By Rob Siebert
Editor, Fanboy Wonder

1. Unseen and Undead
I’ve been watching the new season of The Walking Dead thus far, and I’ve been sadly underwhelmed by it. It’s not horrible, but thus far it’s not quite up to par in terms of last season. Granted, this year the show has the luxury of being able to pace itself a bit more, with 13 episodes as opposed to six. But I’m still feeling a bit let down.

Tonight Eric reminded me of all the garbage that went down with AMC and Frank Darabont, who developed and executive produced the show. Allegedly AMC was concerned about the cost of the show, cut its budget from $3.4 million to $2.7 million, asked that it be filmed 50 percent indoors, and gave a note that asked something to the effect of: “Can’t we sometimes just hear the zombies sometimes instead of see them?”

I absolutely love that last one. “C’mon, guys! We don’t have to see the zombies all the time! Heck, do we even have to see them at all? Can’t they just be implied zombies? Remember how in The Happening the characters all got killed off when the wind blew the trees around? Let’s just do that! The trees can rustle around, then we can play the recording I’ve got of my dad sleeping off some indigestion, and that’ll be like zombie sounds! Aw crap! Trees are outside, aren’t they? Ummm, okay, I’ve got it! We’ll get some potted plants and a fan…”

This is exactly why left-brained people shouldn’t be telling right-brained people how to be creative.

2. What Makes A Bad Ass
I happened to catch a clip from the Spike TV Scream Awards this week. Darth Vader was honored as an “Ultimate Villain,” which basically consisted of a tribute package being played, someone in the costume coming out, and then George Lucas showing up to hype the 3D release of the Star Wars films.

While it’s lovely that Spike TV wanted to honor Darth Vader, to me there’s something unfitting about that “bad ass” song (which is by Saliva, by the way). Nobody who is a legitimate bad ass, legitimately cool, or has whatever the awe-inspiring “it” factor is, needs to run around shouting how cool they are. Their presence speaks for itself. That’s how you tell when someone’s a fake. They try too hard. Need to see an example? Walk into any high school in America. Particularly the ones in upper middle class areas. Those places are filled with pretend bad asses. Kids who’ll slam right into you in the hallway, and then look at you sideways for moving improperly through their space. As if somehow they’ve earned that through years of hard knocks. Then after school, they’ll park next to their dad’s Lexus and play the Playstation 3 their mommy bought them. Get real, Fonzie.

Remember in the original Star Wars film when that Imperial officer started lipping off to Darth Vader about how the Death Star was the ultimate power in the universe, as opposed to the Force, which was sad and ancient? Vader used that same “sad and ancient” religion to choke him out, and then delivered a classic one-liner: “I find your lack of faith disturbing.” Then, he simply walked away and went back to his business. He didn’t toot his own horn, he didn’t run to Grand Moff Tarkin and hype up what a big moment he’d just had, and he certainly didn’t need a damn song that repeatedly advertised what a tough guy he was. He simply was confident in who he was (Granted, he was a jerk, but still…). There’s your bad ass move, right there.

The cape also helped.

Front page image from sharenator.com. Zombie image from daemonstv.com.