You know what the best part of watching this last episode was? Reading the katana post for the first time, one of the better posts in a while. The episode however was pure shit, the only thing that would have saved it would have been the governor getting his throat cut at the end. But of course that wouldn't happen, when is Game of Thrones coming back on?
I'm cool suspending my disbelief that these are untrained "average Joe" shooters. The fact that they can't hit shit in a gunfight and have the tactical ability of a Somali militia doesn't bother me either. What bothers me is that their capabilities are whatever the writers deem convenient. I remember more than a few episodes where Andrea, Rick, etc made consistent 50 yard headshots with a pistol, on the movie against zombies. That shit is fucking hard. Even after all the instruction I've had and attending quarterly refreshers, I'd have a hell of a time making those shots standing still. Unless you are Kyle Lamb or some shit-hot CAG/DEVGRU guy, you sure as fuck aren't doing that at a jog. However, these guys pull it off effortlessly episode after episode. It's TV, that's fine. My problem is if you are going to give them the ability to shoot like Tier-1 operators then stick with it. Make the gunfight quick, brutal and badass. Have Maggie come out the door and service the guy in the guard tower like she's a fucking stud. The Governor sees they are not to be fucked with and bugs out. It literally changes nothing for the overall story except now the audience isn't scratching their head going "what the fuck?" Also, why did the bad guy in the woods just walk away when Rick was fighting with the zombies? Throw a couple rounds in him to make sure he's dead. It felt like a bad action movie where the super-villain leaves the hero to die in an overly-elaborate manner without sticking around to make sure it happens. The laziness of the writing is losing me fast.
Guys, if you know anything about AMC. The shittiness of the gun fights has NOTHING to do with execution/lazy writing. Its all about the benjamins. Hence the smoke all the time. They can't afford to do anything more without it looking worse than it is. End of story. All the money goes to the zombie special effects. Actually same thing with why they've been in the prison and Woodbury so long, why they keep using that same goddamn road and piece of forest. It all comes down to the fact that Dish Network not paying AMC cost them a ton of money, and they only have 1-2 shows on at any given time that are doing anything for them. You fuckers better start watching Comic Book Men and Freakshow so we can have better gun fights next season!
Not sure I follow. That gun fight seemed to go on and fucking on, with almost no one getting hit, making it more unrealistic by the second, even with the suspension of disbelief of a zombie apocalypse/expert child shooters. Wouldn't a shorter, more realistic battle where grass and wood doesn't provide adequate cover, and bullets are at a premium (for once), cost less (and be better writing)?
Re: Re: Walking Dead Season 3 That's been mine thought too, also they always talk about being short on bullets but when scenes like these come up bullets just get sprayed everywhere. It's unfortunate that the show has taken a shitty turn, I used to pay attention while watching and now I find its just something on in the background while I fuck around online.
To be fair, that's how most gun battles work. Depending on your source and your conflict, we're talking anything from 500 to 50,000 rounds expended per kill in pretty much every major war of the past 200 years. It's not the firefight in itself that's unrealistic, it's the fact that it doesn't contrast fairly with their in many ways supernatural zombie-shooting abilities. Suppressive fire (which is what most of the shooters in that scene were laying down) is basically the bedrock of modern infantry tactics. Assuming the Governor's men were trained by someone ex-Army, and that Rick's group were trained by Shane (who was ex USMC I think?) then it makes sense they'd be trained to do that. The only Army in recent memory I can think of that advocated a "one shot one kill" doctrine was the British Army in Burma during the Second World War ("one bullet, one Jap" to be precise) and that's only because their lines of supply were stretched virtually to breaking point. So yeah, there's plenty to be mad at the show for, but I really don't think the firefight is part of that. Or at least not THAT part of the firefight. You could argue that the zombies were the flanking element of a standard platoon-level "suppress and outflank" manoeuvre.
For the majority of gunfights and the situations we see on The Walking Dead: not really. Most gunfights follow the 7-7-7 rule: 7 yards, 7 shots, 7 seconds (or less). The closer the fight happens, the faster and more violent it will be. Protracted gun battles are pretty rare, especially for civilians and law enforcement. Being accountable for where all your lead goes is a big fucking deal; you don't spray at a target and hope for the best. You take aimed shots. It's kinda hard to find anything good on Youtube to directly illustrate this, but here are two training examples from high-speed law enforcement/.mil classes that are pretty fucking close. The first video is fighting from a vehicle out to 50 yards. They shoot fast, but controlled. Movements are coordinated, calm, and people talk. The second video is fighting at extreme close range (inside a vehicle) and is a vastly different reality from what you see on TV. Much faster, cruder, and more violent.
That was a great episode. Finally we know what happened to Morgan. Actually, this might be the best episode since the pilot or the season 1 finale. Even the A.V. Club gave it an A. THEY NEVER GIVE ANYTHING AN A! Man, I can't even process this now, but this shit was just all kinds of awesome. Whoever wrote that episode and directed that episode, those two should be given all of season 4. Holy fuck that was great. I mean part of it was they finally gave Michonne a dimension, and they basically pulled a Breaking Bad by focusing on a small group of characters and keeping all the action in one place.
Shock of getting hit with a bullet close range to his heart? No idea. What is this HOUSE M.D. NOW? GOSH! Apparently the guy who wrote this episode is the new showrunner for season 4. That's promising.
Could've hit his head when he was knocked down by the bullet. Regardless, solid episode all around. Morgan has some seriously creative zombie-trappin' skills, too.
He's crazy like a fox. This guy is such a fantastic actor. Please let this not be the last we see of him.
Good news for you. The writer of that episode is replacing Mazzara as the show runner. If he can make these people actual characters like he seems to be trying to do, I'm really excited about this going forward.
First Darabont, now Mazzara gone. Darabont left over money, but I guess Mazzara wanted to take the show a different direction than it is going to go. Idk how I feel about their reduced budget for season four. They are making big rack off of this show, I wonder why they would reduce what they spend, and risk reducing the quality of the show? Seems stupid to squeeze margin on something still peaking. Good episode, though.
ZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZzzzZZZZZZZZZZZzzzZZZ. Yes, I get why this episode was necessary, and the banter between the two groups as they bonded was well-executed, but come the fuck on. They did not need to drag this shit out for an entire hour. We know that another showdown is inevitable anyway.
Didn't make it all the way through the episode, I switched to Netflix (Heart of Archness) with 15 or so minutes left because I knew it would be more of the same. Fucking boring.
No plot progress. No character development. Andrea still alive with the medical weasel. Still using the terrible FWD Hyundai. Unacceptable.
I liked it. You realise this was the first time that the main protagonist and main antagonist met face to face all season, and it was episode 13? It had a lot of long, slow tension. The gun taped to the table, maybe the Gov. brought some Iocaine powder for the whiskey. We all knew how it was going to play out, but the tension of it maybe going off a different way kept it interesting. At this point, I think Andrea has to go back to Woodbury with a message of subversion. "Hey, the Governor is a fucking psycho for reasons X, Y and Z. Don't fight for him." Plus, some sweet Lauren Cohan sexytime is always nice.
I can't say I agree. Yes, this is the first time they met face to face, but the long and the short of it was: Governor: "Back down!" Rick: "No you back down!" Governor: "You attacked us!" Rick: "We don't negotiate with terrorists!" Governor: "Wanna give up one of your group and I'll totally back off because everything you've heard about me says I'm trustworthy and I'll keep my word and this is really super duper not a trap pinky swear?" Rick: "K." Every time it was like they tried to artificially crowbar in some tension and then immediately felt scared about what they'd done and resolved it instantly. Hey look! Daryl and Hispanic Dude don't like each other! Will they fight? No never mind, they bonded over killing zombies and menthol cigarettes. Oh, Merle wants to go hit the governor while they're at their meeting, shit will certainly go down then! Oh wait no, they've beaten him into submission and he's changed his mind. Also, it's annoying me that despite it being God knows how many hours since we've first met him, we still have no idea WHY the governor is such a sociopath. Sure he's lost people, but that doesn't explain it - so has everyone else who's functioning fairly normally. All we get is the occasional hint that doesn't really explain shit. Oh, you were working for a boss younger than you and you were bitter? Your wife died and you didn't get to say goodbye because you were busy at work when she had her accident? Yes, these things suck but they do not, as a rule, turn you into someone who likes to have people offed so he can put their reanimated heads in a tank and stare at them for meditation purposes.