Walking Dead on AMC

[Tin_Wisdom]

Which is a shame since the show did such a good job casting Michonne and Tyreese, essentially choosing real-life doppelgangers for their characters.

A tangent from the conversation, but it’s interesting that you say that.

Michonne, I’ll grant you, was a good match from the book - tall, lean, and alternately menacing or compassionate. Danai Gurira was a great find for the role. [as an aside, her IMDB page says she’s only 5’7"… I wonder if they shoot her differently to make her look taller, or if it was just my superimposing my own expectations?]

Tyreese on the other hand, doesn’t really fit the book’s character much at all – physically or personality-wise. The comic Tyreese was a former linebacker for the Bears; tall, handsome, and heroically proportioned. He was hot-tempered, tended to lash out physically, and had trouble keeping his pants on whenever there was an available lady around.

Chad Coleman is a great actor and I am very glad that they got someone of his caliber on the show. But other than being African-American, there is little about Coleman’s Tyreese that mirror’s the comic version. Sure, the TV-Tyreese is shown to have a bit of a temper, but otherwise he seems to be doggedly loyal to his sister and the lone love interest. The TV Tyreese hasn’t had the same love-hate leadership issues with Rick that were portrayed in the comic.

These are good things, as I think that Kirkman didn’t know where to take Tyreese in the comics, whereas the TV writers seem to have some vague plan. Maybe.

[hepcat]

I have to agree with Tim. The actor playing Tyreese on the show is fantastic, and he’s doing a great job. But they’ve changed that character quite a bit from the comics.

[Desslock]

Tyreese on the other hand, doesn’t really fit the book’s character much at all – physically or personality-wise.

Kirkman actually modeled the character after the actor, and was just lucky to be able to get him for the show, so he couldn’t possibly resemble the creator’s intentions more. \

I’m not talking about the writing - clearly Tyreese in the comics and show have been written differently, although that was largely because the show kept Shane around so he fulfilled the role taken by Tyreese in the comics.

[tgb123]

Oh, shit.

[Gus_Smedstad1]

Oh, shit.

This used to be quite common. To the point where there were patents for coffins designed to let people know you’d made a mistake.

The nature of this invention consists in placing on the lid of the coin, and directly over the face of the body laid therein, a square tube, which extends from the coffin up through and over the surface of the grave, said tube containing a ladder and a cord, one end of said cord being placed in the hand of the person laid in the coffin, and the other end of said cord being attached to a bell on the top so that, should a person be interred ere life is extinct, he can, on recovery to consciousness, ascend from the grave and the coffin by the ladder; or, if not able to ascend by said ladder, ring the bell, thereby giving an alarm, and thus save himself from premature burial and death; and if, on inspection, life is extinct, the tube is withdrawn, the sliding door closed, and the tube used for a similar purpose.

[gameoverman]

Hmm, there’s something weird about that story. A guy is laying there, maybe dead maybe not, a paramedic can’t find a pulse…then the next step is “You’re dead” and off to the funeral home you go, next stop embalming???

Isn’t there supposed to be a determination of cause of death unless a doctor is present or it’s in a hospital? Plus, if I’m a paramedic am I really going to declare death knowing my word is final and based on nothing but whether I can detect a pulse? Don’t I have something to hook up to him to see if he’s flatlined or something? It’s not like we’re living in the middle ages here…well, it IS Mississippi I guess…

[tgb123]

I can’t believe you guys are buying into this so-called “explanation”. You think The Man is going to tell you what’s really going down, once the dead start getting up and looking for breakfast? You guys can believe this bullshit all you want, but as for me, I’m stocking up on plenty of canned food, ammo, heavy melee weapons, and duct tape. And I am NOT letting you in. Not even Tom.

[Tin_Wisdom]

Especially not Tom.

[DrDel]

I have run many code blues. I have seen a lot of freshly dead people.
You wouldn’t believe how difficult it is to feel for a pulse (even carotid). And with the so-called “obesity epidemic” it is even tougher.

[tomchick]

That was the worst song ever. Why would you end such a sublime episode with what sounded like some stupid Weird Al Yankovic song?

-Tom

[strummer]

That was the worst song ever. Why would you end such a sublime episode with what sounded like some stupid Weird Al Yankovic song?

-Tom

Wow. No love for The Mountain Goats.

[tgb123]

That was the worst song ever. Why would you end such a sublime episode with what sounded like some stupid Weird Al Yankovic song?

-Tom

I was too focused on how lousy the singing was to really listen. Who was that guy, anyway?

[hepcat]

Tom Waits must be the worst singer in all of history, considering some of these comments.

Anyway, enjoyed the look into Daryl’s psyche. And I could listen to Daryl and Merle stories all night.

[strummer]

I was too focused on how lousy the singing was to really listen. Who was that guy, anyway?

It was the Mountain Goats. And while I really enjoy their stuff, they certainly aren’t for everyone. Likewise, I’m not sure the song was the best fit.

A couple more obvious choices of theirs would have been This Year or No Children or Damn These Vampires or Hast Thou Considered the Tetrapod.

[tgb123]

Tom Waits must be the worst singer in all of history, considering some of these comments.

Even you must admit Tom Waits is an acquired taste, and not for everybody.

[hepcat]

BLASPHEMY! His version of Downtown Train alone is accepted worldwide as musical perfection. Right now people are taking to the streets in protest to your insult. I’m going to provide them an effigy of you. Do you have a preference? Adult or kid tgb?

[SlainteMhath]

The song was Up The Wolves by the Mountain Goats. I kinda like the song in it’s entirety, more for the musical element than the vocal, as I agree the guy has a rather distinctive voice that perhaps isn’t the most melodic. In any event, it didn’t seem to fit the mood of the scene nearly as well as say Ben Nichols Last Pale Light In The West for the Governor’s wandering song or Civilian by Wye Oak which was used in Season Two in the fantastic lone walker in the field seen by Shane out the car window scene. The music selection in the show is very hit or miss, there have been some real clunkers that totally obliterate the mood of the scene they play during, but last night’s wasn’t one of them, it was just sort of there…

Music aside, I enjoyed the episode overall. It was a very revealing look into the motivations and mindsets of both Beth and Darryl. With Darryl we discovered pretty much what we’d suspected all along, that he had existed for so long in Merle’s shadow that he knew no other way to be. Then the ZA came along and in time he found purpose and definition to his life because of his association with Rick’s group, and when the prison was overrun, Darryl felt he failed in that purpose, that once again he’d failed someone he loved, just as he felt he failed Merle when he finally found him again. For a character that didn’t even exist in the comics, Darryl has had some of the most profound and emotional scenes in the entire series.

Beth’s scenes were every bit as good last night. In a strange syncronicity with Darryl, she too was deprived of purpose when the prison fell. No longer able to take care of the baby, help her dad or even bicker with her sister, she’s left wondering why she of all people seems to survive when so many other seemingly capable people have not. With no clear purpose, and Darryl sunk into his own deep depression, Bath decides to create a purpose for herself, and do something she was always denied during her life before. At first I thought the whole “I’m going to find a real drink” thing to be ridiculous, until I realized it was a manifestation of what was wrong with both Beth and Darryl in the episode. The country club was yet another setting where I wish Walking Dead had some kind of wiki or web element where I could see how things went down for the people there, as the glimpses we got hinted at a pretty interesting story.

In the end, the scenes at the still shack were some of the best written and acted scenes in the show to date, and I felt they really helped develop both characters a great deal. Darryl became even more sympathetic (if that’s even possible), and Beth went from a character that was damn near scenery in previous episodes to someone I now care about and want to see survive (plus who would’ve guessed she was a firebug when drunk?!). Each of these episode since the show’s return seems to be attempting to develop characters and draw us into them further, which is good and bad, as just as we get re-invested in the characters the season will be over again.

[corsair]

That was the worst song ever. Why would you end such a sublime episode with what sounded like some stupid Weird Al Yankovic song?

-Tom

Stylistically, it doesn’t do that much for me, but it seemed to perfectly fit the themes explored in the episode.

[tomchick]

In the end, the scenes at the still shack were some of the best written and acted scenes in the show to date, and I felt they really helped develop both characters a great deal.

I think it was easily one of the best episodes the show has ever had. Focused on two very good actors in non-comic booky roles, strong writing, a fine balance of zombie survival and human drama, distinctive sets starting with the ruined car on the side of the road and ending with the burning moonshine shack, thematically powerful, visually striking (the nighttime lighting, the ruined country club), informative.

But that song was tonally out of sorts with everything else. What a ridiculous way to close out the episode. Someone fire the music director – or whatever the equivalent is – for smearing his greasy aural thumbprint on a beautiful photograph.

-Tom

[nogwart]

Music aside, I enjoyed the episode overall. It was a very revealing look into the motivations and mindsets of both Beth and Darryl. With Darryl we discovered pretty much what we’d suspected all along, that he had existed for so long in Merle’s shadow that he knew no other way to be. Then the ZA came along and in time he found purpose and definition to his life because of his association with Rick’s group, and when the prison was overrun, Darryl felt he failed in that purpose, that once again he’d failed someone he loved, just as he felt he failed Merle when he finally found him again. For a character that didn’t even exist in the comics, Darryl has had some of the most profound and emotional scenes in the entire series.

Beth’s scenes were every bit as good last night. In a strange syncronicity with Darryl, she too was deprived of purpose when the prison fell. No longer able to take care of the baby, help her dad or even bicker with her sister, she’s left wondering why she of all people seems to survive when so many other seemingly capable people have not. With no clear purpose, and Darryl sunk into his own deep depression, Bath decides to create a purpose for herself, and do something she was always denied during her life before. At first I thought the whole “I’m going to find a real drink” thing to be ridiculous, until I realized it was a manifestation of what was wrong with both Beth and Darryl in the episode. The country club was yet another setting where I wish Walking Dead had some kind of wiki or web element where I could see how things went down for the people there, as the glimpses we got hinted at a pretty interesting story.

In the end, the scenes at the still shack were some of the best written and acted scenes in the show to date, and I felt they really helped develop both characters a great deal. Darryl became even more sympathetic (if that’s even possible), and Beth went from a character that was damn near scenery in previous episodes to someone I now care about and want to see survive (plus who would’ve guessed she was a firebug when drunk?!). Each of these episode since the show’s return seems to be attempting to develop characters and draw us into them further, which is good and bad, as just as we get re-invested in the characters the season will be over again.

Agree with all of this completely.

Also, I was very glad to see that they didn’t close the episode with romance, while keeping the option open for later exploration. A Carol/Beth catfight would be quite entertaining.

But, I was a bit disappointed in Beth’s reaction to her first experience with alcohol. If she’d never tasted any alcohol before, there is no way she could have taken even small sips of moonshine so casually. I was expecting coughs, gags, "Holy Shit!"s, perhaps even vomit, but she drank it like it was Kool-Aid. As one who has partaken of genuine moonshine, I can say with fair confidence that even someone with a long relationship with strong alcoholic beverages will exhibit a least a grimace of respect at their first swallow of moonshine.