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The two blonde sisters are out on a boat in the middle of the quarry, fishing. Are there fish in quarries? Aren’t quarries usually just murky lifeless holes in the ground? We will never know, of course, because there is no Wikipedia in the Zombie Apocalypse. The girls start talking about fishing knots in a very intense way. Relax, ladies. Apparently, their dad taught them different types of fishing knots because of how THEY ARE DIFFERENT TYPES OF PEOPLE. Oh boy, here come the waterworks. Ladies, I’m not trying to interrupt what is clearly a breakthrough bonding session that the two of you are having on a boat in the middle of the quarry, but you do realize that you are in the middle of a Zombie Apocalypse, right? I’m just saying that it is time to buck up. If it hurts too much to talk about fishing knots, then do not talk about fishing knots. Lord knows, you would save the rest of us a lot of boredom. “Are they still talking about fishing knots?” “Yeah, they’re crying now, but the conversation is still pretty much about the knots.” “OK, wake me up when they’re done talking about fishing knots.” “Might be awhile.” “That’s fine, I could use the shut-eye.”
Meanwhile, dude’s up on a hill digging holes in the ground. UH OH!
Back up on the roof, the gang has found Merle’s severed hand. His brother, Darryl, is like “Well, this definitely means that I’m going to shoot the black guy in the head with a crossbow.” But then Grimes is like, “Mexican stand-off!” OH THANK GOODNESS. Can you believe we’re four episodes into this show and this is our first Mexican stand-off?! Grimes tells Darryl that he will not hesitate, and that he doesn’t care if the gunshot brings every walker in the city. CLASSIC CRIMES! Darryl lowers his crossbow. Phew. Thanks, Grimes! Then Darryl asks the black guy (I recognize that it’s weird to just keep calling him “the black guy” but it is also weird that his character’s name is just “T-Dog,” so) IF HE HAS A DOO-RAG “OR SOMETHING.” Hahahhahahahha. He wraps his brother’s hand in a bandana and makes Glenn put it in his backpack. Double haha. Look at Glenn’s face.
Darryl explains that Merle must have used a tourniquet, “maybe his belt,” which explains why there isn’t more blood. That must be SOME TOURNIQUET! They follow some driblets of blood down the roof and into an office building. Whoops, ZOMBIE SECRETARIES! No big deal. If they have time to lean, they have time to get shot in the head with a crossbow.
They find a bloody kitchen (where is this kitchen? In the office?) with the oven burner still on. “What’s that burned stuff?” Glenn asks. “It’s skin,” Grimes says, “he cauterized the wound.” Hahaha. I don’t know why this is so funny to me. Yes, sure, he cauterized the wound. You gotta. Always Be Cauterizing. I guess it is just funny to me because I feel like the only time I’ve ever heard about cauterizing wounds is basically in some ridiculous Zombie Apocalypse movie. Nobody ever cauterizes wounds on 30 Rock, or in my family. Also, there was some book I read in Junior High, maybe Lord of the Flies, where someone cauterized a wound with a lemon? Merle should have used a lemon!
BACK AT THE CAMP: dude will not stop digging holes. Everyone is like, dude, stop digging holes. He says he isn’t hurting anyone. They point out that he is hurting himself because it is 100 degrees out, but also that he is scaring the children. Really? I don’t mean to be a broken record about the whole ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE thing, but I have a feeling that anyone, child or adult, who has seen the walking dead roaming the streets in the thousands is pretty unperturbed by a dude digging holes with a shovel. Anyway, they really do want him to stop with the holes. “Make me,” he says. So they make him. Shane is like, “tackle,” and the dude is like, “oof, I’m tackled.”
Easy enough. They tie him up to a tree. Do you guys remember that time on Lost when Sayid tied Sawyer to a tree and threatened to rip his fingernails off? Man, remember Lost? Kind of wish we were watching Lost right now. Eventually, the dude explains that he was digging the holes because of sunstroke and because of something that he dreamed that he cannot remember. OK, weirdo. They leave him tied to the tree for a really long time, because that’s what weirdos get.
Glenn has a plan for how they can get the bag of guns. It involves a diorama of the city, a bar of soap that is Grimes, and walkie talkies. Blah blah blah, he will go alone and everybody else will cover him from two separate alleyways. What could possibly go wrong? Glenn makes it to the bag and grabs the bag and also gets Grimes’s police hat (GRIMES’S HAT!) and runs back to the alley but meanwhile, some kid in a dirty wife-beater with a VERY EXCELLENT marijuana leaf tattoo on his neck has come up to Darryl in the alleyway and is distracting him. Pay attention, Darryl! And just when Glenn runs up, that is when a car full of cholos pulls up and kidnaps Glenn. Oh no! NOT COOL, ESES! Oh, wait, eses! You forgot the kid in the wife-beater!
Bad job, guys. You either kidnap someone OR you leave with everyone you came with, but you don’t kidnap someone and ditch a dude. Do the math. They go to a warehouse to try and make a trade, but that is when they meet the King of the Homies!
He says that he wants the bag of guns. Grimes is like that is my bag of guns. He’s like you don’t understand. Grimes is like YOU don’t understand. You could cut the racial stereotypes with a knife. Grimes has an ace in his sleeve, which is T-Dog up on the roof with a sniper rifle. But King of the Homies has an ace up HIS sleeve, which is Glenn on the roof with a bag over his head. He tells Grimes to come back with his bag of guns, or to come back “locked and loaded.” Hahahaha. Oh man. No.
Grimes, being Grimes, COMES BACK LOCKED AND LOADED.
NOW WHAT, SON?! I’ll tell you what: ABUELA IS WHAT.
You know how it is. Even in the middle of a high-tension, potentially violent stand-off in the middle of a city ravaged by a Zombie Apocalypse, nobody stands in abuela’s way. She takes Grimes and the gang through some hallways to…an old folk’s home? Sure. It turns out that the dangerous gang of mildly offensive hispanic stereotypes were actually GOOD GUYS THE WHOLE TIME! They wanted the bag of guns to defend their assisted living center! Admittedly, that is a VERY INTENSE CHARADE TO KEEP UP THAT THEY KEPT UP. Like, even the kid with the marijuana tattoo on his neck being faced with the potential threat of having his feet cut off was just, like, “G is da man ovah dere, kid.” Whatever. Slanging on the flippity flop, I’m sure. Grimes and Don Vato have a heart-to-heart discussion about how hard it is to find decent people in the Zombie Apocalypse and how necessary it is to play caricatures of ethnic subcultures and threaten massive gun violence in order to protect some dude in a wheelchair? Grimes gives him half of the bag of guns, they get Glenn, PEACE OUT, DAWGS.
Uh oh. The truck is gone. Merle took the truck. Uh oh uh oh uh oh. (Incidentally, remember how one of the explanations Grimes gave to his wife for why he needed to abandon her and their child on a suicide mission into Atlanta was that he was going to try and raise that father and son from the first episode on the radio because he promised them he would find them and save them? Cool thing he never did any of that. Hope those guys are just wandering around Atlanta all alone being like ‘Grimes? Come in, Grimes!’) Oh, no big deal about the truck, I guess. Turns out, it is totally possible to just run all the way back to camp. (Whuuuuuuuuut?!)
Back at camp, everyone is getting ready for the big fish fry. YAY! FISH FRYYYYYY! The one blonde sister is trying to find wrapping paper because it’s the other blonde lady’s birthday (SPOILER ALERT: it’s about to get MUCH EASIER to keep track of which is which) and she is finally going to give her the hideous piece of garbage dolphin jewelry. Haha. Why do you need wrapping paper, lady? Why don’t you just PUT IT IN A GARBAGE CAN?! “Oh, you shouldn’t have. Seriously. You literally should not have given this to me. It’s horrible.” Oh, hey, Ed, how’s the face?
Don’t worry too much about it, Ed. You’re about to be a zombie! (Did anyone else notice when Ed got turned into a zombie how he sat there for such a long time just waiting for the zombie to do something? Let’s put it this way, if Ed and the zombie were on the phone, they would do that thing where they both coo at each other to be the first one to hang up and no one hangs up. Just hang up already, lovers.)
So, yeah, zombies show up and like TOTALLY ruin the fish fry.
When it is all over, the dude who was digging the holes is like “Oh yeah, I totally remember why I dug the holes now!” Hahaha. Cool. Cool, dude. Maybe this is just me, but I have a feeling that if a bunch of people in my Zombie Apocalypse Survival Camp just got eaten by zombies in the middle of an otherwise perfectly pleasant fish fry the night after I feverishly dug a bunch of graves in the ground and I finally made the connection between the sunstroke graves and the dream I had the night before about everyone dying, I’d smile to myself and KEEP MY MOUTH SHUT. “Oh, hey, guys, stop screaming for a second. I want to tell you about THE DREAM I HAD LAST NIGHT in which I foresaw the horrible thing that just happened. Oh, you’re going to love it, it was SUCH A WEIRD DREAM!” Come on, man. No one wants to hear it. Write it in your dream journal, that’s what it’s for.
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BOOOOOOOO!
You forgot some exclamation marks, Steve.
You can stock fish in to quarries if you want. There are people who do this type of thing
There’s something that’s been bugging me a little about this show, and I’ll try articulate it the best I can. In short, I doubt that the acrimony between survivors would be really this bad this soon. Would there be so much bitter racism? Would so many of the survivors really turn into looters and murderers and threateners of extreme violence that fast? I don’t think they would, for two reasons:
1. People are generally nice. Our culture heavily influences us to being nice. I think this habit of niceness would not die out quickly. Niceness is a luxury, true, but the lifetime acclimation to obeying the law and getting along would make at least 95 percent of the people decent and cooperative for a while.
2. The 9/11/01 effect. You Americans remember the feeling of unity after the terrible events of September 11? Like the six months after 9/11? There was a brotherhood and camaraderie that was incredible. It cut across all stripes, all politics, all races…it was one of the very few good things to come out of those events. I think that’s what Zombie Apocalpytia would like for a while. I really don’t think racism/sexism would still be as pronounced and as strong immediately after Z-day. It’d be more like, “You and I are both part of that 3 percent that has survived…we are brothers. I love you, man! We have to band together!”
Now, I’m talking of course AT FIRST: immediate aftermath of the first six months or so. After that, either the zombies would die off OR survival would get much, much harder. If the threat dissipates (and I don’t see that happening soon in this series) then once we perceive we are safe, we start back to squabbling. If the threat continues and day-to-day life is incredibly difficult…then we get into The Road territory. (Hey Duane, wanna help me carry this fire and dodge cannibals?).
agreed. I think the whole character vs character bit is lame because its like the conflict with the zombies isnt ENOUGH for us we have to have additional conflicts to keep it interesting because we’re too dumb, is what the show’s creators are like. they hate the audience basically
I get what you are saying about the show not being realistic, (although it is a show about a zombie apocalypse) but I think you are missing the point. I don’t think this show shares your opinion that people are generally nice, if that were true, why else would we deserve to get wiped out by a zombie apocalypse? The conflict with the zombies isn’t enough, not for this show, it’s attempting to be about more than that.
I think the key to what you said is it’s ATTEMPTING to be about something more. So far it has come up very short in actually saying anything. I keep wondering if Grimes as our protagonist is supposed to be a commentary on the relationship between humanity & ethics. Like, despite the Zombie Apocalypse, he’s willing to just go straight back to Atlanta in some altruistic gesture to save the father & son who saved him.
Here’s the thing:
1. Is it altruistic to leave your family behind to help two strangers? I don’t think so. Is that humankind at its best? Again, I’m not sure it is. For the matter, I can’t imagine the father wanting Grimes to come back for them. This guy is suffering the loss of his wife, yet he gets to save a guy who in turn becomes reunited with his wife & kid. He would say, “Stop being a damn fool, son. You’re with your family. I’d give anything to have my whole family back. Never EVER leave them.”
2. I find “Breaking Bad” to challenge my notion of ethics much much more than this show. Plus, Breaking Bad is just so much better. The characters are so so so so much better realized. The situations actually feel scarier. And what I’m saying is “The Walking Dead” has a long way to go if it wants to be considered among the other great shows on AMC.
The director of this episode also directed the 5th episode of Breaking Bad season 2, entitled “Breakage” where Jesse first meets Jane. I’m not pointing this out as a defense of the problems this episode of Walking Dead had, but it is nice that there is some creative cross-over in the various AMC series.
I agree that The Walking Dead has a long way to go. These first four episodes have been a little all over the place, and I was surprised that racial/sexist tensions would be such a focus in this first season. I’m hoping the storytelling improves, the story’s focus becomes more defined, and the show soars to new heights in season 2 as it finds its true voice.
Breaking Bad’s first season was a bit of a tumultuous ride, thinking back. It was pretty unforgiving, and I was glad it was as short as it was, as Season 2 was where it became more digestible as a series for me. Season 2 is when Breaking Bad found its true voice. The same could be said for Mad Men. Season 1 was REALLY soap opera-y.
I’m not excusing the quality of Walking Dead’s episodes so far. I have enjoyed them a bunch, but am antsy for things to start flowing together more seamlessly than they have. Like I mentioned, the racial stuff was unexpected, some of the character scenarios have been silly. It’s all just a little clunky, but they’re working on it. Either character and plot development will become smoother, refined and more intriguing, or the show will alienate its audience by just getting really, really bad as it goes off the rails.
I’ve got some faith in this show. The premise is a good one, and shouldn’t be hard to not wholly fuck up. Here’s to hoping they sharpen their proverbial knives and trim the fat of the show in the best way possible for the rest of this season and onwards to season 2.
Totally agreed. Especially the part where you said you have faith. For some reason I do too.
I think, though, that is kind of the problem with the idea for a zombie show in general. Zombies aren’t really a sufficient source of conflict to drive the show. They are not that difficult to avoid (except apparently when you are having a fish fry and then like 20 of them can sneak up no problem), they are not smart, and they are fairly easy to kill.
So you can’t really rely on zombie ambushes to drive your conflicts and, thus, your plot. This leaves us with one option: human conflict! Except, as werttrew pointed out, these conflicts are coming off as pretty contrived since most people would probably be pretty keen on working together and not dying (at least for now). I think the whole Merle subplot kind of exemplifies this. We’re introduced to Merle, and we’re like, “This dude is way too racist and unbalanced! No way he’d be in my zombie survivor squad!” Plus, given he spends the episode on a roof yelling, he doesn’t really prove his survivalist merits. Leaving him on the roof to die was pretty harsh, but handcuffing him wasn’t such a bad idea given he was about to beat another person to death for no real reason. To me, at least, I wasn’t too aghast at Merle’s (apparent) fate because it was an example of Why People Like That Cannot Be in Your Zombie Survival Squad.
Funnily enough, when his brother was introduced, I’m like “Oh, THAT’S why you let the crazy racist be in your group!” Darryl seems less racist, somewhat more intelligent, and definitely good with the crossbow and squirrel killing. But I think separating Merle so far from the only plausible explanation why they’d even run with him when he was introduced kind of sucked the wind out of the whole conflict.
But from the way things are going, it seems this Merle situation is going to be a Big Deal this season, and I think that puts the show on shaky ground, because no one seems to be bad enough off that they HAVE to band up with the mentally unbalanced racist rednecks or risk peril. So this whole major plot point/conflict is kind of, “Why is this happening?” I mean, what is Merle going to do? Get revenge? The dead are rising from the ground and eating the living. And now you being chased by an insane racist with one hand who stole your van. THIS IS THE POST-APOCALYPTIC WORLD. And this is what happens when you don’t choose your Zombie Survival Squad wisely.
ALSO: The pacing on this show is terrible.
I have to disagree completely. The slow pace is one of the things that makes this show so unique to me. I like that they take time to develop character relationships, so that when the shit finally goes down (like at the end of this particular episode) I actually cared about each person who died. (except that one fat guy whose name I don’t remember, I just remember Glenn freaking out about when they were about to burn his body (not the wife-beating fat guy, the other fattie))
Seriously, that zombie attack on the camp was fucking epic and I don’t think it would have worked as well if they hadn’t lulled us into a false sense of calm and misdirected us to make us think Merle would be the one crashing the fish fry. And the whole thing in the next episode (spoiler?) where blonde sister #1 is sitting with blonde sister #2 as she is turning into a zombie, that was so tense and it ended up being a great character moment. That would have held much less emotional weight had they just breezed through that and moved on.
No, they just can’t afford so many awesome zombie attack scenes.
Maybe the lesson here is that mild-mannered people stand no chance when the apocalypse hits. We’re all doomed.
No the lesson here is that the Walking Dead program is not realistic
But because of the unnecessarily antagonistic interactions between survivors, not because of the zombie apocalypse, right?
Exactly! You have nailed the head right off the zombie
Then maybe according to this logic mild mannered people are not doomed after all, if simple self realization can nail heads off zombies.
Preach it werttrew! That said, in the case of Zombie Apocalypse, I will be an ass right off the bat in hopes of upping my chances of survival.
Of course, I am a Minnesotan, so my idea of being an ass is sharing all of my supplies if you asked, but NOT saying “You’re Welcome.” Oh yeah, I went there.
i think the masses would go into Hurricane Katrina-mode. Disregard for the rules… especially when there would be a sense that the system/government has failed them. Obviously they thought there would be help in Atlanta…. military, CDC, something.
agreed. i feel like a situation similar to lord of the flies would ensue. without any order, society would break down. also, look at the LA riots in the early 90′s. those lasted only 3 days, and over that short time period, looting was widespread.
On the other hand, they did have the balls to ask the question on everyone’s mind: which is more dangerous, Zombies or Mexicans? At first, I was angry, because it was SO racist. Then I was sad, because it was just stupid (and also still pretty racist)
I disagree.
1. When there is no enforcement of the law and there are people who still require (or simply want) things like food, water, defensive capabilities, whatever, it is essentially first come, first served. I doubt if there would be any niceties held over from when laws were still in effect.
2. 9/11 was a completely different situation. The law never fell apart and there was never a strong belief that it would in the near future. Power still flowed into people’s homes and businesses were still operational.
any story about a global apocalypse is going to have a pretty bleak look on human kind in general
What’s that phrase saying about any society is three missed meals away from anarchy? WHatever that phrase is, that’s my answer.
Since there are only going to be six episodes, I think they are accelerating things a little bit. At this point in the comics (ugh sorry) they didn’t come into contact with many survivors outside of their group. The group had more passive aggressive passing arguments instead of Shane-fisted aggression. A similar zombie attack to the one in last night’s episode sort of made things boil over.
I think the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina illustrates your point a little TOO well werttrew.
I don’t know Werttrew…
The story does take place in the deep South, where bitter racism exists regardless of Zombie Apocalypse. So I can totally see how there could be racial tensions in this story.
As for #1: I just don’t think it really has to do with being nice or good intentioned, people are not rational in intensely stressful situations. A Zombie Apocalypse where you have lost personal security, your society, your loved ones, and then are in a constant, unyielding fear for you life, is going to be psychologically damaging. So you can’t really expect people to act consistently with how they are now, no matter how nice they are in normal circumstances.
As for #2: I would point more to situations where there has been a complete break down of society, places like the Democratic Republic of the Congo as a better example of how people behave when faced with desperate situations (even with a common enemy). In the Congo there has been a wide scale destruction of property, sexual violence, cannibalism, and murder, all which began immediately into the conflict. So yeah I’m sure there would be patches of people working together, but it would certainly be very tribalistic if anything.
So ultimately, I don’t think this show is brutal enough. In fact, this gangsters helping the old folks thing—>GROAN.
And that is the real problem with this show! Like 80% of the people they are with right now should be killed by zombies. That way next season when they are relatively zombie proof by way of experience, they realize that the real problem are other alive people.
People are your biggest problem once you are used to zombies. Zombies are slow, smelly and easily spotted. They are only dangerous in huge waves. Once you figure them out, other humans that have done the same enter the race for resource control. This is the hardest leg of your survival run, if you can get past the problem of “other people” you win.
The show is just backwards now. I have vowed to stop watching until most of the people are dead. I am FLOORED that they thought continuing the racist survivor plot line was a good idea. It took 4 episodes for someone to die in a ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE.
First, we are all such nerds. We all realize this, yes? We are talking post-zombie sociology ethics on a pop culture blog. We would all be the first to die, of course.
But what are we going to do? NOT talk about post-zombie society?? Of course not!
I don’t buy that survivors would turn into law-of-the-wild savages this soon. In time, yes. But culture is a powerful thing. Most Americans are decent people. I really don’t think most of them are decent because of the threat of police or jail—they’re decent because their neighbors are decent, because their friends are decent, and because their family is decent. Decency has deep roots. Decency is a deeply ingrained habit.
My argument is that there is a half-life of this decency that would last a lot longer than the producers of the show and some of you are arguing. We are still early in post-Zomcalypse. Canned food can be found in the stores, and fresh game in the woods. You can find clean water. You can still find some medicine. You can still find lots of cars and gasoline. Solid, dependable shelters can be found; generators can be run. The urgent threat right now is the zombies, not your fellow survivors. Not yet, anyway.
Two thoughts on the Katrina analogy: first, the violence immediately post-Katrina was much-exaggerated. Most of the most lurid stories were just stories. And the rescue operations put on by strangers for strangers during the flooding, I think, kind of adds to my point. Second, the threat from Katrina was not external, as it is in The Walking Dead or as we perceived post-9/11. The outside threat bonds people together: “It’s us vs them; we are in this together.”
“George W. Bush does not care about zombie people.” – zombie Kanye
“Would there be so much bitter racism? Would so many of the survivors really turn into looters and murderers and threateners of extreme violence that fast?”
if you ever want a real world illustration of how easily people can turn into racist, violent psychopaths i suggest you just hang around a Burlington Coat Factory for about an hour.
3. Where did all the other random people that were killed at the camp come from?! They seemed to manifest themselves during production so as to give the effect of having an acceptable amount of casualties to keep it exciting/fun (zombies eating people? we love that!) while maintaining the established characters/cast. Hey recently deceased people, if you want to live and keep earning a paycheck, hang out by the fire and talk about fishing!
Well, watching a show about people being nice is a lot less fun than watching personalities conflict. That’s what they tell you in creative writing class, at least.
In paragraph 3 you write “Classic Crimes!” when you meant to write “Classic Grimes!” You should fix that.
I am live blogging myself reading videogum.
This is Steve Winwood’s world, and we are just upvoting him in it
My roommate pointed out how the survivors of the zombie apocalypse managed to obtain some nice cold beers for the fish fry.
Also: Even though he wasn’t in the comic book, Boondock Crossbows is starting to grow on me.
Ahem. They’re called: Graphic Novels. PSYCHE! Just kiddin’ they’re comic books
I like your unconventional use of grammar, it reminds me of Red Sparowes.
Andrew Lincoln is my missing sock.
A Google search (sorry, Bing!) shows I’m not the only one who’s thought this:
BUSEY?!
My photo disappeared! Nerds!
“That’s my bag of guns”- my tombstone
(As soon as I heard Grimes say that I was filled with glee and dread. Glee because it was hilarious and he said it like nine times, dread because I knew I would be compelled to post this comment and also that Gabe would mention it in his recap. Damn you Gabe! That’s my bag of guns!)
You know what this show is missing?
BRRAAAAAAAIIINNNNNNSSS
(Very original joke!)
This joke will never stop being funny to me. And so I award you one upvote.
Glen’s plan would’ve gone better if they’d had some markers and a clean window
Stupid image.
Ahem:
Oh maaaaan! I wish this show was better.
When redneck Darryl (it’s Darryl, right?) was all “Why would we go rescue Glenn? Is he really that important? Should we REALLY risk our lives to save him?” WHUCK? He is at least as important as your dumb, racist, redneck brother who is so stupid that he CUT OFF HIS OWN HAND when there was a perfectly good pipe/handcuff to saw through instead! So yeah, call me crazy, but I DO think you should go rescue your fast, smart, city-knowledgable scavenger/pizza delivery guy.
I think I remember one of the characters surmising that the saw must have been too dull to cut through the cuffs. And of course, nothing cuts through flesh and bone quite as nicely as a dulled handsaw. BRAAAAAINS.
I Saw it in a movie where the Saw was too dull to Saw through the chain but sharp enough to Saw through a limb. Forget the name of the movie though …
Slammers?
the bus that couldn’t slow down?
BLAM!?
Saw was too dull. Haven’t you seen 127 Hours? Blades be dull. Flesh is best. Also, barf and pass out. That’s what I would be up to in both those instances.
I haven’t see 127 Hours, but I’m planning to in like two days! Incidentally, I would like to extend a formal invitation to come join us here at videogum to the movie critic who said the film might as well be called “A Farewell to Arm.”
127 hours is a good movie
Plus zombies were banging at the door, trying to get in. He probably panicked.
But do you really think racist Darryl sees the situation as clearly as you do? I definitely do not. He’s a good ol’ boy looking for his brother. Why would he care about a black man or a korean guy who’d gone dead or missing, especially when his blood brother could still be alive? He doesn’t seem to have the capacity reach your conclusion of other people’ self-worth, and he is obviously confident in his own abilities and his trusty crossbow to stay alive.
He obviously doesn’t see the situation as clearly as I do! You know how it is. He’s got the zombie goggles on.
But I still think that he should be able to reason through it, considering how he JUST had an intense, crossbow-filled conversation about the risks (many) and benefits (low) of going to save somebody that nobody else really wanted to save. I guess objectivity goes out the window when it comes to your handless brother.
I think Darryl needs to start looking for Larry and his other brother Darryl
I’ll be honest, the whole dream thing was a Signs moment, like, “Oh, you suddenly develop an aversion to water, which just happens to be these alien invaders weakness!”
Except this was not even close to useful and really just made the situation worse.
I was going to photoshop Frank Grimes’ face next to the Boondock Saints guy today but i just found out that VIKINGS HEAD COACH BRAD CHILDRESS HAS BEEN FIRED!!!!!! BEST DAY EVER.
When your show is suffering from hackneyed writing, you should definitely invoke Faulkner. From now on the dialogue is just going to be lengthy monologue-type addresses that end with the character pausing for a moment then saying, “Keats.”
agreed that faulkner bit had me ugh’ing mac ugh
Correct me if I’m mistaken, but doesn’t this mark the second time the old dude has been quoting literature of some sort around the campfire? Isn’t that a character trait of sorts? “Oh, this dude likes to throw out shit he’s read that he feels applies to the topic of conversation around the campfire. Kind of like how people like to quote movies.” Is that a possibility to consider, or is it just doomed hackneyed writing?
consistency isnt what I’m criticizing, it was just lame. even if it was lame IRL it would still be lame.
what I was kind of saying was that if the writing is conspicuously weak, it might not be a good idea to throw in a passage of classic literature, because then, you know, the bad writing becomes even more conspicuous…i get that the scene was trying to further establish this guy’s character, but it was rather silly… plus, any character who elaborately paraphrases passages of classic literature, then sheepishly demurs right afterwards, is not a character I think I can grow to like
I swear when the old guy was doing his introspective pensive monologue at the fireside that lets us see him as a layered and complex individual i was like GUESS WHO’S GOINT TO BE GETTING IT NEXT PREETTTTY SOOOOON!!! But they ended up not whacking him off. Which is weird that a show with so many cliches and bad writing would avoid that one.
But i guess i pegged him wrong because i forgot about the connection the sisters had in the boat because it was so boring and forgetful.
I’m actually glad that nobody was “whacking him off”
Right, but just because a character’s behavior is lame in the viewers’ opinion doesn’t necessarily mean the writing of the show is hackneyed, is my point. The old man is peculiar.
That said, I’m not saying the writing on this show is god’s gift to television writing, but the harsh critique of this show’s scenarios and characters by some of you, which is based on a comic book, a medium you, Steve, poo-poo anyway, just seems crass to me.
So far people have gone on record in the comments section about Rick obtaining a grenade and not using it IMMEDIATELY, complaining about when Andrea is going to give the ugly necklace to her sister, and a slew of other complaints, and then when the stuff is followed up on no one’s like, “Oh look! That’s why they didn’t resolve that D-plot IMMEDIATELY!” Instead, people have new things to tear apart, which is fine if that’s what you want to do, but it all just wreaks of unwarranted impatience in my eyes.
And while I’m on this tear, I agree that the depiction of the ‘vatos’ (the name of the episode) wasn’t the best by far, but when I am presented with the fact that a large portion of gang members have survived, it makes sense to me, seeing as gangland criminals are usually armed. Now whether or not they’d take care of old sick people (the most potential zombies of all) is up for debate, but every situation on this show is a Lord of the Flies waiting to happen, and something tells me the main vato may not be in power for long (or maybe he will! Who knows!)
And to wrap this up on a postive note, I don’t know if Gabe is being sarcastic or not when he says, “Classic Grimes! in reference to Rick’s behavior, but I smile at that every time since the show’s so new.
I have never poo pooed (your words) the medium of comic books, I have called in to question the term “Graphic Novels” which I find patronizing in the extreme
I don’t think poo pooed are my words.
poo poo is YOUR FACE!
I’m right there with you, Kajus. You could tell from the beginning that this show would be a slow burn and that they were setting up a lot of things along the way that would play out in later episodes.
Bottom line, every time an episode ends, I immediately want to watch the next one. TV like this doesn’t come around very often.
Also, the gang member definitely said “Same as it ever was.” And i think we all know what he was quoting.
During that scene I realized that I had stopped paying attention because petting my cat and snorgling his belly was way more interesting than that silly diatribe.
Doesn’t that show already exist? Isn’t it called Criminal Minds? Whatever. I think your idea is awesome and we should pitch a show where the zombies are the ones doing the quoting! Criminal Zombie Braaaaaaainnnnns.
How on earth did Merle not get back to camp before Grimes & Co.? I have a few inklings:
1. Merle wasn’t actually the one who stole the truck
2. Merle led the zombies back to the camp and watched from afar as they spoiled the fish fry
3. Merle stopped at a Cracker Barrel
Maybe Merle got picked up by Lando, Chewy and the Princess and retreated to a rebel base?
Impressive…
Most impressive.
I hate to do this, but these observations came from the TV Club’s review and comments. Sorry?! (Maybe you write for TV Club?)
I actually wrote the original comment, but included a few others’ observations that made sense to me. I also wanted some Monsters’ perspectives on it!
Ah, cool. I actually found the Cracker Barrel joke to be quite hilarious. And guess what? Turns out I don’t like going policegum even when I feel it’s warranted. Leaves a slight taste of rotting flesh in the mouth.
Plagiarist Commentator?
Why would Merle risk walking through a zombie apocalypse with a missing hand and a bleeding arm on the off chance the truck, by people who he is so convinced have abandoned him he cut his arm off to get free, is there? Because THEY’RE GOING TO BE SO SORRY WHEN HE TAKES THEIR TRUCK! Merle is MEAN!
4. He’s at Bill Murray’s house with Bruce Campbell, crafting a handy chainsaw attachment for his stump.
When I saw them running back to the campsite I was very annoyed. I can suspend disbelief about many things in the Zombie Apocalypse but not that your safe campsite is within spitting distance of the zombie hordes we previously had to have cool sports cars and trucks to get in and out of town with. I will still watch though because Andrew Lincoln!
Maybe they thought they’d covered their asses by going from daytime car theft to nighttime fish-fry, hoping we as viewers would assume it took The Boys (cuz that’s what I’m calling them) hours to hoof it back to camp? Maybe? I don’t know why I’m making excuses for a show that is very silly?
Anyway, good point.
Glen nabbing Rick’s hat/Rick donning the hat again justified the whole trip into Zombie City and was the best part of the episode. Thought this was the best episode since the premiere.
I’m impressed it took 4 episode for us to get some on screen zombie on human violence but I’m kinda glad they waited because holy hell was that last sequence terrifying.
The opening with the girls on the boat has to be the worst bit of writing we’ve seen on the show so far, but it looks like we won’t be hearing much about that anymore!
Gravedigging dude (Jimmy?)’s whole b-plot was cool and worked really well, I thought. It was vague enough that it wasn’t flat out “a psychic vision”, could’ve just been his subconscious or whatever (It was really only a matter of time until something like that happened, right?).
Who died in the attack? Looked like Ed, other sister, and T-Dog?
I know Ed & Amy, plus some people we’ve never met before, but I think T Dog lived.
Speaking of which, where did all those random survivors in the camp come from? And why didn’t anyone hear those zombies before they attacked? And no one saw them RIGHT NEXT TO THE CAMPER when Amy was bitten? Weren’t they like 10 feet away?? WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS SHOW???
JK, love it, I don’t care how silly it is.
“plus some people we’ve never met before”
“JK, love it, I don’t care how silly it is.”
You sure don’t!
Actually it was another black guy. I don’t recall seeing him before, but then when they found that zombie last episode I saw him with a black woman I’m guessing is his wife.
It’s the Lost thing! Gotta have some randos to kill off!
SO, WHAT DID WE LEARN: Fish Fries attract Zombies. a-doy-o
“Zombies, I’m sorry we don’t USE THAT WORD HERE, Walkers have a great sense of hearing and smell. SO don’t shoot guns and don’t smell like anything other than them.” – Some guy episodes one and two. maybe. i don’t care.
“SO Wait, It IS my fault I got killed? Damn…wish I wasn’t so good at catching fish.” – Girl who will never get her dolphin necklace until she comes back to life and rips it out of her sister’s hand in some poignant metaphor for losing someone you love…again, I DON’T KNOW/CARE.
Is it just me or is the show getting KIND OF True-Bloody? only with more clothes…(boo clothes.)
I have to disagree with you here because as bonkers as it has become I actually like True Blood (Team Eric, amirite?!), which is more than I can say for The Walking Dead right now.
After episode 2, I was like “WHERE DID ALL THE ZOMBIES GO? I WANT TO SEE MORE THAN 4 ZOMBIES!” This episode did give us an awesome zombie attack at the end, but that doesn’t make it all better.
I just had to say that “Hat Time” is going to keep making me LOL ad infinitum, and probably at random times like an important meeting when I’m bored and think “Hat Time!”.
Interesting fact- This episode’s teleplay was written by the comic book’s creator Robert Kirkman. So I guess the credit and the blame goes to him for some of the clunky, CLUNKY dialogue. If Sin City and Watchmen taught us anything, it’s that just because the dialogue works great in a comic book doesn’t mean it sounds good when said out loud by ACTors ACTIIIING!!!
did anyone else think it was weird that the first Rule of Being On The Boat was “no crying on the boat?” how much crying are you doing on a boat as a kid with your father that your father makes that a rule?
The Second Rule of Being on the Boat is YOU DO NOT CRY ON THE BOAT.
Totally classic gangster switcheroo!
I’ve been enjoying these recaps because they’ve turned into people complaining about bad acting and writing. Which is what I love about Zombie movies/comics/etc!
However, the bad thing about Walking Dead is that it’s mediocre acting and writing. With a not-mediocre budget. Should’ve just made it on the cheap! Or gotten Danny Boyle involved or something.
NEEDS MORE ZOMBIES – Me.
The Walking Dead recaps are my favourite of all recaps, if True Blood can’t be on all year.
I love zombie stories. That has to be the only reason I’m watching this show. If this was the first episode I ever saw of this show, and the show’s premise wasn’t zombies, I would never watch this show again. This episode was terrible. (See all the “negative/whinny” comments above. Those comments are correct, and they explain why this episode was just terrible.)
“(Whinny comments)” -
That horse was eaten in episode one.
The one day she doesn’t wear white pants and dead!
This show is getting bad in a hurry…
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