Monday, September 16, 2013

The zombie series that never ends.

The creator of The Walking Dead graphic novel series once referred to the popular franchise as the zombie movie that never ends. Today it was announced that AMC will produce a new spinoff from The Walking Dead, for which as much as I love the show, I was not too enthusiastic about. 

I have no problem with television shows creating new ones. Sometimes it works very well like Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, which spun off from Star Trek: The Next Generation. But for every good spinoff, there are a ton of poorly received ones like Joanie Loves Chachi, Caprica, Crusade, The Lone Gunmen, After Mash and so on. Even if the new show is every bit as good as the original, sometimes it removes something that makes the world created by original less special.

Would The Sopranos been any better if David Chase decided to make a spinoff focusing on the FBI characters? I think not. With the recent announcement of the Breaking Bad spinoff entitled Better Call Saul to be a prequel to the current series, I have to ask, is it even as much fun to see how Saul became Saul or to watch Saul as he is now? I will leave that up to you all to decide.

My point is simple. More is not always better. Sometimes less is more and I think it is better to have one great work of art than a thousand knockoffs. Thank you.