MovieChat Forums > The Walking Dead (2010) Discussion > Is anyone else annoyed by this?

Is anyone else annoyed by this?

posted 5 years ago by tatsujin (39)
24 replies | jump to latest

Disclaimer: never read the comic.
I've watched this show since its beginning, and have increasingly begun to be annoyed about this:

Why do they (even the veterans) keep being surprise-attacked by the walkers?!?

For example, they stand around talking about stuff and "suddenly" a horde of walkers are attacking them. How is that possible when they stumble and crawl at a snail's pace and are not exactly quiet. In normal surroundings you'd have at least a whole minute to prepare your weapon and what not.
The way the walkers manage to sneak up on people you'd think they were elite ninjas or something when they were still alive...

I can somewhat understand that they need to add a bit of zombie bashing now and then, but come on, make *some* effort!

[–] LenkoPenko (157) 5 years ago

Are you looking for an in-universe explanation?
Because there isn't any.
It's just bad writing.
And I've been watching the show from the beginning as well, but the past 3 seasons have been a worse torment than getting gnawed on by zombies.

[–] tatsujin (39) 5 years ago

Well, yeah. But I realize there probably isn't any in-universe "explanation", it just gets silly...
I guess I was looking for empathy. ;)

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

There was a theory that the characters are losing their hearing from using weapons without ear protection.

But then agsin, I stopped watching when Glen died. The show was getting boring.

[–] tatsujin (39) 5 years ago

Oh, I see! So someone was annoyed enough to bother with a theory. ;)
Kind of makes sense, except that they don't use firearms that much since it attracts walkers.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

Yep. Here's the basic layout.

https://youtu.be/W8cJA3MeIjo

Im still trying to figure out how anyone thought a tank would be that spacious in season 1.

[–] tatsujin (39) 5 years ago

Darn, that was quite old! Missed that completely, reveals how bad my search-fu was/is...

[–] Kowalski (75523) 5 years ago

REAL TANK,OLD LADY LOVER.

[–] Goliard (1420) 5 years ago

Problem is, that theory makes NO sense. For a million reasons, but I'll give you a quick two-piece:
1) The walkers have been doing this for the life of the series, WAY before any mythical hearing loss could possibly have been a problem
2) If they were suffering from hearing loss That Severe, it would show up in the dialogue. The characters speak to each other at normal volume.

Ah, whatever: I'll give you another. Ninja/teleporting zombies have also snuck up on multiple characters/groups who only use melee weapons.

TL/DR: There *is* no in-universe explanation. It's a (well-known) legitimate gripe, in a deeply flawed (yet often entertaining) series.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

[deleted]

[–] aavfreak (3313) 5 years ago

My wife and I stopped after two EPISODES of Negan, for the same reason.

It was around the time IMDb shut down their discussion boards and there was no where for me to go vent and commiserate with other "hate watchers."

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Alex (1503) 5 years ago

Now you feel my pain.

[–] aavfreak (3313) 5 years ago

The short answer is that the plot requires it to move forward. Not necessarily a good answer, but that's been the case for most of the show.

[–] brux (14724) 5 years ago

Hahaha, Yeah, I've point that out many times. The walkers start growling when they are 20 feet away, and the stumble and shuffle their feet, not to mention they must smell horribly at this point, for anyone to not notice them or be surprised by them.

[–] TimMC (9143) 5 years ago

I have another big complaint, many really but ONE today, why can't the writers decide if Zombie blood is bad or not. They've been flip floppin on this issue the entire run of the show. It's ridiculous at this point. I Finished S9 and took it out of my Queue on Netflix. Too looney for me.

[–] tatsujin (39) 5 years ago

Hm... trying to remember when zombie blood was bad... Care to remind me? Unless you're thinking of the radioactive ones? Those are of course bad for other reasons.

My conclusion was that *only* bites kills you immediately. Exactly how this could be is a bit harder to explain, or even accept. Maybe the teeth have bad bacteria, kind of like reptiles? Because everyone's already infected; you die, you become a zombie. The teeth have "other stuff" on them.... hmm yeah, that must be it. ;)

[–] Bloodshot77 (13762) 5 years ago

Gabriel got sick from wearing guts.

[–] PaladinNJ (21509) 5 years ago

During one of his attacks on Alexandria, Negan used weapons dipped in zombie blood and everyone who was wounded, no matter how minor, died from infection.

[–] tatsujin (39) 5 years ago

Ah, ok, that probably happened. ;)
I don't remember the details, did they die from normal infection - that does exist in the real world :) - or "zombie infection" ?

[–] chrisjdel (2714) 5 years ago

The attack was against Hilltop if I remember right. Considering how quickly they got sick and turned, it had to be the zombie infection. Maybe it's like handling a poison frog; the toxin won't get you right through your skin, but if you've got any cuts you're in trouble. Rain forest natives poison their darts by rubbing them on the backs of the frogs. It seems basically the same as what the Saviors did with walker blood and their arrows. They've never really been that specific about how infectious the dead are. People have gotten blood and guts in their eyes and mouth, without turning.

I think whatever animates the dead remains passive in the living and only activates when they die. But the active variant in the walkers, if it gets introduced into your blood, doesn't go dormant again. It spreads and tries to take control and in the process kills you. At least that's my take on it.

[–] tatsujin (39) 5 years ago

Thanks for the details. So many episodes, can't remember them all :)

I guess one of the reasons the infection is never really explained is so they can retain the "artistic license" to improvise with these things. The down side is of course that, if not handled carefully, it might become contradictive or plainly doesn't make sense... They're getting close to the latter; it might not be readily apparent but doesn't add up in close scrutiny.

[–] chrisjdel (2714) 5 years ago

No they're not being meticulous as far as consistency goes. It's like the show's timeline, Carl went from 10 to 18 in about three years. And there have been plenty of occasions when the writers didn't do their homework. Remember that flu epidemic at the prison that they cured with antibiotics? Oops. Sometimes a small group of walkers makes a really challenging fight and people get killed. Other times characters are surrounded by a thousand walkers yet somehow manage to escape without a single bite. I think for a while there they became too weak and too little of a threat.

I wonder if they actually have an explanation of what the infection is. The new spinoff series seems to deal with places where civilization didn't fall, so maybe research continued and we'll get some answers from that show. But if they develop a cure the franchise will be done ... so it'll have to be something that's not so easy to cure.

[–] tatsujin (39) 5 years ago

Oh, didn't know about that spin-off!
However, having watched the trailer, I feel I would've been better off not knowing...

[–] chrisjdel (2714) 5 years ago

It could be quite good or really awful. Depends how they do it. With all the YA characters you can't help thinking CW meets The Walking Dead. Hopefully the show won't be like that. There had to be places where civilization held, seeing some of them would be a welcome change of pace and let them tell entirely new types of stories. So I'll give it a shot. If it sucks then no big loss, I just won't watch anymore.