To answer the zombie speed question with what I can only assume will be the most useful and relatable comparison possible given the general interests of the board, if the Walking Dead was a modern sports video game, its zombies would have a low speed rating, but a high quickness rating. They have a decent first step and can close pretty quickly, but no motor. Terrible in the open field and man-to-man, but a formidable zone defense.
To put it into terms that would narrow down the audience to just Sarah and me, the Walking Dead zombies appear to come equipped with Lurching Gait, Scent Blood, Flailing Gesture, Feeding Groan and Neck Lurch. At least two of them in the pilot seem to have upgraded to have Memories of Life, as well.
Anyway, I really liked the pilot and hope the quality keeps up if it finds an audience. I've read a few of the collections, so I have/had some sense of where things are headed, but everything was kind of telegraphed anyway, specifically the looming interpersonal plot problem. Which is fine, since this worked on the strength of the atmosphere it created. The zombie genre is massively played out by now, but I will always be suckered in by well-filmed shots of someone riding into a city on horseback, carrying a bunch of guns, facing hordes of enemies with abandoned tanks and machine gun nests around them.
Despite having been warned about it, I wasn't bothered by the lead's accent once they got past the cop partner banter near the beginning, which was more of a case of just not being all that well written. My real problem with everything was the shot of crows eating the zombie army guy. If crows and other animals can get zombified or carry whatever makes the dead rise, wouldn't that be the ultimate no-win situation?
Zombirds: worse than fast zombies. Scientific fact.
