As Slashfilm reports, an anonymous source has said that the AMC show The Walking Dead has fired (or indirectly fired) the showrunner Frank Darabont right before the second season gets in full swing.
I know that Darabont was probably not the easiest guy to get along with (what auteur-like director is?), and he probably took too long and spent way too much money, but I think AMC may be shooting themselves in the foot here. Or maybe not, maybe they're making a good move.
The question is, did they go in to this too hastily to begin with? Did they do the initial six episodes for the first season and spend way too much money thinking they would have had bigger numbers? I thought the show did pretty decently, I was definitely hooked in even though I had problems with the characters and story at times. Was it that Darabont wanted a greater hold on the show to make it more distinctly his own? I had a feeling that the first season was just a first act and that Darabont was about to kick it in gear all the way to the final shocking and amazing moments near the end of the show. (Remember The Shawshank Redemption? That movie knocks you off your feet in the final act.)
Now they've hired a man named Glen Mazzera to take over. Listen, I don't know this dude, and I can't say for certain whether he will do a good job or not, but looking at his credits I truly fear for the show. Mazzera has been the showrunner or executive producer for such procedurals as The Shield, Life, Crash, and Hawthorne. None of those shows appeal to me. None. So will he do a good job? Probably, but it may not have the same touch and style that made me tune in each week.
As for the concern that Mad Men and Breaking Bad have taken a majority of AMC's budget for original series programming: If that's true, they should have seen that coming. Seriously guys, you have two ground-breaking and hugely popular shows that cost a ton of money. Now you want to add a costly genre series to the mix? That's just too much, too fast. AMC is still a young network when it comes to original series. Granted they have knocked it out of the park, even when not quite landing a series (Rubicon, The Killing), they still have class and style that far outweighs any other television station on the planet right now (besides the BBC).
I truly hope things get resolved and that our second season far outshines the first, but in all honesty - these setbacks, delays and bad karma moments have me scared that this show is going to be done for by mid-season. Sad face.
What do you think? Did you like the show? What didn't you like and will you be watching next season?
1 comments:
I didn't really like the zombies. They're gross to look at! However, I did enjoy watching the characters and how they dealt with such a crisis. Some of how the characters interacted was a bit ridiculous, but I still had fun with it. I hope it doesn't start sucking next season, unless they at least pretty-up the zombies.
Post a Comment