AMC's The Walking Dead: Is anyone else noticing this pattern?

[RGCheek]

I love Dr. Strange!

Hubby and I argue all the time about stupid comic book stuff. We’re probably as bad as those boys. By the way, he thinks that Joachin Phoenix would be a good Strange. I wholeheartedly disagree.

Umm, I agree with your hubby, though Joachin would not be my first choice, he does have excellent multi-character acting ability. He could handle it.

My first choice would be Jonathan Rhys Meyers who stared as Henry VIII in ‘The Tudors’. That guy has the gravitas to play Dr Strange.



Who would you pick?

 

[Arizona_Mike]

Umm, I agree with your hubby, though Joachin would not be my first choice, he does have excellent multi-character acting ability. He could handle it.

My first choice would be Jonathan Rhys Meyers who stared as Henry VIII in ‘The Tudors’. That guy has the gravitas to play Dr Strange.

http://iv1.lisimg.com/image/486700/600full-jonathan-rhys-meyers.jpg

Who would you pick?

I think the choice has already been made to cast Benedict Cumberbatch in the upcoming film: screenrant.com/doctor-strange-benedict-cumberbatch-actor/

http://cdn.screenrant.com/wp-content/uploads/Benedict-Cumberbatch-Doctor-Strange.jpg

I know this will sound crazy, but I always pictured Dr. Strange being played by a young Alex Trebek…

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BhaKGpB...p-content/uploads/Doctor-Strange-New-Suit.jpg

Also, I would place The Spectre ahead of Dr. Strange in the power department. Powerful but mortal sorcerer vs. the Angel of Death…no contest.

 

[RGCheek]

I think the choice has already been made to cast Benedict Cumberbatch in the upcoming film: screenrant.com/doctor-strange-benedict-cumberbatch-actor/

I am sure that the Ancient One would never allow such a sacrilege.

I don’t think of Dr Strange as a whiny, odd looking geek, do you?

Also, I would place The Spectre ahead of Dr. Strange in the power department. Powerful but mortal sorcerer vs. the Angel of Death…no contest.

Raw Power vrs Raw Power, yes, you are right, but Dr Strange does not win with raw power normally; that is just for the hallway trash. Dr Strange defeats his opponents mentally and the physical battle is just follow through.

 

[DakiniArtist]

Timothy Dalton…

…or Alex Trebek!

 

[Arizona_Mike]

Dr. Strange was played by Peter Hooten in the 1978 movie:

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

 

[DakiniArtist]

I actually like that film as a guilty pleasure.

 

[Arizona_Mike]

Jeffrey Coombs also “kind of” played Dr. Strange - he was set to play him when the producer’s rights to the character expired, so they changed his name and a little of the story and went ahead as “Dr. Mordrid.”

 

[DakiniArtist]

Sweet!

Jeffrey Combs is a lovely guy.

 

[Polak]

Back on topic, I also found the season 5 finale to be very entertaining. To be honest, there were three or four episodes in the second half of the fifth season that were very boring and nothing progressed. Okay they found the place, but still, I felt not a whole lot happened. The finale was good though.

Alright, I just needed a place to vent about this show after that last episode on Sunday. I was going to post on the IMDB boards but…those boards are disturbing to me. People here for the most part are much more friendly and actually capable of intelligent conversation.

Anyways (If you watched the last episode you’ll know what I’m talking about) WHY?!? Why, why, why does the show constantly do this? Every time a character starts to have some real moral strength or genuine goodness, or if they are dealing with the world in a healthy way, they kill them off. Dale, Herschell, Micha, Bob, and now Beth? Come on.

Yeah…I think I’m about done with this show. There’s several reasons, but the last episode really cemented it for me. I realized the writers don’t really have any direction they want to take the show except “Oh no! So and so died! The world sucks.” Thanks, but no thanks. I can just turn on the news for that.

Pretty sure it’s always been that way though, so I don’t know why it took me so long to realize this. :shrug:At first, I was ok with it. It was interesting to see how people react when the world collapses. And the first season was actually exciting and scary. But you can’t keep that formula going for five years, it loses it’s impact. I thought by now they would have started changing things up.

I keep feeling like the writers ALMOST have a good thing going. But they don’t seem to know what to do with it. At first I thought they were trying to say that surviving at all costs is wrong, that being alive yet losing your humanity isn’t worth it in the end. That love and mercy are still valuable even with the world collapsing. That’s how it started out, but now I don’t see that. EVERYBODY is losing their humanity. The ones who don’t, get killed off. I’m sorry, but there needs to be some light to counter the darkness. It’s like the writers know how to write about evil and blood and gore but they don’t know what to do with goodness. It’s frustrating to me.

That, and the fact that I can summarize the last three seasons like this: Our group needs to find food/shelter/weapons, they run into another group of survivors. That group is led by a sociopath. (Governor, Cannibal, Dawn) Now they have to fight these people as well as avoid zombies. Someone gets kidnapped, (Maggie, Glen and Daryl at Woodbury, the entire group at Terminus, Beth and Carol at the hospital. See a pattern?) and they go and rescue them. Big showdown, lots of bullets flying, zombie heads get smashed, someone the group really loved and looked to gets killed, lather, rinse, repeat.

Yes I agree with what you say. The cold brutality of Rick Grimes once again wins over the more caring side of Deanna who just wants a civilized town. It seems the brutes are right every time.

The thing that bothers me more than the characters who find morality being killed off, is the fact that the characters of faith seem to lose it. Hershel lost his faith, now it looks like the priest has lost his [although he may find it again judging by the scene where they were holding hands]. Although the world they live in could realistically cause them to lose their faith, it would be nice to have one upstanding strong man or woman of God who sticks by their beliefs through thick and thin. Instead it seems like the faithless remain ‘rational’ while the people of faith eventually come around to realize that their faith was misguided.

 

[RGCheek]

Back on topic, I also found the season 5 finale to be very entertaining. To be honest, there were three or four episodes in the second half of the fifth season that were very boring and nothing progressed. Okay they found the place, but still, I felt not a whole lot happened. The finale was good though.

Yes I agree with what you say. The cold brutality of Rick Grimes once again wins over the more caring side of Deanna who just wants a civilized town. It seems the brutes are right every time.

The thing that bothers me more than the characters who find morality being killed off, is the fact that the characters of faith seem to lose it. Hershel lost his faith, now it looks like the priest has lost his [although he may find it again judging by the scene where they were holding hands]. Although the world they live in could realistically cause them to lose their faith, it would be nice to have one upstanding strong man or woman of God who sticks by their beliefs through thick and thin. Instead it seems like the faithless remain ‘rational’ while the people of faith eventually come around to realize that their faith was misguided.

Zombie flicks are like extreme versions of survival themes; ‘you either do what you need to survive or you die’ is the recurring message.

What I like about WD is the struggle to retain a sense of humanity that distinguishes it from other zombie flicks, because in WD it often times works and the people are rewarded. It is no accident that Rick Grimes got about a dozen people to survive - because they see themselves as a community/family and do not walk away from each other. Even when they have been banished by Rick as Carol was, they come back and still help if they can because they LOVE the other people.

I think this is also the chief reason that it has like 12 million viewers.

 

[DakiniArtist]

I agree, RG.

There are also the underlying themes of redemption throughout the series. One could make a strong case for Biblical themes in general.

I don’t see Deanna as being simply “caring,” as much as I can sympathize with her. She’s a lot like me; she struggles being the bad guy when needed. That was her downfall, the ability to turn a blind eye to what was going on. Think of her son and his friend not knowing what they were doing and putting themselves and others at risk. Her son paid the ultimate price for this. Deanna (and she was a man in the comic book) must be complemented by someone who can mete out discipline. The world is not what it was and when the Wolves come… Deanna and her people draw the humanity back out in Rick and his crew. I am really enjoying this storyline and and was heartened by how the finale ended. I was grateful to Glen for sparing Nicholas and for Sasha and Maggie, knowing was they did, for sparing Gabriel. I thought I wanted those two to “get theirs.” How much more satisfying that they were shown mercy.

In that, I remembered why I am so attached to the series, even as it ebbs and flows.

Yes, I dearly miss, especially as a lifelong Scott Wilson fan, Hershel.

 

[RGCheek]

I agree, RG.

There are also the underlying themes of redemption throughout the series. One could make a strong case for Biblical themes in general.

I don’t see Deanna as being simply “caring,” as much as I can sympathize with her. She’s a lot like me; she struggles being the bad guy when needed. That was her downfall, the ability to turn a blind eye to what was going on. Think of her son and his friend not knowing what they were doing and putting themselves and others at risk. Her son paid the ultimate price for this. Deanna (and she was a man in the comic book) must be complemented by someone who can mete out discipline. The world is not what it was and when the Wolves come… Deanna and her people draw the humanity back out in Rick and his crew. I am really enjoying this storyline and and was heartened by how the finale ended. I was grateful to Glen for sparing Nicholas and for Sasha and Maggie, knowing was they did, for sparing Gabriel. I thought I wanted those two to “get theirs.” How much more satisfying that they were shown mercy.

In that, I remembered why I am so attached to the series, even as it ebbs and flows.

Me too. I think you have pretty much summed it all up. It does bug me that the last three major group deaths though were black guys.

Yes, I dearly miss, especially as a lifelong Scott Wilson fan, Hershel.

Yeah, I was hoping for more from Bob Stookey’s growth, but I guess that is part of the pain and love of this series; like real life you don’t always get what you want.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Stookey

 

[Robyn_p]

Back on topic, I also found the season 5 finale to be very entertaining. To be honest, there were three or four episodes in the second half of the fifth season that were very boring and nothing progressed. Okay they found the place, but still, I felt not a whole lot happened. The finale was good though.

Yes I agree with what you say. The cold brutality of Rick Grimes once again wins over the more caring side of Deanna who just wants a civilized town. It seems the brutes are right every time.

The thing that bothers me more than the characters who find morality being killed off, is the fact that the characters of faith seem to lose it. Hershel lost his faith, now it looks like the priest has lost his [although he may find it again judging by the scene where they were holding hands]. Although the world they live in could realistically cause them to lose their faith, it would be nice to have one upstanding strong man or woman of God who sticks by their beliefs through thick and thin. Instead it seems like the faithless remain ‘rational’ while the people of faith eventually come around to realize that their faith was misguided.

Wait, I thought Hershel did get his faith back though, in season 3? I remember him talking about how he had lost it but found faith again after finding a Bible in the prison. I thought that was pretty realistic and refreshing. Most people have a crisis of faith during a tragedy, but then they come back stronger. Maybe I’m thinking about something else though.

But yeah, it does seem like those with faith either lose it (like Carol and Gabriel) or are clearly deluded. That’s why I miss Hershel. He was about the only positive representation of faith on the show.

Morgan’s looking like he might fill Hershel’s role as the moral compass though, so we’ll see. Have to wait until October to find out I guess.

 

[Arizona_Mike]

Wait, I thought Hershel did get his faith back though, in season 3? I remember him talking about how he had lost it but found faith again after finding a Bible in the prison. I thought that was pretty realistic and refreshing. Most people have a crisis of faith during a tragedy, but then they come back stronger. Maybe I’m thinking about something else though.

But yeah, it does seem like those with faith either lose it (like Carol and Gabriel) or are clearly deluded. That’s why I miss Hershel. He was about the only positive representation of faith on the show.

Morgan’s looking like he might fill Hershel’s role as the moral compass though, so we’ll see. Have to wait until October to find out I guess.

The show’s writers seem interested in religion and bring it up frequently but seem kind of clueless at times about how it works.

I remember the episode when Rick went into a small Baptist church (this was just before Carl was wounded, and the introduction of Hershel). There is a huge crucifix in front of the church, with the Corpus attached. It made for good drama, as Rick prays towards Jesus on the Cross, as it now appeared that he was praying to a Person…but you’d be as likely to find a crucifix with a Corpus attached in a small Protestant church in backwoods Georgia as you would a framed picture of the Pope.

The minister Gabriel who was identified as an Episcopalian, has been called “Father” in a couple of episodes, which is pretty uncommon but not unknown in the modern Episcopalian church. (Although it may be making a comeback as women who were ordained in that religion want to be addressed as “Mother” instead of “priestess” or “Mrs.” or what have you: religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=1916. If the article is correct, the dislike of the term “Father” in Protestant denominations has less to do with Matthew 23:9 than a visceral anti-Irish sentiment.)

 

[Robyn_p]

The show’s writers seem interested in religion and bring it up frequently but seem kind of clueless at times about how it works.

I remember the episode when Rick went into a small Baptist church (this was just before Carl was wounded, and the introduction of Hershel). There is a huge crucifix in front of the church, with the Corpus attached. It made for good drama, as Rick prays towards Jesus on the Cross, as it now appeared that he was praying to a Person…but you’d be as likely to find a crucifix with a Corpus attached in a small Protestant church in backwoods Georgia as you would a framed picture of the Pope.

The minister Gabriel who was identified as an Episcopalian, has been called “Father” in a couple of episodes, which is pretty uncommon but not unknown in the modern Episcopalian church. (Although it may be making a comeback as women who were ordained in that religion want to be addressed as “Mother” instead of “priestess” or “Mrs.” or what have you: religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=1916. If the article is correct, the dislike of the term “Father” in Protestant denominations has less to do with Matthew 23:9 than a visceral anti-Irish sentiment.)

I forgot about that scene. I do remember now thinking that was pretty weird.

I’ve seen this a lot though, in other shows. I think most non-religious writers are pretty clueless about the differences between Christians. They just do whatever makes for the best visual drama. Which seems to almost always end up being some sort of Catholic imagery since Catholicism is such a physical religion. Translates better to the screen I guess.

 

[Midwest88]

I forgot about that scene. I do remember now thinking that was pretty weird.

I’ve seen this a lot though, in other shows. I think most non-religious writers are pretty clueless about the differences between Christians. They just do whatever makes for the best visual drama. Which seems to almost always end up being some sort of Catholic imagery since Catholicism is such a physical religion. Translates better to the screen I guess.

From a tv show I suppose. I do think the captions are accurate for the scene - nothing left out or added or changed.

mattyconks.tumblr.com/post/105491778759/illsassu-blog-10000000-times-make-it-hit

This is a common misconception. Homosexuality - the state of it - it in it of itself is not a sin, acting on that desire/urge is. It’s like masturbation. Say if I have the urge to masturbate but don’t then it’s not considered a sin. The urge may be there, but only if I act on it, encourage it, or make it some trivial action to justify the action, then it becomes a sin. If I say “me masturbating isn’t hurting anyone so why the criticism?” I’m sinning.

What’s interesting is the set up of the scene. Its the usual set up by writers/directors (why are churches in most tv series extraordinarily small? I will guess that this is some Protestant/Baptist church). Even if the priest said that if homosexuality, by its state alone, is not a sin but acting upon the urge is the granny would still say “stick it.” Pay attention to what he grandmothers says and what follows. It’s how most of America views the Catholic/Christian stance on homosexuality – that’s their understanding. By using the grandmother it appeals to two things: Family members, if not the elderly, “evolving” on homosexuality (therefore supporting gay “marriage”) and from a comic standpoint.