How to save the Walking Dead

The Walking Dead needs to ramp it up in season 4 to keep us watching. And here's 6 ways they can do it -

 

 

1. Flesh out the characters - 27 characters died in the season finale, but apart from Andrea and maybe Milton, did we actually care? Nope. Why? Because we didn't know these people, so how could we care about them? And, in the case of Andrea a lot of us had little sympathy because we found the way the writers developed her character unrealistic and even irritating.

2. We need more Daryl - Let's be honest here, Norman Reedus is the star of the show. He wasn't meant to be, but he is. Yet the Governor effectively kills his brother Merle and he doesn't hunt him down and turn up at the prison with the Governor's head on a stick? Rubbish. They need to stay true to the character.

3. Stop ruining female characters by turning them into unrealistic victims like Carol (battered wife, dead daughter), loose women like Lori and gullible idiots like Andrea (the old Andrea would have killed the Governor, not fawned over him like a love struck teenager). Only Michonne has kicked ass without any of the melodrama.

4. Do something interesting with the Governor or kill him off. For me, every time the action went to Woodbury the show dragged to a crawl. After the initial shock over him keeping his walker daughter and the heads, the Governor character disappointed.

 

5. We need more shocks. It was a shock when Merle died and when the Governor gunned down his own people, but apart from that there weren't enough shocks. Predictably, everybody at the prison survived.

 

If you can bare to watch it, here's the bit where Daryl finds Merle the zombie.
 

 

 

 

6. Up the walker threat. The reason folk love the show is because it's about zombies. But too much of the time in season 3 they were a sideshow. They need to pose more of a threat, to evolve, get stronger. TWD is primarily a zombie show, the writers shouldn't forget that.

Watch In the Flesh to discover what happens after the apocalypse

Meet Kieren Walker, he's a walker.

In the Flesh is a zombie show with a difference. It's set 4 years after the zombie apocalypse and the infected are cured thanks to a wonder drug that keeps their cannibal ways under control and allows them to be returned to their families.

The show focuses on the aptly named Kieren Walker and a volunteer army of people protecting their small town from any rotters (the name given to the zombies).

Naturally, they're not too happy to have the likes of Kieren & Co back and that includes his sister Jem who's turned into a gun totting zombie slayer.

The show manages to do something The Walking Dead often fails to do - it provokes an emotional reaction in the viewer because you care about the characters. Whether its the sympathy you feel for cured zombies like Kieren who are said to be suffering from PDS (Partially Deceased Syndrome), or for the families of the dead who are not coming back who's pictures litter noticeboards.

Show creator Dominic Mitchell is obviously a huge fan of the zombie genre and the result is a well thought out and engrossing drama that would have been great as a movie.

There are some shocking moments, especially at the start and end of the first episode - I won't say what they are - but In the Flesh is a fantastic fresh take on the zombie genre not to be missed.

Don't watch this...if you're expecting a shoot 'em up zombie murder fest.

Watch this if...you want a show that takes place after the zombie apocalypse and makes you care about the zombies.

Check out the trailer here

To find out more, go to BBC3's official page

The twitter hashtag for the show is #InTheFlesh

Understanding PDS (Partially Deceased Syndrome)

The show is available on BBC iPlayer

Andrew Lincoln’s Road to Rick Grimes & The Walking Dead

 From this...

To this...

The actor first came to public prominence when he starred in hit cult British show This Life about a group of 20-something lawyers sharing a house. In the show, Lincoln co-starred with Jack Davenport, who went onto play Lloyd Simcoe in FlashForward.

He played Manchester United obsessed Egg who decided he no longer wanted a legal career and ended up working in a cafe while he was finding himself. Ironically, easy going Egg would have been useless as a zombie slayer - sexy, strutting fellow housemate Anna, played by Scottish actress, Daniela Nardini was much more kick ass. In TWD she'd be Michonne - with a short skirt.

Lincoln's next major role was in Channel 4 show Teachers. Again, he played an easy going kind of guy and you guessed it, a teacher. His character Simon was a bigger kid than any of the pupils he taught and spent a lot of his time smoking cigarettes behind the bike sheds. His character finally left the show to go travelling. Andrew Lincoln met his wife Gael who was working on the show as a runner.

Andrew Lincoln in Teachers

His next big show was another hit called Afterlife where he played a university lecturer and psychologist studying a psychic for his book. A skeptic, he tried to prove that she wasn't psychic at all, so he'd probably have a hard time believing in zombies.

In the end, all roads led to The Walking Dead. And for that we're grateful.


Andrew Lincoln trivia

• His real name's Andrew James Clutterbuck
• His wife's Gael Anderson, is the daughter of Jethro Tull legend Ian
• In This Life his real first name was Edgar. No wonder they called him Egg.
• At one point, he reckons he was being lined up as the new Hugh Grant. Crikey, image Mr. Floppy hair fighting zombies?