Pajiba

Someone mentioned last week that the best way to watch this show was to fast forward through the parts where there are only two people in the scene speaking. That's exactly how I've been doing it, and it makes for a much better viewing experience.

At least there wasn't anything as double dumbass as the well this week. That's about the biggest positive note I can give it, though I did like how Daryl's fever dream Merl was markedly less awful than the real deal. I wonder if that was because the writers decided he should be less of a stereotype, or if Daryl himself just sees his brother with a vaguely softer edge no matter how much of a dick he knows him to be? Ah, who am I kidding, the writers aren't good enough to do either.

And I'm not sure how the barn reveal qualifies as a legitimate cliffhanger that contains the possibility of a future surprise. Even without reading the comics, the secret was telegraphed a mile away, and what else besides the zombies inside said barn getting out can possibly happen next? That should make for a good scene (emphasis on should), but it won't be a surprise unless everyone dies. Everyone but Daryl, Glen, and Maggie, of course.

I want Michael Rooker back, damn it!

It was ok. They finally made the zombies scary again when they attacked Darryl when he was screwed. That part was great. The barn reveal was dumb. The writing this season is just horrible. What 20 something year old is passing notes? Everything is coincidence and stupid actions this season.

The actors are all stuck with one dimensional characters. They need to get Frank Darabont back as show runner because the show is derailing fast. They have made Andrea into a moron, Glenn into a horndog dipshit, Rick sanctimonious and boring, and Dale into some sort of Grandpa Yoda always dispensing advice.

The show really isn’t working for me.

Personally, I thought this was one of the best episodes of the season. It answered a couple questions people had been buggin about (generators/power to the house/what's in the barn etc) and it set the scene for much more drama to come. People who are expecting an action filled zombie show are watching for the wrong reasons. It's a drama that happens to take place during the ZA. That's how I look at it.

I was captivated by this episode. Mainly because it revolved around Daryl and he is just amazing but still, it was a good episode. Much better than last weeks, which I thought felt more like a "filler" episode.

The 17 year old kid was in the second episode, or whatever episode when Rick first showed up at the farm. He came out with Hershel and was carrying a baseball bat I believe.

I didn't mind this episode. I really liked the dialogue between Rick and Shane at the beginning. It was well written and flowed naturally from the mundane topic of Shane's highschool conquests to the bigger issue of whether to fish or cut bait on Sophia. While the first part is a lot what of what we've heard before - but still entertaining - the whoel question of making the "tough call" and what not was newer, at least I felt it was. I do agree, however, there does seem to be a lot of going in circles. I also liked Glenn's reaction to Darryl's ear necklace and Rick's response to it.

I don't mind that they haven't found Sophia yet. This isn't CSI or some other procedural where things are going to get wrapped up every week. That said, I think this is going to be an on-going problem with this show. There is no real story arc. The show is about survival. Survival isn't inherently interesting. I like the inter-personal dramas well enough and haven't even come close to losing interest in the show. They have spent a lot of time on Sophia, but that kind of makes sense and the cracks are beginning to show a bit. That said, there have been some sequences like the zombie in the well and - as much as I love Darryl - some of the Darryl down the chasm - that felt like they went on a little too long.

I think the complaint of the lack of tension is a good one and I think a big part of it has to do with the current setting. Outside of the barn, Hershel's farm seems too much like an oasis from the zombie apocalypse. Apparently the farm is remote enough and the barb-wired fence around the property is sound enough that they have very few problems with walkers. Add in the fresh water, the generator and what not and all you really have is a bunch of people sitting around talking about their issues. Other than the Shane/Otis adventure, since they've been in the farm the only real zombies we've seen were the two that went after Darryl. The zombie in the well was just a distraction.

Based on the reveal at the end of the episode in the barn, I think this "phase" of the show is going to wrap up pretty quickly. I am not sure if they will be forced to flee Hershel's farm or what will become of Sophia, but I would be surprised if they remain in this pattern - which has been 4 episodes to date - much longer. Hopefully, getting the group off the farm and to a different location will change this dynamic. I do think they will need to ratchet things up a bit.

Darryl and Glenn are the best, no doubt. That said, I still like Rick and Shane. Maggie does show promise.

This is still the only show currently on that I *must* watch "live" (well, a 20 minute delay to fast foward commercials) (The only other one is "Game of Thrones" and that isn't on right now). The rest I watch when I can.

I think so to Space um Oddity, can I just call you Space? You probably get, "Can I just call you, Odd" all the time huh?

Yeah my guess is that Ricks group will kill the zombies in the barn only to find out that they are everyones gramma and uncle and cousin pete etc. So then Hershel makes them leave. They are cast out of zombie free paradise for killing the zombies! Ahh the ironing!

First off, I would like to say, called it!
Knew Merle had to be a hallucination.
Secondly, one thing no one seems to mention is that the show cant possibly be as jam packed as season 1 because THERE WERE ONLY 6 EPISODES IN SEASON 1. When you get a show with 3x as many episodes some are going to be less than satisfying. That said I agree that they need to branch out and get the fuck off this farm.

This lack of momentum is what I was afraid of with the move from 6 episodes to 13 this season. I'm of the opinion that dramas don't need to be more than 12 episodes max per season for any show. I saw that "Revenge" is now getting a full 22 episodes this year and I really wish they had kept it at 10 or 12. Filler episodes kill dramas over time. It is simply too easy for the writers to keep leaning on repeating tropes to the point where nothing moves forward quickly enough to retain interest. Most dramas tend to be getting pretty drawn out by the 10th episode of the season I think.

The Walking Dead is already not the best contender for a long series drama given that there just isn't that much story (or budget) to draw out into 13 episodes. It works better in short doses. I would have preferred 6 episodes this fall, ending with them leaving the farm. And then start again another 6 episode arc in the spring.

I do like the ocassional flashbacks to what happened before Shane's Team (for lack of a better term) coalesced into a group. Quite honestly, I would rather they do a couple episodes of that story to break up the tedium.

They may be relatives but if you don't feed them they have to die eventually...

I don't think this is correct. Despite constantly craving human flesh, zombies tend to be able survive forever without eating.

I know the "zombies" starved to death in "28 Days Later", but those were "rage zombies" who were "infected" living people, not the dead brought back to life.

Maybe this is addressed in the next episode, but Herschel never thought that the visitors might check out the barn?

But Forbiddendonut, aren't they also continually decomposing? They certainly look like they are. Won't they eventually gross-ify to the point that they just kinda fall apart?

It's an interesting question and because most zombie apacolypse stories don't tend to run over a long course of time, kind of unclear.

There is obviously some decomposition that occurs. Most zombies look like they are at various stages of decomposition, except for the super fresh ones. I think decomposition is slowed down to some extent. But I think the real question is wheter: (1) Do zombies eventually decompose until they just fall apart? (If this is the case, I think it would happen regardless of whether they ate or not) or (2) Does the decomp process stop somehow at some point, perhaps due to whatever crazy-ass virus that makes the dead living?

I am trying to think back to say, "World War Z". I am pretty sure in that book the zombies didn't decompose into nothingess, since zombies were still a threat post-war.

Based on the "Walking Dead" comics, I don't know if we've seen any fall apart from that either.

Personally, I don't have too much of a problem with the virus slowing down and, potentially, at some point stopping the decomposition process. I mean, if it can make the dead animate and wander around looking for human flesh, I can see that as a side effect.

Forbiddendonut, I pretty much agree with everything you said. I'm not even close to tiring of the show yet.
Snapnhiss, I live in fear of that every single episode.
And Tyler, I agree with your last comment about showing flashbacks to before/during the ZA beginning. I love seeing what they were doing before we met them on the road.

I am pretty much only watching the show, now, for Daryl. Everything else simply seems to be a confused mess that the writers simply don't know how to handle or advance. The show isn't as frsutrating as The Killing but it is coming close.

1. I did enjoy seeing how Lori, Shane and Carl linked up with Carol, Ed and Sophia.

2. I appreciate what was trying to be done in the depictions of the military's attacks on Atlanta. It started to have an effect on me, but fell flat when the writers felt it was necessary to inject the characters opinions into what I was already beginning to realize. This was a point where less would have been more. In the end the scene felt condescending and lacked the punch that should have gone with my personal realization that, "We are immolating our own populations."

3. Glenn's confrontation with Dale regarding Maggie was a little bit of a breath of fresh air. For once Dale is, to a degree, in the wrong and not the great sage of the group.

4. Daryl does get more and more interesting as the story progresses. Viewing his internal conflict is fun, even if the circumstances leading up to it were silly and contrived.

5. The confrontations between Rick and Shane are interesting. Part of me feels as if they need to move along quicker. But, in reality, I expect that sort of confrontation wouldn't occur at the drop of a hat. They're both still trying to support a very good friend so it would take a little while to really reach their breaking point.

6. Passing a note at the dinner table was just silly. Did they give part of this week's script to someone in junior high school?

7. "Godtopus, Hershel even says to Rick that "It's amazing you people have lived this long." "

Truer words could not be spoken about "Rick's Crew".

That they were uttered by the man who will likely be portrayed as a maniac, fool or insane for keeping zombies in his barn says pretty much all I need to know about the deficiencty of writing talent this season.

8. /* sarchasm */ I was shocked to learn there are walkers in the barn.

I am so sick of that stupid bitch Andrea, I hope she gets killed off soon so we don't have to listen to her whining anymore.

@Artemis
I think Carol and Daryl are going to hook up sometime in the near future.

@that girl:

They're certainly beating us over the head with the possibility of a Carol/Daryl hookup. Unless of course they find a way to kill Carol off at the moment they find Sophia. Here's hoping...

And lordy, I love me some Laurie Holden but her character needs to smarten up quickly.

Thanks for the heads up, that girl. But man, what a stupid move for the show -- Daryl hasn't shown himself to be abusive like Ed, but he's definitely got a temper and is the take-charge type. So Carol avoids the beatings but otherwise goes back to relying on an assertive man to call all the shots. Meanwhile, the most interesting character on the show gets drawn into her suckfest. Awesome.

I'm a man I would hook up with Darryl if that's what it took to stick close to him. My man is bu far the smartest, well-balanced and most capable of survival in this little group. He ripped an arrow out of his body and shot a zombie in the head with it. Hooking up with Darryl is the smartest thing Carol could do.

The writers really do need to improve the female characters. In this episode alone we had:

-Dale ask Andrea why she wasn't cooking/doing laundry with the other women.
-Glenn asking Dale if all the women were on their periods.
-Dale telling Glenn not to sleep with Maggie -because even though she's an adult- she's still Hershel's daughter (property?).
-Hersehl forbidding who his adult daughter can sleep with.
-Andrea making an incredibly stupid mistake. She could have killed Darryl or killed one of the people standing next to him.
-All the other female characters continue to be fairly shrill/useless.

Did the writers have some kind of sexist quota to meet this week?

The missing girl storyline is very obviously a plot device at this point to keep them at the farm longer. They need to be there. Not because it's safe and not because they're welcome, but because they have to search for the missing girl. It's weak at best and the whole issue needs to be resolved. Preferably with the girl's death, because there is no reasonable way she's still alive.

I'm going to go ahead and announce it now; if they find her alive I will murder all of you. Not just the writers. Not just the Republican party (oh, like they're not on your list). All of you.

Tragically, the show is focusing too much on the characters at this point. We get it. The zombie apocalypse sucks. It's hard to find food. People are desperate and afraid. The head is going to have it's needs met before the heart. We actually understand all of this already, believe it or not. We already care about them (we cared after season one), so now show us why caring for them is dangerous. Not by having a zombie nibble on the boot of the fresh, passed out dinner; but by having Daryl bitten and letting us ride out the rest of the season in agony.

Or something. Raise the stakes.

Luckily Darryl was attacked by a rookie zombie and not a veteran. He's got a blood splattered face, multiple bloody wounds on his torso and is passed out. Rookie zombie passes these up and tries to chew through his hiking boots. ROOKIE ZOMBIE FAIL. Regardless, a true survivalist would have pulled the arrow immediately. Not only is it his only viable weapon, and a ranged one at that, but climbing a brush covered river bank with a major injury would be hard enough, he's gonna do it with a protrusion from his body so every little stick he brushes causes black out like pain?

Artemis, I concur with most of your comments outside of Carol. In this world, there are people that are simply unable to pull themselves out of abusive relationships. She is one of these people. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect her to be similar to what she was before her husband (quite recently) died. I agree that it'd be more interesting had she changed. Maybe she'll head out with Darryl on a search trip, end up saving him while also finding her daughter, thus turning into awesome She-Ra woman!

I wanted to be pissed off at the barn zombie ho-down as well with no one having yet seen/heard them, but realized on second watching that there are at least two barns, so it's SLIGHTLY more plausible. For weeks I've been hoping it was the rest of the Hershel clan, but there were too many for that to be realistic.

I absolutely loved Glenn's dorky grin when asked how he knew Maggie wanted to have sex with him. Maggie is fly, yeah, I said that. Unfortunately, Glenn will have to wait a day or two now to get his freak on.

Also, love the flashbacks. Can we have a well-zombie flashback?

I really have no problem at all with the barn. It's far enough away and no one ever went over to it. I think they established pretty well that zombies tend to be pretty placid and quiet when not aroused. Those zombies have been locked in the barn for a while now and have sort of gone on zombie "shutdown" if you will. They don't make too much noise and just sort of stand and wander around. They got all riled up when they saw Glenn.

My 14 year-old brought this up (so proud): do you think the army was cooking zombies or civilians?
Sort of like a firebreak... It made me stop and think.

I would be all over the Glenn and Daryl Zombie Adventure Show.

@Jettison: Ugh. I love Andrea in the comics. She might be my favorite character, depending on what (or who) Michonne happens to be doing. And as mentioned above, Marita Covarrubias will always have a place in my heart (not to mention The Mist). But, yeah, the TV show's version of the character is pretty much the suck. I was appreciating the suicidal confrontations with Dale, because of what that might mean in reflection to their comic book relationship, but the writers have really not been kind to her since the premiere. Hey, at least she called Dale on his BS for asking why she wasn't doin' the wimmens work.

Speaking of, yes, boo on both Dale and Glen for the whole "same time of the month" conversation.

It's amazing how passionate we are for a show that drives us nuts. One may have found "Lost" frustrating by the end, but at this point in the show it was still season one and we were maybe just getting a hint of the hatch. Think about that shit.

One small addition: I'm reminded of those PBS reality shows, Frontier House and Colonial House, where people have to actually try to live without modern conveniences. Living in a ZA would be hard, hard work, not a vacation at Hershel's farm. Just pumping water from a well or chopping firewood to get through the winter would break most modern people.

@Riles:

Those and a half-dozen other things each episode just leave me mumbling "what the fuckin' fuck".

It's pretty clear that TWD is not a show for anyone with any inkling of a survivalist mindset, because the writers just don't think that way (and/or know enough to fill in those details). This may also be a flaw in the source material...I've never read the comic so I just don't know.

At any rate, on the other movie forum I frequent any discussion at all concerning the routine lapses in common sense portrayed by our hapless refugees (Daryl and Shane excepted) get you labeled as a "nitpicker".

Bottom line: This is not a show for nitpickers.

I love this show, there is just one problem I am having with it and that is the lack of progress.

They have been looking for Sophia for the past few episodes. What happened to the plan of going to the fort? I feel that it is being dragged on and I don't think they will even leave the farm this season. And if they do, it will probably be in the finale.

Still a great show, just needs a little more progress.