Here’s my take FWIW, notwithstanding the need to establish the main characters.
Since we (regular fans of TWD) all know that once the virus started everyone is infected, though we don’t really know that it causes any one to die in of itself. But once infected and someone dies, it re-animates the dead into zombies within a few minutes to a couple of hours. So where were all of the zombies? This is L.A. and I’m sure they probably have a death rate of at least 100 people a day. Since they don’t autopsy anyone that fast these people would be turning and feeding and creating mores zombies at an exponential rate. Even the old guy in the hospital bed would have turned by the end of the first day.
Yet the only thing on the news was the guy in the car accident. For weeks the network has been teasing us with the radio broadcast saying there is a nasty flu going around and people in 5 state are affected but they just started the show and had some minor references to people being out sick. But what are their symptoms? A low grade bite will slowly consume the body with a fever until the person dies which is generally about 24-36 hours, but the unbitten in the TWD show no symptoms whatsoever.
I guess that was what was most disappointing, because as TWD fans we know what happens. This show is supposed to be the 5-6 weeks that took place as Rick was in the hospital in a coma. So in the first 3 days there are only 3 zombies in all of L.A.? Pretty slow outbreak. I would like to think they would show a scene from the CDC or something where it represents patient zero and then the government cover-up to keep it under wraps, again because we know that the CDC finds out that it can’t be controlled.
Even if they were going to spent the whole 90 minute first episode developing characters, they should have put more emphasis on the 5 state flu, some “bizarre happenings” news accounts, mixed with them coming into contact with the zombies. Based upon the end of the show last night, I predict that they will still be in some form of denial for the next 2 episodes, they will try to keep their family together for safety, until episode 4 when the SHTF big time, which by then it will be too late to get out of L.A.
good post. i think they (as in the writers) are doing something like the following
1. the information is there (the pimple kid with the knife is worried) except its only on the ‘crazy’ websites. so it looks like the media/govt knows whats going on and is trying to quell it before it goes wildfire on them. this is shown quite well with the increase in sirens as the show progresses and the ‘leaked’ video which had to have come from the police (ariel and bodycam shot). so the police know something is wrong and it is not being contained and the leaks are warnings but people dont see it..yet.
2. people are suffering from ‘normalcy bias’ so they dont see the drop in down and outs, the missing people increases, the drop in drug users, the kid drop off in school...its the ‘flu’. so basically i think all the darker places in any city for walkers are containing them, they are feeding on the impoverished..now but when that food source dries up, they will burst out into the open. the death of the drug deal is the dam breaking, they are about to explode into the normal life of a city.
3. personally i think the kids at home are kept there due to the flu or their parents having the flu or fear of it. i suspect there will be an explosion of walkers as they are currently locked in their houses and cant get out. also it is showing that the family we are watching is not fully aware ‘that something is wrong’ but perhaps some families are and are preparing as best they can.
4. their is also the ‘boiled frog’ analogy here. the pimple kid is the only one who ‘sees’ it. he is smart, we are told that, so he is fully conscious that ‘something is really badly wrong’. that what the frowny face on the bus was about IMHO. he is saying in that look to the teacher ‘do you see now’ and the wave is a acknowledgement that yes, something is not right but that leads her again to normalcy bias..its just a flu, maybe even a bad one but just a flu oh and my relationship issue, my son the druggie and she looses awareness of her surroundings again. her crash to reality was the running over of the drug dealer...now the veil of illusion has been lifted. the implication i guess is all over the city, the number of walkers has reached (as mentioned above) a critical mass point and they are now visible, even if you dont want to see them.
5. like all cities there is horrible places normal people dont go. the drug den of course will be empty, those bitten have turned and ‘walked off’ again seeking easy prey, nearby drug dens, down and outs, tent city places. that is why she saw one stumbling guy in the tent area in the park filled with fliers of the missing and just assumes it some drunk hobo.
6. the other thing is the reaction of the police, they are obviously stretched to the limit, the numbers needed for one walker and the wide berth they gave him while the EMT guy worked on recovery and it also looks the same in the hospitals, we see that in the security cameras with the doctors moving fast and the nurse saying when the drug guy walked out, its no longer her problem, call the police and runs off.
7. we are in the strange twilight all epidemics experience. there is a quiet period before it explodes. there is a term for it if a recall just can remember.
8. the 5 states breakout implies its not a rel flu, its somehow controlled was it a terrorist release or a strange govt run test gone bad? why is it only currently in the 5 states, that looks like a release. The US does not create flu viruses that ‘gift’ is always (or nearly always) Asia as the breeding ground where close proximity of pigs, birds and humans interact. the spanish flu is one exception (but again it was pigs, birds and humans in close proximity during the first world war). so there is no report of worldwide flu issues yet their is a flu virus so maybe its just we have not been told yet. i also recall in TWD they mentioned a worldwide virus.
9. anyone who talks about people eating anyone is recommendted for mental review. so there is a possibility people have seen walkers in action but like the drug daler kid are sent for ‘assessment’. that again would hide the truth.
finally after a long rant, i read on hotair from a poster that there is 1500 (i think it was that) deaths per day in LA on a normal day. so from now on, even without walkers eating and creating more, 1500 walkers are created every 24 hours (and thats not counting the other states). there is a mathematical exponential equation in here somewhere.
just my opinion and that of my good wife...
They still have material for another series, that shows the government response. Set it in DC and Atlanta, show the government response right in the actual facilities: The White House. Congress. The Senate. The CDC in Atlanta. The CDC field offices.
THAT is the series I was hoping THIS would be. But it looks like it will be more of a "Gee what if this happened all around me" show. Disappointing.