tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211251.post2588937687883685443..comments2024-01-08T19:49:13.932+00:00Comments on Froogville: To borrow a zombie analogy....Frooghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06738623732860210935noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211251.post-39816213426637250762012-03-19T03:35:15.359+00:002012-03-19T03:35:15.359+00:00A remake of Survivors? Sacrilege!
My discussions ...A remake of <i>Survivors</i>? Sacrilege!<br /><br />My discussions with The Choirboy moved on to the question, <i>Can Zombies tweet?</i> <br /><br />It seems a suitably brainless activity for them. But presumably they don't have much to say. Probably only "BRAINS!!!" This would be an extremely popular message, endlessly re-tweeted. In fact, I suppose monitoring the number of zombie tweets might be a useful way of tracking the scale of the outbreak.Frooghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06738623732860210935noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211251.post-61413435175658423112012-03-18T17:44:24.263+00:002012-03-18T17:44:24.263+00:00The 1970s edition of Survivors may not be availabl...The 1970s edition of <em>Survivors</em> may not be available in a form in which I can readily, er, consume it. BUT they've apparently recently remade it -- 2008-2010 -- and <em>mirabile dictu</em>, I already had it in my streaming-Netflix queue, based on its description (and its closed captioning!).<br /><br />The runners, I think, are scarier than the stumblers -- the (first?) two <em>28 Days</em> films were pretty good in that regard (and in some others, like the deserted-cities settings).<br /><br />But with anything that moves so fast, it must burn out much more quickly, especially in the absence of fuel. (The hummingbird metaphor.) The relentlessness of stumblers would offer its own special sort of terror, I think. Espcially once the ammo ran out. (Because, really, eventually the survivors would just lose all enthusiasm for sledgehammer-or-bayonet-to-the-head combat, even against slow movers.) They're like debt-collection agencies.<br /><br />We were thinking of "walking dead = doomed living," but I can understand the other point of view too. :)<br /><br />We watched the first episode or two of <em>Mad Men</em> when it premiered, and then stopped. In fact, The Missus doesn't even remember having done so. But then, about 18 months or so ago, we for some reason decided to start going back to look at it again. We're hooked. We must've watched the first four seasons' episodes in about 2 months' time.<br /><br />I've got the first season of <em>The Wire</em> on DVD; have heard many many good things about it. But still haven't opened the box!<br /><br />You might like the HBO <em>Deadwood</em> series. <em>Luck</em>, you may have heard, has been canceled -- not because its ratings were lukewarm (although they were), but because three horses died during filming. Ewww.<br /><br />(I wonder why no one has -- or have they? -- tinkered with the zombies-eat-only-people stereotype. A plague of vegan zombies might be worth a film.)<br /><br />(And zombies are never <em>satisfied</em>, are they? They don't seem in any way revitalized by eating brains or other organs. No, they just start searching for more of same.)JEShttp://johnesimpson.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211251.post-92216916378028937562012-03-18T03:56:55.212+00:002012-03-18T03:56:55.212+00:00My good buddy The Choirboy has just become infecte...My good buddy The Choirboy has just become <i>infected</i>. With zombie mania, that is. Apparently as a result of watching some episodes of <i>The Walking Dead</i>.<br /><br />Yesterday, he was bombarding me with questions like, "Can zombies use elevators?"<br /><br />My response is that in recent zombie stories, it does seem to be becoming more common for zombies to have 'residual skills', particularly in regard to habitual or subconscious activities. Both <i>Shaun of the Dead</i> and Romero's <i>Land of the Dead</i> used this idea.<br /><br />However, I suspect they'd not be very good at choosing a floor. Or at remembering to get out when they got there.<br /><br />So, tall buildings are probably pretty safe. So long as you remember to booby-trap the fire stairs.Frooghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06738623732860210935noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211251.post-40883042798147279192012-03-17T02:46:09.142+00:002012-03-17T02:46:09.142+00:00If the clinging to life after the collapse of soci...If the clinging to life after the collapse of society as we know it theme is what really appeals to you, try to dig up an early 1970s BBC show called <i>Survivors</i> (three series, I think, of 10 or 13 weeks each), which examined the new violent society which emerged after 90% of the world's population had been killed in a few weeks by a super-flu virus.<br /><br />It was particularly popular in my hometown, because the crew was based nearby - most of it was filmed on location in the Welsh border countryside round about.Frooghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06738623732860210935noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211251.post-37749823109091478752012-03-17T02:43:06.372+00:002012-03-17T02:43:06.372+00:00Do you have a view on the 'stumbers v runners&...Do you have a view on the 'stumbers v runners' issue, JES?<br /><br />Or on how long zombies - and a zombie plague - could last?<br /><br />Or on whether nanobot-sustained vampires might be more credible?<br /><br /><br />In the early 2000s, I happened to pick up a rather entertaining no-budget Canadian zombie film called <i>Meat Market</i> in which the zombie-slaying saviours of mankind on whom the story eventually came to focus were a trio of lesbian vampires and a retired Mexican wrestler (their former nemesis) named El Diablo Azul.Frooghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06738623732860210935noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211251.post-66627910172607697592012-03-17T02:39:30.395+00:002012-03-17T02:39:30.395+00:00In the sense that they're doomed, or that they...In the sense that they're doomed, or that they're just 'braindead' and uninteresting people? I saw a couple of episodes of it in hotel rooms when I was travelling last year, and it bored me to tears. I've found the same with the few episodes of <i>True Blood</i> I've tried to watch.<br /><br />Actually, I fear it may be a growing problem with American TV. The short turnaround time per episode has always put insane pressure on the writing team, but lately very few people seem to be rising to the challenge. Even <i>Luck</i>, despite the presence of Dustin Hoffmann, I find to gobsmackingly bad, almost unwatchable. Is there really an equivalent of <i>The West Wing</i> or <i>The Sopranos</i> today, where the writing really sizzles, rather than fizzles? I've heard good things of <i>Mad Men</i>, but haven't seen any of that. Anything else? <i>Boardwalk Empire</i>, maybe?Frooghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06738623732860210935noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211251.post-38072630914418974412012-03-16T19:35:31.753+00:002012-03-16T19:35:31.753+00:00Have you seen any of the Walking Dead series? The ...Have you seen any of the <em>Walking Dead</em> series? The Missus and I missed it all of last year, but this year we've been, er, consumed by it. One thing which has most interested us about it is how little zombie interaction there actually is; the great bulk of it seems to focus on how the not-yet-zombie humans cope with one another. Like she pointed out the other night, the very title is a play on words: "obviously" it refers to the infected already-dead... but in fact could apply equally well to all the characters in the foreground.JEShttp://johnesimpson.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211251.post-28038158518064747552012-03-14T00:22:25.286+00:002012-03-14T00:22:25.286+00:00We are all nerds in our own way.
Besides, the fac...We are all nerds in our own way.<br /><br />Besides, the fact that certain aspects of the horror or sci-fi genres excite my curiosity occasionally doesn't make me a major enthusiast, and certainly not an obsessive one.<br /><br />Zombie films enjoy a broad popularity - they are good, gory fun. But, as with the vampire genre, they seem to have suddenly exploded into over-proliferation, near-ubiquity in recent years, and this becomes rather tedious. The insanely popular (but very dull; there just aren't <i>that many</i> zombie stories to tell) <i><b>Walking Dead</b></i> TV series may perhaps mark the high-tide point: it may force people to the realisation that the idea has now been, if you'll pardon the expression, <i>done to death</i>, and we'll have a bit of a let-up for a while. I would have been much happier if everyone had dropped it after <i><b>Shaun Of The Dead</b></i> - which was both a very funny parody of the genre and the best zombie film ever made.<br /><br />What I find particularly intriguing and worrying is that many people - American survivalists, in particular - have latched on to new developments in technology like gene therapy and nanobots and persuaded themselves that a zombie outbreak is indeed "possible", perhaps even likely... or inevitable.<br /><br />That is completely nutso. Frankly, nanobot-driven vampires seem far more plausible to me.Frooghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06738623732860210935noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211251.post-68825052608872631232012-03-13T20:38:27.917+00:002012-03-13T20:38:27.917+00:00Never took you for a nerd Froog.Never took you for a nerd Froog.Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15692328535476075420noreply@blogger.com