Walking Dead spoilers for past episodes in text, including mild possible spoilers for future episodes
It’s been a long time, if ever, since I’ve been as affected by a show as much as I have by The Walking Dead. (I think Six Feet Under was the last major series that I cared about as much, and that kind of waned as it progressed.) There are few shows as fascinating, unpredictable and terrifying. Yesterday I discovered the Walking Dead wiki (major spoilers in that link) and read some spoilers from the comic that the series is based on. Then last night I installed the iPad app and bought about 15 digital versions of the monthly comic book, starting where the show left off this week. It was engrossing, and of course not conducive to sleep at all. Reading the comics did help bring the show down to earth for me. There are soap opera twists and turns in the comic, along with some over the top scenarios that we probably won’t see in the series.

Again, spoilers for last episode, mild spoilers for future episodes
In the last episode that aired Sunday, we saw Rick and the band of survivors go to the Centers for Disease Control as a last ditch effort to get help from the government. This never happens in the graphic novel as far as I can tell. There’s no CDC and instead there’s an entirely different plot twist that I’ll only say involves some characters we’ve yet to see along with a different government facility. The place where the group ends up provides shelter from the zombies along with its own very scary pitfalls.

It’s clear that the show isn’t following in lock step with the comics, and it’s hard to tell where they’re going with it. There is just one episode left this season and word has it that Bravo AMC isn’t bringing back Walking Dead until next October! Maybe that’s a good thing, given how I’ve become attached to it. Anyway, there’s news that came out a couple of days ago that the producer/director of the television show has fired the entire writing staff. It sounds drastic and like it could affect the quality of the show, but they do have several freelance writers on staff, including the creator/writer of the comics, Robert Kirkman. Staff writers were also only responsible for a couple of episodes this season, and maybe they’ll do just as well with freelancers. Here’s the story:

I hear The Walking Dead writer/ executive producer/ director Frank Darabont has let go of the writers on the hot freshman AMC series, which has already renewed for a second season. That includes Darabont’s No. 2, writing executive producer Charles “Chic” Eglee. Writer turnover on series between seasons is commonplace but wholesale overhauls are unusual. What’s more, I hear Darabont is looking to forgo having a writing staff for the second season of Walking Dead altogether and assign scripts to freelancers.

Darabont, who hails from the feature world with The Young Indiana Jones as the only series credit before Walking Dead, ended up writing 2 of the first season’s 6 episodes of Walking Dead – the pilot and the second episode – and co-writing/rewriting the other 4. Two of those 4 were written by non-staff writers, one by executive producer Robert Kirkman, on whose comics the series is based, and one by Glen Mazzara. The freelance model is employed by the Starz/BBC series Tourchwood, which in turn borrowed it from the U.K. where the show originated. Having BBC as producer has allowed Torchwood to proceed with no writing staff but I hear such a plan on an U.S.-based network series such as Walking Dead may face issues with the Writers Guild. And, while the first season of Walking Dead was only 6 episodes, its second-season order is for 13, which may prove harder to manage in pre-production, production and post-production with no writing staff. Sources tell me that no final decision has been made yet with all options open, including using some combination of a writing staff/freelances. There is time – AMC is mulling launching Walking Dead’s second season the way it did the first one – in October during Fearfest

UPDATE WEDNESDAY 10:45AM: AMC just issued a statement confirming “that there will be changes to the writing staff” of The Walking Dead.

[From Deadline]

Maybe this guy Frank Darabont thinks he can write most of the episodes himself with help from freelancers. A lot of commenters on Deadline note that he’ has a reputation for being difficult to work with. He also wrote the screenplays for The Green Mile and Shawshank Redemption (update: based on Stephen King’s books), so it’s clear he’s talented. We’ll have to see how these behind the scenes politics affect the show. Walking Dead is proving very popular. Last week’s episode had 5.6 million viewers, which was even higher than the premiere. The final episode this season airs on Sunday, and I hope they don’t leave us with too many cliffhangers.

There are potentially spoiler-filled images from the final episode to air this Sunday, on ONTD. If you’re in the US, you can also watch a preview video on AMCTV.

All photos credit: AMCTV