AMC zombie series from Frank 'Majestic' Darabont - The Walking Dead

Can't you make the case though that it was a sobering encounter for Rick, who was on the edge of sanity and luckily aware of it? Running into someone crazy doesn't do the job as much as running into someone who is now way crazier than when he last saw him. (Therefore not a pointless plot detour/filler)

On the Carl thing he did mention it was for the benefit of his sister, not him.

I'll give you the tone of the episode felt very season 2 to me, with the long winded melodrama-ing at each other.

xp

xpost I think the only reason our cast has let its guard down at all is that they now understand people are more dangerous than the zombies, and there aren't many people. Things are always more tense when they meet new survivors. Hence zipping past the backpacker, but Rick giving the guy who saved his life - someone he knew - a shot. Of course, guy who saved his life probably had the right idea: the zombies are such a minor threat at this point that he knew they weren't stockpiling weapons to take out walkers. Like Newt in "Aliens," who knew she was better off on her own in the air ducts than with a bunch of highly trained, heavily armed space marines. Daryl walks the cold morality line better than any other character in the show. A la "Don't let yourself get attached to anything you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner."

Agree that the writers are struggling, though, esp. if they think anyone gives a shit about the impending Big Showdown. Alas, it lacks the budget to show what's going on in other (more interesting?) parts of the world. If the show had deeper pockets it would be cool to dedicate each season to a different stand-alone thread/series/cast, each set in a different part of the world, like "The Real World." "Walking Dead: Toronto." "Walking Dead: Tokyo." "Walking Dead: Cape Town." Which of course is basically "World War Z."

Suddenly had a flashback to how much I loved "Y: The Last Man."

they now understand people are more dangerous than the zombies, and there aren't many people

this is a problem imo, the zombies in the last ep were utterly irrelevant.

I have to give credit to Tom Savini's not very strong remake of "Night of the Living Dead" for being the first zombie flick iirc where the characters realize they can basically successfully run away from zombies, and that what takes people down is carelessness and/or zombies in large numbers. "The Walking Dead" comic made a point about this, swarms, but we've only seen it once in the show.

But yeah, it is a narrative problem, since there are so few people worth caring about. Survival in and of itself is not compelling short some larger vision or goal.

Maybe in season four Rick will convince the group he knows the way to Earth?

There is serious over-critiqueing going on here and the Justified thread, you will miss both of them when they are gone cos they are both fucking ace.

Agree that the writers are struggling, though, esp. if they think anyone gives a shit about the impending Big Showdown. Alas, it lacks the budget to show what's going on in other (more interesting?) parts of the world. If the show had deeper pockets it would be cool to dedicate each season to a different stand-alone thread/series/cast, each set in a different part of the world, like "The Real World." "Walking Dead: Toronto." "Walking Dead: Tokyo." "Walking Dead: Cape Town." Which of course is basically "World War Z."

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, March 6, 2013 5:53 PM (4 hours ago)

Ah yes, we discussed this way upthread somewhere. I would totally love to see where the show went next if they'd done this!

yeah i've often commented after episodes of this show that there must be a thousand fascinating stories in The Walking Dead's world, why did they have to tell what is surely the single most boring story out of all of them?

like a few episodes back The Brothers Redneck saved the Spanish-speaking family with a baby and it's like c'mon, stay with these guys, they're probably just a zillion times more interesting than Rick & Co.

Yeah so many questions when glimpses of others make their way into the show.

How did the hitchhiker end up alone?

The hermit in the cabin really was that isolated the entire time?

Where is the Spanish-speaking family going?

And these are just people in the same county and towns.

There is serious over-critiqueing going on here and the Justified thread, you will miss both of them when they are gone cos they are both fucking ace.

walking dead is just filler until other more enjoyable shows return.

There is serious over-critiqueing going on here

I would probably "miss" candy corn, too, but that doesn't mean I would actually miss it. And for the foreseeable future, there is always the "Waling Dead" comic.

Walking Dead opening credits, 1995-style

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9C6tE4Mblks

Oh yeah, thought that was pretty amusing! Along with the Breaking Bad one.

I like the Breaking Bad one better.

Wow, I wonder if the cold open was a conscious nod to the "DayZ" mod? Which, by the way, if no one has ever seen it, watching several of the youtube clips of people playing DayZ is better than most episodes of this show. http://dayzmod.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7Q8c8jnL3s#!

Were these zombies growling and snarling from episode one? They'd be a lot scarier if they didn't announce their approach from a block away. "snannnarrrrlll gag groooowllldroooll snarrrryyyylllllllll slobbber ... here we come! buuuurrb snaaaaaaaarll sliiiiimmmme sneeeeeallllll ..."

GRRrrrllll must move plot ALOOONNNGGGG gnash gnash.

What a particularly terribly written and acted episode. I've seen better straight to video horor films. The Governor is a Jason-like all seeing, all knowing, unkillable slasher. Andrea, always stupid, seems to have forgotten how to avoid running down the middle of the road or standing in the middle of fields with no cover. The Woodbury b-listers have gone sadistic psycho. Tyrese, so slow on the uptake, has been given nothing to do but whimper. Even the geography suddenly seemed off.

Yeah they must be running out of cash when they're like, in a field, that looks like Herschel's farm repeatedly.

I like the idea of them having hours of b-roll with just nothing but people running through fields, to be used in future episodes.

i was pretty ok with the show embracing its trashier elements in this one. the Governor gets more and more ridiculous

what annoyed me was Andrea FINALLY starting to not be a total idiot (about the Governor) and alternatively acting like an idiot (when being chased by the Govenor), but i suppose her wising up had to bring a comeuppance

Me, watching the last 15 minutes of this episode:

Why is she not trying to just get outside and take his truck?

(when she unleashed the horde of zombies on the Governor) Andrea actually did something smart!

So she's going to go take his truck now, right?

OK, she's going out the door, hotwire the truck. He probably even left the keys in it.

WHY DIDN'T SHE TAKE THE TRUCK? AND HOW DID HE FIND HER AGAIN? THIS SHOW IS RIDICULOUS!

Burned-out pit zombies were like the worst thing ever.

yup, that was almost exactly my line of thinking re: andrea

What about Milton acting like a bigger than Andrea idiot? You'd think he would know when a little lie might serve him a bit better than spilling all to the psycho (Milton burned the biters, right?). And as for Tyreese, he's being played so clueless that I can't tell if he's clueless or just pretending to be clueless. How many red flags does a dude need? It's like the great Eddie Murphy routine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpPdgrr5diM

I appreciated Milton's thing there - his give and take with the Governor is a lot more potentially interesting than Andrea's - he seems pretty confident the Governor's not gonna kill him

I didn't see Tyreese as clueless than more conflicted, since it's clear they've had a pretty rough year, like it seems like he's still not sure about how much craziness he's willing to put up for safety. At the end of the ep it seems like he's not gonna fight it for now, unless he's planning to jet

The last place Tyreese and co stopped a psycho cop started ranting "NOOOOOOO!" at them, the Governor is at least a more controlled sociopath.

Why is she not trying to just get outside and take his truck?

(when she unleashed the horde of zombies on the Governor) Andrea actually did something smart!

So she's going to go take his truck now, right?

OK, she's going out the door, hotwire the truck. He probably even left the keys in it.

WHY DIDN'T SHE TAKE THE TRUCK? AND HOW DID HE FIND HER AGAIN? THIS SHOW IS RIDICULOUS!

I thought this, completely. But I did also think he might have taken the keys with him.

I figured she'd look for the keys too, as she knew that it took a zombie decoy for her to barely make it inside the prison last time, I don't know how she expected to get in this time.

I assumed he'd have taken the keys with him and that she didn't know how to hotwire a car, but that was only after I'd mentally screamed TAKE THE CAR GOD DAMN IT.

It was a schlocky episode, yes, but I'm still hooked on this show. And the Governor's not as bad as he is in the comics. Quite. Yet.

xpost Yeah, but he saw firsthand the kindness and generosity of the rest of the prison gang. All he's seen at Woodbury is people stocking up on guns and prepping zombies to eat women and children, not to mention an at the minimal weird but certainly blatantly paranoid eyepatch wearing leader who is constantly calling them into meetings to passive aggressively judge them. Since this is all clearly a set-up for Tyreese and sister, two of the more appealing characters this show has ever offered, to join the prison gang, the wishy-washiness seems like more foot dragging.

The Gov. will never be as bad as he is in the comics for the same reason he didn't actually rape Maggie. They just can't go there.

The Gov has also stuck around in the show far longer than he stuck around in the comic.

xp still betting that Tyreese's sister will be the next victim of AMC racism

For the first 10 minutes of the episode I thought it was the finale for some reason and was pretty worrisome about how slow it was going. It was a little slow anyway, and I wish Merle's death was a little less "I have something to do go on without me" in style. I always perceive that as cheap writing when a character decides they "have to" and it's suicide, and usually don't get much done in the process anyway.

i thought the effect on Daryl was pretty touching, actually. pretty surprised how they turned Merle face in a single episode, not sure if it 100% worked but there was enough

I'd say I agree with that element of its effectiveness absolutely.

so much of that episode was just one of after the other of 'wtf are you even doing right now' -- like why on earth Rick would think that Merle wouldn't dip out on him...I assumed that Rick had somehow factored that into the plan and was calling on Merle because of the inevitable doublecross but not.

Glenn & Maggie - sure aww, continue the human experiment whatever but I just rmde at that whole sidebar. "I care about Maggie more than myself" - Darryl's thinking "sure cool great dude just stay right the fuck away from me during the next standoff"

most of it was just the normal characters beggaring belief as usual, but the scene between Darryl and Merle at the end at least was kinda moving and paid off.

and yeah the merle face turn was kind of annoying. like maybe they thought it would make that last scene more effective but cmonnnnnn

xp still betting that Tyreese's sister will be the next victim of AMC racism

― Nhex, Thursday, March 21, 2013 10:46 AM (4 days ago) Bookmark

thats his sister? i thought she was his gf

yeah I thought she was his gf too

i'm gonna trust the wiki nerds with this one, but i understand the confusion
http://walkingdead.wikia.com/wiki/Sasha

Special guest director during Andrea's scenes: Quentin Tarantino.

Haha. Seriously though, having the Governor get away was a real cop-out

do the comics focus on more interesting stories in the WD world?

what a disappointing finale - i mean, is the governor going to be back as some kind of bogeyman now?

Where would the Governor have gone if not back to Woodbury? Apparently he never got there after the massacre?

I haven't read any of the novel so I have no clue where they'll take the story next season.

Am kinda baffled as to how they could have so little plot for these last six or seven shows. I thought they were holding stuff back for a bloody finale, it was really low key.

They did kinda kill off half of Woodbury, but yeah it did feel kind of anticlimatic