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  • Are You Ready to ‘Fear the Walking Dead’?


    As it turns out, there are bigger things to fear than fear itself. For instance, fans are understandably skittish about “The Walking Dead” that’s shambling towards our TVs on Sunday night. But there’s more! Executive producer Robert Kirkman revealed that “Fear the Walking Dead” will be the official title of the spin-off, and frankly, that’s enough to chill anyone’s marrow.

    According to Variety, the show will take place in Los Angeles, and it will have entirely new characters and narratives. Plus, fans around the world will be able to see the first episode of the show within 24 hours of its US premiere.

    Kim Dickens, Cliff Curtis, Alycia Debnam Carey, and Frank Dillane will star in the spin-off. Dave Erickson (“Sons of Anarchy”) will be the showrunner and an executive producer on “Fear the Walking Dead.” He also co-wrote the pilot with Kirkman.

    AMC is so bullish on the show that the network has ordered two seasons already, with the first to premiere this summer. There aren’t many more details about what the show will entail, but we’ve got some suggestions.


    [Via Variety]

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  • ‘The Walking Dead’ Season 5, Episode 15 Recap: Stand By Your Man

    The Walking DeadIt’s been only one episode since Carol told Rick that he needed to solve Jessie’s spousal abuse problem by offing her horrid husband, and that plot accelerated into overdrive during this week’s installment of “The Walking Dead,” titled “Try.”

    No, Rick didn’t actually kill Pete, but the two men had a gnarly fistfight that started in Jessie and Pete’s house, smashed out their front window, and continued onto the streets of Alexandria, where everyone looked on in horror as the two men rolled around and beat each other to a bloody pulp. Earlier, Rick confronted Jessie with his knowledge of Pete’s abuse, and while the woman initially rebuffed Rick’s offers of help, skeptical of his motivations, she eventually relented when she realized that the constable’s crush on her was more than just puppy love. And while Rick letting Little Rick guide his desire to separate Jessie and Pete may have been the initial driving force behind his actions, it’s clear that Deanna and the rest of the Alexandrians are clueless when it comes to crime prevention within their walls, and something needs to be done about the doctor.

    But the community doesn’t take kindly to strangers trying to assert an absolute authority over their meek methods, and despite her predilection for peace, quiet, and ignoring a man hitting his wife until she’s unconscious and bleeding, Deanna is anything but meek. She stands up to a raving Rick, who looks every bit the lunatic Deanna fears him to be as he shouts that he knows what’s best for the community — all while covered in blood and waving his gun wildly in the air. It ain’t a good look for the sheriff’s deputy, and while viewers at home may know that on some level Rick is right (Pete is bad news, and while he may not necessarily deserve to die, he must be dealt with), he isn’t doing himself any favors in arguing his case while sounding like a madman.

    The Deanna vs. Rick showdown has been brewing since the moment Rick’s group entered the Alexandria gates, and after Deanna’s conversation with Father Gabriel last week, and her discussion with Rick during this week’s episode about their sharply different approaches to handling problems, it seems we’re in for a nasty resolution. I was surprised that Rick came right out and revealed to Deanna that he wanted to kill Pete, but alas, his efforts to be more inclusive in his decision-making backfired in a big way. Deanna already knew about the couple’s problems, but “hoped it’d get better.” A clearly disgusted Rick argues in favor of his execution plan, at which Deanna immediately balks, warning Rick, “that kind of thinking doesn’t belong in here.”

    Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like Rick and co. belong in there either, despite everyone’s somewhat-best efforts to make it work. Surprisingly, Noah’s death did not go unmourned by the rest of the group, and his loss ripples throughout them. Glenn tries valiantly to carry on the young man’s optimism, telling Rick that they need to make a life in Alexandria at all costs, unaware that Nick has been feeding Deanna lies about what really went down on that supply run. Nick (who has the most punchable face I’ve seen on this show in quite some time) claims that it was Glenn’s fault that Aiden died, that Glenn wanted to abandon Aiden, and that Glenn was the one responsible for Noah’s death. (To her credit, Deanna seems extremely skeptical of this retelling of events.) Glenn, unaware that Nick tried to pin everything on him, later confronts the man to tell him he shouldn’t be outside the walls again, because he just can’t hack it. “People like you are supposed to be dead — but these walls went up just in time, so you’re not,” Glenn tells him. Later, Nick defies Glenn’s warnings and ventures outside anyway, uncovering a gun he had hidden in the woods. Is it Rick’s similarly-stashed gun, which went missing? Judging by how squirrelly Nick acts, I’m guessing yes.

    Also taking Noah’s death surprisingly hard are Michonne and Sasha, who act out in different ways. Michonne goes catatonic, not able to bring herself to put on her constable uniform and leaving her sword behind when Rosita asks for her help in looking for Sasha. The latter woman, who’s a nervous, weeping, emotional wreck, took off after her shift atop the watchtower, and heads into the woods to mow down zombies. “I’m sick of playing defense,” she explains as she prepares to take on a giant horde. This totally-not-unhealthy-or-reckless-in-any-way attitude comes to a head with Sasha nearly getting her own head bitten off, before Michonne gets her groove back and takes down the walker that has Sasha pinned to the ground.

    Later, Michonne is the one to stop Rick’s manic monologuing with a swift blow to the head. The constable lays down an ultimatum with Deanna, telling her that things need to change in Alexandria, and its residents need to be better controlled. Deanna implies that it’s Rick who needs controlling, and his bug-eyed “Who, ME?!?” reaction is so over-the-top incredulous that it’s hilarious. He has a point, but in the midst of all his ranting and raving, it’s hard to take him seriously.

    “Things don’t get better because you want them to,” Rick growls, adding an extra tone of disdain as he spits out the word “want.” ” … Your way’s gonna destroy this place. Your way’s gonna get people killed. It’s already gotten people killed. And I’m not gonna stand by and just let it happen. If you don’t fight, you die.”

    Michonne’s punch lands soon after that last line, an eloquent bit of punctuation to the sheriff’s point. We’ll see how that fight progresses when he comes to.

    Other thoughts:

    – I’m sure you’ve all been dying to see Carl get a love interest, and finally, “The Walking Dead” delivers. (Insert sarcastic eyeroll here.) Carl and Enid act out some teen angst by running through the woods together, then coming *thisclose* to kissing while hiding from some zombies in a hollowed-out tree trunk. “It’s their world. We’re just living in it,” Enid tells Carl of the walkers, a quote that would totally be in her AIM profile if the apocalypse took place in the late ’90s (and they had internet access). Enid also tells Carl that she’s scared of him, for reasons she can’t articulate. She’s not alone in finding Carl kind of creepy.

    – Speaking of AIM profiles, some key lyrics can be pulled from the Nine Inch Nails tune that plays over the episode’s opening sequence. The song, “Somewhat Damaged,” was on one of Aiden’s mix CDs that he blasted in the car when going out on supply runs (and which Glenn and co. made fun of on the last fateful outing), and references Icarus flying too close to the sun and crashing down. “Lost my faith in everything,” Trent Reznor snarls as we watch Deanna, Reg, and Spencer cry (an odd song to trigger tears, IMO) and Carol prep a tuna casserole to bring to the grieving family. “Broken, bruised, forgotten, sore / Too f–ked up to care anymore,” the track continues, perfectly matching the mood of all our main characters (and perhaps explaining why Deanna rebuffs a perfectly good casserole). Whoever’s been in charge of the music this season has been bringing their A game.

    – Carol tells Rick that if her abusive husband, Ed, hadn’t been bitten, she wouldn’t have survived until now. Rick disagrees, but I think Carol has a point. She really came alive after Ed died (though not for a couple seasons — remember the search for Sophia? Those were some dark days), and I think that that transformation probably wouldn’t have occurred had she remained shackled to that a-hole.

    – Rick fixates on a red balloon throughout the episode. Symbolism! (Of what, I don’t know, though it might be hinting at this.)

    – While out in the woods with Sasha, we see flashbacks to some of Michonne’s finest zombie-killing moments, including the iconic shot from the end of season two, when we got our first glimpse of the mysterious hood-clad woman with two toothless zombies in tow. It was a fond reminder of how much badassery Michonne injected into the series, and hopefully some foreshadowing into her future. That sword’s got to come down from above the fireplace eventually, right?

    – More zombies with “W” carved into their foreheads pop up this week, signaling that whoever is marking them is circling nearby. Aaron and Daryl stumble upon a pile of body parts not unlike what the group found outside of Noah’s hometown, leading me once again to suspect that a roving pack of cannibals is responsible. Only this one seems especially sadistic (if we’re going to measure cannibalism on a scale of horribleness, anyway), as evidenced by the disemboweled naked woman we see tied to a tree, apparently intentionally left for zombie fodder. Not even Gareth’s gang was that cruel. (They let Bob survive to watch them eat his leg, after all.) This group is no doubt getting closer to Alexandria; will they arrive before the season finale is over?

    – Deanna’s catchall solution to Alexandria’s problems is exiling people, something she alluded to when Rick’s group arrived and she doubled down on when Rick suggested they kill Pete. She told Rick that they could send Pete away, and if Rick didn’t like it, they could send Rick away too. She said early on that they’ve done it before. Light bulb: Perhaps that roving “W” band is made up of those very exiled people, coming back to take their revenge? I love it when a good “Walking Dead” conspiracy theory comes together.

    – The 90-minute season finale is next week. Let the wild speculating continue until then.

    Photo credit: Gene Page/AMC
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  • Greg Nicotero Signs 2-Year AMC Deal to Produce, Direct Both ‘Walking Dead’ Shows

    Hyundai Presents The Walking Dead: A Decade Of DeadGreg Nicotero is arguably the MVP of “The Walking Dead,” perhaps even more so than comic book writer/TV producer Robert Kirkman. Nicotero is known as the special effects guru, but he also executive produces the show and has directed 11 episodes so far. He has four episodes under his belt for Season 5, including the premiere, Episode 9, Episode 12 and the upcoming 90-minute Episode 16 finale (March 29).

    So it’s no surprise that AMC wants to keep him in the family. According to Deadline, he just signed a new two-year deal with the network. The contract has him continue as an executive producer and episode director on both the main “Walking Dead” show and the upcoming companion series/spinoff, while also allowing him to develop new projects for the network.

    Maybe now would be a good time for AMC to greenlight a show just about Nicotero’s Zombie School. Showrunner Scott Gimple suggested the title “America’s Next Top Walker,” and it sounds good from here. It also sounds like, if Nicotero has a two-year pact for both shows and other projects, that AMC is unofficially announcing “The Walking Dead” Season 7 and another year of the spinoff, beyond the already announced 2016 second season.

    The spinoff’s first season premieres late this summer with six episodes presumably leading into Season 6 of the mother show. Season 6 is already official, but AMC has yet to confirm the premiere date. It’s usually around the second Sunday in October, but keep every October Sunday free.
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  • 5 Hopes for the ‘Walking Dead’ Spinoff

    “The Walking Dead” ends its fifth season on March 29, but fans won’t have long to wait for the companion series, aka spinoff. AMC is airing the first six episodes in late summer, presumably as a lead-in to the mother series’ Season 6 premiere in October. Intel is slowly shuffling out about the spinoff, with the producers emphasizing how different the companion series will be from the main show. This will probably be a hit for AMC whether hardcore Dead-heads like it or not, but we really want to like it. So here are five hopes we have for Zombie Round 2.

    1. Give us the big picture
    The main show, which is tied to Robert Kirkman’s comic book, started with small-town sheriff’s deputy Rick Grimes waking up in a Georgia hospital a couple of months after the zombie apocalypse began. We’ve followed him in Georgia for five season and just hit a small community in Virginia. The focus of the main show is very limited, and Kirkman said if he had any regrets it was having the show hit the CDC in Season 1, which was the only time we got any perspective on the world. We don’t know how the outbreak began or any of the details of how it spread. Now is that time for that perspective. The spinoff is meant to be a prequel, but only at first, showing us the start of the apocalypse then catching up to Rick’s timeline (without ever showing Rick or the current group). The CDC may be shown as talking heads, but it would also be good to see what’s happening around the world, not just get details in speeches. On the main show, Jenner said something about France getting closest to a cure. How close, and what does that even mean, or look like? And how did everyone become infected, so that they turn at death, even if not bitten? Take a step back and give us the big picture of how the world ended.

    2. Show us more locations
    The spinoff pilot was shot in Los Angeles, which isn’t exactly new ground for television, and if we just follow another small group of people based in one location it may feel like a retread of what we’ve been watching for the past five seasons on the main show. Why not follow multiple locations, either concurrently with the L.A. group or starting with L.A. then moving on to a series of new locations, with a different cast and place in the world each season? Show us snow walkers in Canada, rainforest walkers in the Amazon, or — heck — just leave the coast of California on a boat and see how far the characters make it. T-Dog always wanted to go to the coast on the main show, let’s see how someone fares. AMC isn’t just going to write a blank check, but if they’re already in L.A. they can use soundstages and at least pretend to show us the world.

    3. Amp up the action
    The main show has been criticized at times (looking at you, Season 2!) for its slow patches. We’re fans of the deep character moments, but if they’re going to go ahead and launch a second show they might as well cater to the fans’ craving for more action. Think Season 5 premiere, not Season 4 premiere. Keep it moving. And since this is the start of the outbreak, we’re expecting a lot more deaths. Not the occasional heartfelt death with an accompanying song from Beth, but massive bombing-of-Atlanta casualties. We need to see how the population thinned to the extent that it became survival of the fittest/luckiest.

    4. Make the characters (especially the teens) likable
    Cliff Curtis and Kim Dickens are leading the spinoff cast, and they seem to both play educators with children — teenagers. That could be bad — like Dana Brody from “Homeland” bad — with the added irritation that they’re L.A. teens. No offense to L.A., but shows like “90210” and “The O.C.” have already given us enough from that world. Plus, the spinoff character descriptions suggest some moody kids are ahead, with words like “rebellious teenage son,” “angriest kid in town,” and “screwed up” thrown in. It’s worrisome. Executive producer David Alpert talked about the spinoff at SXSW, saying (via The Daily Beast), “…we’re going to invest ourselves in these characters that are nuanced, detailed, and honestly really f–ked up and having these awful experiences between themselves, and trying to find a way, as a lot of us do. You have an ex-wife, you have an ex-husband, and you’re trying to find out, ‘How do I pick up the kids from school?’ and just when you think you can barely hold on, zombies start coming.” OK, but please make the people we’re stuck with more likable than they currently sound. A zombie spinoff should be an escape for the audience, not torture. Don’t make us root for the walkers.

    5. Ditch the “big bads” — unless you show their origin stories
    The main show is now in a world where humans are bigger threats than walkers, but hopefully the spinoff avoids the big bad route. Human conflict will surely be a main focus, but there’s no need for standoffs with group leader “villains” like The Governor at Woodbury, Gareth at Terminus, Dawn at Grady, or (eventually) Negan of The Saviors. That said, if they want to show how a regular person could become like The Governor over time, through the chaos and tragedy of the outbreak, that’s different. We haven’t seen that yet on the main show, we just keep meeting existing group leaders and (sometimes) hear their backstories in speeches. Show how they got to that point or don’t show them here at all. However this plays out, AMC has invested in at least two seasons – -the six-episode mini season in 2015 and another season of whatever length in 2016. If we could add another hope, it’s that the second season is longer and covers more of the long summer zombie wasteland where the main show leaves off. (Consider a May-October run, AMC!)

    What are your hopes for the companion show? Do you hope we see celebrities in the zombie apocalypse, since it’s L.A., or skip that, since “Zombieland” already had Bill Murray as himself?
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  • ‘The Walking Dead’ Season 5, Episode 14 Recap: Almost Paradise

    The Walking Dead
    A major power struggle is a-brewin’ in Alexandria, and for once, it may be Rick and (some of) his people who are on the wrong side of the equation. This week’s episode of “The Walking Dead,” entitled “Spend,” made it clear that the community was not without its flaws: Jessie is almost certainly being abused by her husband, Pete; Deanna’s son, Aiden (the a-hole who nearly got his search party killed a couple weeks ago), and his pal, Nick, prove that they’re every bit the jerks we thought they were by confessing that they abandoned four people to be eaten simply because they got spooked; construction foreman Tobin nearly lets one of his workers get devoured by an oncoming horde (before Abraham mercifully and badassedly steps in) simply because that’s just protocol.

    But for all Alexandria’s faults, it seems that the settlement isn’t exactly Woodbury or Terminus, either — at least, it doesn’t appear to be. Father Gabriel believes the place is paradise, but I wouldn’t go that far just yet. As his conversation with Deanna at episode’s end proves, there’s still quite a bit we don’t know about either side’s motivations — and Deanna doesn’t look like the type to take a fledgling coup lying down. It’s unclear how far she’ll go to assert her power over Rick and the rest of his people, but I’m betting she’s got a sharp set of claws waiting to break out from under her calm and cool facade.

    Much like last week’s installment, there were a lot of little character moments packed into this episode, the meaning of which I suspect will become clearer as we get closer to the season finale. While the main action revolved around the search party (made up of Eugene, Tara, Glenn, Noah, Nick, and Aiden) and their treacherous attempt to attain supplies to fix Alexandria’s power grid, I think that the scenes that played out between Deanna and Gabriel and Carol and Rick and are what will power the plot moving forward.

    Rick seems to have picked one of the worst love triangles in which to insert himself, since Pete appears to be both very dangerous and very perceptive of the constable’s crush on his wife. His taunt that in the grand scheme of things, Jessie’s ruined owl sculpture isn’t that important, especially since Rick lost his wife, really rubbed me the wrong way — a means for Pete to hint that he knows exactly why Rick was helping Jessie, doesn’t care at all about his wife’s silly hobbies, and thinks Rick’s job (and Rick himself) is a joke. Score one in the passive-agressive war for the not-so-good doctor. (Speaking of Pete’s medical background, he reminds Rick of the need for a checkup, and also inquires about when Rick will bring Carl and Judith for an appointment, too. Perhaps to measure their BMI and cross-reference it with Alexandria’s copy of “Cannibal Cooking for Dummies”?)

    Carol inserts herself into Rick’s storyline through her connection to Sam, the little tyke (and Jessie and Pete’s youngest son) who she blackmailed with cookies — and the very real threat of abandonment/zombie devouring — last week. Apparently learning nothing from Carol’s pants-wettingly terrifying threats, Sam sneaks into Carol’s house in search of the confections, and is caught red-handed. He tries to explain why he’s there — he wants cookies, he’s bored because his power is out and he can’t work on his owl statue with his mom — and Carol just completely shuts him down in the most bitchy, awesome way possible. “None of these are my problems, Sam. I don’t care. Get out.” The kid can’t take a hint and begs her to make more cookies. She’s as sharp with him as possible, and still he won’t leave, pestering her until she agrees to whip up another batch — but he needs to steal some more chocolate (and get an extra bar for her to eat, too). “And if you get caught or say anything, you’re not going to like what happens,” she warns him, showing shades of her speech from last week.

    Somehow, Sam doesn’t see this as a sign that he should stop negotiating with the woman who wanted to toss him out as zombie food, and returns later with the promised candy bars. Carol continues to snap at and scold him (he’s not leaving with more than half the cookies since he “barely did half of all the work,” he tries to chat until she abruptly interrupts him, “Sam, we’re not talking”), but eventually the kid engages her. He admits he ruined the owl statue, because he breaks stuff when he’s sad, and asks Carol why she took the guns before asking if he could have one. “It’s not for me,” Sam says, and it clicks with Carol that maybe it’s more than broken owls and a lack of power that have driven the child from his house.

    After a futile attempt to speak to Jessie (Pete answers the door and shoos her away), Carol rushes to Rick’s place to explain her discovery, and make a startling declaration: Rick is going to have to kill Pete. “I know how this is gonna go,” she explains. “There’s only one way it can go.” But while Rick killing Shane back in season two made sense, since Shane was actively attempting to off the sheriff’s deputy, Pete’s demise may be a trickier pill for others to swallow.

    That’s certainly the kind of abhorrent behavior that Gabriel was alluding to in his conversation with Deanna, in which he implores Alexandria’s leader to come to her senses and realize that Rick and co. are pure evil — and they can’t be trusted for any reason. Sure, Rick and Carol are up to some subterfuge, but how would Gabriel know that? He’s proven himself to be unstable in the past (shutting out his parishioners; rushing off without notice and straight into a pack of zombies), so viewers know that his judgment is suspect. But Deanna doesn’t. Will the onetime congresswoman be swayed by the opinions of a man of the cloth? I have to assume so.

    Deanna’s mounting distrust of Rick’s group will surely only be heightened when she discovers that her son has died while off on a run with several members of the constable’s gang. And fellow jerkface Nick, whose foolish actions caused Noah to be eaten right in front of a horrified Glenn, and who also tried to hijack the van and abandon Glenn and Eugene, will no doubt continue his crazed cowardice and insist that he did nothing wrong, and that it was the others who were at fault for Aiden’s death. (Which could have been prevented, by the way, if Aiden had just listened to Glenn and STOPPED SHOOTING THE ZOMBIE WEARING ARMOR. How thick can you get? Between that and his eagerness to string up walkers that had done him wrong, I say a hearty good riddance to that guy.)

    The ramifications of all these events are set to come to a head in a major way, and I’m both terrified and excited. This season is going to end with some serious bloodshed — but at least it won’t be boring.

    Other thoughts:

    – Poor, poor Noah. He lives long enough to make it back to his home, then sees it completely destroyed and loses a close friend in Tyreese; he finally grows a backbone, some shooting skills, and some hope for the future, and is promptly thrown under the bus (and into a horde of flesh-tearing zombies) by a near-stranger. I’d say his death will have a deep impact on the rest of the group, but who am I kidding? Both Beth and Ty bit the dust and barely anyone cared after a week. Noah, the newest member of the group, will probably get a nice burial plot out back and completely forgotten within the first five minutes of next week’s episode. (If that.)

    – Speaking of Noah’s demise, how about the gall of Nick, huh? I’m still furious that Glenn and Eugene let him live. It seems that they’re taking him back to settle things with Rick and Deanna at Alexandria. But there’s no way Deanna will agree that they should kill him, right? And what if Tara dies? That was Aiden’s fault, but I’m betting that the others place the blame for that on Nick’s shoulders, too, since his equally-terrible friend isn’t alive anymore to take the fall.

    – While Tara’s life is indeed hanging in the balance, I must admit that really don’t care whether she lives or dies. Try as the writers might, I just cannot invest myself in her storyline. (Naturally, this means that she will outlive everyone else on the show.)

    – Abraham feels confined (and showing signs of PTSD?) in Alexandria, until he acts a hero and saves poor Francine from certain death at the hands of a group of zombies encroaching on a construction site from which the community is salvaging scrap metal. Tobin asks his men to fall back as Francine tumbles, meekly explaining that they just can’t handle the horde; Abe, never meeting a challenge (or a pansy) for which he wasn’t a match, starts swinging at the oncoming walkers with an axe, taking them down by hand, one by one. He impresses the crew and promptly takes over the site, instructing everyone to get back to work. Tobin eventually caves, and later goes to Deanna to resign his post, telling her that Abe should be the man in charge.

    – Of course, this troubles Deanna, who confides in Maggie (who’s sitting in on these meetings, for some reason) that she’s worried about how it will look to the rest of the Alexandrians that yet another member of Rick’s crew has been assigned to a position of power, despite their newness to the community. “It’s becoming a pattern,” Deanna muses. “We know what we’re doing,” Maggie insists. ” … You wanted a future. You need us for that.”

    – That was before Gabriel busted in with his warnings about Rick’s group representing Satan in disguise, though. Deanna may be wary of the preacher’s crazed rantings, but the knowing look she shared with Reg after assigning Abraham Tobin’s post spoke volumes about her skepticism. It’s been stoked in a major way, and now Father Stokes is making things worse. “The day will come when they’ll put their own lives before yours, and everyone else’s. And they will destroy everything you have here,” he warns her. “I have a lot to think about,” Deanna replies. The game is on.

    Photo credit: Gene Page/AMC

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  • ‘Walking Dead’ Spinoff Gets Two-Season Order, Summer Debut

    Michael Cudlitz as Abraham - The Walking Dead _ Season 5, Episode 5 - Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC’s upcoming “Walking Dead” companion series still doesn’t have a name, but it’s just gotten a two-season pickup from the network — and a tentative debut date.

    AMC announced Monday that the as-yet-untitled show will make its debut sometime in “late summer” this year, with a six-episode mini season. It will be followed by a full second season sometime in 2016.

    The series is set in Los Angeles and follows characters played by Cliff Curtis (“Missing,” “Gang Related”), Kim Dickens (“Gone Girl,” “Sons Of Anarchy”), Frank Dillane (“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”), and Alycia Debnam Carey (“Into the Storm”). The show was co-created and co-written by “Walking Dead” creator Robert Kirkman along with Dave Erickson, who will serve as executive producer and showrunner .

    From the official press release:

    “We take incredibly seriously the notion of building a satisfying companion series to the number one show on television. From the beginning of ‘The Walking Dead’ on AMC, we’ve been asked questions about what was going on in other parts of the zombie apocalypse, and what it looked like as the world really did ‘turn.’ Through this new series, we’re going to find out,” said Charlie Collier, AMC president. “Robert Kirkman, Dave Erickson and their writing team, along with an incomparable set of producers, cast and crew have created something remarkable and clearly distinct. “

    […]

    “We feel empowered by this two-season commitment, a serious show of faith from our network partner AMC,” Kirkman said. “I personally take it as a sign that they believe, like we do, that we’ve accomplished our goal of developing something original that can pay tribute to the original show and expand the world I created while at the same time having something new to say with this story. I’m very grateful that we now have the opportunity to tell this amazing story and show the fans that we really haven’t scratched the surface yet when it comes to ‘The Walking Dead.’”

    AMC also announced plans to air the spinoff series’s pilot internationally within 24 hours of its U.S. television debut.

    [via: TVLine]

    Photo credit: Gene Page/AMC
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  • ‘The Walking Dead’ Season 5 Finale Will Be 90 Minutes

    Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes - The Walking Dead _ Season 5, Episode 9 - Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC
    “The Walking Dead” is getting a supersized episode, with AMC announcing that the zombie drama will air a 90-minute installment to cap its fifth season.

    The season five finale, set to air in March, will be an extended episode focusing on the group’s struggles to fit in in Alexandria, the new settlement in which they hope to make a home. According to the official synopsis, “Daryl finds himself in trouble while out on the run. Meanwhile, in Alexandria, Rick and his group continue to feel like outsiders as danger lurks near the gates.”

    In episode 11, the last installment to air so far, the group had just arrived at Alexandria, after being led there by mysterious newcomer Aaron. Rick, who initially resisted joining the community, reluctantly agreed to try out the change of scenery, though if past interactions with strangers are any indication, the group is probably in for a nasty surprise soon.

    Season five of “The Walking Dead” wraps up on March 29 at 9 p.m. It will be directly followed by “Talking Dead” at 10:30 p.m.

    [via: Entertainment Weekly]

    Photo credit: Gene Page/AMC

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  • ‘Mad Men’ Final Season Teaser Promises the Sweetest Hangover (VIDEO)

    Mad Men
    A new teaser for the second part of “Mad Men”‘s seventh and final season is here, and it looks like Don Draper and co. are in for plenty of hookups and hangovers in the final stretch of episodes.

    As is usual for the secretive series, the promo is short on plot, but chock full of funky fashion and lots of furtive glances between our characters. Pete and Peggy share a moment at a party, while Don and Megan appear to still be on different wavelengths; there’s also split screen shots of Betty and Sally, and one of Joan and the men of the Sterling Cooper & Partners office, including a singled out Roger.

    What does all this mean for the last few episodes of the show, though? It seems we’re being pointed into expecting resolutions between these characters, including the likely (official) end of Don and Megan’s marriage, Betty and Sally finally communicating, and Peggy and Pete potentially getting back together after their season one hookup. And could Joan and Roger be ready to give a real relationship a shot?

    There’s no telling what creator Matt Weiner has up his sleeve, but we’ll be tuning in no matter what happens. The final season of “Mad Men” continues on April 5 on AMC.

    [via: Mad Men]

    Photo credit: Frank Ockenfels 3/AMC

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  • ‘The Walking Dead’ Season 5, Episode 10 Recap: This Is How We Survive

    The Walking Dead
    It only took five seasons, but someone finally said the words “The Walking Dead” during an episode of the series. Unfortunately for Rick, who had the dubious distinction of uttering that phrase during this week’s installment, it’s been painfully obvious for quite some time that the characters inhabiting the show’s universe have been embodying that title more prominently than the zombies they’re trying to avoid. (A point I made way back in my season premiere recap.)

    Rick’s moment of clarity (also known as a “duh” moment for anyone watching the show) came as the group found itself holed up in an abandoned barn in the middle of Nowheresville, Virginia, hiding from a mighty thunderstorm and an oncoming horde of walkers.

    “We do what we need to do, and then we get to live,” Rick tells the group of how to cope through the onslaught of tragedy, pretending that real life is just around the corner from this nightmare. “This is how we survive: We tell ourselves that we are the walking dead.”

    “We ain’t them,” Daryl interjects, one of the few full sentences he utters during the episode. He acts disgusted by Rick’s implication – who knew Mr. Dixon had a hidden sunny side? – but we see from his behavior throughout the installment that he’s just as guilty as the sheriff’s deputy of suiting up in a protective armor of stoicism and grim acceptance of his and others’ fate, only crumbling when alone. (In case you missed the message, Daryl stubs out a cigarette on his hand because HE IS NUMB TO THE PAIN. That all-caps hiccup was about as subtle as that tired, ham-fisted imagery.)

    Maggie and Sasha are equally depressed this week, reeling from the losses of Beth and Tyreese, respectively. They have a moment together toward the end of the episode, as they emerge from the barn to find the zombies that tried to break in all impaled by fallen trees.

    “This should have torn us apart,” Sasha marvels of the devastation that very nearly took out the barn, and all their fellow survivors with it.

    “It didn’t,” Maggie replies, using the patented Walking Dead Metaphor Generator to imply that their survival of the storm is akin to the survival they’ve been battling for since the zombie apocalypse was just a twinkle in Robert Kirkman’s eye. They sit and watch the sunrise together, perhaps content for a moment that it’s a new day, and they just might make it after all.

    Of course, like Robert Frost before them, the pair quickly realize that nothing gold can stay, as a man who identifies himself as Aaron emerges from the woods, revealing that he knows who Rick is and promising he’s harmless.

    “I have good news,” Aaron promises the wary women. They’re not the only ones who are suspicious.

    Other thoughts:

    – Not a whole lot happened during this episode, which was meant to remind viewers just how hard it is to survive the apocalypse on a day-to-day basis. Sure, you have to fight maniacs like The Governor and Gareth, spend time building up your defenses in farmhouses and abandoned prisons, and occasionally make friends and enemies in creepy hospitals. But most days, you just need to find food, water, and shelter — and that can be the most difficult task of all. Kudos to the writers for at least getting that point across strongly in this week’s installment.

    – Other than that, there wasn’t a ton to unpack during the episode, titled “Them.” Maybe that moniker is a callback to Rick and Daryl’s “walking dead” conversation, where Daryl’s trying to fight being like “them” (the zombies) while shuffling along just like them anyway. Or maybe it’s painting Rick and co. as the “Them” in relation to Aaron’s group, which apparently has been following/watching the survivors for at least a day or two, based on the mysterious water delivery. We’re going to delve deeper into who he is next week, so we’ll see if he’s friend or foe. (I’m going to take a wild guess and answer “foe.”)

    – Abraham’s solution to the zombie apocalypse? Get drunk. Can’t say I disagree with his coping mechanism.

    – Glenn’s emo CD snapping from last week seems at least a little bit more understandable now that we see his interactions with Maggie in the wake of Beth’s death. The husband and wife are barely speaking, though not for lack of effort on Glenn’s part. Their pairing was once one of the bright spots of the show; here’s hoping they can right this ‘ship soon.

    – Does anyone have any clue about the significance of the music box? I assume it has something to do with Maggie and Beth’s childhood on the farm, but I can’t pin down its importance. Maggie seemed devastated when it didn’t work, but how it factors into her facilitating a grieving session with Sasha doesn’t really compute. (The fact that it sprung to life only after Aaron appeared should further point viewers into distrusting the new addition, since as we saw from the happy chalk scrawls and smiling family photos in last week’s midseason premiere, upbeat imagery can only spell doom for these characters.)

    – As the group rushes to the barn door to shut out the zombies trying to break in, someone (Glenn?) hurriedly places/tosses Judith to the ground and races over to help. Way to still pretend like she’s important to the show, despite her not factoring into any real plot lines (or really even aging appropriately) since her birth, everyone.

    – One self-referential moment that I did appreciate, however, was the other characters’ seeming disdain for Father Gabriel, who also hasn’t had much to do. Maggie blowing him off when he tries to engage her in a conversation about losing Beth (“I know you’re in pain,” he says. “No s-t,” she replies) was pretty excellent.

    – Also excellent: Eugene declaring, in his glorious accent, “I truly do not know if things can get worse.” Oh, Eugene. If only you knew what show you were on. (Ask Rick.)

    Photo credit: Gene Page/AMC

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  • ‘Better Call Saul’ Has Already Broken Cable Ratings Records

    “Better Call Saul,” the new “Breaking Bad” spinoff series, had some serious shoes to fill following the end of that acclaimed drama. It turns out that AMC had nothing to worry about, as “Saul” debuted to almost universal critical acclaim, and now monster ratings, too.

    “Saul” has already nabbed 6.9 million total viewers for its Sunday series premiere, and a whopping 4.4 million viewers in the coveted 18-49 demographic. That latter figure is a record-breaker for cable, marking the highest-rated cable series debut ever in that demo; it bested previous champ “The Dead Zone,” which premiered to 4 million 18-49-year-old viewers in 2002.

    And those numbers aren’t even taking into consideration “Saul”‘s eventual time-shifted viewership (DVR and on demand views) totals, which should be available later this week.

    The two-night series premiere of “Better Call Saul” continues Monday night at 10 p.m. on AMC.

    [via: The Hollywood Reporter, TVMoJoe]

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