It seemed like a good idea at the time… Creating a “Live” talk-show to air immediately after a new episode of The Walking Dead was a dream come true for true Zed fans. Somehow, a zombie threw a wrench into those plans. Talking Dead is useless. Totally a broadcast-air filler. Let me explain.
Chris Hardwick is a funny guy with geek cred. I like him. He’s always funny on G4, his Nerdist podcast (especially when paired with Adam Carolla) and even back in the day on Singled Out. HA! He does good work. And it seems he likes all forms zombie entertainment. However, Talking Dead does not work in its current format.
My Gripes:
The show can be summed up as such: Hardwick, the host, will give a brief summary of the current Walking Dead episode. He’ll chat with two people, one is usually affiliated with the show in some form (Filmmaker, Actor, Creator) and a comedian, who will trade barbs, crack wise and then give a preview to the next episode and all of a sudden, the show’s over. As a half-hour show, that’s a lot of time suck!
Not to mention it’s filmed live, for some odd reason, perhaps only to give laughter to the guest comedian. Adds nothing for the zombie perspective. As well as submitting show-related questions via e-mail, or phone. Usually one question is accepted per format and is regularly useless. There’s also a useless poll question as well. There’s never quite enough time for an actual discussion about The Walking Dead on the show, which supposedly was the basis for it in the first place.
On top of all that uselessness, the show airs after the late-night rebroadcast (also known as the Pacific timezone feed) of The Walking Dead. This is probably done in hopes of not ruining the show for all the West Coasters before the episode actually airs. But there’s no reason it should have to air super late for everyone else in the country.
My Proposal to Fix Talking Dead:
First of all, the show needs to air immediately after the new Walking Dead episode airs in the Eastern Timezone. Stretch the show from 30 minutes to a full hour. There’s already so much fluff in the 30-minute format, shouldn’t be too much of a stretch. HA! Try to reduce the non-show-related jokes and keep focused on the matter at hand: Zombies! If the show is actually for the fans, highlight more than three questions from the peanut gallery. Give away prizes for the best questions asked. Ask questions of the filmmakers, even if they can’t appear on the show, do it by e-mail. Maybe even do a comparison of the current episode and similar subject matter in the comic, in hopes of comparing and contrasting. Do a weekly media review, of The Walking Dead’s recent appearance in the many pop-culture formats. I could list a ton of suggestions to improve the show, just seems it’s done half-assed at the moment.
There’s all sorts of ways the show can be improved. As it stands, the show tries a bit too hard to be funny. This is not a sit-com! Simply focus on Zombies! Cut the fluff. Cater to the crowd. Only then, this show will be worth more than a few seconds of my time, in between hitting the fast-forward button and delete show on my TiVo.
As the saying goes, “There is no such thing as bad publicity, except your own obituary.”
Talking Dead definitely promotes The Walking Dead in a positive light. Let’s just hope Talking Dead turns it around quickly, before writing its own obituary.
Review: 2/5