First off, I guess I’ve got to begin with a spoiler warning; if you are worried about spoilers for the upcoming season of The Walking Dead or if you haven’t read past volume 8 in the trades and don’t want to learn what happens, I suggest you stop reading now. Seriously, because I’m going to into a bit of detail about how I’d handle the upcoming season of The Walking Dead, were I the show runner.
I’m serious. I’m about to start the column proper and you should really stop reading.
I’ve got an interesting relationship with The Walking Dead. I’m one of those fans who got into the series because of the tv show. Sort of. You see, when I heard AMC was going to make The Walking Dead their latest original program I was intrigued. I knew that I trusted AMC and that I’d give The Walking Dead a chance solely on that. But I’d also heard great things about the series.
So with the Baltimore Comic Con coming up, I decided to play catch up and get all of the trades up to that point and then get the issues until I was current. And I did just that. By the time the tv show premiered, I was fully current with The Walking Dead.
And that’s why I was so excited when season two ended. Not only because I felt that season two had been dragging, but because I couldn’t wait to get to the prison. For me the prison is where the series really takes off and I couldn’t wait to see how the tv show would portray all that awesomeness.
Of course the show and the series do have differences and significant ones at that. There’s Tyrese and Daryl, Dale and Shane, and then you’ve got the whole standards and practices who oversee a television program. So naturally, everything won’t be just as it is in the comic.
Now personally I enjoyed watching “Safety Behind Bars”, “The Heart’s Desire” and “The Best Defense” play out in the comics. But again, give that the show is a different beast, those first two arcs would probably be the source material for the third season with a bit of the third tossed in for good measure.
If I were running the show, I’d focus most of the action on the prison, but I’d use the cold opening of several episodes as a sort of tease. For instance I’d tease the sort of idyllic life in Woodbury and it’s relatively normal domestic scenes and juxtapose that with the reality of Rick and company in the prison.
I’d also tease the newcopter from Atlanta that plays a pivotal role in the series. I’d have a shot of them getting into the helicopter and maybe a POV shot of them flying, so you didn’t really know who they were, only that they were in a helicopter and were possibly coming to help.
Then maybe in episode eleven you see the helicopter fly over the prison, which would prompt a search party to b formed. Episode twelve would be about them finding the helicopter and getting capture by folks from Woodbury and finally meeting the Governor. The season finale would be the search party getting their hopes up about Woodbury, only to realize that Governor is sadistic and insane.
It’s very doubtful that Rick is going to lose his hand in the show (still I’m hopeful it’ll happen) so I think the season finale would be Rick, Glenn and Michonne in the arena fighting zombies and for their life. I think that would be a good note to end the season on.
So how would I fill the first ten episodes? First off, I wouldn’t set foot into the prison until the end of the season premiere. The majority of the first episode would be spent trying to get into the prison, with the reveal of the inmates in the cafeteria as the episode closer.
From there things get tricky. Without Tyrese, you don’t have the suicide pact, nor do you have the cool cleaning out of the cellblock reveal. And without Rachel and Susie you don’t have the murder mystery behind bars.
However you can still have Dexter and his power play with Rick. You can still have the survivors setting up a life for themselves behind bars, and making plans. They’ll get to explore the prison. You’ve still got Maggie and Glenn, which means you can still explore their relationship. And lets not forget that Andrea and Michonne are still wandering around separate from the group. With that alone you’ve easily got enough story to fill ten episodes.
Of course I’m just a guy who reads comics and watches television, so what do I really know. Sure, I think I’ve got insight and knowledge because I devour commentaries and dvd features, but really I’m just a guy with a blog.
Still, I’m looking forward to the upcoming season of The Walking Dead. And honestly as long as they don’t have any real missteps, it’ll be hard to mess things up too badly.
Anyway, it’s Wednesday, new comics are out. Hurry and go buy some already.
