Quick! To the Genocycle!

I’ve got two TV news stories and only one allotted post for them, so you’re getting them both: (1) “Sons of Anarchy” has been renewed for a fifth season, and (2) “The Walking Dead” season premiere broke its own ratings records.

“It is no small challenge to bring the themes of a great, ancient play like Hamlet into a wholly original television setting and to tell this complex story in a way that is both riveting and accessible to a broad audience,” network President John Landgraf said… This season has been averaging 5.8 million viewers, with the premiere episode the most-watched program in the network’s history. [TV Guide]

7.3 million zombie lovers tuned in, shattering all previous records for the show and dramatically improving on last year’s series premiere tune-in of 5.3 million. The story was even better for AMC in the key demo of adults 18 to 49, where the show averaged 4.8 million viewers under 50 and scored a 3.8 rating — bigger than just about everything else on network TV Sunday, save for NFL football. [Vulture]

It’s so weird that these shows are doing so well on cable, considering that they’re not cop shows on TNT. But if I’ve learned anything from following the TV industry, it’s that nothing stays fresh for long before it’s copied poorly. So get ready for shows about zombie motorcycle gangs, shows about motorcycle gangs fighting zombies, and of course the new Discovery docuseries “Zombie Vs. Motorcycles.” Can’t wait!

(banner image via)

UPDATE: Apparently AMC didn’t like us advertising their show, so the video got pulled. Excellent idea on their part.

Whatever complaints you might have about the uneven first season of “The Walking Dead,” the show has always done one thing exceptionally well: gruesome, horrifying carnage as zombies get their skulls caved in. And this video from Flavorwire takes every zombie death from Season 1 and packs it all into five minutes of bloody head shots and shovel-swinging. The musical choice (a cover of “Zombie”) leaves something to be desired, but it can’t stop this from making me want to swing an axe into someone’s head. Good thing I don’t work in an office building.

(Season 2 of “The Walking Dead” premieres this Sunday, and the early word on the street is that the story and writing are much improved since last season. Hell yes. For more zombie ownage, check out this collection of zombie kill GIFs.)

Even though AMC keeps screwing with “The Walking Dead” by doing things like firing showrunner Frank Darabont and making a “Talking Dead” after-show with Chris Hardwicke, I still can’t help but be impressed by the quality in every promo and trailer the show puts out. Today we’ve got a 90-second trailer (watch below) for the show that kind of falls in between the totally metal promo from last week and the longer, more atmospheric Comic-Con trailer.

There are a couple images in here that I haven’t seen before, including zombies sitting in the pews of a church. Which makes sense, I guess. “But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.” — Acts 2:24. Jesus was the original zombie.

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My God, this promo for “The Walking Dead” has got me pumped up for zombie ownage in October. I know that as a blogger I’m supposed to be Mr. Cynical and demand better writing than last season and chastise AMC for firing Frank Darabont and complain about how it’s not faithful to the comic book, but screw all that. THERE ARE ZOMBIES HEADS BEING CRUSHED WITH ROCKS AND MACHETES ON BASIC CABLE. I’m not made of stone, you know.

(via bohemea)

"Sorry, what? Did you guys say you want drains?"

I halted production on Corgi Friday when I saw that the trailer for Season 2 of “The Walking Dead,” unveiled at Comic-Con today, is now online (video below). I know that a lot of people were disappointed with the way Season 1 went after the excellence of the pilot, but Season 2 looks incredible, largely thanks to the quality of this trailer. It doesn’t skimp on content: it’s over four and a half minutes long, carefully builds tension, features an excellent score, and slowly ratchets up my desire to see the second season with snippets of terrifying zombie attacks (which were always well-executed even when the writing was weak last season). Consider me geeked.

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