I wasn't offended, I just didn't have any snappy comeback - it's now me posting before the first coffee.
Watching other people's hallucinations is like listening to other people's dreams -- the best you can hope for is boring.
God, why does it have to be so bad. At this point the only reason I keep watching is to sit and think about all the ways the show could be awesome.
The actor that plays Tyrese was in The Wire. Which is a much better way to spend your free time then watching this show if you haven't seen it.
How the fuck did they not notice a bunch of guys pull up in a truck, another enter and get up to the guard tower, (why weren't rick's gang up there??) and start picking people off. I mean what the fuck. These people are too dumb to make it this far. To add this, there was no sense of immediate danger. They're lollygagging around, hitting on each other. Maggie is laying down in a cell like she's having a bad day. (boo hoo)
I'm just going to copy+paste my thoughts instead of paraphrasing myself from another forum. I'm generally responding to a quote from Kirkman to the effect of: "On Talking Dead, Kirkman said that this was just a show of force, not a full-on attack, so that explains why they didn't press or do anything more menacing than the zombie bomb." It's weird sloppy decisions that take the greatest parts of this show and just... drag the experience through the mud. The pacing, the consistency, the internal logic, it's just all so silly and drawn out. It's lowered its own standard. Dude's body was shot three dozen times while Carol hid behind it, which plays more into how ludicrous it is that this was a superficial assault, because those were shots that could and should have killed a person. Was it really necessary to have her lay there with 3 dozen perfectly fired shots blocked by a body? I mean, come the fuck on. There's nothing about this show that requires typical action movie tropes whatsoever, at least not as bland and generic as they are. This show could take walking through dark hallways killing zombies, as common a scene as anything else in horror movies, and make it exciting and fresh. Why do we accept the foolishness that is these spray-n-pray shootouts that make no sense even when divorced from the context of the show? Show of force? This show has no idea how to create a scene that actually communicates what it's attempting to without just pulling a 180° and going "oh, hey, we were just joking, we totally meant to almost get hit with bullets just to teach you guys how badass we were." I thought that group (with Cutty from the cut) is who would be on the bridge. That would have, like... made actual sense instead of these random guys, a woman and her baby, and a Subaru* somehow living this long with no clue how to deal with a pack of zombies. It also would have given a much better segue into Daryl arguing about going back to the prison, since Merle was all like "they're already dead little bro'!" Then we could have skipped the horribly written heart-to-heart. Next episode, another snoozefest of arguing about how Rick is no longer fit to lead, but neither is Glenn, while Andrea looks sheepishly up at her boyfriend and takes another 2 episodes to figure out what a fucking asshole he is. Oh, no, wait, she'll just ask his permission to go to the prison. *It was probably this, since I had an Outback and am pretty sure it would hold up well in a zombie apocalypse
Yeah, I think I'm done with this show. Breaking Bad cannot come back soon enough. The episode went from utterly boring for 50 minutes to complete nonsense in the last 10 minutes. With all the horrible fast action cuts leaving me completely disoriented, and the fact that even though earlier in the episode they make a point of showing how far a truck can be heard from, then later in the episode an even bigger truck apparently shows up silently right outside the front gate. They can't even stick to their own rules/logic for more than 5 minutes.
It's so weird that one guy got shot. I think the writers forgot he wasn't black. Michonne actually got a line! I like how the group consensus to the Governor definitely coming is for everyone to split up in random directions in order to mope. That's fantastic. My very favorite moment was the Governor's disgusted weary sigh when Andrea knocks on his door. Can't blame him.
Putting the episode break where the episode break was put was a very, very good idea. If you're going to have David go on about how excellent her speech was, you want to put as much distance between the actual event and him saying stuff as possible. It is bad that they're doing this with Sarah Wayne Callies. Because the part of me that understands how television works knows that this whole hallucination thing has to be largely worked out by the end of the season (the part with her face and vopice, anyway - any random woman standing without any other objects for perspective in a floor length gown is pretty much interchangeable with another if you shoot it right). Hell - it might not even be included if they weren't already beholden to the actress. I like how Maggie is still royally fucked up, despite the lack of penetration. For awhile there I was afraid the show was going to use that as an excuse not to deal with it. I dislike how far out of their way they went to get a railing kill on the bridge fight. I'm going to miss hilarious anachronistic facial hair. I also wonder if the show will have the sack to kill The Governor. I'm not sure I'd be satisfied at this point with anything less, but there's going to be a few different temptations to keep him around.
As soon as he started telling about his background I said "He's dead" What the fuck is with this show, they only do character exploration on any of the supporting characters until the episode that they kill them? Anyway, better get Cutty in the Cut's crew back, we're running out of red shirts here.
Anyone have any idea who was driving the zombie filled van or even if it was important? Seemed a bit weird they had that person's identity concealed and it looked like a woman's body.
And now Dr. House will forever be driving around a short bus full of zombies in my head. Or possibly Bertie Wooster. Actually, thanks for that.
I can go along with a plot contrivance or two. I mean, sometimes you have to keep certain people alive or kill certain people or yank the plot in a particular direction, and if you gotta use a contrivance to do so, go for it. What I can't go along with is a show comprised solely of contrivances, which is where The Walking Dead has decided to go. Andrea is pretty much just a series of the things, and there's no point in discussing her anymore because she's so beyond worthless in every regard. Michonne is absolutely just a series of the things, always maintaining silence until it's too late. Such a waste of a character. I will admit that the Mexicans on the bridge were not a contrivance, but just plain stupid inconceivable filler, so good for the writers there. The showdown after that with the bros in the woods was more lazy filler that could have easily been handled in the previous episode. (Seriously, Durl won't leave Murl despite all of Murl's despicable acts and abuse because BRUDDER CODE, but Murl trying to steal some food is what finally pushes him over the edge? That was like an After School Special.) Then we get to the end. With trucks materializing magically. The guard tower infiltrated right under Michonne's nose. 1800s Man absorbing pounds of lead. The guv'ner (or one of his cronies) scoring a headshot from range on a walking target and then being able to hit absolutely nothing for the remainder of the fight. Rick and the Scooby Squad also hitting absolutely nothing (except the Exposed Meaningless Red Shirt Tower Infiltrator). The big reveal of maybe a dozen hapless zombies shambling out of the back of a truck driven by MYSTERIOUS STRANGER. The guv'nor and crew leaving right at the point where the hapless shambling zombies were forcing everyone to pop out of cover and present themselves as juicy targets. Glenn returning in the nick of time to drive around in circles. The Brudders showing up just in time to save Rick from a couple of zombies he would have dispatched in a few seconds by himself under any other circumstances. Holy shit. And there's so much that could have gone right. Pogo is right that putting Cutty from the Cut on the bridge would have furthered the plot and let his group be re-introduced to Rick's at a critical moment. They could have had Michonne lock the f'ing gate behind Rick after he threw the doors open and didn't bother to lock them himself. They could have had the gov'ner's attack beat back instead of fading away, or reveal that he'd spent the day amassing a herd and drawing them towards the shattered prison gates with all the noise the firefight made, or had an 18-wheeler packed with scores of zombies crash the joint. Anything other than the ridiculous way they handled pretty much everything in this episode. This was a letdown on multiple levels, as I didn't like the way the gov'ner's attack was handled in the comics (it was way too GI Joe relative to the comic's tone up till that time) and was looking forward to seeing if the show would handle it more realistically. I'm done looking forward to anything now.
I wish I had more than one like to give if only for "1800s Man." I kind of enjoyed the Gov firing aimlessly into the air with a sardonic smirk. Obviously they're clumsily going for it being the whole "show of force" thing as well as drawing more zombies, but I'm choosing to believe it's the result of the actor realizing the nonsense of what he's portraying and enjoying the joke.
I had to remind myself that noise draws zombies at that point, because it was shot and acted so poorly.
Decided to go? I think the whole show has started with contrivances, to an annoying level from the get go. =)
I didn't think that this was filler; in fact, I would argue that it was a pivotal scene because it marks the point at which Daryl started to realise not that his brother is a sadistic arsehole - I'm pretty sure he knew that - but that he, Daryl, wasn't and wasn't happy to go along with Merle any more and that he has more in common from a moral or ethical point of view with Rick and the gang than he has with his redneck sibling. Also, it was a few minutes of (bloody) action in an otherwise talky 30 minutes. The last 10 minutes of the episode was great as well. Next week's episode looks promising but if I've learned anything about TWD it's that the previews fucking lie.
I agree with this, it was clearly a character moment for Darryl and possible Merle depending on what the writers do with him. Is this just because there was shooting and zombies? Cause it was all actually kind of stupid from a plot perspective.
I don't know if I can take much more of this Rick being crazy and seeing stuff that isn't there. Otherwise I liked the episode. :)
Well yeah, it was largely because of the action. I guess we'll have to wait until next week to see if it actually has any real bearing on anything. As for it being stupid - I don't entirely agree. Some of it was definitely ropey - someone else has already mentioned the truck getting so close to the prison without Michonne or Rick (at the very least, because I think that they were pretty close to that area) hearing it but the other thing that bothered me was the guy in the tower. I get that the prison is in disarray because of the Woodbury assault and that everyone sort of has their own thing going on; I get that Rick has gone a bit crazy (yawn); and yeah, they acknowledge all of this when Glenn exasperatedly asks who's on watch before going off and doing... I have no recollection what. But it still seemed a little unlikely. I don't know - I still enjoy this show but it's a far cry from how good it was in season one and the thing that pisses me off most about it is how they've written Andrea this season. She was one of my favourite characters but now she just seems to be doing things because (no) reasons and seriously, she hasn't realised that the Governor is a dodgy fucker yet? The thing about her speech last week wasn't that the content was a bit nonsensical (she was trying to boost morale, after all, so banging on about future historians is reasonable, however silly); it was just - well, why was she delivering it? Her character should be leading the "we're all fucked" nihilism charge.
If he didn't realize that before, why was the attempted theft of a can of creamed corn the catalyst for this life-changing revelation? The whole thing could have and should have been taken care of in the previous episode. That rift needed to happen, but the way it happened was plumb dumb. The last 10 minutes of the episode was great? What? How?
Well, there was also the way that Merle treated the family in general plus the fact that it was Daryl's idea to rescue them in the first place. [/quote]The last 10 minutes of the episode was great? What? How?[/quote] There was lots of shooting, some zombies got offed and the Woodbury contingent upped the stakes a bit. 'Great' might be a stretch but yeah, I enjoyed the last ten minutes. Like I said earlier, I still enjoy this show, albeit with some caveats. I've no idea why some of you are still watching, since you don't seem to get anything out of it. But hey, I've been banging that drum since the thread at the other place first started.
The Daryl/Merle thing is much simpler than that. Merle was literally stealing food from a baby. Daryl, meanwhile, risked his life to get food for a baby. That juxtaposition is exactly why Daryl decided that he was done giving things up for Merle.
