So Breaking Bad is no more. I didn't got into it from the outset, but after being told for the 100th time that it was the best TV show ever, I downloaded the series and watched it. Yeah, it was great. Not only that, but it helped redefine television as perhaps the dominant artistic medium in entertainment. More than ever, big named actors and directors are joining TV casts, and the most interesting creative stories are being told on the small screen.
It can all be difficult to digest because there seem to be SO MANY great shows on TV right now. No normal person can watch them all. DVR helps, but on-demand and internet streaming is the key. Right now, I watch 2 or 3 shows on a weekly basis. Then, I fill in my free time (summer, show hiatus periods) with shows that I already know are good from internet streaming/download. This is great because a lot of these awesome new shows (I'm looking at you Game of Thrones) have 10 episodes seasons, and then 9 months of nothing!!!
So given the humongous success of The Walking Dead (the top rated show on all channels, not just cable), it is obvious that the next big series on my radar would get the greenlight. You should all look out for The Strain when it drops next year on FX. I actually started to read this trilogy back in 2011 on our beach vacation. It's co-authored by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan. This is a fun series that was clearly written by a movie director. Never did I doubt that it would find it's way to the screen someday. I hope the suspense and amazing visuals evoked by reading these books can translate to television. It's kind of like The Walking Dead, except things actually happen, the characters do things and go places, and there is a point to their actions beyond just staying alive.
Sorry for the rant there. I've been very underwhelmed by Season 4 of The Walking Dead. 6 episodes and all they've done is get sick from a virus. Awful.
So if they can do the effects right and make a gritty, realistic series in the style of The Walking Dead, I think this could be another big TV hit. On that note, maybe give the first book a read. You'll like it a lot. The backstory on where the vampires came from and how they survived to the present is so different and unique that it's worth reading just for that. A popcorn book with great mythology and ideas.
3 comments:
All I want is for HBO to make World War Z into a mini-series following the stories from the book. I would watch the heck out of that bad-boy.
By far, my favorite apocalyptic series is The Passage. This is actually literature written by a renowned author to try something in a different genre. I am dying for the 3rd book this summer.
I don't know why I love this crap. I guess it all goes back to Red Dawn when I was a kid. WOLVERINES!
Colin is right though. You could make a hella series out of WWZ. Each story from the book could be an episode. With a limited HBO-style series, you could divide seasons by the book sections:
Season 1: Warnings / Blame
Season 2: The Great Panic
Season 3: Turning the Tide / Homefront USA
Season 4: Total War / Goodbyes
This doesn't overlap the movie at all. Also, there would be extra material if you incorporated the Zombie Survival Guide into the series. That might strecth it into a tidy 5 seasons.
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