Television has one advantage over movies, it has the time to create solid mythology and characters.
This is the reason I stopped watching “The Walking Dead,” which surprisingly is on a cable channel responsible for modern masterpieces such as “Breaking Bad” and “Mad Men.”
Regular readers know of my disdain for “The Walking Dead,”** and that I have hope that “Fear the Walking Dead” will right the many wrongs of the AMC series.
There are a vast amount of things the showrunners can do to make both shows great, one of which would be to binge on HBO’s “Game of Thrones.”
“Game of Thrones” is a series built on restraint. It also requires extreme patience, rewarding viewers for sticking it out. Not to say the slower episodes are boring, but “Game of Thrones” occasional leaves us wondering if there’s a point. After 5 seasons, I’m done questioning the filmmakers; there’s always a point… and that’s to induce multiple orgasms through each story arc.
Why “Game of Thrones” is working so well is that it doesn’t back itself in a corner by following one group of characters, and instead builds a massive world across several seasons. (This isn’t a hour and half movie, we’re talking about hundreds of hours of devoted to one story.)
“The Walking Dead” is a bore because it refuses to learn from other successful shows, and continues to keep things “small”**. Being such a massive hit, they have an infinite amount of hours to build on characters, storylines and even the world. Instead, each season feels like a small story elongated to appease the year-long need for television. “The Walking Dead,” to me, feels like a feature film that should have been a short.
I bring this all up because last night’s “Game of Thrones” literally kicked in the teeth of AMC’s hit series. After seasons of teasing, the legendary White Walkers – presumed to be the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse – attack. Jon Snow and his companions are the unfortunate victims of the attack, which came in the form of a horde of “zombies”.
“The Walking Dead” has desensitized the viewer to zombies, and doesn’t really push the envelope – I mean, last night’s “Game of Thrones” featured hundreds of undead stumbling off a cliff (see below), only to rise on the lower ground prepared to attack. How is a show about a fantasy Medieval times pushing the zombie genre further than “The Walking Dead,” which is about zombies?
Anyways, those who watch “Game of Thrones” were given a horror treat, possible the best of the year, while those who keep up with “The Walking Dead” are left wondering, “Does it get any better than this?”
* I love Kirkman’s “The Walking Dead” comics.
** “The Walking Dead” allegedly is powered by AMC execs, who keep the budget low, even though the series is a massive hit. They have been castrating their own series since the exit of Frank Darabont years ago.
