Review: The Walking Dead S3E06 “Hounded”

Posted on November 18, 2012 by Arleigh

“Eat. Drink. Be Merry. Tomorrow we die.” — Phillip “The Governor” Blake

We’re now over a third of the way throughseason 3 of The Walking Dead. The season began in such a fast pace that it almost as if the writers were trying to exorcise the demons of the very deliberate and pastorial season 2. The question that now arose was whether the writers will be able to keep the fast pace going through most of the season. There was bound to be some slow spots through the 16-episode run for this season, but the series seems to have avoided it, so far.

“Hounded” marks the sixth episode this season. Last week’s episode was a break from the action and this break continues with tonight’s episode. We get a pre-credits opening of Merle leading a small group of Woodbury tough guys on a hunt to find newcomer and resident badass Michonne. It would seem her suspicions about the Governor and the “idyllic” Woodbury was right on the nose. Before we can say “look it’s Evil Glenn” the Merle quartet was suddenly down two men, but Michonne gets winged by a Merle shot for her troubles.

After the intro credits we find ourselves back in the prison with Rick as he’s speaking to the voice on the phone which ended last week’s episode in a cliffhanger. Everything Rick ever wanted since the first season he hears from the female voice on the phone. A haven that’s safe from zombies, raiders and internal struggles. It’s a call from paradise that Rick has wanted for his family since he reunited with them midway through season 1.

The episode concentrates on these two paralleling storylines with some visits back in Woodbury to see how Andrea continues to fall under the Governor’s spell and just reminding everyone why she’s now the most hated character on the show now that Lori has exited. It’s these Andrea scenes that seem to slow tonight’s episode even more than it already has. It doesn’t help that the writers haven’t been able to find a way to course-correct the character after two season’s worth of a bungled job. Maybe it’s a character that’s broken beyond fixing or the actress portraying her (Laurie Holden) who always comes off in every scene as being too cocky for her own good. There’s still time to get this character turned around, but with Mazzara and company already making good on correcting the show’s past season mistakes both in it’s storytelling and in underused and underdeveloped character I don’t see much hope that Andrea will survive the season (plus she seems to be the last of the original Darabont veteran troupe hired for the show initially).

We find that the hounding of Michonne by Merle mirrors the hounding of Rick by those on the other side of the phone. While the former was one storyline that was a literal hounding the latter was a psychological one as Rick realizes that those he has been speaking to were not as he thought they were. We see Rick finally have the proper breakdown into grief at Lori’s death that the previous episode didn’t even attempt to do. We hear him confess his regret for not being able to keep his family safe and finally admitting that he still loved his wife and would do anything to get her back to tell her that.

It’s a lot to process and the episode suffered because of it. The scenes back in Woodbury did nothing other than make Andrea look even worst as she finally succumbs to the Governor’s charms. It’s this inconsistency in her character that has made her such a frustrating character to believe in. One moment she’s regretting not listening to Michonne then the next moment she’s in with the Governor. These scenes took away from the two storylines that dominated tonight’s episode. With just those two the episode was already stretched thin as it was.

So, tonight’s episode might have been a lot of set-up for what looks to be the long-awaited confrontation between Team Rick and Team Governor, but it also looks like it’s the third season’s first truly weak episode. We don’t learn anything new about any of the character old and new. We do get reminded that some of the show’s past mistakes still linger and keeps it from really taking off. So, the question about whether the writers will be able to keep season 3’s pace of quality tv has been answered. It’s just one episode but it highlighted just how much improvement the show still has to go. Fortunately, we’re not getting a sense that the writers intend to keep subplots from dragging along (the Sophia and Greene Farm being great examples of pacing killers). Now it’s time to see if the Mazzara Crew can get back on track with the final two episode of the season before it goes on a winter break.

Notes

Tonight’s episode was directed by series newcomer Dan Attias and written by series regular Scott M. Gimple.
Evil Glenn, we hardly knew you and now you’re gone.
Andrea just will continue to be the new target of hate for fans of the show. She just seems to always have smug look on her face even when she has no reason to be smug about.
Her skill in killing the zombie outside the wall did show that she’s probably one of the better killers in Woodbury outside of Merle and the Governor himself.
Hershel looks to be taking over as the voice of conscience for Rick. He looks to be taking on the role in the show that was originally taken by our dear departed Dale Horvath.
Rick must’ve really gone on a major killpocalypse in the prison in the previous episode if things were clear enough for Hershel to limp his way through safely.
Merle builds the kid’s courage up and just as easily takes it away with a bullet.
The Maggie and Glenn duo continue to be a very cute thing in a show that’s very lacking in the cute department.
Maggie continues to be this show’s version of the comic book Andrea which means she’s the team’s female badass until Michonne comes along.
Interesting how the show continues to deviate from the comic book’s narrative but still manages to create new scenes reminiscent of what was on that path not taken.
Nice how Glenn stays consistent with how he treats outsiders after mentioning in last week’s episode that the group should be very wary of anyone that’s not part of the group.
It seems like the show is setting things up to have a Dixon Brother showdown.
Nice to see the writers making sure that subplots introduced this season that has a chance to slow things down considerably get some sort of resolution: missing Carol and mysterious phone call.
Not many zombie kills this week, but the magicians over at KNB EFX still managed to make what kills there were memorable: zombie stomach sliced open and out slides out the goods.
Zombie Kill Count of tonight’s episode: 5

Past Season 3 Episode Review

Review: The Walking Dead S3E05 “Say the Word”

Posted on November 11, 2012 by Arleigh

“People need entertainment.” — Phillip “The Governor” Blake

Wow has been the most heard, read and seen word regarding last week’s episode of The Walking Dead. While “Killer Within” had some flaws the episode overall continued season 3’s streak of quality tv since the season premiere. Gone, but still not forgotten, were the long philosophical debates about humanity and civilization in the face of overwhelming horror. In its place has been what fans and critics had been waiting for. A show that really showed the dangers and dog eat dog world of a zombie apocalypse.

It’s always been a criticism that the show had unlimited potential to explore just how people would react and be changed (or not) in a world overrun by the living dead. The show this season still asks those questions, but lets the behavior of the characters and the situation they’re in speak for themselves. This season has minimized extended expositional scenes while improving on the show’s pacing. The change in the show’s pace has been the highlight of the season as the show just continues to propel forward at breakneck speed though there’s now fear that new showrunner Mazzara and his writers might not be able to sustain such a pace with still 12 episodes left in the season. Sooner or later the show might have to slow down if just to give fans a breather.

Things don’t seem to look like they’ll be slowing down anytime soon as we find Rick unable to cope with his wife’s death and knowing it was his son, Carl, who had to make sure Lori didn’t come back. It’s not a good place we see Rick go into both literally and figuratively as he takes his trusty hatchet and enters the prison to take out his grief on whatever zombies might be still left inside. The refuge the prison was suppose to be for him and his people haven’t turned out to b safe. With two of the group’s people gone and a third missing it falls on Rick’s right-hand man in Daryl to take charge of the situation to make sure they don’t lose anyone else.

Over at Woodsbury we find Michonne finding more and more hints that the town and the Governor are not what they seem. It doesn’t help that the episode’s opening sequence has the unquestioned leader of the town keeping what looks like his undead daughter as if she’s still alive and he can’t let her go. We’re getting a sense of the insanity lurking behind the charismatic facade the Governor puts up in front of his people yet the episode also subtly brings up the question whether the people in Woodsbury even care if their leader is batshit insane as long as they’re kept safe. The scene close to the end of the episode inside the town as the Governor provides entertainment for his people shows just how much a scared population will tolerate as long as they’re kept safe.

Even though we don’t hear one word uttered by Rick in tonight’s episode (ironic considering the episode’s title) we’re able to get a glimpse into the path Rick is treading right now. People have been wondering whether Rick will turn out to be just like the Governor. Become a leader who will abandon whatever humanity and moral principles he has left to keep his people safe. Tonight we’re close to seeing just how much Rick has gone through to try and keep his family safe yet the realization that his best (which at times means doing the worst things) was not good enough. He’s snapped and his trip inside the prison was very Kurtz-like. He’s now entered the proverbial abyss and the audience gets to see Rick prowling those dark hallways in an attempt to exorcise the demons he’s now been saddled with.

While tonight’s episode lacked some of the heavy action we’ve seen from this season, so far, it more than made it up casting a light on the mental state of the show’s two leaders. The episode ends with the two leaders now seen in better light. The Governor looks to have already gone through what Rick is going through now and come out on the other side not just amoral but with a functioning insanity that allows him to keep control of his town and it’s people. Rick looks to still be on that path that could turn him into something like the Governor. Time and the rest of the season will tell whether Rick can come out of the other side of his grief-induced insanity devoid of any humanity or finding himself back out of the wilderness and into the light, so to speak.

NOTES

I understand AMC wants to make money off the show especially since it looks like they’ve upped the show’s budget (two locations and all), but the channel is close to the tipping point (if they haven’t already gone past it) of having way too many commercials.
Tonight’s episode has Greg Nicotero back in the director’s chair with Angela Kang writing.
The cold opening of the episode could easily have been a flashback to better times until Andrea showed up. With Lori gone it looks like Andrea will now have to bear the brunt of most-hated character on the show.
Enter the Governor’s young daughter. Things really are not fine in Woodsbury or with the Governor.
Great to see how Daryl was able to take charge of the group for the sake of the baby when he noticed Rick was still not in his right mind. In the past two seasons this situation could easily have extended for far too long as people tried to decide what to do.
Rick is on a killtacular killing spree and who can blame the guy.
Andrea has definitely tasted the Governor’s kool-aid while Michonne just wants her sword back and out of what she suspects and believes is one fucked up situation.
Scene with the Governor’s notebook had a nice touch a la The Shining.
Michonne looked like she needed a cigarette after that little exercise in the yard.
Nice quite moment between Maggie’s men.
One could almost sense how Andrea is pretty much working on Michonne’s last good nerve and doesn’t even know it.
Rick looks to be in a very bad place, but he seems to be clearing things out in the hallways quite nicely.
Mazzara must’ve made his writers watch Day of the Dead because we get another homage to that classic Romero with the wrangling scene.
Daryl Dixon: Badass Nanny on top of everything else.
Lori’s body seem to have disappeared. Whether it’s in the stomach of the zombie in the room Rick comes across or is now walking in the prison is the question.
The Governor must be a student of history because he knows exactly what the mob wants and it’s games.
Andrea always seem to have the bad habit of realizing things too late.
The telephone (something fans of the comics will know well) makes its appearance sooner than expected but after seeing what Rick goes through in lately it’s understandable.
Zombie Kill Count of tonight’s episode: 12.

Review: The Walking Dead S3E04 “Killer Within”

Posted on November 4, 2012 by Arleigh

“No more kids stuff. People are gonna die. I’m gonna die. Mom. There’s no way you can ever be ready for it.” — Rick Grimes

[spoilers within]

This third season of The Walking Dead has been hitting 3 for 3 when it came to quality episodes. The surprising part is that the season is three episodes in. Last week we had an episode where Rick and the prison group never appeared. It was a well-done introduction for the new characters that will have a major impact on the series. With tonight’s episode, aptly named “Killer Within”, we return to Rick and the prison as they start to settle in their new safe haven (as safe as any place can be in a zombie apocalyptic world).

Tonight’s episode begins with a mysterious individual who seems to be up to no good within the confines of the prison fences. We see this person (all we see is that he’s dressed like a prisoner) using the carcass of a deer (or was it a wolf) t lure zombies into the prison and also taking an axe to the chains and lock that kept the gate secured. It’s an ominous beginning to an episode that would see a major reshuffling of the show’s cast of characters. To say that tonight’s episode was shocking would be an understatement. It was full of what fans and critics had been saying last season lacked. It had action pretty much through half the episode’s running time not to mention even the quieter scenes in the beginning of the prison segment and back at Woodbury led to something instead of just filling up airtime.

The mystery of the “killer within” of the episode’s title was kept a secret until pretty much close to the end of the episode. It was quite surprising to finally find out who it was who had opened up the gates to the prison and turned on the prison alarm which was ringing the dinner bell to zombies within the prison and those still outside the fences. There’s some leaps of logic that someone watching tonight’s episode would need to get past as to how this “killer” was able to survive so long since episode two without being noticed, but the positives of tonight’s episode outweighed any failures in logic that one noticed.

With tonight’s episode we got to see how much Rick and Carl has changed since the end of the second season and this season. What exactly happened to the group during the 7-8 months they had been out in the Georgia wilds trying to survive day-to-day until they happened upon the prison. The writers have been very silent about whether there would be some flashback sequences that showed how the group survived the Fall and Winter. All we’ve seen this season was how those months out in the wilds had turned the group into a well-oiled survival machine that had one leader and everyone with a role they’d accepted and played. The fact that the group suffered no casualties during the time-off between season 2 and the start of season 3 showed that maybe being on the move was the best thing. They’ve just moved into the prison and started cleaning the place up and now two (maybe three) of their group has died.

One of the things which stood out the most with tonight’s episode is how much Carl has come to be just like his father this season. Last season, Carl had become a joke to the audience with is penchant to avoid his adult handlers and go off running into danger. His behavior and actions even led to the group losing one of their own late in season 2. Carl before this season was almost as if the writers had no idea how to write up a child character in a zombie apocalyptic world. One moment Carl was this helpless and naive child then the next he would act and talk tough like Rick or Shane. Both sides of Carl last season didn’t ring true, but we saw hints of changes to the character in the last two episodes. We see the result of the change in the show’s leadership and mission statement for season 3. Chandler Riggs has improved as an actor which goes to show that good writing will bring out the best in even the least experienced performer. While we find out who the killer within was the episode’s title could easily mean the arrival of a harder Carl who could be on the dark path to turning out to be a killer.

As for Rick, we see another instance where he seems to have left his idealism behind and accepted the fact that ruthless pragmatism was the new golden rule of this zombie apocalyptic world. He looks at strangers not with an open-mind or whether these new people would become helpful members of his group. No, Rick has taken an insular view of the world. If you’re not part of his group then you’re a danger waiting to happen whether that suspicion has credence or not. This mindset has kept his group alive since they left the farm after season 2 but it has also made him harder, colder and more ruthless to those in the outside looking in and, more importantly, even to some within his group.

Will tonight’s events finally become the final straw that breks Rick both emotionally and mentally or will it galvanize him even more to protecting his own and damn to everyone else. This Ricktatorship has suffered it’s first casualties and it should open up a whole new world of storylines moving forward. Idealistic Rick became a frustrating character to root for in the second season, but there’s also the danger of a despot Rick this season becoming too much on the other side of the personality spectrum. It will be up to Mazzara and his talented group of writers to balance Rick as a character where he still has some sense of the white hat sheriff’s deputy, but at the same time also knowing that he cannot let that very idealism endanger him and his people.

As an audience we’ve come to expect a season to spread out how much action and tense moments a drama series has the length of a season, but the writers of this series seem to be making up for all the “go nowhere” episodes of season two with a vengeance. I’ve been saying since the beginning of this season that we’re finally seeing the series’ take on the narrative style of it’s newest showrunner in Glen Mazzara who came up writing some of the best episodes of the FX cop drama The Shield over seven seasons. He and his writers seem to understandthat in a world as savage and cruel as the one in The Walking Dead having episodes where nothing happens outside of character debating and philosophizing about the nature of civilization and humanity wouldn’t make for very dramatic tv. the question that comes up now is whether the show will be able to sustain this streak of very good episodes over the length of season three.

NOTES

Tonight’s episode was directed by Guy Ferland and written by series newcomer Sang Kyu Kim.
Some levity involving Glenn and Maggie didn’t last the episode which looks to be the most nihilistic of the series to date.
Michonne may not be as chatty as Andrea this season, but she’s made her words count when she has spoken. Also very observant of not just her surroundings but her situation.
We come across a situation regarding strangers and their fate. Last season the group, especially Rick, would’ve debated all episode long and maybe into the next one about how to deal with the strangers. Another sign that this season has become a sort of reset for the series with Rick (with some help from Daryl) deciding not to change the agreement he has with the surviving prisoners.
Look between Rick and Lori before all hell broke loose looked like things may be thawing between the two.
Good to see the writers not making Hershel go through a bout of self-pity. He even made good use of the crutches when things got real stressful.
This now marks the third stressful and action-packed episode inside the prison. Writers have definitely taken to heart about the lack of action and tension that plagued Season 2.
Carl has definitely become a mini-badass like his father.
It had to happen and the sequence leading up to T-Dog finally getting bit was handled quite well. There was no mysterious zombie suddenly popping out of nowhere to chomp down on his shoulder. When he moved to close the gate one could see just before the scene switched away a zombie come into the frame and move up towards T-Dog who had his back turned.
Part of me thinks that disagreeing with Rick’s decisions is like people saying “NO” to Jack Bauer. It’s a sure way to get yourself killed either by Rick or some other way.
This season really hasn’t made Andrea a sympathetic character. I’m wondering if the writers have a new role for her in contrasts to how she was in the comics. I can definitely see her turning on the group and joining the Governor.
The Governor definitely has a way with him when it comes to getting his way. Andrea seems to be buying what he’s been selling her and even Merle seems off his game around him.
It’ll be quite a turn of events if this season we end up getting Merle rejoining the group as a helpful member while Andrea becomes the Judas.
We learn that the Governor’s first name is Phillip and that he has a young daughter. We also get to see him channel his inner James Bond villain with a scene of him doing practice golf swings at the zombies beyond Woodbury’s walls.
Carl’s reaction when Maggie told Lori to take her pant’s off was classic.
T-Dog went out a hero and his final scene was a nice shout out to a similar throat-rip scene from Day of the Dead (the original one).
We finally find out the answer to whether Andrew the prisoner who Rick left locked in the prison yard with the zombies died or lived.
Sarah Wayne Callies performance as Lori in tonight’s episode was some of her best to date.
For all the talk on Twitter about zombie babies I like to remind people that the best zombie baby ever comes courtesy of Peter Jackson.
We hear the shot but we never truly saw Lori die by Carl’s hand. Here’s to hoping the writers are not trying to pull a fast one on the audience.
Carl definitely turned a corner in tonight’s episode. This season we’ve seen that Carl’s become more useful and mindful that his past behavior had some fatal consequences. It’s not until tonight that we see Carl lose that final vestiges of his childhood behind and become the child-soldier Rick and his group need him to be.
For all his cold distancing from Lori we see that Rick still loved Lori in the end. Talk about heart-wrenching scene from Andrew Lincoln.
I have to give it up to Sarah Wayne Callies, Chandler Riggs, Lauren Cohan and Andrew Lincoln for bringing their A-game and more for tonight’s episode.
The monologue towards the end that really got to this hardened horror fan: “You’re gonna be fine, you’re gonna beat this world. You are smart, and you are strong, and you are so brave. You promise me you’ll always do what’s right. It’s so easy to do the wrong thing in this world. You promise me you’ll always do what’s right. It’s so easy to do the wrong thing in this world. So, if it feels wrong, don’t do it. Alright? If it feels easy, don’t do it, don’t let the world spoil you. You’re so good. My sweet boy. The best thing I ever did. I love you.” — Lori Grimes
Zombie Kill Count for tonight’s episode: 32.

Horror Review: The Walking Dead S3E02 “Sick”

Posted on October 21, 2012 by Arleigh

“You think this is sick. You don’t want to know what’s outside.” — Daryl Dixon

[some spoilers]

There’s been an interesting pattern when it comes to The Walking Dead. The series has always had strong season opening (even mid-season returns) but the follow-up episode always seem to come up short. It happened with the second episodes of both first two season and even the episode which came after the mid-season return last season had some big stumbles throughout. It almost as if the writers (who at the time were still working under Frank Darabont’s directioneither as showrunner or the template he set up for the season) put everything they had into making the opening episode really strong and hoping the viewers would forgive them for not doing the follow-up episodes just as strong. Tonight’s season premiere follow-up looks to try and break that pattern. Time and reaction to tonight’s episode, titled “Sick”, will tell if it succeeded or not.

Tonight’s episode begins pretty much exactly where the season premiere left off with Rick and his group trying to save Hershel’s life who had gotten his leg bit during their attempt to clear out an adjoining cellblock. The premiere ended with Hershel minus his bit left ankle courtesy of Rick and his trusty axe and Daryl focusing the aim of his crossbow at the sudden appearance of a group of prisoners who happened to have survived almost a full year on their own in the prison cafeteria. It was this group’s reveal and how the two groups dealt with the knowledge that there were others who have survived just as long.

We learn much abouthow the time Rick and his group spent moving around the backwoods of Georgia between seasons. The episode doesn’t say what exactly happened during those months (a nice change for critics of the series who thought episodes after episodes during the first two season relied too much on exposition scenes to tell rather than show) but we see in the changes to the behavior and attitudes of the group members how those months were. It couldn’t have been a fun time for Rick and his group, but it looks to have made them much more harder and accepting of this new world’s harsh realities. Whether not letting her hopes up when it came to her father’s chances for survival after getting bit and having his bit leg chopped off to Carol becoming even more useful as a member of the group. In the season premiere we find out through a off-chance remark from Rick that she’s gotten quite good with the AK47 and tonight we find out that during their time in the Georgia backwoods Hershel had been teaching her how to perform first-aid and rudimentary battlefield medical work. The scene with Carol patching up Hershel actually gives some clues as to what Hershel’s backstory must be outside of being just a farmer.

Is there a chance that Hershesel could he have been in the military as a medic in his younger and wilder days or was he some sort of civilian emergency medical technician?

Tonight’s episode brought up such questions and without the characters sitting around explaining things that happened. This change in narrative style could be just temporary, but ever since Glen Mazzara took over as showrunner we get less and less exposition and more and more let the character’s actions convey the story. This less is more approach has made for a much more faster pace to the story even when there’s no killing of zombies. It also has made the actors much better in how they’re portraying their characters. Long scenes of quiet diaogue is always good, but in a show that tries to show that survival is a day-to-day or even an hour-to-hour task sometimes such long, extended scenes of just sitting around talking are luxuries that shouldn’t be used like they were a necessity.

There’s a chance that the show could slide back to what plagued the first two season, but for the time being Mazzara and his crew have done a great job with the first two episodes of season 3 to address some of the complaints fans and critics had with the show. We didn’t even have any scenes with Andrea and newcomer Michonne yet the writers avoided the temptation of trying to shoehorn scenes of them in tonight’s episodes which meant sacrificing some time in the prison. Tonight’s episode was all about Rick and Tomas butting heads to see who would end up being the alpha male of the two surviving groups.

We saw how the differences in how the two groups survived has affected them. Tomas and his group of inmate survivors did so almost by luck and having to depend on their prison-honed instincts to get them through. How they’ve managed to survive even with just the zombies in the prison and not knowing the full extent of the crisis would be seen by Rick as a miracle. Our main group on the other hand had to go through almost everything this new post-apocalyptic world could throw at them and they’ve survived. It’s this time out on the road, surviving day-to-day, supplies always on the verge of running out and not knowing if tomorrow might be their last day that has forged this group into hardened battlefield veterans. Make no mistake about it Rick and his group look and behave like war veterans still fighting to survive and having almost having learned an almost preternatural instinct to see danger lurking about.

This doesn’t mean that Rick and his group have come out of their time out in the wilderness surviving fully unscathed. Carl has become more useful and capable of taking care of himself, but at the cost of his innocence and childhood wonder at the world. Even T-Dog has become a very integral part of the group (thank you writers) and has become not just the “red-shirt” waiting to be knocked off for expediency’s sake. The biggest change has been to Rick who seem to have lost whatever optimism he might have had about finding peace and quiet in this new world. He’s now all about keeping his people alive and if that means killing other humans who might pose a danger to him fulfilling that mission statement then he’ll do whatever it takes. We see this change in Rick not through some exposition (something the character loved to do in the first two season) but in how he dealt with Tomas and other prisoners. It will be interesting how Mazzara and his team of writers will deal with Rick and the Governor who, if they’re following the basic outline of the comic book character, had to do almost the same exact things to keep his town of survivors alive through the crisis.

With the episode ending with Rick firmly in control of not just his group, the prison and the rest of the surviving prisoners (not to mention Hershel looking to have survived his encounter with the walker bite and Rick’s axe) it looks like next week’s episode will be focusing on the adventures of Andrea and Michonne and what looks like the introduction of this season’s main villain in David Morrissey’s own brand of despotic ruler in Philip Blake aka The Governor.

NOTES

Tonight’s episode was written by show newcomer Nichole Beattie and directed by show veteran Billy Gierhart.
Anyone who thought that Tomas and his group of prisoner will get through the episode unscathed can’t be blamed for that assumption. If this was season two there’s a chance they would’ve lasted intact for half the first half of the season. New regime looks to avoid that and keep the number of survivors from spiraling out of control to the show’s detriment.
Sarah Wayne Callies has done a very good job in a tough role that only seems to get tougher. I don’t think she’ll ever become a sympathetic character for the fans of the show, but then again not everyone on the show needs to be sympathetic.
Then she blows up at Carl for putting himself in danger even though what he did probably saved Hershel’s life for the moment.
Kudos to all Glen Mazzara and his team of writers for actually making a follow-up episode to the season premiere not have such a huge drop in quality. Tonight’s episode was a strong one.
The change in how the two Greene sisters acted in tonight’s episode reversed the role Maggie and Beth had while at the Farm. Maggie Green has become hardered by the intervening months between Season 2 and 3 while Beth has become much more optimistic.
The prisoners were all very interesting but kudos for the writers for not lingering too much in exploring the group’s dynamic with Rick’s own group.
Love how Daryl’s completely in Rick’s corner now and even willing to do the dirty work for him if and when Rick gives him the signal. Show’s that for all his faults in the early goings with the group Daryl understands that it was with Rick and not Shane that the group had the best chance of surviving. Rick may be doing the very same things Shane was advocating in the first two seasons, but Rick does so with a clear head and focus that Shane never really had.
The show may never have the Tyrese character from the comic book, but having Daryl Dixon in Rick’s corner more than makes up for it.
Killing other survivors still doesn’t sit well with Rick, but he looks to have learned that outside the group itself everyone else is expendable. He may not like murdering other people but he will if it keeps his group alive. This may be an ongoing theme for this season.
With the show having deviated from the comic book’s narrative it’s interesting to see how the show’s writers are starting to mine particular scenes from issues and storylines that happens much later in the comics to use in the show.
The relationship between Rick and Lori looks to be even more broken in the show than it as in the comic book. The question now is whether the writers will find a balance in keeping their relationship from being too broken. I do like how Rick at the end doesn’t seem ready to break the iceberg between her and Lori or if he ever wants to.
It’s good to see Lori admitting it on-screen just how much of a bad wife she has been since Rick returned. Her character has always been the one who was in real denial of her situation especially when it came to Rick and Shane now with the months leading up to this season it looks like Rick’s arctic attitude towards her has finally settled in her mind as to who really put the conflict between Rick and Shane into it’s violent end.
The zombie effects tonight wasn’t as extensive as the season premiere but Greg Nicotero and his men at KNB EFX still did a great job as usual.
Zombie Kill Count for tonight’s episode: between 20-25.

Horror Review: The Walking Dead S3E01 “Seed”

Posted on October 14, 2012 by Arleigh

“Holy shit!” — Axel

[some spoilers within]

It’s been a year since the cliffhanger which ended Season 2 of AMC’s widely popular The Walking Dead. We found Rick and his group escaping from the herd of zombies which swarmed into and over Hershel’s farm. The group lost two more to the walkers in the form of hapless Jimmy and Patricia. Andrea has gotten separated from the main group with most of the guns. It’s only through the timely intervention of a hooded stranger dragging along two incapacitated walkers that Andrea even gets to make it to this new season. It’s this hooded stranger and the last image we see of a darkened prison complex in the distance that has brought a new sense of optimism for the show which had been up and down through most of it’s sophomore season.

The second season had been rife with struggles not just for the characters in the show but also behind-the-scenes as original showrunner and executive producer Frank Darabont was unceremoniously fired from the very show he helped bring off the ground. Fans of the show and of Darabont saw this as a bad decision, but as the season unfolded there seemed to be a major consensus that Darabont might have been the problem to why the first half of the second season moved along even slower than the walkers. The second half saw new showrunner Glen Mazzara taking over and even though some of the same problems in terms of characterization and dialogue still remained the show in the second half seemed to move with a better sense of urgency which culminated in two of the series’ best episodes to date to close off the season.

Season 3 now begins with the episode titled “Seed” (directed by veteran series director Ernest Dickerson) and we get a major timeskip from the end of last season to tonight’s premiere. Rick and his group look to still be on the move with no safe haven in sight. In what looks like a hint of good things to come in terms of pacing and dialogue the show starts off gangbusters as Rick and his group raid a country home, dispatching the walkers within with ruthless efficiency and searching the place for supplies and other useful things real fast. There wasn’t any time for standing around or even going off into long expositional scenes to try and convey what had happened between the end of last season to tonight’s start.

Glen Mazzara, the show’s new showrunner had promised that the show would be taking on a new direction when he took over halfway through season 2, but we’re finally able to see his experience as a TV show producer and writer bear strong fruit with tonight’s premiere. We get to see Rick and his crew acting with more of a sense of urgency in just the first twnety minutes of the show than they had in the first two seasons. We’re finally seeing everyone realizing that they’re now stuck in a world with new rules that doesn’t make room for personal quirks and emotional issues (though we still get hints that they’re still but set aside for the greater good of the group) that just saps the energy from everyone. This group looks more like the sort of team that Shane would’ve thrived in and it looks like Rick has taken on the role of leader much more forcefully. It hasn’t mended the rift between him and Lori for what had transpired over two seasons of interpersonal conflicts that got more than just his best friend killed but others as well.

Tonight’s episode does a great job of explaining through their actions and behavior just how much time has passed between the seasons and how that intervening time has tested the groups mettle and made them harder and more capable in holding their own against the walkers. Even useless characters like Beth, Carol and Carl have become more adept in protecting themselves. It’s surprising to see Carl actually becoming the character he was in the comic book. I’m sure some parent groups will not be approving of Carl actually handling his gun with expertise but this is that kind of show and just because one is a kind doesn’t mean they have to be helpless.

If there were complaints about Darabont’s handling of the show during his short tenure it was that he was too much into creating a very slow burn that culminated into a huge climactic finish. It was fine for a truncated first season, but it showed just how ill-conceiveda narrative style it was for a tv series over a full season. I don’t sense that same feeling with tonight’s episode. One could tell that Mazzara was now fully in charge and not working on whatever Darabont had come up with for season 2. It’s a great start to the new season which has a good chance in reversing some of the ill-will last season’s very slow burns and wheel-spinning had created with a segment of the fan-base.

It also helps that we didn’t have to wait too long to see the official appearance of Danai Gurari in the role of fan-favorite Michonne with her zombie pets and katana. It wasn’t an episode spent directly introducing us to her but enough time was spent away from the group in the prison. Michonne as a character could become too much a caricature of the badass comic book female character, but for tonight it was just refreshing to see a female character on this show as capable and clear-headed as her. There’s even a hint of the sort of friendship that seemed to have grown between Michonne and Andrea since the end of season 2. Shane may have been a bad influence (though helpful in getting Andrea out of her suicidal rut) in season 2, but here’s to hoping that Michonne will be the sort of influence that Andrea will be needing to get her to become the badass characteron the show that her character is in the comic book.

One thing that tonight’s episode also did great that we only saw hints of with the first two seasons was the action such a series could have when given a chance. This is a series about the zombie apocalypse and those trying to survive in it. While I don’t expect each episode to be as action-packed as tonight’s premiere it was an encouraging start to what looks to be the real beginning of the Glen Mazzara era of The Walking Dead.

Now onto episode 2. With tonight’s cliffhanger ending (one that really got me by surprise) it’s going to be interesting to see how Rick and the new group in the end will get along or will they. Just as long as it doesn’t take the show all of the first half of the season to do it then I am all for intergroup conflict until the walkers become a more pressing problem.

NOTES

I’m quite surprised how quickly the show got the group to the prison. So, unlike season 2 which would’ve have the group wandering around in circles for 2-3 more episodes before finding their way to the complex.
It looks like Rick has gotten tired of what must’ve been Lori’s incessant harping during the months the show timeskipped between season 2 and the premiere of season 3 tonight.
Carl still hasn’t found a way to get himself lost thus get someone else killed which could be a nice change of pace for the character.
On a good note, Carl looks to be growing up and taking a handle on becoming a useful member of the group. He even does his share of some coldblooded killing of walkers in the episode’s intro.
In fact Carol becomes quite useful as well with Rick even commenting out of hand how much she grown to become a good shot with the AK-47 she was wielding.
All the talk of ‘shipping Daryl and Carol will get even louder as the two spent a brief moment flirting with each other after the group had taken over the prison courtyard.
Lori…Lori…Lori still looks to be the emotional weak point of the group and show, but this time around everyone in the group is either tuning her out or just trying to keep her focus and attention on keeping her unborn child safe. Even Hershel makes a point to remind her that this wasn’t about her anymore and that she should stop her complaining. It’s all about the baby and that’s all he and she should care about.
Beth and Carl…too cute.
Way to cockblock our boy Carl, Hershel…
Armored zombies, ’nuff said.
Some great work by Greg Nicotero and his team over at KNB EFX. A special note would be on the gas mask walker who got it’s face unceremoniously ripped off when Rick pulled off the gas mask. As a hardcore gorehound even I had to wince at that scene. It was great!
In what could be a way to reconcile the character of Dale in the comics who lasted longer than in the show the writers may be substituting Hershel in that role. The next couple episodes will tell if that’s the case.
I think whoever is the prop guy for this show has read Max Brook’s zombie novel World War Z if the makeshift “Lobo” Glenn was wielding is any indication.
Zombie Kill Count for tonight’s episode: I stopped counting after 30.

SDCC 2012: The Walking Dead Season 3 Comic-Con Trailer

Posted on July 13, 2012 by Arleigh

San Diego Comic Con 2012 is in full swing and one of te the biggest shows in the past couple years once again held it’s panel in the huge Hall H auditorium to unveil and present the Season 3 Comic-Con trailer. The show I speak of is AMC’s zombie apocalypse tv series, The Walking Dead, which began airing in the fall of 2010.

The show has remained a powerhouse ratings grabber for AMC and only continues to have it’s fan-base increase. All this despite a series that has been like a rollercoaster ride in terms of quality through it’s 19-episodes over the first two seasons. Its fair to say that the show has captured the imagination of the general public even if it has lost some of the hardcore fans of the original comic book source material the show’s adapted from.

With a strong truncated Season 1 the show had a very uneven Season 2 which still ended pretty strong as we get two cliffhanger scenes that would dominate this upcoming third season: introduction of fan-favorite character Michonne and the reveal of prison location that became its own character in the comic book and should do the same for the third season.

Oh yeah, looks like this Comic-Con trailer has a Merle Dixon sighting.

Review: The Walking Dead S2E11 “Judge, Jury, Executioner”

Posted on March 4, 2012 by Arleigh

“This new world is ugly. It’s harsh. It’s survival of the fittest and that’s a world I don’t want to live in.” — Dale Horvath

[some spoilers]

All the episodes since The Walking Dead returned from it’s mid-season break has shown a change in pace through most of it’s episodes. The first episode since the break looked to continue the much slower pace of the first half of the season but finished off with a literal bang and the two episodes following it up just continued this faster pace to the second half.

“Judge, Jury, Executioner” returns everyone back to the farm and has to deal with the conundrum that is Randall. The farm has become a symbol of the show hitting the breaks instead of keeping pedal to the metal. It happens once more tonight as the bulk of the episode was mostly Dale trying to convince everyone and anyone away from Rick’s decision to kill Randall. It’s a decision we’ve been expecting as Rick readily admitted it to himself and his erstwhile friend Shane in the previous episode that Randall will probably have to die to protect the group and the farm from the unknown group lurking out there.

Jeffrey DeMunn seems to have had a tough time having to play the role of Dale Horvath who was suppose to be the voice of decency and morality in a show that was veering away from such pre-zombie apocalypse notions. It’s a sort of character that will always look out of place in a world written to be lawless and tooth-and-nail survival. Most post-apocalyptic stories will always have such characters to try and keep the rest of the group from becoming savage and amoral. It’s a tough role and made even tougher when those who behave without conscience and without morals seem to look more like hardy survivors while those who try to stay decent end up being shouted down or killed outright for their naivete.

It didn’t help DeMunn that his character seemed to come off as spinning his wheels whenever he tried to speak up to the group about the dark path they’ve been traveling down since the end of the first season. Tonight went a long way to making Dale’s point of view make sense as it did show him as the only person who seemed to be the only one who wanted to hold onto his humanity in the face of apathy and amorality. Whether his ideas and point of view was correct or not doesn’t matter. He was that angel on everyone’s shoulder who was fighting for control of the group’s morality over the devil that was Shane.

While the outcome of the decision to kill Randall wasn’t too much a surprise, Rick may be learning to be pragmatic about his decision making, he still has a soft spot in trying to be a high moral role model for his son Carl and killing Randall wouldn’t be a good way to keep up that illusion. The outcome in regards to Dale was a major surprise and should continue the show’s off-the-rails decision to deviate from the comic book in terms of who lives and who dies and when it happens. Seeing the zombies attacking Dale and with him vainly keeping the snapping jaws from his face made the scene almost being set-up as a way to convince Dale that those who were going to save him were the same people he was accusing of being amoral and inhumane. So, it was a major shock when the zombie remembered it had more than just it’s snapping teeth to kill and decided to use it’s clawed fingers to rip Dale’s midsection open.

As surprising an ending that the Sophia story-arc ended up doing with the character this one with Dale was even more so.

Just like episode 8’s “Nebraska” which started off slow and was much more focused on intellectual and philosophical debates about the right and wrong things, tonight’s “Judge, Jury, Executioner” went down a similar route until an ending that also had a literal ending with a bang. With just two more episodes left in this second season of The Walking Dead Glen Mazzara and his team of writers need to close off this Greene Farm location and find a way to get the group back on the road and have it make sense. I’m much more confident that this new showrunner and writing team will pull it off than the previous regime.

Notes

Dale looks so lost trying to get people to listen to his talk of decency and humanity. Everyone either looks at him like he’s talking crazy or just plain tired of hearing the same litany of why the group needs to retain it’s sense of humanity. Even the one person he thought he had in his corner in Hershel pretty much admits that his convictions in the decent thing to do were mistakes.
I know it’s getting old, but it’s sort of hilarious watching Dale and Shane trying to sidestep the fact that when it comes down to the bones of it they both want to kill each other.
Good to see Hershel make a decision about Glenn and his daughter. It’s definitely a much better scene than how it was handled in the comic book.
It was very surprising to see Andrea suddenly switch gears and support Dale during the group’s confab inside the house. I’m still not sold on her sudden change of heart. I think some of it was Dale’s unwavering conviction and near pleading to the group not to go down a path hey may never recover, but I also think her reaction to Shane’s advice to do some sort of coup over the Rick/Hershel leadership might’ve shown Andrea to what extremes Shane would go to. She might be regretting calling Shane as her good teacher in regards to survival.
Carl was a major part of tonight’s episode and probably highlighted the very things that screamed “Dumb things TV kids do” for everyone watching the show.
The dumb things he did sneaking into the barn to get his close look a Randall and then sneaking off with Daryl’s gun off into the nearby creek and finding the zombie might be the only thing people will remember about tonight’s episode, but deeper down Carl was the very symbol of how things were taking an amoral turn for the group that Dale was railing against.
Carl the tv version looks to be much farther along the path of becoming a sociopath than his comic book counterpart. I think having Shane live past the first six episodes of the show and still alive with season 2 winding to a close has had a much more detrimental effect on the child of Rick and Lori Grimes than in the comic book. This makes the character much more interesting moving forward but it also could blow up in the writers face if they make him too sociopathic and amoral that redemption would be too late for the boy.
Daryl’s moment in the episode showed him at his worst, badass and best. Worst in how he continues to try and distance himself from the rest of the group. Badass in how he’s able to get the very info about Randall’s group when others from RIck and Shane have failed. Best in how he dealt with Dale and how he may be the one person Rick should listen to moving forward.
Daryl is not idealistic like Dale, but he seems to be more observant about how the group is doing and handling things than people give him credit for. He’s willing to follow Rick’s lead even if he doesn’t agree with most of it, but at the same time won’t upset the group’s leadership dynamics. The fact that he knew Shane killed Otis but not as guessing, but observing Shane the moment he got back without Otis makes Daryl less the dumb, hick redneck he’s shown to be.
Some people have been theorizing that killing off Dale was because Jeffrey DeMunn was a Darabont regular thus was going to be on the chopping block because of that professional relationship. If that is the case instead of a creative decision to shake up the show’s group and storyline even farther from the comic book then Laurie Holden should be worried in her role as Andrea since she is also a Darabont regular.
T-Dog makes an appearance and I think he had one or two throwaway lines. Please, Mazzara and writers just kill him off and bring in Tyrese who at least brings some backstory that could be mined to better effect than what T-Dog has contributed.

Review: The Walking Dead S2E5 “Chupacabra”

Posted on November 13, 2011 by Arleigh

“If I knew the world was ending I would’ve brought better books.” – Dale

[spoilers within]

There’s been a growing complaint from fans of the show that this second season of The Walking Dead has been meandering and walking in place instead of dynamically moving forward and killing lots and lots of zombies along the way. I will admit that the show has lingered on too much on the”Sophia is missing angle” for far too long. The writers seems to be using the search for her as the reasoning for Rick and his group to continue on staying on the Greene Farm. I will however disagree that the show hasn’t had enough zombie action to justify the show’s premise of a world experiencing the zombie apocalypse.

The Walking Dead the tv series was always going to be a show which focused on the characters and how they’re managing to adapt or not adapt to the new world around them. If there was ever a reason why fans of the books became fans it was that very thing. I try not to compare the show to the books, but if there was ever a similarity between the two it’s how the zombies remain on the background as a looming threat which would actively make their presence known not every issue but when readers least suspect them. The show has done a good job in trying to convey this aspect of the books and at the same time taken more effort to make the characters on the show more fully-realized.

This season has done more in expanding the characters than the truncated first season, but it also meant it had to sacrifice some of the more gruesome and zombie action some fans have been clamoring for. The previous episode, “Cherokee Rose”, typified the complaints some fans have been having with this season. It went too heavy on dialogue some of which were pretty good and some which didn’t seem to do anything but just expound on the main themes for the season.

“Chupacabra” makes the fifth episode into the second season and it manages to balance the zombie action and the character interaction. First off, we still haven’t found Sophia in one shape or another. Even one of the characters on the show second-guesses the need to continue searching for the missing girl if it meant constantly putting the group in danger. While the search for Sophia only amounts to finding a discarded doll by the creek during the search it does mark one of the stronger part of this episode. An episode which continues to make a character created for the show and not in the books one of the highlights of the series in it’s 11-episode history to date.

But before we move onto why Daryl Dixon remains the badass and fan favorite of the series I must point out that the series does another great cold opening. This time it’s a flashback to the chaotic days of Shane, Lori and Carl trying to make it to the refugee center in Atlanta. We see them stuck in the very same type of highway gridlock which began this new season. This scene shows Sophia still safe and playing with Carl as we see a bit more of the abusive relationship between Carol and her husband. The highlight of this scene is seeing the event of Atlanta being napalmed and dashing the hopes of Shane and Lori that a safe haven could be found there. Like the cold opening from season 1 where we see Shane back in the hospital with a comatose Rick, this episode’s opening does a great job of showing how things just fell apart while Rick was under.

This opening would be followed up with Daryl going off on his own to continue looking for Sophia and getting into more trouble than he anticipated. If anyone ever doubted how much of a badass Daryl Dixon has turned out to be then this episode should erase such doubts. Not only did he survive falling off a horse, down a steep incline into the river and get an arrow stuck to his side for his troubles, but he survives even worst things as the day wore on. We even see the return of Daryl’s brother, Merle Dixon, in this episode but in such a way that fans of the show probably didn’t expect.

When the episode wasn’t focusing on Daryl’s troubles it brought it back into the Greene Farm where we continue to see a growing rift between Hershel and Rick. Hershel is starting to turn from the kindly, country doctor and into a patriarchal autocrat who expects his orders to be obeyed or else. In the case of Rick and his group the or else would be them being told to leave the safety of the farm for the outside world. It doesn’t help that Shane’s growing pragmatism and survival at all cost mentality has turned to questioning Rick’s judgement as the group’s leader. Even their good-natured conversation about their respective love life during their high school days shows that the two really are quite polar opposites when it comes to their personalities and how they view things around them.

It’s these type of scenes which some fans have considered as too soap opera-ish and boring. How it detracts from the horror of a show about the zombie apocalypse. It’s these scenes which actually makes a point in showing just how much horror awaits those who have survived, so far. All the reminiscing of their past lives just reinforces the fact to these people that their lives have irrevocably changed and not for the better. It also shows how much the new world they live in now have begun to change all of them and not for the better. For some these changes have been easier to accept while some still try to cling to the ways of the old world in an attempt to not just survive but live.

Even the title of the episode just reinforces the premise of the show and how everyone in it must learn on the go to live and survive. In a world where the dead have come back to life to devour those still left alive then everything and anything is possible. Whether those still left will find a way to stay human in order to survive is the ultimate focus of this show. The zombies will always be waiting to greet these characters which makes these “peaceful” moments that much more bittersweet for everyone involved.

Notes

As a huge fan of apocalyptic fiction the cold opening of the highway gridlock was well-staged. From everyone seeming to have packed haphazardly to Carol’s husband acting like their quest for a refuge was a military operation.
The scene of Atlanta being napalmed as the horrified refugees looked on in the distance is really something we rarely see in zombie fiction. Zombie apocalypse stories usually occur with the world already gone to hell or the setting is more intimate and smaller scale. Rarely do we see just how epic in scope the event truly is (w/ exception to Max Brooks’ World War Z and, to a certain extent, 28 Weeks Later)
It was good to see Carol not moping around and feeling all useless. Her volunteering to cook for the group and the Greene family was a nice touch in trying to bring her back from the brink.
Leave it up to Glenn to figure out Lori’s secret and as we see later on in the episode it won’t be the only one he will have to try and keep to himself.
Speaking of Glenn, his growing relationship with Maggie was such fun and nice addition to a show that’s all about doom and gloom. The fact that they were acting like high school kids who were in lust with each other put a smile on my face.
The fact that the barn finally becomes a major component to the current story-arc wasn’t a surprise, but how the writers were able to finally show why Hershel wanted Rick and his group to stay away from the barn should make the next episode something to look forward to.
Maggie’s expression of glee at another rendezvous with Glenn suddenly turning into utter horror continues another strong performance from Lauren Cohan in the role. She has definitely made the Maggie Greene much more well-rounded this early on in the show when compared to the books.
I was surprised at how Merle’s return was treated and I must admit that it was done in away that made sense.
Always wear steel-toed boots when the zombie apocalypse hits.
Andrea is finally on her way back from being useless and constantly harping on Dale and everyone. Unfortunately, her first attempt to show just how useful she can be ends up turning into a friendly fire situation.
Daryl’s “encounter” with his big brother Merle may not be to Rick and the group’s benefit. Going to be interesting what the writers plan to do with this turn of events and whether fans of the character will like or hate it.
Two more very inventive zombie kills from the make-up wizards of KNB EFX.

Review: The Walking Dead S2E4 “Cherokee Rose”

Posted on November 6, 2011 by Arleigh

“Some fathers never earn their sons’ love” – Hershel Greene

[some spoilers within]

The first three episodes of this new season of The Walking Dead has for the most part been very good about keeping the story focused on what transpired in the beginning of the new season. The group is still looking for Sophia (a subplot that is definitely getting to become boring, if not a liability) who ran off during a zombie attack on the group. During the search we saw Carl end up accidentally getting shot by Otis, the hapless and helpful ranch hand of the Greene Farm. Every piece of plot thread in the three episodes had their origins from that initial premiere episode.

The previous episode took the two plot threads of the two kids in the group and the danger they were in and tried to resolve them. Carl’s predicament was resolved in horrific fashion as Shane had to make a calculating decision to wound Otis and make him become a living bait to the zombies on their tail. This plot and character development was one for the books as it put Shane on the dark path to losing his humanity as he begins to embrace the necessary cold-hearted decisions to survive.

One would think that with a third episode and still no sign of Sophia that the show would finally try to resolve this storyline in the fourth episode. The answer to that would be a yes and no. Yes, the episode has made some strides in the search for Sophia as Daryl comes across some signs of someone alive during his search of an abandoned home in the woods. Whether this was a sign that Sophia was still alive didn’t get resolved. This storyline thread has had quite the mileage to it and not for the betterment of the show.

“Cherokee Rose” wasn’t all bad despite what I’ve mentioned above. The episode was mostly acting like the calm before the storm. We see the episode begin with the Greenes, Patricia (Otis’ wife) and the Rick’s group holding a brief ceremony for our dear departed Otis. Shane doesn’t look well in this opening especially when Patricia begged him to say a few words and tell everyone Otis’ final moments. Shane’s words and how things played out definitely didn’t match up, but no one was the wiser and took Shane’s discomfort as his attempt to grieve. To say that Shane looked like a man holding onto that last strand of sanity would be an understatement. It was another great moment for Jon Bernthal which this season has had a lot of.

The rest of the episode was actually pretty peaceful as everyone went about trying to find Sophia in an organized manner, go out into town for supplies (Glenn and Maggie) and just contemplate once again the new world they now inhabit. I’m sure there will be many cries and complaints that the show was becoming too soap opera-ish. These people wouldn’t be too far off, but I also think that non-stop zombies would make this show become too one-note.

The scenes with Rick and Hershel as they briefly talked of God and their differing attitudes concerning the Creator were really interesting as were the scenes of Andrea finally making some strides in her attempt to move on from Amy’ death during season one. These scenes between Andrea and Shane as she pesters the deputy to teach her more about gun safety and how to protect herself was a good start in finally moving Andrea the character towards the badass that she’s destined to become. Andrea’s not fully there but this episode was a good start.

Another fun development in this episode had to be between Glenn and Maggie Greene as the two continued their flirty ways as they ventured into the nearby town to scavenge for more supplies. For fans of the book the relationship which begins between these two characters have become one of the few nice moments in a story that’s all about danger, dread and depression. Even how the two finally end up hooking up wasn’t born out of sentimentality but out of two lonely people and their current predicament allowing for something to brew. The fact that their brief tryst in the town market came out a very awkward situation Maggie found Glenn in was funny, touching and really something the show needed after all the doom and gloom of the first three episodes.

Even Daryl Dixon (becoming the fan favorite of everyone) got to show some of his softer side as he tries to comfort Carol about her missing Sophia. His little monologue about the white flower he found outside the abandoned home that might’ve been where Sophia was hiding explains this episode’s title but also showed much more about how much Daryl has started to see this group as his own little family even though his brusque outward appearance and attitude may not always say so.

“Cherokee Rose” wasn’t one of this season’s good episodes, but I wouldn’t call it one of it’s bad ones. Despite no resolution to the Sophia question the episode still made some good strides in developing some of the characters. The episode also continues this season’s habit of ending things either on a cliffhanger or on a surprising (at least for those who haven’t read the comic book) development. Tonight wasn’t a cliffhanger, but instead we have Lori finding out that she is pregnant. Now whether the baby is Shane’s or Rick’s will be a question that show will not be able to answer for quite awhile yet but still another wrinkle in the growing love triangle that is Rick-Lori-Shane.

Notes

For the first time since we were introduced to Hershel Greene there’s now a bit of tension occurring between Rick and his gracious host. Now that Carl is safe and on his way back to recovery the show looks to be setting up something big between Rick’s group and those of the Greene’s.
The episode did many lingering camera shots of the Greene’s barn.
I know that many will think the scene with the well zombie was mostly filler and not needed I wouldn’t be a zombie fan if I didn’t admit that it was still a cool scene. Plus, it more than filled tonight’s gross quotient as the water-logged zombie literally turned into a bloody pinata.
Maggie’s reaction as T-Dog put to rest the well zombie was an interesting one. It seemed like that was the very first time she ever saw a zombie killed.
Once again, outside of Daryl, it would be up to Glenn to always do the hard lifting on the show. He’s not just the group’s expert “going into town” guy, but now he’s also it’s best zombie wrangler and live bait.
While it differed from how it played out in the book, how Maggie and Glenn finally got together was a nice and funny scene. Love Maggie’s incredulous reaction to Glenn’s questioning of her proposition. Lauren Cohan as Maggie was a really nice choice by the casting director for the show.
One final Glenn moment would be his huge grin as he and Maggie rode into the farm with supplies in hand and how his glee was just as quickly shot down as Maggie went all business once again. Poor Glenn.
If female fans of this show wasn’t already in love with Daryl they are now after his awkward, but heartfelt speech about the Cherokee Rose he just gave Carol.

Review: The Walking Dead S2E3 “Save the Last One”

Posted on October 30, 2011 by Arleigh

“Got bit. Fever hit. World turned to shit. Might as well quit.” — note from unnamed hanged man turned zombie

[some spoilers within]

The first two episodes of the newest season of The Walking Dead sees Rick and his group of survivors on the move after the events at the CDC which ended season 1. Their convoy to reach what they think as the safe haven of the US Army base at Fort Benning doesn’t get them very far as they come across traffic snarl of abandoned vehicles and wrecks on the main highway. Its during these first two episodes that the group begins to show signs of cracks in the group dynamic which could lead to a permanent splintering of factions. It doesn’t help that two young kids in the group have either gone missing or gets accidentally shot by a deer hunter’s bullet.

We also meet a new group of survivors in the form of the Greene family led by it’s country vet doctor in Hershel Greene, his eldest daughter Maggie, their ranch hand Otis and a few others. Its from the Greene farm that the previous spent most of it’s time though it did show some choice scenes back at the RV and the group searching for Sophia in the forest. We see another cliffhanger end the second episode with Shane and his new partner in Otis as they make their way to the local high school where a FEMA camp had been set up as a refugee center before it became overrun. While they got the necessary supplies needed to save Carl they soon find themselves besieged by a horde of zombies with just a security gate and a lose bolt keeping them at bay.

“Save the Last One” marks the third episode of this 13-episode season 2. Except for a brief pre-credits scene of Shane shaving his head and looking intensely at his reflection off of a steamed up bathroom mirror, the episode takes up right after the cliffhanger ending of the previous episode. Shane and Otis are running through the hallways of the high school they’ve gone into for safety only to have the zombies outside chasing in after them. This part of the episode is just one of four parallel subplots which includes Daryl and Andrea continuing into the night in their search for Sophia in the woods, Dale and Carol back in the RV and the rest of the group over at the Greene farm waiting to see if Carl will get the necessary he needs to survive.

The decision to cover all four threads in this episode was an interesting decision which doesn’t pay off for all. It would be the Shane and Otis section which would get the most action during the episode, but it would be at the Greene farm that we get some soul searching from the Grimes about whether its the best if Carl was just to die if just to save him the horror of having to try and survive in a world where something is always around the corner to tear into him. Andrea and Daryl has a conversation during their search that sounds just as similar though not as depressing and downbeat as Rick and Lori with theirs. We get more personal musings about faith, God and the need to live instead of just surviving.

Some of these dialogue-heavy scenes work like the ones between Andrea and Daryl. With each passing episode Reedus continues to make Daryl Dixon a well-rounded character beyond the racist redneck his initial introduction made him out to be. His Daryl shows much more than just being a badass in the show but also one who is more observant about those around him than he lets on. He sees how much Andrea is still hurting from Amy’s death from season 1 and understands the feeling of just ending it all though he doesn’t see it as the best option. The same goes with how Rick still remains optimistic about the world as it stands now and gives a wonderful speech to Lori about why Carl should have the chance to live instead of letting him die. Both Rick and Daryl seem to have much more in common than we realize though they each go about their optimistic viewpoint in their own particular way.

“Save the Last One” weaves too many concurrent subplots that at times they break some of the stronger scenes between Andrea and Daryl and those between Rick and Lori. Then there’s Shane and Otis in their attempt to escape the horde of zombies after them as they try to make it back to the Greene farm with their medical supplies. the episode tonight could easily have saved some of the scenes with Carol and Dale for the next episode since it looks like Sophia will remain missing. But all in all, tonight’s episode still moved the series forward despite the series still remaining static in terms of location for the group. While it didn’t hit on every note the show did bring up some of the more interesting themes from the comic book.

Despite the episode tonight having been uneven due to the juggling of several subplots to the main story it was fully redeemed by the ending which did a major deviate from the comic book source material and do so in a truly shocking way. I understand why the character in question made the decision that he made, but it still was one that sends this particular character past through the looking glass, shattering it and coming out changed on the other side and most likely not for the better. Plus, it was quite ballsy of Kirkman and the rest of the show’s writer to take out a character sooner than expected if one followed the book. If any episode really hammered in the point that the show will be going very far off the beaten path created by the comic book source material then it would be this one. “Save the Last One” is definitely one of the episodes in this show’s brief span, so far, that will be talked about for months to come.

Notes

It’s interesting to note that both Andrea and Dale has so far been written quite differently for the show than in the comic book. Will the writers continue to make them different from their comic book counterparts or will they gradually work them into finally becoming the characters fans ended up loving.
So far, the rules as to who can and who doesn’t become a zombie has remained vague outside of the survivors thinking it’s a virus transmitted by bites and injuries caused directly by the zombies. The comic book followed the Romero rules that any sort of death will result in the body returning to life as zombie as long as the brain is intact.
The episode being set mostly at night really made some of the scenes at the high school and at the RV look very dark that at times it was hard difficult to figure out what was going on.
Glenn got a bit more screen time in this episode and his interaction with Maggie Greene was good to see as these two would become quite integral in the group moving forward.
Lauren Cohan also got a bit more time during the episode to help flesh out her character as someone who seemed more well-adjusted to the new world than either Lori, Andrea or Carol. Though after finding out what had happened to one of her and her family’s oldest friends showed that deep down she’s as damaged by the zombie apocalypse as the other ladies.
I’m all for Sophia being found alive and all, but this season has put too much energy on this particular part of the storyline for far too long. They need to figure out a way to end this part of the show’s second season soon and do so in a way that makes sense or it would’ve been a wasted exercise in storytelling that took up almost a third of the season if not more.
Even with the episode set at night with minimal lighting the zombie make-up effects by co-executive producer Greg Nicotero and his band of make-up wizards at KNB EFX remain one of the highlight’s of the show. Example in point: legless zombie in the high school gym.
It’s been awhile since we’ve seen someone shown getting torn apart by zombies on this series, but tonight did a great job at showing how savage and brutal a death at the hands of a horde of zombies could be especially if the person in question being torn apart was still alive to experience it.
Some may think the season has been slow-going so far, but I like how it’s not all action. If there was ever one thing which always made zombie apocalypse stories very fun to read and watch is how they don’t just show gore and death, but also explore some heavy themes and ideas about faith, living versus survival and whether allowing the most helpless to remain surviving in such a terrifying world is such a good idea to begin with.
The episode’s title definitely played on the idea of saving the last bullet. Whether the episode means saving it for oneself as the final option out or to use it for a darker purpose to continue surviving would be up to the each individual to decide.