Review: The Walking Dead S3E08 “Made to Suffer”

Posted on December 2, 2012 by Arleigh

“I’m afraid of terrorists who want what we have.” — Philip “The Governor” Blake

[spoilers within]

We’ve finally reached the mid-season finale of season 3 of The Walking Dead. It’s one that changes the dynamics on both groups we’ve come to know through this season’s first half. The season has been a tale of two cities. We have the one with the imposing prison where Rick and his people have chosen to use as their safe haven though losing a couple of their own in the process of doing so. On the other side is the almost-idyllic town of Woodbury where it’s leader in the Governor plots to keep his charges safe but also unaware of what truly transpires before his charming smile. It’s not just about the differences between the two groups of survivors but between the men who lead them.

“Made to Suffer” begins with a new group of survivors in a forest being attacked by a number of zombies. It’s a small group of five and we learn quickly enough the name of the group’s leader. It’s a name that’s been speculated on since the start of the show over two year ago. There were rumors that the writers had decided that the character might not ever make it to the show since it was already starting to bulge around the edges with some many names both main and supporting. While the secret about this character (who was an integral part of the comic book for almost five years) appearing on the show was revealed a couple weeks ago tonight saw the first appearance of Tyreese to the merry band of survivors.

The introduction of Tyreese should make for an interesting second half to this season as we get another Alpha Male to compete for the leadership role on the show that already has Rick and the Governor. For the moment Tyreese and his small group of survivors must contend with a much more resourceful leader-in-training in Carl who has been left behind to protect the other half of the group in the prison while Rick and his group went onto Woodbury.

Tonight’s episode was all about the confrontation between Prison vs Woodbury that’s been building up all throughout this first half of the third season. The fact that the writers made this confrontation not last through most of the third season is another sign that this season is more about keeping the story on the move instead of stopping to contemplate on the nature of the new world and its affect on those left behind. This narrative style of less is more has done wonders in making the show regain the tension that was built during the truncated first season, but was almost wasted in the sophomore effort.

With the Rick group sneaking into Woodbury to rescue Maggie and Glenn we get to finally see how the two competing groups would stack up when put up against each other. To say that Rick and his people look to be the better survivors would be an understatement. As we’ve learned throughout this first half of season 3 Rick has honed his band of survivors into an efficient group of killing machines. They move in precise, military-like manner to the point that even the Governor could see it and knew they were outclassed despite his group’s numerical superiority. It’s a testament to the hardship Rick and his people had to go through during the months between season 2 and 3 out in the wilderness in a day-to-day survival mode. It’s made his group hardened veterans with no weak links. On the other hand, the Governor has kept such a tight grip on power and information flow with the survivors in Woodbury that most were ill-equipped to deal with any attack of sufficient force.

One cannot say that Rick’s own methods were better than the Governor’s but the difference between the two seem to be that where the former sheriff’s deputy acted like a dictator in his own way he also kept everyone in the loop with what he wanted to do. The same couldn’t be said about the Governor who seemed to keep most everyone except for a handful of confederates at arm’s length. Even one of his most trusted lieutenant’s in Merle he didn’t fully trust. This differences between these two leaders meant a successful, albeit a costly one, rescue operation by episode’s end.

By the end of the episode we also find out that things might not be right with Rick mentally as we were led to believe after his bout with the prison telephone. The weight of leadership looks to be creating strains on Rick that could prove detrimental to the survival of those he cares about as we await the season’s return in a couple months. We also learn that the Governor doesn’t stand betrayal too easily as we see his reaction to the return of Michonne and the aftermath of that return. Both leaders are now set to suffer the consequences of their two groups meeting up. Rick losing two of his people (though as we see at the cliffhanger ending to the episode that there’s still hope for a fan favorite to survive) and the Governor losing whatever grip on humanity he might have had with the true death to his zombie daughter Penny.

This mid-season finale has been everything the season has been remaking the show to be. It’s been fast, thrilling and bare bones. We still don’t know too much about some of the side characters on the show, but we get glimpses to their changes through actions rather than long-winded expository scenes that weighted down the second season. Tonight’s episode shed a light on characters and their motivations and most of it through dialogue-free sequences. Even the speech made by the Governor in the end showed a lot about this man’s personality and done so without making it sound like it was for the audiences benefit and not to move the story forward.

It’s going to be a long two month wait, but as we’ve seen with the show’s fans even during a maddening and frustrating season 2 it’s a fan-base that will come back and come back hungry for more of The Walking Dead. The question now is whether this prison vs Woodbury story arc will finish this second half of the season or will we continue to see the prison as a setting for the show beyond season 3.

Notes

Tonight’s episode was directed by series regular Billy Gierhart and written by series producer and creator of the comic book, Robert Kirkman.
Welcome Tyreese and his ever-present claw-hammer.
A name from the comics but used on a throwaway character (same as the comic) appear in the cold opening: Donna.
Now we have an idea why the prison doesn’t seem to be running out of zombies even after the initial clear out by Rick and his people then after Rick’s Killpocalypse rampage during episode 5.
Glenn definitely is made of sterner stuff this season and has a MacGuyver streak in him by creating makeshft shivs out of a zombies splintered forearm bones.
Axel is still an unknown factor on the show despite helping Rick and his group earlier in the season, but his interaction with both Beth and Carol was both creepy and hilarious.
Carl doesn’t like Axel making the moves on his woman.
Nice move by Mazzara and the producers to bring back Jon Bernthal to make a brief, but important cameo, in tonight’s episode as Shane.
Despite being outnumbered it’s really interesting to note how much more dangerous Rick’s group when compared to the Governor and his Woodbury Bunch. Even the Governor admits that his people are survivors and not military who he thinks Rick and his people are.
Carl is becoming more and more like Rick: Taking charge though he doesn’t seem to want to and looking at the world through a pragmatist’s eyes.
Even Tyreese can see that Carl is more man than boy now. Carl has improved and gotten a major reset this season while another character like Andrea just continues to stump the writers.
Fight between Michonne and the Governor was even better than the one between Rick and Shane from season 2 and that’s saying something considering those two’s fight was one brutal of a fight.
We end the episode with a side profile view of the Governor’s face that’s literally a cover artwork from the comic book.
Zombie Kill Count of tonight’s episode: 12.

Past Season 3 Episode Review

Review: The Walking Dead S3E07 “When the Dead Come Knocking”

Posted on November 25, 2012 by Arleigh

“I’ll call the cops!” — unnamed hermit

[some spoilers within]

We’re getting close to the halfway point of season 3 of the Walking Dead. It’s been a season of many surprises and most of it coming from what looks like a soft reset by the show’s newest showrunner Glen Mazzara. He and his writers seem to be on a mission to fix the myriad of problems and issues the show ended up showing during it’s first full-length season with it’s second one. We don’t get as many prolonged quiet and slow moments that sucked any sort of momentum the show’s episodes would gather. We’ve also seen episodes this season that seemed much tighter in a narrative sense. No more dangling subplots that would stretch over several episodes. There was a concern that the fate of Carol would remained unanswered after the game-changer fourth episode of the season, but the writers didn’t stretch out the mystery as we saw it answered during last week’s episode.

Last week we saw a moment in the show that somewhat mirrors the original comic book source as Merle was able to take both Glenn and Maggie hostage and back to Woodbury. Something similar happens in the comic book, but other than Glen being the common participant in both iterations the show’s writer continue to mine the original source but do so in their own way and giving the moment more of an emotional impact moving forward than the original ever had. So, we find two of Rick’s group in dire straits while finding a surprise newcomer just outside the prison fence.

Tonight’s episode, “When the Dead Come Knocking”, and it marks the show’s penultimate entry this season before the mid-season finale that looks to pit the season’s two groups of survivors against each other. While we don’t actually see the two groups finally confront each other we get a lot of pieces being moved across the show’s board that the mid-season finale should be quite an apocalyptic event.

We do get a lot of Michonne finally doing more than glower at everyone around her and get hints at some personal issues that might be something leftover from before the zombie apocalypse. Her reaction to Rick grabbing her arm spoke volumes and why she was so intent to keeping Andrea with her. Her distrust of men could mean many things, but the fact that she’s willing to help Rick get his people back from the Governor speaks volume to Rick as a leader. Where the Governor charmed and cajoled and promised Michonne that she was free to go the same didn’t happen with Rick. He was literally quite the opposite. He bullied, demanded and promised her nothing but confinement until her motives could be better ascertained. While she might not be trust Rick right now it looks like Michonne prefers his no-BS way of doing things to the disingenuous one by the Governor.

It’s the difference between how Rick deals with strangers and how the Governor does things when in the same situation that tonight’s episode focuses on. While Rick has become hardened by his time in this new world of zombies since awakening from his coma he still seems to retain a semblance of the humanity that he’s been trying to leave behind in an attempt to keep his people alive. We’ve seen Rick do some unforgivable things this season, but we still hope that he doesn’t go full-on Col. Kurtz. It’s Rick’s attempts to balance cold-hearted pragmatism with his sense of right and wrong idealism that has made this character much more complex than it’s comic book counterpart.

On the other side we have the Governor who continues to pull the wool over Andrea’s eyes who still fails to see that the haven she has decided to stay in is quite rotten to the core and it all starts with it’s “benevolent” leader. We see less and less of his charming side and more of the sociopath he’s turning out to be. Tonight helps cements the idea that the Governor never came back from whatever abyss he went through in the beginning of the zombie apocalypse. He has stayed there in the justification that what he does he does so for the greater good of everyone. Yet, we see how even his inner circle of fighters and muscle fear him. It doesn’t help that the Governor was more than willing to use the prospect of rape to get what he wants.

So, we have this season’s two leaders on a trajectory, especially after tonight’s episode, to finally meet. On one side we have Rick who has gone through his own brand of hell on earth and seem to have come out the other side just as resolute, but still with some compassion to keep his humanity intact. On the other is the Governor who looks like Rick’s opposite mirror image. A man willing to do the worst and beyond if it means he keeps what he thinks is his.

There was some decent moments in tonight’s episode and most of it involved Glenn and Maggie as we saw just how far the two were willing to go to keep the information the Governor wants from him. It took an entire episode of the two lovebirds (and by now, especially after tonight we should finally realize the survivors really do love each other) to finally crack and it’s interesting to see who it was of the two who finally spilled the beans and for the reason why they finally broke. It was some fine work by both Steven Yeun (who got his Hulk out moment as he goes one-on-one with a zombie while tied down) and Lauren Cohan (who also had to go through some major indignities that made tonight’s episode very difficult to watch). Even David Morrissey shined with his performance tonight as the Governor even if it meant watching him attempt some very awful things to his two new “guests”.

“When the Dead Come Knocking” is quite an apt title as the episode ends on a cliffhanger note with Rick, Michonne, Daryl and Oscar arriving outside the walls of Woodbury. The title could mean their arrival means more zombies will be following them to cause havoc on both sides. Or it could mean that death has come in the form of Rick’s group and it’s finally come for the Governor and his people. Either way one looks at it the mid-season episode next week look to be epic and a bloodbath waiting to happen.

Notes

Tonight’s episode was directed and written by two newcomers to the series with Dan Sackheim and Frank Rezulli respectively.
Things are not going to be looking good for our erstwhile hero Glenn Rhee. His character has definitely grown some since his appearance way back in Season 1. The tough times he and the rest of the group has had to live through looks to have toughen him up some.
Michael Rooker continues to be quite a surprise this season. He might have dialed back some of his redneck, racist histrionics from season 1 but he still gives off that same aura but a bit more wilier.
Love how Daryl has become Carl’s big brother this season. Makes one wonder what those two went through together in the time between season 2 and this season.
While still not the best child actor the scene between Chandler Riggs and Andrew Lincoln was a nice poignant moment between father and son concerning Lori and Lil’ Asskicker aka Judith.
Andrea makes an appearance several times tonight and each and every time the air seems to get sucked out of the room and the episode slows down. Even the potential that is Milton in these scenes seem to be lessened because of her in the same scenes.
Glenn just went all straight warrior on that zombie. He may not be the biggest in the group but he sure can fight.
As I thought it would be it looks like Maggie’s role in being a prisoner in Woodbury takes the place of another character’s in the same situation in the comics.
With all the zombie killing and the deaths of characters in this show’s three seasons the scene between Maggie and the Governor might have been the hardest to watch.
Interesting how nonchalant Rick and his people have become when its just a lone zombie bearing down on them.
Oscar looks to be fitting in well as T-Dog’s replacement in the group. Though I love his reaction when he realized what Rick, Daryl and Michonne were going to do with the unnamed LaMOE (Last Man On Earth) whose cabin they group escaped a big group of zombies to.
I this episode might have been the very first time we saw the zombies swarm and devour a body (outside of poor Secretariat in the pilot episode) in full daylight. The gore on the show whenever someone gets eaten seems to always occur in low light or night time.
Funniest moment in tonight’s episode: man being devoured by a horde of zombies then the show cuts to a KFC commercial.
If people think the relationship between Glenn and Maggie is one of convenience should have it changed after tonight’s episode.
For all his charms and good looks it looks like the Governor might have just earned himself the undying hatred of many of the show’s fans with tonight’s episode as we see more and more of his sociopathic tendencies.
Despite Daryl having become Rick’s right-hand man through it all it will be interesting to see which side he will pick when he finally meets up with Merle again next episode. As the saying goes, “Blood is blood.”
Zombie Kill Count of tonight’s episode: 17.

Past Season 3 Episode Review

Horror Review: The Walking Dead S3E03 “Walk With Me”

Posted on October 28, 2012 by Arleigh

“We’re going out there and taking back what’s ours…civilization.” — The Governor

[some spoilers]

It’s been quite a refreshing surprise to see this new season of The Walking Dead unfold. Even though it’s just been two episodes in the change in pacing, acting and writing has been noticeable and all for the good. This fresh new start courtesy of Glen Mazzara and his crew of writers could easily revert back to the old bad habits that made season 2 of the series such an uneven and frustrating show to watch. The potential for this show to hit it’s stride was kept from happening by wheel-spinning and extended philosophical introspection that put the brakes on any momemtum a great episode had going into the next one. This hasn’t been the case for this season and tonight’s episode, “Walk With Me”, will show whether this streak of very good television continues or the bad habits return.

“Walk With Me” starts off interestingly enough as we see a military helicopter on it’s flight to who knows where, but still it is a scene that’s above the danger and not on the ground. It doesn’t take long before something goes awry and this whirly-bird crashes in the Georgia woods. It’s a scenario that doesn’t bode well for those inside and seeing all this occur in the far-off distance is our wayward Andrea and her new companion in fan-favorite Michonne and her two pets.

It’s been a long time coming but we finally see the appearance of The Governor. This character has been a huge part of the series’ comic book universe. He’s been the best symbol of what happens we those leading a group of desperate people loses their humanity and becomes as much a danger as the zombies and, at times, even more so. So, this character (being played by British actor David Morrissey) already has a built-in for it not just from the fans of the comic book, but even just the fans of the show who have heard about all the things the character has done in the original source material. It’s going to be a hard slog for David Morrissey and the writers of the show to make the character sympathetic or, at the very least, charismatic enough not to come off across as a villainous caricature.

We don’t spend any time with Rick and his group at this prison in tonight’s episode. This episode concentrates on Andrea and Michonne meeting up with The Governor (aka Phillip Blake in the comic books and novels) and the introduction of the Woodbury town settlement. It’s an interesting departure from the previous two season which tried to juggle two locations at once. Sometimes this juggling works in the show’s favor and, at times, it has been to it’s detriment. Tonight it’s more of the former than the latter. It would’ve been nice to see how Rick and the group has been keeping themselves busy since taking over the prison, but with the promise of The Governor and his group being the main antagonists of this third season the show couldn’t delay this part of the season’s main story arc to remain on the sidelines.

Tonight’s episode was much slower than the season’s first two but it made up for it in introducing the character of The Governor to the show’s audience and reuniting these same fans with one of the show’s favorite in Merle Dixon (played with sociopathic glee by genre venteran Michael Rooker). Andrea and Michonne don’t know what to make of The Governor and his safe haven of Woodbury. It looks peaceful and, most important, safe enough at first glance, but we could see that they both sense something is a bit off with their current benefactor and his Norman Rockwell-esque town. Andrea seems to be warming up to the leader of this group more than Michonne and this reaction should elicit more groans from her detractors who already see her as a character who seem to switch allegiances, or at least, jump from one leader to the next.

Andrea as written for the tv series is definitely not as fan-friendly as her comic book counterpart. Again, the writers of the show have made a conscious decision to try and make the Andrea role be more complex and earn her role as a badass through trials and tribulations. It’s going to be a tough sell the writers will need to do to try and rehab this character as the season goes along. So far, Laurie Holden has kept the character tics and habit which has made her such an uneven character the past two seasons to a minimum in tonight’s episode but it still show’s up here and there.

It’s interesting to see how much Rick and the Governor seem to share not just in how they’re leading the group, but in how efficient he’s gotten his people to become to adjust to this new world they now live in. Both are trying to recapture a piece of the civilization that’s fallen since the outbreak began and both have done so in varying degrees of success. Even though Rick doesn’t appear in tonight’s episode his character looms large as we see with each passing scene just what sort of leader The Governor is to his people. Throughout the episode we see that The Governor is not running a democracy (same as Rick) and from little bits of dialogue we get a notion that his benevolent dictator act could be hiding something more sinister.

Could we be seeing in The Governor how Rick could turn out to be a year from now if and when he loses more people? One thing for sure is that The Governor comes across as being more charismatic and in control of his situation than Rick, but at what cost and as the season plays out it’ll be interesting how the two stack up next to each other if and when they finally meet face-to-face. As both characters struggle to regain the very civilization The Governor spoke about retaking at the dinner table with Andrea and Michonne it goes without saying that the two alpha males of the series have the right ideas, but one’s methods seem to have gone beyond the pale. As the saying goes about how power corrupts it looks like it might be the case with The Governor.

“Walk With Me” is not as action-packed as the previous two episodes. There was some action close to the end and for some it probably came as a surprise, but for readers of the comic it was a sequence that was inevitable. The fact that the writer of tonight’s episode decided to reveal the ulterior motive and agenda behind The Governor’s benevolent facade so soon was the true surprise of tonight’s episode.

NOTES

Tonight’s episode was directed by series regular Guy Ferland and written by another series regular in Evan Reilly.
The pre-credits opening says a lot about the world beyond Rick’s group. A military helicopter patrolling and looking for any signs of survivors means there’s still some sort of organized government or military group trying to save as many people as possible. Even though we find out the safety has been compromised it still shows that there might still be hope out in the wilderness.
From the sounds leading up to the chopper’s crash it could be mechanical failure but part of me thinks it was a long-range shot that could’ve taken out the engine.
Finally the Governor shows up and his group is just as well-organized and efficient as Rick and his people.
MERLE! Michael Rooker’s return is as over-the-top as the character yet I have a feeling fans of the show (even some detractors) wouldn’t have any other way.
He’s sporting the Aquaman harpoon for a hand look and he seems to have gotten pretty good at using it.
It didn’t take long for the show to show us Woodbury and this once again I commend Mazzara and his writers for not delaying the inevitable and stretching it out for drama’s sake.
David Morrissey has definitely done a very good job in just one episode in making the character much more charismatic and multi-layered than the comic book counterpart.
The role of Milton (played by Dallas Roberts) is a nice homage to Romero’s Day of the Dead head scientist Dr. Logan.
His reaction when dealing with the survivors of the military convey was quite interesting and it had no dialogue explaining why which is another of the positive things about this season. The writers are showing rather than telling every little detail of each character and scene.
There’s definitely some unresolved issues going on between The Governor and the military.
The roles of the helicopter pilot has been expanded to be part of the military. In the comic book the chopper was a tv station newscopter and the survivors from the crash civilians.
I wasn’t sure how the ending reveal about The Governor would play out but it wasn’t as over-the-top as I thought it would be and actually came off as very creepy and disturbing. Once again I think this is in due part to David Morrissey performance as Woodbury’s leader.
Danai Gurira still comes across as more of a cypher (a badass one), but her dialogue has been limited, so far. This could be a good thing as she seems to be more suspicious of The Governor and Woodbury, in general than her partner of the past 7-8 months. Her survival instincts is not just about the zombies out in the world, but of strangers she meets for the first time. Her instincts may just save both her and Andrea in the long run.
Final reveal of the episode was chilling, disturbing and creepy as anything that has happened in the past 21 episodes of this series.
Zombie Kill Count for tonight’s episode: 12.