feel better about my writing. Because I agonize over every little thing thinking that if it's not Shakespeare, it's garbage. Meanwhile, big corporations put out - and these are whole teams of people working together - basically make the equivalent of a hamburger helper meal and call it fine dining. And people sign off on this before it comes out. No one says "hey, does this make sense?" Bizarre. But hey, it is watchable and I'm watching, so I guess they got me. *shrugs*
Re: TV Shows
So I'm watching a different show and the protagonist has a dagger in hand and is about to sneak up to a guy who is asleep and stab him to death.
And for some reason, he's wearing dress shoes on a hardwood floor. So as he dramatically sneaks up....
thud thud thud thud
Thud Thud Thud Thud
THUD THUD THUD THUD
And I'm sitting here losing my mind, begging this fictional character to take his shoes off. Possibly, also walk so that the sound of his footsteps are muffled. That's the bare minimum effort someone needs to make to sneak up on someone.
And I'm 99% sure the writer and/or director never considered any of this and no one bothered to tell him.
And for some reason, he's wearing dress shoes on a hardwood floor. So as he dramatically sneaks up....
thud thud thud thud
Thud Thud Thud Thud
THUD THUD THUD THUD
And I'm sitting here losing my mind, begging this fictional character to take his shoes off. Possibly, also walk so that the sound of his footsteps are muffled. That's the bare minimum effort someone needs to make to sneak up on someone.
And I'm 99% sure the writer and/or director never considered any of this and no one bothered to tell him.
Re: TV Shows
Reminds me of when the lab worker, DR Henry Wu, in the Jurassic Park movie used a pencil eraser in the hatchery clean room.Hydra009 wrote: Tue Sep 29, 2026 2:08 pm So I'm watching a different show and the protagonist has a dagger in hand and is about to sneak up to a guy who is asleep and stab him to death.
And for some reason, he's wearing dress shoes on a hardwood floor. So as he dramatically sneaks up....
thud thud thud thud
Thud Thud Thud Thud
THUD THUD THUD THUD
And I'm sitting here losing my mind, begging this fictional character to take his shoes off. Possibly, also walk so that the sound of his footsteps are muffled. That's the bare minimum effort someone needs to make to sneak up on someone.
And I'm 99% sure the writer and/or director never considered any of this and no one bothered to tell him.