I think the creators are having a great time with the whole, "We know our fan base is loyal because we are still riding the coat tails of season 1, so lets see how bad and confusing we can make this series and still get people to watch it religiously."
Yeah, I thought that was pretty clear. And like with the mother/daughter zombies in the women's shelter moment, another one of those well-done moments where they briefly bump into some other tragic story that gets told in a matter of seconds. I've been liking this season so far, and while I can see what people could complain about for the past three episodes I think they more or less worked. I didn't care about Beth enough to think she could carry her own episode, but I ended up getting into the hospital. And while I agree the Carol and Daryl one didn't really NEED to happen and the story could've been filled in another way, I still enjoyed watching it. Maybe just because I like those two characters best now, or just the nice change of pace of being out of the woods. The other episode was dumb, though. Unless you hadn't caught onto the fact that Eugene was lying ages ago, that really circled back to nowhere. But, for the most part, I like when they do these smaller stories. And it seems like it'll be going back to action-packed next episode anyway. But, I agree, it's time for there to be another unified group mission/over-arching plot. If they're not going to D.C for their original reasoning, I wouldn't mind them being on the move again.
I think the whole point of these "solo mission" epidodes is that these people can't ride solo, and will ultimately have to band together again to survive.
This season of TWD has been the best since the first season. They aren't jumping to fifty different storylines GoT style, they're underscoring a ton of shit with subtly with focused episodes. One of the best episodes of Breaking Bad was "The Fly" when Jesse and Walt were stuck in the lab for an entire episode. They're trying to move towards that so each episode can have a theme and point. As opposed to moving everything at once inch by inch. Anyone catch on to the million references to fire in Consumed or all of the season 1/episode 1 callbacks? The detail put into the shot of the Atlanta highway, now just at night? Also, Carol has come a long way storywise. This show has done a great job of her and Daryl bonding without making it a sexual relationship. A million other shows would have caved and done that. When Daryl told her to prove she was fine, I was scared she was going to hop up and kiss him. Also, Daryl is now teeing up from some character growth as they've discussed his past with his Beth/House episode and he's now in the middle of a Zombie apocalypse going to also work on himself. Self Help was awesome one of the two best episodes of this season. Really focused on those characters and gave them some growth. ROSITA FINALLY SAID MORE THAN 3 WORDS! Also, I wouldn't say the director was showing his hand early. I think it was more of the growth of the character. That guy has never, ever come off as a scientist. Just a dude with slight Aspergers. Showing that he was bonding with everyone, his growth there, his first zombie kill; all led to his reveal to the group, which wasn't a reveal to the audience. It was really a major shift of focus back to Abraham (more than Eugene) because it completely breaks his character in an interesting way, as you see how an ex army man refocused his grief/loss over his family with a mission. They've lightened way up on all of the philosophical bullshit and started actually adding layers to characters. Yes the hospital people with the exception of the doctor was 2 dimensional, but these last few episodes have been incredible compared to everyone else. This new showrunner and the writers have finally gotten their shit together. For once, I'm really caring about the bullshit that happens between the awesome zombie focused set pieces because it now matters. I'm excited at where this show is going and how its been this season. And after googling it around, it looks like all the previous TV show reviewers who have been shitting on this show since season 2, are all back on the bandwagon. That's a damn good sign.
Im really enjoying this season as well, and I agree with Parker's post. This is why this relationship is great. They love each other, but I can tell if its a sexual one or a brother-sister type one, and that dynamic makes the duo captivating. I dont how Carol went from one of the worst to one of the best characters in the show, but Melissa McBride is doing a great job. And overall, I really like how this show portrays the strong female characters in a positive way. Its refreshing to see without them being portrayed as harpy cunts that you hate. Its also interesting to see that the women get stronger and the men tend to fall apart in the apocalypse.
Lori is gone. Like I said, new showrunner Scott A Gimple is doing work on making this show better. Also, I fully support TWD just raping the fuck out of The Wire's IMDB page. Too bad Dominic West just got a gig, but there are 20 other people they can get from The Wire and add to this show I'd be fucking happy to see. J.D. Williams needs a job badly and so does Andre Royo. Jamie Hector would make a money villian right now, fuck, just have him play Marlow.
Herc just got finished with Boardwalk Empire. Too bad prop Joe died last year. Not that we didn't see that coming, or anything.
I enjoyed having the cast all back in one episode again. Effects department, give the people what they want! and I don't think I followed why Spoiler Father Gabriel felt he had to sneak out. Why didn't he just say, "oh, hey, before you decide to board everything up, I'm going to just go on my way, on my own."? Was he afraid they'd kill him for that? I'm also assuming that Chekov's nail that he stepped on will be bad, but I can't really see why.
Another lacklustre episode. I'm sorry but to the show runners want us to accept the weird cop bitch as some sort of season primeval? They got rid of the Terminus creeps faster than this. After a season opener for the ages, this is starting to have the boredom shades of Season 2.
I don't think Dawn is supposed to be a big bad guy. It's seems that some of the cops are decent people who turn a blind eye to the bad cops. This can lead to a more interesting conflict than "we need to stop/kill these evil people. It brings up questions of how do you manage a society in a situation with an extreme lack of resources and ever present threat. Also, having Daryl stopping Rick from killing the third cop shows how close to the line Rick is walking. I'm interested to see where they go with it. I also like how Glenn kind of took charge with his mini-group. He's affable and supportive, which makes him a better leader than Rick in some ways. You need some one like Rick for when shit goes down, but a more supportive steady hand like Glenn is needed in stressful, but not particularly dangerous situations. I enjoyed this episode, but it was a little slow as they're obviously building to a big showdown.
I actually liked that one. My favorite part of the whole thing was in the first few minutes when Spoiler Rick shot that dude right in the head. That's the Rick the group needs. And, when Spoiler Beth died, it was odd to me that I didn't really care. I knew that someone was getting killed, and as it got to that point, it wasn't really a surprise that it was her, so I think that was part of it. But, also, we hadn't seen her with the group or really do anything in the last several episodes that made me hope "gee, I don't want Beth to die." Watching the hurt on Daryl's face and Maggie's grief was more emotional that Beth's death. Oh well, press on.
It seems whenever there's a special focus on a certain character it's simply foreshadowing for that character's death. Season 2 was Sophie. Season 3 was the insanely clueless Andrea, The Governer in season 4 and now Spoiler Beth That was the best episode in weeks though, started off with pure badassery and ended predictably sad. For fucks sake, throw Mullitard to the fucking zombies already. Am I supposed to believe the lying neckbeard is going to live through the rapture while being too stupid to even TRY and fire a gun?
Well, you might also say that Rick is starting to realize that Spoiler Shane had the right idea about a lot of things. Except maybe the banging his wife part. Rick said all he had to do was stop. I think Rick kills him anyway. He did attack Sasha and potentially F up their plans.
(Just watched back to back episodes of the last two so I'll be mixing things) Now that the hospital storyline has concluded I can agree that the overall storyline could have been better. They had another episode to flesh out Dawn (I think the actress just couldn't bring it 100% necessary for this show) and the cops, it didn't round out to me. I wanted to learn about their vague exchange system, even a quick explanation. I also don't get how there were good cops/bad cops and the good cops just let the bad cops stick around because reasons. Also, one creepy cop just got replaced by another creepy cop. That fight scene was fucking awesomely choreographed. Also I liked Beth, I liked the idea of Beth, I don't understand why she turned to kill the cop lady. She was by no means the Guvner or close to it. Everything else in that scene was awesome to watch, then Beth goes and fucks it up because she doesn't like the lady's world view on things. Also just feel like TWD just needed to off someone because GoT is always breathing down their necks for body count and finale. Speaking of Beth, oh right, Maggie, you have a sister. Not sure if she thought Beth was dead or what, but it seems like since the hospital, it's been all "Glenn, where's Glenn? Glenn city bitch, Glenn Glenn City!!" and "whaa?!?! Beth? Then she finds out Beth is alive, starts crying, finds out Beth dies and starts crying. Anyone else think that she just took the "No more crying" approach to not knowing where her sister was or just completely forgot about Beth? Not a huge fan of Priest Sgt. Carver freaking out getting out of the church and basically just compromising all of the safety just to see what the world was like, but uh, he got caught out before. It's not like that's his first time out of the church, he raided the pantry in town. I just never like when they take a character and have them do a high risk low reward action, like go outside because their feelings. Other than that, everything with Rick this season has been awesome. The scene with Michonne and him before leaving the church was great, and the planning/negotiation was better. Now, historically, I'm concerned about the second half of the season, as this is where they've lost knowing what to do. They've taken all objectives off the table, but hopefully something comes up quick. Especially when Morgan catches up to the group and he's really close.
Do you not watch Talking Dead after Walking Dead? She was on two weeks ago, and she makes the rest of the cast look like filthy sewer people. Beth is hot. Maggie is wife material. Rosita? Different league.
It was hard to remember anything they said during that episode, because I just kept thinking, damn. Some girls can't really pull off that dolled up glamour look, but she killed it. And, it's hard to believe that Sonequa Martin-Green is 8 months pregnant in that picture.