I'm really disappointed that Noah's gone (even if the level of gore in his death was frankly amazing). He might not be as developed as the original group, or even Abraham and Eugene, but he's one of the few people who doesn't seem miserable 99% of the time, and the set up at the beginning with him wanting to learn from the architect dude just seems like such a lazy cliche in light of what happened after

Having said that, this was a pretty solid episode. I loved Abraham stepping back into a leadership role so effectively (while not making everyone in Alexandria a raging asshole) and it was nice to see Carol dial down the crazy a little. Not sure I'm sold on the Gabriel plotline though - it seems like it should be obvious to Deanna that the guy is fucking crazy, though I suppose the fact that the supply run went so horribly - including the death of her son - might make her inclined to listen.

 

Morgan must be just around the corner.

Noah fucking died 'in' a revolving door. They aren't even trying to hide it anymore.

 

In their defence, it's probably not a deliberate thing and there are lots of outside factors to the unfortunate trend. Like Noah's actor got cast in the Criminal Minds spinoff, and Tyreese's in The Expanse; coulda asked to be written out. Or how Bob was going to be played by an old white guy as he was in the comics before Lawrence Gilliard went for it (and that's kinda amusing because it was probably planned out for Bob to die to the Hunters from the start, and in the comics that death was given to an old white guy. But in the end an old white guy got a black guy's death from the comics with Hershel/Tyreese, and a young black guy got the old white guy's death in the comics with Bob/Dale). Oscar was another "casting call was for white", and T-Dog? Blessed T-Dog wasn't even going to die in the episode he did. It was originally Carol, but her actress sold them on the character potential. Paid off, but still. Poor T-Dog.

Point is, it's far less malicious than the "kill the little blonde girl" trend. Probably. Nah. Though, in an alternative defence, Morgan's pretty worth it. Finale appearance hype.

 

I... I didn't see that coming. I honestly can say I don't know where the writers are going. I can see where they might go, but I don't know where they will go. Will Rick be banished? Will conflict with this W group prove him right? Both?

In that last scene, the way Rick was acting, the things he was saying... He was Shane. He was fighting someone for a woman, and he was basically espousing ruthless pragmatism as an ideology. I don't know how to feel about this. He was right to stop that guy and he was right about embracing the world as it is and trying to change it instead of hoping it will by itself, but he did it in the completely wrong way. He went a little insane, even though he's right.

I think that might be the inevitable here. You go crazy, you lose everything of the old world, or you die.

This show is getting more and more disturbing, to a level that is starting to get to even me. In most past episodes I was either pumped up or depressed, but this one just made me anxious, there was a mix of fear and adrenaline in that last scene. I normally am not afraid or uncomfortable in horror, but this show is starting to be able to evoke that in me. I like it.

 

It's amazing that some people can still consider Rick boring at this point - he's a fantastic protagonist, in literally every single scene this week he made me deeply uncomfortable with just how unhinged and disconnected he seemed. Even beyond the more explosive, batshit moments; that quick scene when he was just standing in the middle of the totally serene town just before he went back to talk to GenericBlondeLoveInterest, I was half-expecting him to just suddenly break down then, it was almost like he was dissociating. He's genuinely fucking scary, far more than the Governor ever was. Andrew Lincoln is great in the role.

Still rooting for him though. Everyone in Alexandria just seems wildly incompetent, and the whole "let's just exile the deranged wife beater and hope he doesn't come back" just seems cowardly to me, she's hoping that the outside world will kill him and it's just a senseless risk. Makes me maybe wonder if the people she talked about exiling before - I think it was three guys? - are connected to whatever psycho group is being set up in Daryl's subplot.

 

Rick is so thirsty.

 

Talk about a "talk shit get hit" ending; I know it was supposed to be serious but I burst out laughing. Regardless- great episode. I am READY for the finale.

 

So my mom just started watching the walking dead about a week ago, and she just finished season 2 episode 7, the episode when Shane broke the barn open and killed all the walkers. I was watching it with her, and I noticed the speech he gives before he does this is extremely similar to Rick's at the end of the last episode.

"If you want to live, if you want to survive, you got to fight for it."

I bet you don't even know who said it, Rick or Shane.

It was Shane, and it is pretty much exactly what Rick said in the last episode. Rick is Shane at this point. I'm wondering if Rick is going to die... He's going insane in the same way Shane was. It's almost an animalistic fury. I bet that they had Andrew Lincoln watch episodes with Shane in season 2 and had him try to channel Shane's character. I don't know if the writers are trying to say that Shane's mindset is the eventual outcome of living in this world or (and?) Rick has to die because he's gone off the deep end. If we use Rick's own advice, then he has to die, because banishing him won't do any good.

It would be very interesting if Rick is banished, joins the W group and uses it to take over Alexandria, becoming a villain. I think this course is unlikely, but it's where I would take the show.

 

Good thing Michonne is there to punch him in the face.

Bad thing is, Carol would probably kill Michonne if she thought she was impeding Rick too much.

Anyway, I really hope that the writers are aware of the very nice narrative spot they are in right now and don't fuck it up.

 

I hate Gabriel more and more. If we had gotten that cop he played on The Wire, that would have been cool.

 

Season 6 Trailer

#TeamRick

 

I don't know if it has been mentioned already, but there's a spin off that should premier in august: Fear the Walking Dead (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3743822/). From what I understand, it's in LA and tell the story of how the zombie apocalypse actually happened (which we missed because Rick was in coma).

 

Bumping for the new upcoming spin off show.

The clips and interviews I have read so far make it sound pretty sweet, although by the very nature of the show it is going to be a slow build up to action.

But the early review are kind of average.

I hope that is reflecting the initial slow pace and not the poor cast. I bet it will explode around episode 6-8.

 

It started well in my opinion. While it did start slowly, enough was already happening to make it interesting. The exposition of the family dynamics wasn't so interesting, but probably necessary.

Spoiler

The part with lots of people contracting a "flu" backs a fan explanation, that lots of people must have gotten and succumbed to the disease initially. All have it, but those alive at the beginning of TWD were those who didn't die from it initially. Otherwise, I think not enough people would die and come back for an unstoppable outbreak.

The beginning of society falling apart was shown nicely, with outbreaks happening and being ignored, first responders not knowing what they are facing, and panic spreading. Not dissimilar to World War Z, but some parallels are unaviodable. I also liked the outbreaks in the bottom levels of society (where possibly death is more common, and consequently are walkers), spreading the danger in the cities unnoticed at first, until the number of walking dead becomes critical.

 

Spoiler

I thought the opening sequence of Nick creeping downstairs and coming across his junkie GF eating someone was really, really well-handled. Of course, from there, it was a slow crawl as we found out about the two adults the series is centered around, their respective families, and saw a bit of the confusion at the onset of the virus.

Cool things: "The dead don't just get up and walk away."

"You better be dead"

Calvin v. Nick (which I did not at all expect when we were introduced to Calvin and was actually my favorite part of the pilot)

I look forward to watching the next few episodes, and I don't think it will disappoint. A lot of people seem to be finding fault with it so far, but I think they've just been spoiled by how epic the Walking Dead has become in recent seasons. You can't expect things to go in much the same way, and the differences between Rick waking up after a coma and us actually experiencing the downfall of society are going to be interesting enough to keep us... well, interested.

 

I think, for my part, I'm kinda looking forward to comparing these relatively innocent characters to their counterparts two seasons from now. Like, the characters in the mothership show and comic were all clean and civilised a few weeks into it all, and then got messier and bloodier. And here we start sometime before that, when people still believe civilisation isn't going to fall... Figuring out which characters from this lot will get apocalypse-y first and how far they'll go is going to be fun.

And I kinda watched the pilot like, trying to figure out what'd translate into apocalypse skills. Like, Nick's drug problem is a liability that'll cause problems a few times when he inevitably relapses at the worst time, but his escape from the hospital showed some ingenuity, he was quick to fight off Calvin and also run his walker down. And living on the streets and in drug dens like he probably gave him some idea of a less comfortable life, which could translate. Compare to his sister, who we're told is book smart. She's not exactly sheltered due to the family circumstances, but I think she'll have trouble starting off when civilisation falls. I'm rooting for her, though. You go girl.

As for Travis and Madison, I have high hopes for them too. I don't see either of them as going Rick-level hyper amazing competence, but they won't be like Alexandrian-level sheltered either. They've both got leader-y qualities, I'd think (Maddie the decision maker, Travis the guy who'd convince people). Probably co-leaders, and good ones if their personal relationship - which does seem solid - doesn't falter (it will, at some point, especially if Travis's ex-wife is still in the picture in their group, and for the drama). Travis did jump at exploring a drug den church at night with a flashlight, so can't exactly say he's lacking spine, and Maddie's got the teacher mom thing down so pat she's probably going to turn into a fearless walker killer just to deal with the repressed rage after years of bullshit.

So yeah, potential! Admittedly this first season's only six episodes, and will apparently end just as the apocalypse is finally set in, but things'll get messy from here on out. For now I'm going to enjoy the fact we're not following a comic, so we have no real or even vague idea of what's going to happen, or what to aspire to. And the little hints of civilisation slowly falling give off this unintentionally black comedy vibe, because these characters are going to be so sure everything's just fine... until it isn't. Yay!

 

Fear sure does have a lot of scenes where someone gets asked a question and instead of offering an answer that might explain the situation they say nothing or are vague as hell. Seriously, could that mom not tell her daughter was rebelling and obviously keeping her in the dark only makes things worse? I hate this trope because it pointlessly creates conflict that could be easily solved if someone would just open their fucking mouth and answer a damn question.

 

Last night in Fear of the Walking Dead, something actually happened that genuinely created conflict. Of course, we all knew that it was going to take a while to get the ball rolling, but, in part because of how slowly things have been moving, I was taken completely off-guard by the development(s).

Spoiler

The fenced in "safe zone" was a pretty cool way to inject some life into the program. Liza trying to get Ophelia and Nick help and ultimately screwing them both over put a really interesting dynamic on the show, now that Madison and Daniel are going to be pissed. And the mysterious person reflecting the light at them being shot up, I hope, will open Travis' eyes as to how dangerous the military personnel are.

Best episode yet. I'm looking forward to next week.

 

Also liked this episode best so far. While everything should have been safe for the moment (yes, we know it wasn't going to be), the tension is so much greater than just showing a standard zombie outbreak.

Spoiler

The light might have been a survivor that has been shot, or it might have been the soldier's killing place for all the people they took away.

While the soldiers seem to be similar to the soldiers in 28 days later, they seem mostly not so far gone yet, and there also seems to be some coordination left, as the electricity has to come from somewhere.

 

Srason 6 WD....

Not a fan of the black and white flashbacks. Are we too stupid to tell past events if you leave them in color?

Other than that, liked it. Eugene, now that he's not supposed to be a 'genius', I find more and more annoying and useless. Liked how Father Gabriel was just shut down by Rick/ Why couldn't we have gotten a preacher like Book from Firefly? That dude was a holy man with a shotgun.

And Rick, let this obsession wih the abused wife go. In RL killing the husband to get at the wife is kinda creepy.