ShivaX
1701
They’ll probably leave cause a massive herd will wander into the area or something.
Well, in that regard, at least, you can rest easy. By the time Darabont was fired forever ago, I think the first eight episodes were basically through editing and in the can, so if the creatives decided that it was a good idea for them to hang around Herschel’s boring ass farm for that many episodes, no kind of ratings could possibly have changed the plot as it was laid out.
Knowing how the comics worked, I’ve actually got sort of a loose idea of how I would draw things in and wrap up if I were writing.
comics story advanced points
Some sort of zombie infusion utterly demolishes the farm and forces them back on the road. They end up in the subdivision next for an episode or two and do a couple camping out. Tensions between Shane and Rick escalate continually. In the aftermath of his shooting and however they resolve the missing girl, Rick decides that it’s time Carl learned how to work a gun. Second to final episode of the season has a big fight between Shane and Rick, who have been sort of competing for Carl’s affections, that resolves with the “Stop hurting my daddy!” shot from the comics. Final episode wraps with them burying Shane and moving on, and last shot probably lands on the prison, which is the setting for season 3.
Of course, all of these things I think are probably ruined by the stranger in the promos for next week, so I’m probably already wrong.
Two big things made me stop watching this show: the first was the highway scene with the pod of zombies passing through where in the little girl runs. She runs across the highway and under a guardrail with two zombies who run across the highway and over the guardrail and all head into the woods.
Sheriff Hero Protagonist heads out after them. He heads across the highway and trips and falls over the guardrail rolling into the woods! He is completely destroyed by an obstacle easily navigated by a small girl and two zombies. This ties into the whole thing where not a single character is relatable or does anything I consider smart (they drive halfway through a car graveyard before realizing it might contain car parts let alone anything useful, the woman who complains they are looting corpses, the whole ten minute scene of the little kid reaching across a corpse to pull on a bag for ten minutes, they all hide under cars despite knowing that zombies can navigate under cars but not climb on top of them ect ect ect) I spend half of every episode screaming “Why would you DO THAT???” at the screen.
And the last episode I watched contain ZERO zombies for 45 minutes. I watched AMCs “The Walking” for 45 minutes before being rewarded with ONE zombie and an irritating, odd, slow mo zombie grappling session.
I started to not like this show in the very first episode, specifically near the end when Hero Sheriff Protagonist starts giving the black guy who saved him advice on how this new world works as they exit the Sheriffs station. I kept watching because Breaking Bad is so damn good so maybe it’ll get…why are you standing in full view of those zombies??
jason
1704
So first, you claim logic, and then you fail at logic. Yeah, it is kinda silly to have him trip when neither girl nor zombies did, but then, sometimes people trip. Then you would have them get on top of the cars, where the zombies can see them but may not be able to reach them. So now you have people standing on cars surrounded by zombies (at least fifty, probably more) which they will need to kill. And (unfortunately) this world already had zombies navigating stairs and climbing small obstacles (shit - season 1 had a zombie climb a chain link fence, which blows a huge hole in the prison stuff if they go that direction unless they just want to pretend that zombie didn’t climb the fence) and even on top of a tank, so climbing on cars might not be the best idea since the zombies will probably be able to climb up there… especially when hiding under the cars at least has the potential for the survivors to be unseen and the zombies to walk right by.
pg1
1705
Riding horses into town bugged me too, you’d think cars would be much more sensible especially since it seemed like Glenn wouldn’t have horse riding experience. I think I’ve been giving season 2 a pass up until now based on how good season 1 was. If it doesn’t turn around next episode I’ll probably stop watching. It finally sunk in how much worse this season has been so far.
walTer
1706
It’s funny how Daryl gets better and better with every episode while other charters get worse and worse.
I have not read the comics but I do hope creepy Vet dude turns out to be really creepy…and that they leave soon. I give the episode a 4/10 because the well scene was just so lame but sex plus Daryl’s flower scene were good.
I don’t get the love for the flower scene. That’s the one bit in the last episode that felt forced and lame.
walTer
1708
To me it was a …yeah I may be a redneck but that doesn’t mean I am an asshole scene. He’s a badass with a heart…heh.
Yeah but it served no purpose other than to make him look like a doofus, it didn’t add drama since they immediately cut to him running after her, he didn’t get injured ect nothing. Just some guy being a doofus. And RIGHT after the big black guy, being a doofus, tears his arm off on…something (the same character who tripped and dropped a key earlier) I mean am I supposed to connect with these clumsy, stupid characters? I know they’re not perfect but I don’t need to see them poke both eyes out tying their shoe.
The entire time he’s in the woods I’m thinking “You can’t find a stick? A rock? It’s TWO zombies!”
Hell, after he put the girl in the little cave thing the zombies even separated, one went down into the crick while the other went around. He couldn’t face ONE zombie with a stick, or rock at that point then wait for the other? Instead he runs fifty miles away, loses the girl, then hides from the zombies behind a tree(??) before coming up with the brilliant plan to hit the zombies with a hard object?
Then you would have them get on top of the cars, where the zombies can see them but may not be able to reach them. So now you have people standing on cars surrounded by zombies (at least fifty, probably more) which they will need to kill. And (unfortunately) this world already had zombies navigating stairs and climbing small obstacles (shit - season 1 had a zombie climb a chain link fence, which blows a huge hole in the prison stuff if they go that direction unless they just want to pretend that zombie didn’t climb the fence) and even on top of a tank, so climbing on cars might not be the best idea since the zombies will probably be able to climb up there… especially when hiding under the cars at least has the potential for the survivors to be unseen and the zombies to walk right by.
And earlier not a single zombie could climb a ladder when dozens were surrounding it. Get on top of the nearest car and bash skulls with the weapons they all had. We’ve seen zombies get under things before, hell Hero Protagonist Sheriff almost killed himself after making that mistake, you think that experience alone would have put him off the whole idea. Instead we see his idea fail and then, what a week, two, later he tries the exact same plan he knows won’t work. The guy on top of the RV looked nice and safe.
Pogo
1710
I bet you’re a hoot at the social gatherings that you have in your head.
drewl
1711
Well, valid points were raised.
I don’t care how hot the girl is, I ain’t having no sex unless I’m somewhere safe.
The behavior of the zombies hasn’t been consistant, and the humans just ridiculous.
Of course I’ll still watch, cause you know, zombies.
Even the wife likes the show.
I hope they explain why an entire army could not hold off the zombies, but this handful of (mostly) idiots has no problem.
These idiots (mostly) run from the zombies. An army would be tasked with holding a point. I could see why attrition would wear down the military if they didn’t run away.
We think of the military as having overwhelming force, but the greater Atlanta area has 5 million+ people. That’s A LOT of zombies to wear a defender down.
Never mind the idiots, I want to know why the cows didn’t get eaten.
They get hidden in the barn when zombies are about …
(heh;)
The zombie behavior varies by individual, based not only on what’s seen in the show, but also from interviews with Kirkman.
We actually did see some zombies climb a fire-escape ladder in episode 2 of the first season, and we’ve seen that maybe one out of ten are bright enough to climb a chain-link fence or use a big rock to smash a glass door.
The show seems to imply that your only two choices are to escape notice or to kill the ones that see you. The scene with the cars was wonky in that it seems that they should have had more time to hide, but ignoring that, sliding under the cars seemed like a better idea than lounging on a hood.
Kirkman mentioned that “fresher” zombies move a little faster - I wonder if those are the ones who are also a little smarter and more agile.
Athryn
1718
He also said they have a herd mentality, which can cause them to move faster and slower.
Shadarr
1719
I’m conflicted on the herd thing. On the one hand it annoys me because carnivores don’t form herds. A few like wolves and lions hunt in packs, but never more than the food supply can sustain. You never have huge herds of carnivores migrating aimlessly. On the other hand, I like seeing a lot of zombies.
I have less of a problem with the zombie behavior (because they have the excuse of being dead) than the humans’ behavior, but it amounts to the same complaint I have with a lot of TV and movies and games: characters being pushed around by the plot, rather than behaving in a way logically consistent with their personality. Why did Rick leave the girl and run off into the woods? So that the girl would get lost. Why don’t they all hit up a hardware store and get crossbows? Because it would remove the tension around when to fire a gun.
I’ve been enjoying Talking Dead (in a lot of cases, more than the actual show) but one thing that kind of gives me pause is the revelation that Daryl wasn’t in the comic book. Daryl is the only character who doesn’t suck, so if he wasn’t in the comic that means the creator really sucks at creating characters. That doesn’t give me much hope for the series improving.
Yeah, well, Merle wasn’t in the comic book either. That was also a straight-Frank idea. To contrast, the strongest episode of the show thus far - the pilot - was basically a shot-for-shot adaptation of the first issue. If there are structural problems, I’m not sure we can hang them entirely on Kirkman.
I don’t really think that Rick’s decision to lead the zombies away from Sophia was that tough to understand. Rick is operating under the assumption that he’s some sort of superheroic martyr figure responsible for taking care of all of these people. If he tried to fight the zombies within snacking distance of the girl, they could easily snack on the girl. If she’d just done what he said her to and stayed there for a while, he would have come back and gotten her just fine. If she had simply followed his instructions properly, she would have ended up at the highway. I suspect that what happened here is that a third party intervened and snatched her while she was running like a ninny (though I will admit that this is largely informed by one particular scene from the end-of-show promo for the upcoming episode, wherein there is included An Actor We Have Not Seen Yet, I think, unless that’s Merle, which it better not be, because I have managed to successfully block his physical appearance out of my memory, and if he is forced back upon me so soon into my recovery from the first exposure the consequences could be dire).
