Tag: AMC

The first three episodes of this season sure were great, weren’t they?  They sure were.  Can’t have too many of those episodes in a row, can we?  Let’s get bogged down for an episode.

I know everyone has been wondering where Beth has been, so I figured we’d get caught up with her at some point.  I was hoping it would be through a series of small reveals here and there.  Maybe we’d catch some glimpses, and she would make her grand escape at the midseason finale.  Oh, how wrong I was.

We didn’t need a full episode of Beth.  I have nothing against Beth.  I think she has a lovely singing voice and I like her taste in music.  But she has never been a character I thought could carry an entire episode.  It looks like I was right.

A question: Carol coming in at the end.  What timeline is this?  Is this present day Carol?  My original theory was that Daryl and Carol met up with the recently escaped Noah, who made mention of Beth and told them how they could break her out.  (That theory continues that Daryl brought Noah back with him to the camp in order to convince the others to help with Beth’s break-out while Carol faked an injury to help break out Beth from the inside.)
However, after thinking about it, I’m not sure if that’s accurate.  How long ago was Beth captured?  And how long has she been at the hospital?  Even if they drugged her for a while, I can’t imagine she has been at the hospital for longer than a week (even that might be generous: the entire episode seems to take place over the course of a day or two).  Which would make the unconscious Carol she comes across an on-her-own Carol, not a recently-reunited-with-the-group Carol.

I guess we’ll find out soon.  Or maybe it’ll take a while.  Just please not another episode that focuses only on Beth.  We were doing so well this season.  Let’s not muck it up now.

Hates:

1. On the “previously on The Walking Dead” section, they showed how Daryl and Beth got separated.  I forgot how dumb that whole thing was.  Daryl casually opened the door to a horde of zombies.  No checking the door beforehand or anything.  So stupid and out-of-character.

2. Gorman the rapist.  Dr. Edwards seems like a decent human being.  I have a hard time believing he would allow Gorman to go around raping at will and never do anything about it.  Same goes for Dawn.  No, she doesn’t seem like she’s open to suggestions, but it does seem like she’s trying to keep everyone safe, even if she’s going about it all wrong.  Gorman openly questions her authority, yet he is able to continue with his normal life (this makes him a more rapey Starscream).  I know we don’t know much about these characters, but the little we do know seems to suggest that they wouldn’t be fine with a man raping with impunity.

3. Let’s talk about Dawn for a second, because I’ve seen some backlash at the anti-Dawn sentiment (some of it coming from my sister in horror, the great LC Fremont).  I wasn’t offended by Dawn’s behavior, but I certainly don’t like her as a character, and that has nothing to do with her being a woman.  It has everything to do with her being the absolute voice of authority while also being pretty ignorant.  Man or woman, her leadership style leaves much to be desired.  Again, we only get a glimpse of her character.  Maybe I wouldn’t feel that way if I saw how she was when they were making the hospital safe.  Rick is doing pretty good work now, but there have been a number of times where he looked terrible, and would look even worse if we just dropped in on him for a single episode.
Let’s take a look at her biggest use of failed logic:
“After they rescue us, we’re going to help put the world back together.”  All her decisions – every single one – are made based on the assumption that they’re eventually going to be saved.  That’s a fool’s assumption.
Dawn is a bad leader.  That would be the case even if her name were David.

4. Why are Dawn and Gorman still wearing police uniforms?  Like, the entire uniform?  I guess it’s to project an air of authority, but it just comes off as extremely annoying.  It’s the apocalypse and you’re in a hospital.  Just wear scrubs.  They’re way more comfortable.

5. They keep saying stuff like, “Keep working off what you owe and you’ll be out of here in no time.”  Is there a chart showing this trade-off?  “Cleaning a wound is worth a plate of food.”  Something like that.  There needs to be some sort of bartering chart, otherwise the entire system is broken.  (Surprise surprise: the entire system is broken.)

6. Fremont pointed this out, but it’s worth repeating here.  They said there’s no way out.  But there’s a way in, right?  How is there not a way out if there’s a way in?

Loves:

1. Throwing dead bodies down the elevator shaft.  A terrible job that was handled with all the ho-humness of taking out the trash.  The body falling gave off a whiff of Titanic’s infamous propellerman, which made me chuckle, but it was still a pretty rough image.  It was even worse when Beth and Noah made their way to the bottom and found limbs and bodies everywhere.
Noah should have yelled, “I don’t care what you smell,” when getting Beth to descent the chute, though.

2. Dr. Edwards trying to piss off Dawn by keeping his office messy.  “We all have ways of making her pay.”  Even during the apocalypse people are still finding their own happiness wherever they can.

3. “Every sacrifice we make must be for the greater good.”

4. Lots of zombie throat-biting in this season.  If there were a box to check that requested more throat-biting, I would always check that box.  Always.

5. Beth turning into zombie Rambo and killing everything in sight.  She was suddenly a crack-shot.  Normally that would get on my nerves, but she smashed a zombie’s head with her foot.  If you do that, your killing spree gets a thumbs up from me.

6. Beth’s smile as she saw Noah escaping.  Even though she knew she was going back to the hospital (and would be punished for her escape attempt), she could still be happy for Noah.

Final thoughts:

Not a terrible episode, but not nearly as good as this season has been up to this point.  Let’s hope they correct the ship and don’t spend too much more time on Beth.  Let’s get her out of there and back with the rest of the group.

Fun fact: Erik Jensen (the actor who played Dr. Edwards) played Yankee great Thurman Munson in the series The Bronx is Burning.  According to former teammate Fritz Peterson, Munson had penis “like a beer can”.  That doesn’t have anything to do with The Walking Dead, but it’s a fact I have kicking around my head and I thought I’d share it with you.  You’re welcome.

It’s been a rough week, as evidenced by the fact that I’m barely finishing up this write-up before the next episode runs.  Better late than never?  Sure.  Why not.

While our “heroes” were in or around the church for the entire episode, it wasn’t bogged down by their location.  Through three episodes, there is an energy in this show that hasn’t been there for quite some time.  Is it because they have a clear objective?  They’re not just going location-to-location anymore.  There’s a reason to move forward; to do more than just survive.  And, while most viewers seem not to trust Eugene, they trust him more than they trusted the promise of safety at Terminus.
One question about Eugene’s cure.  He talks about how it’s going to kill the dead.  Did he say it would cure the living?  After all, everyone is infected.  Doesn’t seem like it would do much good unless it also cures all the living of the virus.

Hates:

1. Towards the end of the episode, Rick says that he doesn’t want to waste bullets on the Gareth and company.  That certainly didn’t stop him from firing his insanely loud gun at zombies from point-blank range earlier in the episode.  You’ve been surviving in this world for quite a while now.  You know zombies are drawn to loud noises.  For the love of God, stop firing your gun unless you absolutely have to.

2. Gareth.  I hated that guy.  It wasn’t because he was a sadistic cannibal.  It’s because he said everything with such a smarmy face.  Like he was smarter than everyone else in the room.  He really annoyed me every time he was on the screen.

3. Abraham pushing so hard to leave in the middle of the night, even after it was pointed out how unsafe that was.  “I gotta protect Eugene.”  Leaving the safety of a sheltered location in the middle of the night is the exact opposite of protecting Eugene.  Last week I said Abraham was smart.  I may have been wrong.

4. Gareth & company’s plan to attack the church.  These are ruthless people who were smart enough to keep control of a place as big as Terminus for quite a while (they never said how long they had it after regaining control, but I’m guessing it was close to 2 years).  And yet they just assume that those who left the church wouldn’t be coming back?  Why not keep a person outside as a lookout?  This show has a history of making smart characters do really stupid things.  I wasn’t upset to see them die (see #2), but it was what led to their death that left me shaking my head.

5. A pet peeve of mine is when someone cocks a gun multiple times without firing.  This is especially prevalent with a shotgun.  I get it.  Cocking a shotgun sounds awesome and threatening.  But please stop doing this.  I swear one of the guys cocked a shotgun three times while walking around the church.  I’m no gun nut, but this always gets on my nerves.
It did, however, remind me of Bob Loblaw’s slamming book commercial.  So that’s okay.

6. They’re really making sure that we know that Maggie has lost her faith.  She symbolically put down a Bible earlier in the episode, then refers to the church as, “Just four walls and a roof.”  I can already see where this is going.  She’ll continue to be faithless and be all, “Blah, God,” until she sees Beth again.  I wish they would stop this storyline.

Loves:

1. Crying Bob turning into Laughing Bob.  “Tainted meat!  Tainted meat!”  Loved this scene.  In the comics, Dale was still alive and it was his leg that was eaten, and Andrea wept over him.

2. Gabriel’s admission of what he had done was heartbreaking.  “I always lock the doors.”  Seth Gilliam is doing great work in this season.

3. Gareth made a last-ditch plea to save himself and his crew from Rick’s wrath by promising that he would leave them alone.  I loved Rick’s rebuttal.  “You’d do this to anyone.”  It was basically him saying, “I don’t care if you stop hunting us; I know you’ll just terrorize another group of good people.”
That led to a brutal killing of Gareth and his entire gang.  I thought a nice, quick throat-slitting party would have been good.  Maybe take them outside.  Rick had other ideas, and laid into that group with a ferocity I haven’t seen since Rick ripped a man’s throat out with his teeth.  Don’t get me wrong, Gareth deserved to die, but I expected a bit more humanity out of Rick’s death sentence tactics.  It was impossible not to think about this:

4. Bob dying before answering Sasha’s question of, “What is the good that comes out of this bad?”  Even Bob the optimist didn’t have a good answer for that.  Sometimes there is no good.
Let me say this and try not to feel like a monster: they spent entirely too much time on the death of a minor character.  Bob has been around since the beginning of last season, but he never did much.  They tried to build his character, but they failed miserably.  I felt nothing for Bob’s death.  I honestly didn’t care one way or another.  It seemed like a cheap way to feel like they killed off one of the main group, without having to kill off an actual character.
I tell you what I did feel, though: the knife going into Bob’s skull.  That was a wet sound, and it made me cringe a bit.

5. Abraham’s note on the map he left for Rick: “Sorry I was an asshole. Come to Washington. The new world is gonna need Rick Grimes.”

Final thoughts:

I like the way this season is going.  Still cautiously optimistic, but these first three episodes have been great.

Let’s cut to the chase: I was not looking forward to this season.  While last season had some pretty good moments (“The Grove” was one of the best episodes of the series), it remains a frustratingly inconsistent show.

So no, I wasn’t looking forward to the return of The Walking Dead.  I had it in my head that the gang would be stuck in Terminus for the first 3-4 episodes.  Whether through budget constraints or the whims of the writers, the characters have a tendency to get stuck in locations for longer than they should.

Thankfully, I was wrong.  This first episode kicked off the season in grand fashion: blood and bubbles and butts and explosions and killing.  Lots of killing.  The gang made it out of Terminus before the first episode was over, reuniting with some of their long-lost members in the process.  Even though they can’t hope to put the world back exactly how it was (a claim even Bob doesn’t truly believe), they can try to hold on to the family that they have, dysfunctional though it may be at times.

Let’s get to it.

Hates:

1. The false starts in killing Glenn.  They were obviously playing on the rumors of an in-group death, but this felt forced.  It also felt like they wanted it to be a comedic moment.  “Oh, we’re gonna kill him.  No we’re not.  Now we are.  No we’re not.  HAHAHAHAHAHA!”  That got old before they did it the first time.

2. Carol killing a single zombie by stabbing it in the head and falling down with it.  What’s the point?  Why go to the ground?  What if the initial head-stabbing didn’t kill the zombie?  Now you’re stuck on the ground with a chomping zombie and your knife lodged firmly in his head.  Carol is extremely smart and incredibly adept at killing zombies.  She would not choose this method.

3. The fact that the guy wearing a Tigers hat would snap a baby’s neck to get what he wants.  That’s no way to represent the team.  Stick to the Cardinals, fella.
They decided to tie this guy up with nothing more than a seatbelt.  He has been talking about killing them, and yet they slap a seatbelt on his wrists and say, “Yeah, that’s good.”  As if that weren’t enough, Tyreese was actively trying not to look at him.  “His wrists are loosely bound.  Lemme look out this window for a while.”
I also don’t believe that Tyreese killed that guy.  Sure, we saw Tyreese beating him mercilessly, but we didn’t see a body.  Tyreese told Carol not to go in the building.  I think he kept the guy alive because he still can’t kill anyone.  You know what that means?  More of gun-shy Tyreese, agonizing over every death.  Just what we wanted!

4. Glenn making Rick open the box car holding the other victims of Terminus. His reasoning for doing so?  “We gotta let those people out.  That’s still who we are.  It’s gotta be.”  That’s fine.  It’s a good reason.  I get it.  It’s not even a bad line.  What annoys me is what that represents.  They feel the need to have an obvious moral center in this world of gray areas.  It was Dale until he turned into zombie bait.  Then it was Hershel until The Governor partially separated his head from his body.  Now it’s Glenn.  To be clear, I don’t care that there’s a moral center, I just wish they weren’t so obvious about it.  It’s as if there has been one spirit that just passes from one person to the next.  So, basically, like Fallen but with morality.  I really like Glenn’s character.  I really hope they don’t just turn him into “Platitudes Spouting Guy,” because that’s really boring.  It’s also a death sentence.
Let’s hope that Glenn is more calm Hershel than grandstanding Dale.  I don’t miss Dale one bit.

5. Carol going from being covered in zombie blood to being completely clean in just a few minutes.  I guess I totally missed the magical water fountain in the woods.

6. Rick painting “No” above “Sanctuary.”  Extreme eye-rolling time.

Loves:

1. The opening was great.  Rick and company in the dark, getting ready for battle.  Using whatever was at their disposal to make weapons (belts, zippers, wood slivers).  Rick directing his people to, “Go for the eyes first, then their throats.”  Ramping us up to a huge fight…only to have the folks at Terminus gas them from above, thus rendering their preparation moot.  I loved that little bit of misdirection.
I also loved showing the wood sliver up close.  That, combined with the knife placed dangerously close to Glenn’s eye made me think they were referencing the iconic scene in Zombi.

2. We got some quality gore in the slaughterhouse.  As LC Fremont pointed out, that scene was definitely reminiscent of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

3. Tara replying to Eugene with a simple, “Eugene, I’m sorry, but shut-up.”  Thank you, Tara.

4. Michonne’s face when she sees the zombie horde outside.  It was a subtle smile, and it was absolutely perfect.

5. I got a couple decent laughs in this episode.  After opening the box car, a bearded man comes flying out, ranting and raving.  He is immediately blindsided and killed by a zombie.  That’s a reminder, kids: no ranting and raving during a zombie apocalypse.
The other moment actually came from Eugene.  After detailing his plan, he stopped for a moment before saying, “All things being equal, it does sound pretty badass.”  Eugene annoys me to no end, but that line gave me a chuckle.

6. The reunion at the end was really well done.  I loved the hug between Daryl and Carol, and the reconciliation of Rick and Carol.  Although I will say that Daryl really needs to work on his cry face.  However, this is not new information.

Final thoughts:

A great start to the season.  I’m not getting my hopes up, because they have a tendency to let me down as soon as I start doing that.  But it looks like we’re heading to the church next (complete with another Wire alumnus as the preacher), and I really like that storyline.  It also looks like we’ll be seeing a bit more of Morgan.  Put me down as cautiously optimistic going forward.