Robert Kirkman is best known these days for giving the world The Walking Dead. It is by no means his only work, but it is the name they drop whenever they reference him. Rob Liefeld is known for giving the world anatomically impossible works of Awesome, and human beings with cloven feet. Together, they’re going to give the world The Infinite.

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Oh boy. It’s been a good amount of time since I got good and lathered up. My balls are greased with my own fanboy rage, and those testicles are tethered to high-voltage. Let me tell you something. The Walking Dead finale was fucking putrid. If a dog could shit, eat its own shit, puke out that shit, then eat the puke, then finally shit out the puke-shit, that’s what we’re talking here. Let’s ignore the fact that the prior two episodes sucked a lot too, and just focus on the finale. Wow. Woah. Wow-woah. A tin can of shitty shit. No wonder the writers were fucking fired, no matter what sort of spin they put on it.

Before I fucking lose my mind, a few things. First off, I’m still excited for this show. Why, Ian? Here’s fucking why! The first two episodes were fucking brilliant television. Frank Darabont is still running the show, and he just fired the entire fucking writing staff. So there’s potential. We’ve already seen how fucking excellent it can be. But Jesus Fucking On The Cross, have we seen how low it can go as well.

Rubicon gets canceled, and this banal, poorly written shit draws 8.1 million viewers.

Good lord.

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I like me some The Walking Dead. I like it despite Sunday’s episode being something resembling ass, and none of the episodes having been as good as the first two. So when it came out today that Frank Darabont has fired the entire fucking writing staff, I was momentarily happy. Darabont wrote the first two episodes, and this (theoretically) means he’ll be even more hands on for season two.

io9:

Deadline is reporting a rumor that director, writer and Walking Dead producer Frank Darabont has let the entire writing staff go. And instead of hiring a new staff for the second season, Darabont is toying with the idea of assigning freelancers to each script. While assigning freelancers to TV scripts isn’t anything new, canning the whole writing staff is pretty unusual, and we’re still weighing out the pros and cons of this executive decision.

Darabont penned the series pilot and the second episode solo, while co-writing and rewriting the remaining four episodes of Walking Dead’s first season. Two of the four episodes that Darabont didn’t write were created by “non-staffers” Glen Mazzara and original comic creator Robert Kirkman. So in reality, Darabont is already carrying the bulk of the writing work on his shoulders, so there may not be any need to blow the second season budget on an in-house writing staff.

That being said, the second season has a total of 13 episodes. That doubles the amount of time the production crew will have to spend under the boiling Atlanta sun filming the new episodes. Plus, whatever writer ends up tackling the new scripts, they’re going to be under a very tight schedule. And if Darabont wants to stay as heavily involved as he has been throughout season one (and it sounds like he does) it’s going to take double the effort to write, re-write, produce, shoot, and edit the new season. The burn out factor seems almost inevitable, even with the original comic book outline.

At this point, I’m more impressed than anything. By what? Just the headline. Dude fires the entire writing staff of the most acclaimed new show of the season. It’s not a particularly large staff, and he was already heavily involved, so it almost feels like more bluster and cost-saving than anything.

I don’t give a fuck who writes the episodes, as long as they’re enjoyable. If Darabont sending out assignments to freelancers and staying heavily involved will keep the quality up, let’s do it! Who knows though. I sure fucking don’t.

Listen, purveyors of cool. If you’re not watching The Walking Dead, you’re fucking up. Done fucking up well. The first two episodes have been ass-clenching awesome. The good news for those of us who are watching it? Well, not only have we made it the best debut for a show ever on AMC, but we’ve earned ourselves a reward.

The show has been picked up for a full second season.

AMC via Slashfilm:

(New York, NY — November 8, 2010) AMC announced today the renewal of “The Walking Dead” for a 13-episode second season. Since debuting Sunday, October 31, “The Walking Dead” has broken ratings records, with the series reaching more Adults 18-49 than any other show in the history of cable television.

“I wish all programming decisions were no brainers like this one,” said Sharon Tal Yguado, SVP Scripted Programming. “‘The Walking Dead’ is a TV masterpiece on so many levels. We want at least 10 seasons, if not more. Kudos to AMC!”

AMC’s “The Walking Dead” is based on the comic book series written by Robert Kirkman and published by Image Comics.   Kirkman serves as an executive producer on the project and three-time Academy Award-nominee Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile) serves as writer, director and executive producer. Gale Anne Hurd (The Terminator, Aliens, Armageddon, The Incredible Hulk), chairman of Valhalla Motion Pictures, serves as Executive Producer. David Alpert from Circle of Confusion and Charles “Chic” Eglee (Dexter, The Shield, Dark Angel) serve as Executive Producers.

Fucking awesome. The best part is that it’s an entire season. Right now, this little ditty we’re being treated to is a six-episode cock tease. Good lord, it’s going to be over before we know it. At least we have something to look forward to! Right on.