quote:

They really need a military liaison on set to tell them "hey, that doesn't work like that, this is what you could do to make it better". Just simple things.

Oh well.

No, shit, where's Dale Dye when you need him? Not for acting, but for someone to yell at the writers, prop people and stunt coordinators.

It is beyond redemption. It's as bad as 'Jericho' was.

"This is a .50 caliber machine gun that is designed to shred vehicles, and those in them.

The problem? The Walking Dead treated the gun like it was lobbing paintballs at Rick’s car. We see these little spatters of CGI light on the metal and Rick swerves around like this is some kind of movie from the ‘50s, and it’s just so bizarre. This gun should be carving up Rick’s Jeep."

Complete article:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/i...s-work/#3efcf62d6f2b

Can Someone Please Explain To 'The Walking Dead' How Guns Work?

The Walking Dead has gone out of its way to be extra exciting this year with a non-stop array of gunfights and explosions, starting in the season 8 premiere and continuing week to week, living up to the “All Out War” name of this current comic storyline.

This week produced the best episode of the season to date, and honestly, probably one of the best episodes in the past year or two, a story that focused on the slow breakdown of Ezekiel after he survives a Savior ambush. It was a fantastic episode and I highly recommend you watch it even if you’ve been disappointed with the show as of late.

But there were other aspects of the episode that were…less good. Specifically, this episode highlighted something that the show has struggled with for years, but last night it actively made some would-be badass scenes worse.

I’m talking about how The Walking Dead seems to have very little idea how guns actually work.

Now, I’m no gun person. While I’ve shot some on the range, I don’t own any nor possess an encyclopedic knowledge of firearms.

But I have watched thousands of hours of action movies and TV shows, and The Walking Dead is one of the only times that how poor the gunplay looks, sounds and feels really stands out to me. Even if the way The Walking Dead uses guns isn’t realistic, to me, it’s not even “movie/TV realistic” either.

I can remember as far back as season 3 when the gang got their hands on automatic rifles for the first time. There were these scenes where they were fighting off walkers or invaders, but their guns had literally no recoil. They were just standing there, pretending to fire, and later the CGI team was adding in muzzle flashes and sound was putting in gunfire effects. It all felt so horribly…fake.

That continues to this day, to some extent. While rifles and pistols and SMGs exhibit a little more recoil than they did a few years ago, something is just off with the visuals and sound effects of firing. It feels noticeably fake in way that most other shows and movies don’t.

Weirdly, some scenes are okay, like when Carol shredded a group of Saviors by shooting through the ceiling, or when Morgan went full John Wick in a hallway a week ago. But other times? It’s horrendous.

The scene I’m referring to in this week’s episode was the Rick/Daryl motorcycle/jeep chase. It should have been one of the most badass action sequences the show has done to date, but instead it just felt stupidly goofy. As the two pursue the truck loaded with the heavy guns, one of the Saviors pops one out of its crate and starts opening fire on their vehicles.

This is not a peashooter. This is a .50 caliber machine gun that is designed to shred vehicles, and those in them.

The problem? The Walking Dead treated the gun like it was lobbing paintballs at Rick’s car. We see these little spatters of CGI light on the metal and Rick swerves around like this is some kind of movie from the ‘50s, and it’s just so bizarre. This gun should be carving up Rick’s Jeep. If you want the engine to survive so the car can keep going, fine. If you want Rick to survive because he’s a lucky SOB, fine. But at least pretend you know what a gun like this can do to a car like that. Show giant holes being blown in the metal, shatter the windshield, anything. Make it feel powerful. Instead, it barely felt like a threat at all, and it totally killed the scene for me.

This seems like a budget problem, but I don’t know why it needs to be. This is one of the most popular shows on cable and if it can spend a zillion dollars on ridiculously elaborate zombie make-up and cast salaries every week, it should be able to increase its practical and digital effects budget to make these gunfights feel more convincing. Particularly when this entire season is based around non-stop gunfights. If Game of Thrones can convince me an army is fighting a real-life dragon, The Walking Dead should be able to give us believable gunfights, at the very least.

There are other issues, major and minor. The Walking Dead does not respect the concept of limited ammo in the least, and even if America is loaded with guns, ammo really needs to be treated like the scarce resource it is, and not be used to do incredibly stupid things like waste thousands of rounds to shoot out the windows of a building. There are smaller issues too, like how Ezekiel’s captor already had the trigger of his Glock pulled, and had to pull the slide back to chamber another round in order to fire (someone on Twitter told me this, as I missed it). Minor, but an indicator no one is there to tell them these things on set.

Simply put, the guns need to feel more real when they’re firing and hitting things. It seems like a minor issue, but it’s something that has bothered me about The Walking Dead for years, and it distracted me from an otherwise great episode this week.

Not an outright terrible episode this week, thank God.

Negan and his dialogue is the only thing keeping me engaged at the moment.

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:
Not an outright terrible episode this week, thank God.

Negan and his dialogue is the only thing keeping me engaged at the moment.

I agree with both. Did Rick & Daryl lose ALL the 50 cals in their silly fight? And what's with the helicopter??

I'm going to toot my own horn as the only apparent fan of Father Gabriel (Seth Gilliam). An interesting character who has gone through as many changes and anyone on the show. Gilliam has shown thoughtful insight as a guest on The Talking Dead.

Woulda thunk he'd get the longest, most revealing one-on-one with Negan? I have to think he's a goner, we get a look at his purpose at this episode's end.

Here I thought a couple of episodes ago that all the tin roofing attached to those vehicles was for something creative like directing the herd of walkers towards the Savior compound.

Now it turns it is supposed to have been some sort of 'hillybilly' armor or concealment?

Jesus Jumped Up

Uhhhhhhhh..."rubbed one out sittin' in that very spot"?!?!? (or something like that). Really?!?! I'm no prude, but dayum...that kind of trashy talk just isn't necessary. Just visuals I don't need, man.

Meh...pretty good episode, I guess.

quote:

Originally posted by erj_pilot:
Uhhhhhhhh..."rubbed one out sittin' in that very spot"?!?!? (or something like that). Really?!?! I'm no prude, but dayum...that kind of trashy talk just isn't necessary. Just visuals I don't need, man.

.

Hehe, I thought that was perfect.

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:

quote:

Originally posted by erj_pilot:
Uhhhhhhhh..."rubbed one out sittin' in that very spot"?!?!? (or something like that). Really?!?! I'm no prude, but dayum...that kind of trashy talk just isn't necessary. Just visuals I don't need, man.

.

Hehe, I thought that was perfect.

Fits with the character, that's for sure.

quote:

Originally posted by Sigmund:

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:
Not an outright terrible episode this week, thank God.

Negan and his dialogue is the only thing keeping me engaged at the moment.

I agree with both. Did Rick & Daryl lose ALL the 50 cals in their silly fight? And what's with the helicopter??

I was confused. What were they fighting about?

quote:

Originally posted by Fenris:

I was confused. What were they fighting about?

The truck had some kind of explosives that Darryl thought should be used to breech the Sanctuary's protection, letting the herd of walkers finish it off. Rick wanted to stick to plan, whatever the hell that is. Darryl stomped off on his own with the explosives, Rick disagreed with his choice.

At least that's what the producers would have us believe. I'll suggest it was artificial conflict created just to stir the pot, leading nowhere interesting.

quote:

Originally posted by Ripley:

...I'll suggest it was artificial conflict created just to stir the pot, leading nowhere interesting.

Yep. Note that Rick never told Daryl that "Hey doofus, the OB/GYN from the Hilltop is still in the Sanctuary and Maggie will need him soon. Your stupid plan to blow the walls will not get him back."

But noooo. It was Father Gabriel who reminded Dr Porter of that right at the end.

Does one writer not talk to the others??

What is the Rev sick from? I think I recall hearing Negan telling him about the folks in the VA area getting sick from the mix of blood, rotting tissue and crap (inside the walkers), but was that a different deal than the GA folks? Seems the Rev told him they were all from GA, and Negan says "aren't you lucky?" or something like that??

It made me wonder if whatever he has will start a contagious epidemic within the Sanctuary, and that will be what brings them down?

This 50 caliber nonsense really soured me. Never mind the fact that the Saviors were so accurate with them or that an unsecure M2 would be jumping everywhere. I had a lady and her "guy" at work watch the ending scenes from Rambo to see what an M2 would actually do.
And this negan horseshit. Stop it already. We get it. You're a BAD guy. Really? A few seasons ago they had non zombie people who were going to fry up the group and eat them. How is this worse?

I am starting to lose interest real fast.
It's a shame that after 8 years that no one is trying to get infrastructure back up. All they are worried about is killing each other. No gas, no medicine, no electric, no anything. I think this thing will be coming to a end soon. But I guess its all about ratings.
Thank goodness someone had the brains to get a helicopter up. We'll see I guess.

The sickness is from the pigs the kingdom gave the survivors. They fed on the dead.

IMHO, the show has pretty much run it's course. We used to watch it religiously. Now, if I miss an episode, oh well. I say end it after they return from the autum break. Kill em all ( the survivors) or find a cure and let them return to a normal world.

quote:

Originally posted by Jaycat:
The sickness is from the pigs the kingdom gave the survivors. They fed on the dead.

Was that stated in the episode, or a deduction on your part? I recall about feeding the pigs on the dead out of spite, several episodes ago.

In the most recent episode, the topic between Negan and Gabriel about getting sick from walker guts came up momentarily...almost never mentioned before through all the filth they've lived in for years, other than the sickness at the prison. Then lo and behold, Gabriel asks about getting sick and in his very next scene, he's sick. I figured he or Negan would get sick, it was so obviously shoe-horned into the conversation. If he and he alone was fed tainted pork between those two scenes, I missed it.

Did he possibly get bit? Where did that lone guy from a tunnel?

The helicopter has strange timing. I am surprised there hasn't been more military involved.

I haven't read the comics but it makes sense for Neegan to regroup and target Alexandria. They should be.chopping down trees a hundred yards out.

I would abandon Hilltop and detonate it when Neegans group.occupies it.

Anyone that didnt like season 7 is gonna hate season 8