The only warning I got before tuning into a replay of this week’s “The Walking Dead” came from my mother, of all people. I told her I needed to catch up, she replied, “All I’ll say is, when Daryl is the sane one, you know things got bad.” With that statement in mind I tuned in… and quickly realized how right she’d been.
I’ll get back to Daryl in a moment, but we’ve gotta talk about Shane. This man strives to be the hero that Rick is, and fails miserably. He tries too hard. Doesn’t plan his strategy. Shane barges in headfirst and damn anything or anyone that gets in his way. That would be a good trait except for the fact that Shane’s motives are purely selfish. He didn’t go off to fetch supplies for Carl. He rode into the sunset, hoping that the display he made would get him back in Laurie’s good graces. I spent a good chunk of the hour grinding my teeth at Shane.
And because Shane has his head wedged, Glen is beginning to have an identity crisis. His main purpose in the first season was to be the sidekick to the hero. Well, our actual hero isn’t in the game. He’s sidelined with his family, holding their breath to see what the future holds for Carl. Glen can’t help there and he realizes it. The guy trying to be the hero isn’t, leaving Glen to flounder around searching for someone to connect to that he can help. It seems he’s found that in Maggie, but what will happen when Rick is ready to don the white hat again? Will his Tonto abandon the potential Maggie presents to be just a sidekick again? Only time will tell there. I don’t even try to predict what TWD’s writers will do. They’re kinda crazy.
Speaking of crazy… I can’t believe my mother was right about Daryl. It is a trip to watch this character slowly open up to the other survivors. From the get-go we were supposed to think he’s like his brother, but this episode shot that to hell. We actually see Daryl for the first time. It isn’t the hardass squirrel killer in those woods with Andrea, but an intelligent man who was given the short stick in life and still managed to make the best of it. The way he dealt with Andrea and her determination to opt out of life was brilliant. This is a character to watch, not that you guys weren’t already.
The overall tone of this episode was hopelessness. Each character had a moment when they looked at the world around them and the pressure became too much to handle. Our survivors are beginning to buckle. They are getting desperate and we all know that desperate people do stupid things. The next couple of episodes are going to be interesting, to say the least.
Season two of AMC’s “The Walking Dead” kicked off with a groan, lurch, and the bang that made viewers jump off their couches. For a show that went through more than a few growing pains during filming of the current season, TWD creators are proving that despite the changes, they are still striving to deliver one of the best-made programs on television. And the proof isn’t in backroom antics; the numbers for the season premiere alone are amazing–7.3 million viewers tuned in to catch the flesh-munching goodness, shattering previous records for a basic cable TV show.
The first episode was light on the bloodshed, but heavy on character focus. We got a serious look at the women who provide the backbone of the survivors. You’ve got the widow finally finding her footing in life after the death of her abusive husband. There’s the woman who has lost everything and everyone she loves and wants nothing more than a way out. And, of course, we have the once-thought widow who is reunited with her husband, but not until after sleeping with his best friend.
There’s a saying, “Behind every great man, there’s a great woman.” We were shown in season one that the women handle more than their share of the work in camp. Since leaving the camp, that work has translated to emotional support, and basically the three have become a collective “mommy”–a mommy with a gun and short temper, apparently. The best thing the creators did with that first episode was hit the women where it hurt–their children. One child goes missing in the middle of a zombie attack, and the other…well, remember that bang mentioned before? It wasn’t a happy moment for our survivors.
Episode two carried on with the deep look at the women in camp. Almost instantly, Laurie knew something was wrong. It’s always been a little creepy when a mother does that; how despite distance, she knows her family is in danger. Too many times it has happened in real life to be simply a story mechanism. This story line is really putting the focus on Laurie and when she tells Rick his place is by her side with their son, you knew he’d sit, stay, and do what she wanted.
We’re also introduced to a new group of survivors out on the farm. You don’t take notice of their women until after the men have all taken off to do what men do, risk their necks without a solid plan. But when Maggie decides to make her presence felt, it is a solid blow that snags your attention. As we put it while discussing the episode, Maggie is the face of girl power in The Walking Dead, no doubt.
On this show, the women are a symbol of hope, while the men try to be realists…to a fault. Survivors of any disaster need hope in order to keep putting one foot in front of another. Without it, they’d be like the corpses in the cars on the freeway, laying there waiting for a slow death. Now we just have to wait and see if that hope can survive the horrific situations thrown their way by fate.
The first time your Commander-in-Chief encountered Sam Trammell in person, I really wasn’t sure how much a man known for battling with vampires, witches and werewolves would know about battling the shambling hordes. I found myself immediately and deeply impressed not only by Sam’s kind nature but his razor-sharp strategy instincts.
During subsequent meetings, Sam turned the tables on my attempts to assess his command credentials and instead, I found myself searching for answers to some pretty tough questions about disaster preparedness, response plans and the kind of survival tactics we in ZSC Command advocate.
Sam’s experience with supernatural forces and the vampires of the True Blood universe is already being put to use within ZSC Command to enhance our collective preparations for the onset of the zombieapocalpyse or any other global cataclysmic event.
Zombie Survival Crew – please raise your weapons and welcome our newest commander SAM TRAMMELL!!!!
The event was bound to be crawling with UGA agents and others out to gather information on Zombie Survival Crew command, but when the call came through there was no doubt your Commander-in-Chief would attend.
The gauntlet of bright lights made it hard to keep track of the action, but I managed to catch some shots of Laurie Holden, Steve Yeun, Jeffrey DeMunn and other cast members before settling in for the much anticipated opening episode.
Now you’re not going to get any spoilers from me, so don’t even try…unless you happen to have a million bucks lying around and then maybe we can talk.
But I will say it was not what I was expecting – which is a good thing – and I almost tossed my complimentary popcorn onto the poor souls in front of me a couple of times – which is a great thing. And every time I thought “oh, there’s the ‘gotcha’ moment, thanks, let’s move on,” another one was around the corner, and it just got better and better. That’s not to say there aren’t some extremely telling character development moments that will shake viewers and touch their greatest fears, because…oof, The Walking Dead isn’t pulling any punches.
The opening episode will keep fans guessing and off-balance, confused and screaming (literally) for more. I could have sat there all night watching the entire season.
If you want to hear more than I’m willing to divulge, take a look at some of the production and cast interviews on the red carpet here.
Instead, I stumbled off, still nauseous from the viewing, to the after event where IronE snapped this picture with Steve Yeun that is just too cute for words. Him, not me. What a sweet, articulate, engaging young man he is….kind of reminds of Glen, actually.
ZSC Command not only survived the night, but came away from it having discussed future missions and creating updated strategies. Green brigade Commander IronE Singleton prepped a special mission for the Green Brigade and has the undying gratitude of ZSC Command in its entirety for his commitment to helping us all prepare for the onset of a zombiepocalypse.
We in Zombie Survival Crew Command are always supportive of the projects and causes of those on the crew. Today, we bring your attention to an independent movie that two of our command crew happen to be working on.
Our Li’l Gangsta Anthony Guajardo and Second Lieutenant Viviana Chavez have a new project on the horizon and they’re looking to raise donations to help fund it!
The Story:
It’s October 2001 and Andrew is a high school senior who has been in the care of his step-grandmother Stella for the better part of his life. He has no job, no friends, no girlfriend, no car and no money. Over the course of his life he has developed an anti-social personality largely in part to his Grandmother’s strict household and religious beliefs. Andrew has found an outlet in music and a girl he has a crush on named Rose. Our story takes place over the course of several days when Andrew’s routine life comes to a head.
Yellow Brigade Commander Jinxie G has a special promotion over on her website starting today, and it’s all about raising awareness for breast cancer!
As a Zombie Survival Crew Commander, and the crew’s top Amazon, Jinxie is very dedicated to this cause because it has affected more than a few of the women in her family, as well as friends and their families. For the entire month of October, she will be making her survival bracelets in pink & black and pink & white, with all proceeds going to Susan G. Komen for the Cure®.
Just look at these beauties. You know you want one!
If you would like to order one of these special survival bracelets, please head on over to her website Jinxie’s World and place your order. Not only does she have a post up on her blog today, which we urge you to read, but there is also a page dedicated to Breast Cancer Awareness.
In addition to the survival bracelets, Jinxie is also donating all proceeds from the October sales of her most recent book NEMESIS to Susan G. Komen for the Cure®.
Nemesis, from Running Ink Press, is marked at the special price of $1.99 for all of October. Available in KINDLE, PDF, RTF, HTML, LRF, PALM DOC, AND PLAIN TEXT ON SMASHWORDS, & BARNES & NOBLE and KINDLE format on AMAZON & AMAZON UK & AMAZON DE.
Your Green Brigade Commander IronE Singleton has done something wonderful for the premiere of The Walking Dead. That’s right, not only is there a countdown on his website to the premiere of season 2 that will air on October 16th, but he’s given the fans of TWD a song!
We in the Command Center encourage you to head on over to IronE’s website and have a listen, and then become our ZSC Street Crew that we love so much by telling everyone you know about it!
After a semi-hostile takeover bid, and nearly being run down, you would think your Zombie Survival Crew Commander-in-Chief would know better than to ask Yellow Brigade First Lieutenant Sean Patrick Flanery for battle technique sessions.
Well, he is an expert in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu so it should hardly be any surprise that this PSA from Sean almost knocked me down.
When your Yellow Brigade commander went to Chicago last month, the last thing I expected was to have Michael Rooker ask about joining the Zombie Survival Crew! Well, he did, and holy crap, we now have The Walking Dead‘s Dixon brothers on the crew, folks. Are you excited? I know I am! *big grin* Can you see my excitement?
I also know Michael is very excited about his role in the ZSC, and boy, does this guy know his weapons! I certainly wouldn’t want to be a zombie with him around. He’s got backups for his backup!
Michael will be joining the Los Angeles crew with us crazies out here on the west coast, and he will be our first and definitely most able Special Forces commander.
Zombie Survival Crew, please give a nice warm welcome and weapons salute to Michael Rooker!
I told y’all the zombiepocalypse was coming soon! Now we have zombies living every day normal lives in music videos! *twitches*
My friend Jimmy Joyce and I have spent a few nights talking until sunrise because he’s cool like that, and it usually happens after a show I’ve gone to watch. We all know Jinxie is nocturnal, but hey, that’s when the zombies are active, people. Jimmy is in a few bands, and I mean like four or five…or I could just be thinking of Michael Mahoney’s multiple-band status, but whatever. The two of them are in Money Shot together, which is the cover band I tend to see.
Terrible People is one of Jimmy’s other bands, and I thought I’d share this awesome video with you. This is their song “Bill Murray” and it’s pretty damn good, if you ask me.
And for all you zombies out there? You even have your own Facebook-type site to mingle on, which you saw in the video. Zombiebook.org. Check it out. It’s run by Jay Zombie. Of course I’m a member. Someone has to keep an eye on the zombies over there!
The only warning I got before tuning into a replay of this week’s “The Walking Dead” came from my mother, of all people. I told her I needed to catch up, she replied, “All I’ll say is, when Daryl is the sane one, you know things got bad.” With that statement in mind I tuned in… and quickly realized how right she’d been.
Priority Status: High
Instead, I stumbled off, still nauseous from the viewing, to the after event where IronE snapped this picture with Steve Yeun that is just too cute for words. Him, not me. What a sweet, articulate, engaging young man he is….kind of reminds of Glen, actually.
I ran into our new 
We in the 