The Walking Dead Season 2 Discussion *Spoilers*

[The Master of Tarquin Hill]

I thought it was a weak episode with a ridiculously implausible ending. It could just be nostalgia, but I feel that the first season was tighter than this initial offering. I hope that this season gets better.

edit: I have no idea why this was a 90min episode.

[Cutter John]

Oh boy! a whole new season of the most hated show on ther internet!

Can't wait to watch it later tonight.

[WeAreTheBorg]

Damn what an ending. I expected some kind of shock ending but not quite like that. Seems like maybe Carl will die and Sophia will be found safe in some twist of fate.

[FreezeC77]

The Master of Tarquin Hill wrote:

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I thought it was a weak episode with a ridiculously implausible ending. It could just be nostalgia, but I feel that the first season was tighter than this initial offering. I hope that this season gets better.

edit: I have no idea why this was a 90min episode.

I really liked the first season and was looking forward to the return and I guess I amped myself up too much because this episode was a *HUGE* let down. It was about 4 to 5 total minutes of zombie goodness with about 60-70 minutes of wandering around the friggin woods like I'm watching some kind of nature show.

[JWD75]

I thought that it was good, but it felt padded. If it had been trimmed down to an hour it would have been much better.

[DarthTom]

The Master of Tarquin Hill wrote:

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I thought it was a weak episode with a ridiculously implausible ending. It could just be nostalgia, but I feel that the first season was tighter than this initial offering. I hope that this season gets better.

Yea, agreed. I give it 7 out of 10. Considering the nail bitting episodes in the first season this was a sleeper IMO.

edited to add: Has anyone followed the comic book series? Are they following it closely? If so, I'd be more willing to give season two a get out of jail free card.

edit: I have no idea why this was a 90min episode.

Excessive amount of commercials.

[PsychoPere]

A damn solid start to the season. Watching everyone attempting to hide from the herd was pretty intense. How badass was it when Daryl came up behind and took out the zombie that was headed for T-Dog?

More and more, I'm glad that Shane is still alive (and to be clear, I didn't have an issue with his survival in season one past the point where he died in the comics). He's a definite wild card in this group now, torn between conflicting sets of emotions: his long friendship with Rick and sense of responsibility to the group, versus his feelings for Lori and jealousies towards Rick.

Andrea also seems headed down a somewhat different path than her character took in the comics, especially with her wanting to join Shane in splitting away from the group, her intention at suicide in the season one finale, and her subsequent (understandable) anger here at Dale. She's certainly already a much "harder" person than she was at this same point in time in the comics.

Still a little unclear as to what role T-Dog adds to the group dynamic, though I suppose that thirteen episodes this season, instead of the six last season, might present his character with a bit more to do.

Even though I was expecting the events at the end of the premiere to occur at some point this season, I still wasn't quite prepared for watching it happen in this episode.

DarthTom wrote:

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Has anyone followed the comic book series? Are they following it closely? If so, I'd be more willing to give season two a get out of jail free card.

For the most part, yes, they are following the comics closely. They've taken some interesting diversions, however, such as: Shane is still alive; Daryl and T-Dog are new characters; they met a Latino "gang" in Atlanta; they went to the CDC; we're needed for a new location earlier than occurred in the comics; and so on. I don't recall Sophia getting lost like this in the comics, or the general idea of getting stuck on the highway as occurred in the premiere.

[Agent Richard07]

- Saw the webisodes last night. Thanks for the heads up. I didn't know that the zombie crawling in the park was a woman.

- The episode did seem to drag a bit, (the same way Breaking bad did when it came back) but I enjoyed it. They did a good job of jumping back into the zombie threat.

- Was the budget really cut? It looked like they were trying to make full use of the car pile-up. Not complaining though. It was well done.

- Looks like they aren't afraid of getting some zombie blood on them. The rules still aren't clear at this point. Or maybe thery are and I forgot something. I don't remember all the details from last season's finale when they were at the CDC.

- I had more zombie dreams last night. Happened once or twice last season too.

- I didn't notice an excessive number of commercials.

[Agent Richard07]

PsychoPere wrote:

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A damn solid start to the season. Watching everyone attempting to hide from the herd was pretty intense.

Hiding under cars seemed kind of flimsy. I was worried that the zombies would smell them or notice something.

[sojourner]

They wasted most of the episode searching for the girl. Meh.

There is a good article on IO9 regarding why this episode turned out as it did. It was originally 2 episodes but apparently the first was so bad they salvaged the zombie horde part of it and then padded out the girl search to make a single 90 minute episode.

[Garak]

I thought that was a very lacklustre premier, given what we'd seen last season. Definitely didn't knock my socks off.

One of the problems is having kids present. Kids generally tend to ruin movies and tv shows for a variety of reasons, mostly because they can't act so it's tough for them to convey certain situations and they tend to be used as the cutesy thing for us to fawn over, which of course is entirely uneccessary.

Hopefully Carl snuffs it. I couldn't care less about finding little whatsherface either. If we're lucky the flesh has already been ripped from her bones.

Last night's episode just didn't stress me out like some of last season's better episodes did. The zombie pack walkthrough was pretty decent I suppose, but also lacked in a way I can't quite put my finger on. Maybe it's because no real progress was made in the episode, it seems they actually regressed going to look for whatsherface.

Shane's a bitch. That much is clear. Dude, it's the zombie apocalypse, get over your silly little feelings for Rick's wife and stop feeling sorry for yourself. The focus should be on survival, not your soap opera bullshit. "Waaaaah I'm going to slip out of here when no one's looking waaaaah." Jesus.

Redneck the hillbilly is actually turning out to be a pretty decent character, even though he drives the loudest kind of bike one can drive. And I am kind of sick of every tv show having someone who knows how to track people in the forest.

They should have given blondie the gun, who cares if she offs herself? Her choice, plus one less mouth to feed.

Other than that, this episode was pretty forgettable. Seemed more like a midseason filler episode rather than a season premier.

Hopefully they get their shit together.

[DarthTom]

Garak wrote:

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Other than that, this episode was pretty forgettable. Seemed more like a midseason filler episode rather than a season premier.

Hopefully they get their shit together.

Agreed. The exchange between Andrea and Dale I thought was very well acted where she blamed him for not allowing her to committ suicide.

I know that the story is about the characters more so than the Zombies but this episode was long in character devleopment and short on suspense which is what made season one so good IMO.

[sojourner]

I wouldn't hold out too much hope for Carl "snuffing it".

[Garak]

sojourner wrote:

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I wouldn't hold out too much hope for Carl "snuffing it".

And therein lies the problem with having kids in a prominent role. You know they're never going to get axed.

[marillion]

Garak wrote:

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And therein lies the problem with having kids in a prominent role. You know they're never going to get axed.

Usually, I would agree with you, but in the comics, Carl has a very important role to play, so I'm letting it slide here to see if it comes to fruition.

I agree also with the points made earlier about Shane just being a big bitch... If redneck boy can get over his racial predispositions, Shane can accept the fact that he's gonna be second fiddle...