The Walking Dead Why do you think this show gets so much hate?

[pr0xyt0xin]

I wouldn't say TWD is the best show currently on television. Let alone the best show ever aired on television. But it is the only zombie show and (imo) the best horror show. None of the acting is on par with Bryan Cranston's Walter White, Aaron Paul's Jesse Pinkman or Peter Dinklage's Tyrion Lannister.

That all being said, as far as zombie fiction goes, it is phenomenal. If you are a fan of on-screen survival horror this is some of the greatest in existence. Now, no offense to the Romero-fans, but there's just so much more you can do in 4 seasons of a series than you can do in 2 hours of a film. The feeling of isolation and attachment is ramped up to the n-th degree.

The costumes/makeup/effects are shockingly radical and often times hard to look at. The action and the storylines are entertaining despite some "perfect aim" syndrome and "convenient ammo" syndrome from time to time.

I do like the show and I think it has only improved by (dare I say it) killing off all of it's weakest links. We all know who I am referring to. Also by logically and pleasurably improving upon some of the lesser characters (Carl and Carol). And by keeping a constant state of alarm in pretty much every episode (few exceptions). The camp in season one wasn't safe, the farm wasn't safe, Woodbury wasn't safe, and even the prison isn't safe. I will stay tuned in for some time to come.

 

[Lord]

Best horror show? I'm sorry but American Horror Story is scarier than TWD

 

[pr0xyt0xin]

scariest horror show =/= best horror show

not to mention that was the one thing in my post i clarified with "imo"

*sigh* people 'round here.

 

[Teelie]

There are some people who like to state their opinions and viewpoints as either facts or more as important than everyone else's sometimes. If you think a show is superior/inferior to their favorite, then you are just wrong. Opinion doesn't even factor into it.

Fortunately it's not too common around here, although I've seen a few people hold their prized television series as the gold standard. Many of them cite ******** *** as some kind of pinnacle of television (yes, I've resorted to using it as an expletive) and judge everything else by it which is entirely unfair. I'm so sick of it that every time someone brings it up I resist the urge to literally roll my eyes and go on a diatribe against it.

I'm stopping now before that happens.

 

[bullets]

I feel fortunate to have a show like Walking Dead on the air. Also I stopped reading the comic early on so many changes haven't bothered me. I'm also glad we don't know exactly how things will go.

Good times. If you don't like it , change the channel.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

I can understand a "meh" response for some people since it isn't geared toward everyone.

But I don't understand why someone would hate the show. It's far from being bad television.

 

[Teelie]

I rarely hate a television show and when I do it's almost always "reality" television and I refuse to watch it. If I don't like a series I just stop watching it or don't to begin with (99% of reality tv).

With rare exception will I continue to watch a show I dislike. In fact I think Dexter is the last series I watched to the bitter end in years and only because it was near the end of the series.

I don't know why people will invest time and effort into a show they don't like just to come onto the forums to complain over it.

 

[GremlinZilla89]

I rarely hate a television show and when I do it's almost always "reality" television and I refuse to watch it. If I don't like a series I just stop watching it or don't to begin with (99% of reality tv).

With rare exception will I continue to watch a show I dislike. In fact I think Dexter is the last series I watched to the bitter end in years and only because it was near the end of the series.

I don't know why people will invest time and effort into a show they don't like just to come onto the forums to complain over it.

That's the thing for me. It's not like a film. You watch it once in a 2 hour experience and you get the whole story thus allowing you to construct your opinion accordingly. A show lasts years and has dozens and dozens of episodes. If you watch a few and dislike it, then simply stop watching it. This doesn't happen here but people will watch a show (some probably don't, but others actually watch just to have fuel for their hateful crusade) just to whine about how much they hate it and how idiotic it is and how can people be so dumb as too like it and yadda yadda yadda. Why? Why ON EARTH would you subject yourself to hours of programming you dislike just so you can take jabs at the fans? Why can't you leave it at "I watched it for a little while, didn't like it." Is it really that gratifying to troll fans?

 

[Baramos]

It's the phenomenon of "hatewatching", which was originally borne out of watching bad movies to laugh at how bad they are (like Plan 9 or Nine Deaths of the Ninja). People now do this with TV shows.

I honestly had to hatewatch the last three seasons of Dexter just to get through it or I would have had to drop the show entirely.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

Here's the thing about hate-watching a show for years: on some level you secretly enjoy the show.

 

[Teelie]

I've quit several shows in the middle of their runs because I stopped liking them. I sometimes read how they ended but I never felt like picking up where I left off to watch the rest of the series after that point.

Dexter was the last season and it wasn't obvious it was going to be bad until 3-4 episodes in that it was not going to get better.

I've watched truly bad movies for the mocking value but that's 2 hours tops, not a seasons worth of material which can be anything from 12 to 24 hours.

 

[Hyde]

I think a big reason for the hate is because the show doesn't really have any drive. Look at other successful arc-based shows like Breaking Bad and Lost. They both have a continuing mystery and plotline which makes viewers want to come back for more. For BrBa it was the speculation of how it would all end (but mostly the excellent writing and addictiveness) and the fact that every action had an equal and opposite reaction. For Lost there were mysteries everywhere, some stretching across years. The audience had an incentive to keep coming back for more.

Heck, even with Arrow there's the mystery of what happened to Ollie on the island and what the newly-introduced League of Assassin's are up to. Agents of SHIELD has Coulson's resurrection and the Rising Tide. However with TWD things just kinda plod along and as I've said before in this thread, they'll find a safe place, walkers attack and they leave, rinse and repeat. And all the potential hooks for the show (the Governor's whereabouts, the cause of the outbreak, government etc) aren't really talked about and are just left to the audience. Even with the recent murdering at the hands of Carol, that was solved in one episode when it should have stretched over two or three.

Hopefully Gimple and go recognise this and quickly rectify this mistake.

 

[Soapy]

I don't really agree with that. I don't think a show needs a mystery or a continuous storyline to be good.

I think it simply comes down to a quality issue. The Walking Dead has its moments, but for the bulk of its run it's been very inconsistent, ranging from, "This is alright I guess." to, "Oh my god, why do I even watch this?!" with the occasional really awesome episode like the pilot, season 2 finale, and Clear to string people along. They're on a real hot streak this season though. I really think they've found the right balance this time around with the right people, so hopefully AMC doesn't futz around with it behind the scenes anymore.

 

[Hyde]

Yeah, not all shows. However since Walking Dead is a serialized drama I think it needs some drive to keep the quality there. If the show was in an episodic format like Doctor Who then it wouldn't matter so much.

But I agree with you on the quality issue as well.

 

[roach]

I think a big reason for the hate is because the show doesn't really have any drive. Look at other successful arc-based shows like Breaking Bad and Lost. They both have a continuing mystery and plotline which makes viewers want to come back for more. For BrBa it was the speculation of how it would all end (but mostly the excellent writing and addictiveness) and the fact that every action had an equal and opposite reaction. For Lost there were mysteries everywhere, some stretching across years. The audience had an incentive to keep coming back for more.

Heck, even with Arrow there's the mystery of what happened to Ollie on the island and what the newly-introduced League of Assassin's are up to. Agents of SHIELD has Coulson's resurrection and the Rising Tide. However with TWD things just kinda plod along and as I've said before in this thread, they'll find a safe place, walkers attack and they leave, rinse and repeat. And all the potential hooks for the show (the Governor's whereabouts, the cause of the outbreak, government etc) aren't really talked about and are just left to the audience. Even with the recent murdering at the hands of Carol, that was solved in one episode when it should have stretched over two or three.

Hopefully Gimple and go recognise this and quickly rectify this mistake.

the drive of the show is will they survive. it's a new premise on TV since there hasn't been another survival horror tv show. People tune in to see if their fave characters will make it.
I think the main thing that makes people dislike the show is that its not a typical zombie story. It's not about finding the cure. Its about people trying to survive in the new world. It's more about the people than the zombies.

 

[Hyde]

IMO, to me people tuning every week to watch characters slowly be killed off isn't an interesting drive. It's plot.

 

[roach]

IMO, to me people tuning every week to watch characters slowly be killed off isn't an interesting drive. It's plot.

to you...perhaps to others it is

 

[Brother Jack]

IMO, to me people tuning every week to watch characters slowly be killed off isn't an interesting drive. It's plot.

It can be a way to shock and keep escalating the stakes higher and higher, but when that's essentially all you are doing after a while the effect wears off. But the bigger problem is that a lot of the characters aren't very well drawn so you tend to care even less when they die.

 

[Spider-Who?]

IMO, I think most hate towards the show is your typical "it's popular, so i HAVE to complain about it" drivel we see over and over and over. TWD was one of, and now the most watched show on cable - it is GOING to get hate for that reason alone.

That being said, not all hate is out of spite, and while I disagree, I accept some complaints as legitimate. Yes, this show can be a slow burner, but when has "slow" meant "bad"? I think people have gotten so used to super fast paced shows and movies that they can't handle ones that take their time. Out of all the episodes I've heard people say where boring, the ONLY episode I thought was such was the one that focused on Andrea and the Governor.

I also thought season 2 was great and felt the "soooo slow" first half was really good and needed in order to give us a chance to truly know all the characters.

And I didn't hate Lori, nor Andrea. People are so quick to hate strong female characters (look at the death threats to the actress playing Walter White's wife) that they refuse to even try and understand their motivations, intentions, etc.

 

[Lord]

I don't get the hate for Skylar, but the one for Andrea was certanly granted, the character was terrible, and it really hurts more the fact that the version from the comics was easily one of its best characters, there in the holly three with Rick and Glen

scariest horror show =/= best horror show

not to mention that was the one thing in my post i clarified with "imo"

*sigh* people 'round here.

Still, it's can't be the best horror show when we have the likes of The Twilight Zone to compete with.

 

[Schlosser85]

IMO, I think most hate towards the show is your typical "it's popular, so i HAVE to complain about it" drivel we see over and over and over. TWD was one of, and now the most watched show on cable - it is GOING to get hate for that reason alone.

That being said, not all hate is out of spite, and while I disagree, I accept some complaints as legitimate. Yes, this show can be a slow burner, but when has "slow" meant "bad"? I think people have gotten so used to super fast paced shows and movies that they can't handle ones that take their time. Out of all the episodes I've heard people say where boring, the ONLY episode I thought was such was the one that focused on Andrea and the Governor.

I also thought season 2 was great and felt the "soooo slow" first half was really good and needed in order to give us a chance to truly know all the characters.

And I didn't hate Lori, nor Andrea. People are so quick to hate strong female characters (look at the death threats to the actress playing Walter White's wife) that they refuse to even try and understand their motivations, intentions, etc.

Sometimes I feel like the only person who didn't think Season 2 was interminably boring.

 

[roach]

Sometimes I feel like the only person who didn't think Season 2 was interminably boring.

I don't think I've been bored watching any episode of TWD. People have to realize the show was never going to be about the Zombie apocalypse and was about the people living in a zombie apocalypse.

 

[Schlosser85]

I don't think I've been bored watching any episode of TWD.

Me either.

 

[Figs]

I think it's because there's so much missed potential and it pales in comparison to AMC's other hits, aka Breaking Bad and Mad Men

I've seen a few others mention that it misses it's potential.

In what way??

I have a few friends on Facebook that said the show jumped the shark this season. They have no idea what they're talking about obviously.

I think a lot of these people are like my younger sister, they just want zombie killing and gore nonstop. That's why my sister won't watch the show...too much talking.

 

[GremlinZilla89]

I think the show has only dropped the ball with Andrea. Not because she was so different from her comic book counterpart but because she was just terribly written.

I think every season has been an improvement over the last. And I love season 2 myself. I adored the slow burn quality of it. It started off a little rocky but when it settled in 4 episodes in it became engrossing. I loved Shanes storyline.