I read an article recently comparing this pilot to other series' pilots. People are used to the pilot being the all-out explosive episode designed to fish in viewers and hook them into the show, if even at least in the short term. He went on to say that he was perplexed by this pilot and couldn't understand why it broke those rules. Like you, he was at a loss trying to figure out how this particular pilot was chosen to be the show's launch vehicle, going on to say that, with only 6 episodes on order for the first season (like the original series), it was baffling that they would piss away so much airtime doing nothing of any consequence with nothing much happening.
Baffling indeed. I mean, I don't expect instant balls-to-the-wall action right out of the gate. But I expect to be shown obvious signs of what is to come in a logically progressing way. Just showing us a couple girls watching a video on their phones isn't enough to be realistic. It doesn't explain anything really.
And if there was a mysterious flu that was taking half the kids out of school that would not only be national news but everyone would be hysterical over it. -- Yet we didn't get any of that. The characters basically just shrugged at the fact that there was an epidemic (pandemic?) underway. "Oh, only five kids on the school bus today? Ho hum." :rolleye0014: That wasn't realistic at all, especially when one considers the mass hysteria that happens in the real world when even the slightest event happens. So the most I can figure is that in the FtWD universe the municipalities put Xanax into the water supply. That's the only thing that would explain the general apathy everyone has towards what is clearly going on around them.
Other issues: Why didn't they explain where the virus came from? Why didn't they show us how it developed? Why didn't they show us how it is able to spread so rapidly? They don't have to give us all the answers right out of the box but they could have shown us
something, a hint, a morsel. Instead we got D-bag dad fixing a sink, that's it. :apthy: