The Walking Dead Season 2 Discussion *Spoilers*

No. I flipped through them and didn't find them very appealing.

Yeah, definitely the same quality; just not a dark horror theme.

 

Darryl is awesome, first he gets poked with his own arrow, fights off zombies while skewered, then pulls the arrow out (and doesn't bleed to death), stumbles back to the farm, gets shot in the head, and he's still ticking like the Energizer bunny. Time to start making "Chuck Connors is so awesome..." jokes for Darryl, he's displaced Rory Pond Williams for the honor.

Temis, though I agree Darryl's "Sumbitch was right" comment referred to Merle telling him to take the arrow out, it definitely looked like Darryl was snacking on a zombie arm/hand. I'm going to have to watch my DVD again tonight and pause to get a closer look.

 

It was the squirrel, not part of a zombie.

 

I understand that, I was sympathizing with Temis, that the quick shot they showed, it did indeed look like a hand and part of a forearm. That's why I want tos ee it again in slow motion/pause, so I can see it better, and understand why a squirrel looked like that.

 

Oh, okay, I misunderstood. Perhaps it was the way he cut the squirrel open? He was moving pretty quickly at that point, and cut it straight down from the neck then pulled it apart.

We know that zombies are attracted by sound, so they should be concerned. Dale has always kept lookout from the top of the RV with a gun as well, so I'm assuming it's generally a "last resort" measure to have it handy. The problem with Andrea here was that she wasn't thinking at all, even for the possibility that the guys were in trouble; she was just too eager to show that she could be counted on to protect the camp just like any of the guys, so she took the shot even though the sun was blocking her from having a clear, distinct look at the "walker." Since the guys did go out there with hand weapons, the sound issue shouldn't even need to be said, it should be understood - though apparently Andrea needs it told again.

 

It's worse than that; this was episode 5. And the most exciting thing we've got is the teaser for the barn situation, which based on the trailer for next week (plus dialog at the end of this one) looks like it's news that will be slow getting out, so pretty good chance that nothing big happens with that until the last couple minutes of NEXT week. Leaving about the last 20 minutes (my guess) of episode 7 for shit to come to a head, figure out the Sophia situation, and then have our group leave/flee the farm.

Hope the 2nd half of this season picks up a lot, as this has been a pretty disappointing offering so far this season. Not BAD, really, but just not enough going on. Just feels like the series is still stuck in that traffic jam from the premiere. If the stuff on the farm was progressing more (like expand that supply raid into town, or even the school raid), it would have been a nice change of pace while allowing the characters to rest up between flights of terror, but they've mostly just been aimlessly wandering in the woods.

Are the budget cuts to blame for what we've been getting here? In order to afford more sets later, or to pay for lots of zombie makeup for big 'event' episodes (like presumably episode 7), we've gotta spend extra episodes wandering around in the woods chatting without pesky things like sets, props, zombie makeup?

While I've generally enjoyed episodes individually (or at least not disliked them) they feel pretty watered-down when taken as a whole. Especially compared to Season 1. And it's not a factor of warm fuzzy memories, as I watched Season 1 for the first time the day before Season 2 started...

 

While I get what they were trying to do with hinting at development for Andrea (via spoilers from the comics here), the character's actions were about as dumb as you can get, and hopefully Rick pistol-whipped her when they got back to the RV. If she was going to take that shot (into the sun, without confirming the target, basically first rule of firing a gun, make sure you want to kill the thing on the other end before you pull the trigger), then she should have done it while the guys were still far away. At ~200 yards, she's the luckiest marksman around that she didn't plug one of the guys running out there. Lucky to hit anything at all, but nice shot, i guess?

Once the guys were close, you don't take that shot at ALL unless you can see it just mowing down the good guys, and you write them all off as dead.

Cool that they want to develop her into a super-sniper like the comics, but in-universe, none of the characters would let her even LOOK at a gun for a long time after the shit she just pulled.

-Didn't know for sure what she was shooting at
-Shot into a group of friendlies
-At extreme range, so can't be sure where the bullet is going
-Didn't need to shoot at all, as 4 guys with hand weapons went to handle it, and no need to fire a gun and ring the zombie dinner bell unless you have to.

No guns for you...

 

Oops, yeah. Not sure why I thought it was #4 when I made that first post. In any event, I'm still enjoying each episode individually (I don't get tired at all of watching any of these characters interact), but I have to agree that it does seem a little more aimless than season one. Perhaps that's the point, or perhaps, as you suggested, it's a result of the budget cuts. If I recall correctly, one of the news articles talking about those cuts included AMC asking if it would be possible to film more scenes in-doors; maybe this is how they tried to handle that situation.

In general, I'm fine with the show slowing down and taking a breath, since we do have more episodes overall for this season than we had in season one. At the same time, though, even as I'm enjoying individual episodes, I can see the criticism that the individual parts don't all seem to be adding up into a whole.

 

Based on the horrors of that world at large, I'm definitely fine with the characters needing to take a breath and have mini-problems in between the OMG run for your lives kinda moments. But since this was episode 5, that means 37% of the SERIES has been spent on the farm, and 45% of the series looking for Sophia. Not great math, story-wise

 

I just chalked it up to my depraved imagination. Can't recall ever seeing a human snack on a zombie in a zombie story, so that would have been a first.

As for Andrea being stupid, well, Our Heroes have pulled many idiotic stunts along the way - Shane and Otis not saving some firecrackers for their escape and the whole Timmy the Zombie farce for starters. And if Lori is pregnant because nobody thought to hit up a drug store for condoms, yeesh. These are just normal people trying their best to deal with an abnormal situation, and I doubt any of us would be faring much better.

 

Plus Herschel pretty much said that he was surprised that any of these guys survived as long as they have with the kind of stuff they keep pulling.

Although I'm not sure I buy that as a complete explanation. I mean, when you see something and right away roll your eyes, it probably means that a group of people shouldn't have done it. The well and the flares definitely fit into that category. Andrea's decision is high up there, but at least it was her own dumb mistake and that a group of people weren't going along with it.

 

It's poetic.

 

This show desperately needs better writing. The dialogue is often questionable and the cliches are abundant. It has such great atmosphere and it delivers the chills well but when it comes to characterization it's simply not up to the task at all. I want this to be a better show than it is but I'm thinking it's not going to get there.

Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy watching it but I feel like it could, and should, be so much better.

 

Wouldn't that turn you into a zombie?

 

I'm rooting for Dale and Andrea to get together. She's already mentally tried it on for size, when she threw it in his face that she's not his wife.

 

I definitely kind of agree. I know the book is always going to be better than the adaption, but the characters were the most interesting part of the comic. That's not the case here. The characters are actually very weak, especially Rick where is only quality is being the leader. Andrea is another one who was hurt a lot in the show. She was such a great character and now she's so boring.

 

Normally the older man with the younger woman thing would annoy me but Andrea and Dale are played by the two best actors on the show so the more of them together the better.

 

Eh, if they were determined, they could finesse it. The human digestive system is adapted to handle all sorts of crap, but getting bitten and having a virus injected directly in your bloodstream is a whole other thing.

 

Daryl, upon being shot in the head: "I was just kidding."

This was another great episode. Daryl's big adventure, including hallucinations, were very revealing (and it seems he hallucinates pretty easily-- too many shrooms in the past?). We're getting closer to finding Sophia, it seems. And poor Glenn-- reduced to sitting at the kids' table and passing notes.

The Zombie barn is creepy. You know they're going to be getting out soon. How did they get them in there in the first place?