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

"Undergoing some heavy shit that might make them change their moral attitude and how they deal with people" is the closest this show has had to a theme. And every other apocalypse tale before it, too. I really hope this season's bright idea is bigger, but I don't expect anything more than the usual wheel-spinning, honestly. Because again, no matter what, the world is over and done with. Life is nothing but wheel-spinning, which that needling neo-conversation between Tyreese and the smug gum chewer reiterated over and over. It's not so much "cattle or butcher" but "we're all going to die." And when we die, we're going to come back, and maybe never die. And also eat people. Per Lex above, yeah, I'm impressed that I can name all 15 or so of these folks now, too, but won't that be a problem? Who of this batch can they kill? Would they kill anyone of them? If they don't kill any of them, won't the posse just keep accumulating names we know, making it harder and harder to depict the group as in any real danger?

i appreciated the terminus flashbacks, always good to have the villains somewhat fleshed out. would like some more b/c it's still a big step from vowing not to be taken advantage of to actual cannibalism.

this show's big themes are silly and/or overblown, i don't watch it for those, i guess i see it as an ~adventure series? there is no point or ending to aim for, but it's a group of characters i'm somewhat attached to getting into life-threatening scrapes. making me give a shit about the characters (without feeling as though i should have an executive producer's credit for projecting what i want a character who hasn't been given any lines in 5 episodes to be) should be the show's no 1 aim imo. (the terminus flashbacks do decent work in this area.)

the tactics to move around zombie herds safely do seem to be conveniently forgotten/remembered, though i think the zombies randomly being able to suddenly move silently and quickly enough to surprise characters bothers me more.

definitely loled when carol showed up fresh out of a shower advert,

http://i.imgur.com/rjXdsSj.jpg

made some perfect bacon

http://i.imgur.com/Hy5A7tY.jpg

oh no stop ur killin em

lol oops

omg at bacon pic!!

Mmm. Hoegarden.

Now, see, something is all screwy. Clearly the last episode should have been the season finale, and this one should have been the season premiere. It's as if they don't know how to tell a story, even when they are lucky enough to have a story to tell.

Anyway.

1) Not sure how much I can handle a smug, talky villain this season.

2) Didn't Rick and a few of his friends already have a run-in with the CDC c. season one? The crappy season one finale, maybe? So shouldn't he know that the idea that DC has anything to offer is silly?

3) Also, you'd think they'd recognize that staying away from population centers would be a wise thing. Though sure, if I spent all my time wandering the same 10 or so square mile area, I'd get pretty bored too.

4) Speaking of smug, talky villains. You'd think our tracker heroes would notice someone grillin' nearby. But hey, whatevs

1) hipster villain is a funny demented twist though
2) i think that some point the writers are going to remember this and someone will call out the mullet guy. the CDC thing didn't happen in the comics

poor Bob though, you knew as soon as one new black cast member entered, another would have to leave... thanks AMC

Maybe the villain didn't start out hip. Maybe what happened to him ... made him hip.

Want to say mullet and his story have already lasted longer than he/it did in the comics?

Though actually, hipster Gareth does have a direct analog in the comics, so let's see if the show follows that storyline to its probably not far off conclusion.

the CDC in season 1 was in Atlanta, Eugene and co are talking about some other govt thing in washington DC. Tho I can see the cogs of "we done this before" vs "we got nothing better to hope for" gearing up perhaps

lol some familiar flaws on display in this episode. godawful dialogue spelling everything out for us, characters inexplicably doing stupid things...WHO would have left the church on their own at night just to have a little cry? still, last scene was POW and it set up some promising storylines.

I thought he was leaving because he was bitten in the food pantry attack and wanted to split to die.

Not sure what Carol's motivation for leaving is after everyone's so accepting...and Daryl just follows her?

But yeah, seems like a lot of the same plot over and over again. The return of Gareth is the return of the Gov. etc.

WHO would have left the church on their own at night just to have a little cry?

I thought he was leaving because he was bitten in the food pantry attack and wanted to split to die.

There is absolutely no indication yet that this is what happened, but ... if this continues to follow the comic as closely as it appears (the Gareth speech at the end is almost word for word from the book), then I don't think we will have to wait long to find out.

I think Carol wants to leave, btw, because she realizes she might be better off on her own than in a group. Daryl follows her because he larves her and ... omg, it's a car! Beth!

the white cross on the back of a limo/hearse/whatever is pretty conspicuous
i think Carol's far more into despair than she's letting on

We still don't know who kidnapped her and why yet, right?

techbro cannibal is a much more entertaining villain than the governor

Well, then.

What an absolutely great episode. Sort of knew what would happen, generally speaking, since even the comics arc is only a couple of issues. But boy, was this well directed, well acted and well paced. Great use of darkness (both kinds) and stillness. Stuff that happened actually enriched our heroes as characters, changed them. One of the many problems with the show over the seasons has been the way it sort of elides the sheer horror of this existence. Between the end of the last season and the start of this one, we're finally starting the see the deeper pain and damage surviving in this world is inflicting on good people. Not just in the death surrounds us sense, but in the we are living in hell and every single day we must navigate a different degree of damnation. If there's any problem with this development it's that things can quickly get depressing, but, well, a show like this not being depressing is a bigger issue.

Not sure how much I anticipate the Beth storyline, but these past few eps have given me hope. It's as if after so many years of this they finally have righted the earlier wrongs and actually know where they want the story to go. Fingers crossed.

How does Abraham keep his hair and 'stache like that? Everyone else looks like a head-to-toe wet mop.

maggie not only still failing to give a shit about her only living relative but now buggering off even though she now knows beth is still alive is ludicrous

that apart, this show is actually on a genuine streak of sustained quality! and a plot that actually moves!

The water bloated zombies in the previous episode were wonderful. One of the best monster makeup jobs I've seen in years. Take that cgi!

what was with that weird ending?

not gonna be beth or carol in the bushes

Or maybe Carol carrying Beth?

it's gonna be a rando hostage or Lennie

the imdb description of next week's episode says that Beth finds herself in some weird hospital

hoping beth isn't traumatised to the point of the next 5 episodes having to nurse her back to health

That would certainly give them an excuse to anchor them all in one place again just to talk a lot.

I liked how the "next week.." add said, with pauses inbetween WHO...TOOK...BETH and the first thing I thought was World Health Organization.

Wow what a crappy episode. Writing and directing was some amateur hour bullshit.

i like beth and i liked the idea of spending an hour with her but the logic of that whole set-up would have collapsed with one poke. do they actually think about the logic of why certain things would not actually happen? could've been so easy to get it right, too - tighten up the logical holes in the hospital, go for the creepy vibe, bang you've got a nice all-cops-are-bastards/danger of authority theme going on. oh well

The creepy rapist cop character also read like a really standard, lazy idea, which kind of clashed with the... well, I don't really know what the rest of the vibe was supposed to be there to be honest. Weird dystopian hospital society with approximately six people in it.

I only got to the end of S2 yesterday and this is so flimsy on almost every level and yet so watchable because I hate most of the characters and am eagerly looking forward to them being disemboweled. The taking down of Dale (who was less 'moral centre of the group' and more 'self-righteous bore') was a case in point. Also the group dynamic is basically exactly the same as that of Lost and I'm not sure which ripped off which.

medals should be awarded to everyone on completion of season 2

For reals. I still feel like there's a lost episode where they just make lemonade for an hour while Herschel speaks nuggets of folksy wisdom.

nah, i'm pretty sure that was an actual episode

medals should be awarded to everyone on completion of season 2

I was writing about it weekly at the time ugh

i didn't bother with last season, should I go back and watch that before watching this one?

i'd say it's worth it, season 4 was pretty solid overall and really picked up in the second half

there's only one or two bum episodes imo and nothing as terrible as the worst from season 2 and 3
remember they got a new showrunner for s4 and he's has yet to be fired amazingly

That was like some sub John Carpenter meets General Hospital shit. Glad it was a bottle episode. Keep the infection isolation so that it doesn't spread to the rest of a so far solid season. Unless it's too late, in which case, down the elevator shaft the season goes.

I guess I didn't mind so much because I was happy to see Beth finally
But yeah, not up to recent standards

Also, bad lady cop didn't blink. Do they teach that at acting school?

Wow, did not recognize or know that was Keisha Castle-Hughes. Or the kids from "Everybody Hates Chris."

ohhh I knew her face was familiar
I knew it was the kid from Everybody Hates Chris, but largely because he was in that amazing Family Matters Key & Peele sketch from a few weeks ago

Kind of a dud last night - Abraham got pretty annoying

- could not believe the car flipping over. great, a callback to TWD's most stupid character's most stupid moment
+ at least they somewhat explained it, i guess this counts as the show's improvement
- abraham's behaviour seemed like it was falling into its old ways of characters behaving in inexplicable and extremely dumb ways to move the plot forward - yeah yeah we get he wants to keep it moving, as do we all, unlike this group that's spent 5 seasons walking in circles around one city, but at the expense of gaining supplies and through a field of zombies? this is implausible and removes any trace sympathy we have for him as a character or a leader (why is the more level-headed rosita not the leader, eh)
+ wrapping up the eugene story so early was a good, and surprising, move - love how fast these plots are moving, let's hope there's something that can replace them
- flashbacks didn't flesh out abraham's back story even a tenth as much as they should have. why were his wife and kids afraid of him? no insight into his character back then at all. (i've read comments outlining what his backstory was, pity the show didn't reflect any of it) (when are we gonna get rosita's backstory)
+ non-flashback eugene and rosita became more like characters and less like the comic book cutouts they'd been at least - rosita did a lot with very little, her staredown of abraham with her hand on her gun was the episode's most powerful moment imo. who is dependent on whom there, how much power does she have over him
+ two consecutive episodes without rick and koral
+ probz more of a cliffhanger than last week - we all know what carol's gonna do in the hospital but i've no idea how this group will react to eugene's revelation