Amph The Walking Dead and Spinoffs on AMC

First wanted to remark a little on last week's episode:

This. I loved those Governor episodes. And I wasn't opposed to the idea of a whole episode about Beth. I just didn't like this particular community. The subplots with Noah and with Dr. Edmunds were both kind of interesting, but Dawn was a horrible cartoon character in a horrible nonsensicle cartoon world that made no sense for the reasons other people stated. So it made it hard for me to take the threat of them very seriously. I look forward to Carol killing them all.

As to this week.... Ahh now we see what last week's storyline with the doctor was foreshadowing (as well as the Priest's deceptions). They've established a theme this season, starting with Terminus, about how survival in this world is not only about physical skills that we've often focused on in the past, but about your skill at deception. It's stated in the episode that everyone who's left now has to be strong to have made it this far, but we've seen in a few storylines that this just isn't true. The weak and cowardly can also survive quite well so long as they are willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that stronger people around them will die before they do. The only problem with this plan is that it can only work if you are smart enough that you manipulate people into thinking you have some other way to contribute to the group. Because if they find out what's going on... Well, this happens.

All these thematic pieces clicked in my head pretty early in the episode and then I just kept waiting for it to come out at the worst possible time. But I will give them props; before this episode, I never even considered that Eugene might be lying about being a scientist. He seemed so odd and out of place as a scientist that it seemed like it must be true. So kudos on both the character creation for Kirkman and also to the TV team for not tipping their hand on that.

It'll be very interesting to see where the season goes from here. I'm guessing this hospital stuff will take us through the end of the first half and then it seems like the second half will need a whole new goal and plot.

 

Good episode

 

Boring episode

 

I'm seeing the same plot device Peter Jackson is successfully using to bloat The Hobbit from a 2.5 hour film to a 7.5 hour trilogy;
keep separating you protagonists into small subgroups, hence numerous subplots which 'fatten up' an episode with dull, non-essential
dead-end, pointless dialog and useless action sequences. Too bad the walkers can't operate vehicles... the writers could kill ten minutes an
episode with gratuitous car chases. Still, the cast seems to overturn everything from hybrids to school buses on their own as required, so a
zombie NASCAR isn't necessary.

Enough of the protagonist subgroup routine...the writer's have pulled it several times and it's getting old. So are the 'every goal we set out on
turns out to be a delusion, a lie or a wild goose chase' cliches. I would enjoy watching a sequence of well-thought-out episodes with clever
plot lines and twists; however this sophomoric work being offered is beneath the potential of the series.

 

What I like about the show is the deliberate effort to connect the narrative dots. I like that they use somewhat Soderberghesque time jumping -- flashbacks and parallel narratives, etc. -- to connect those dots. It's cool.

What I didn't like about this episode was such a poor, cheezy effort to get inside Carol's head and shoehorn "Carol working through her issues" into an otherwise compelling storyline about finding Beth and developing a rescue plan/assault on the hospital. It came across as completely inauthentic to me. Jebus. Stay out of Carol's brain. It's a mess. And you're not doing it right.

 

It annoys me that characters still manage to crash and get run over by vehicles in a post-apocalyptic world where there's no more traffic.

 

That was the least shocking shocking ending so far.

 

Ehhhh I was hoping for more stuff to actually happen this episode. Slowest season.

 

I agree with you. Last season was the slowest.

 

Sasha's stupid decision seemed almost out of character. You'd think that everyone in Rick's group (minus Gabriel) would have better sense by now.

 

Yeah...I really don't know why there weren't more people in the same area as Sasha. I guess it'll really matter next episode?

 

I think this latest episode holds a Walking Dead record... almost everybody got to point a gun at somebody else, or got knocked
unconscious, or stared off into space, or yelled, or all of the above. And yet another gun battle with automatic weapons at pointblank
range and no one got shot?

Give Carol another skyrocket... she hits things.

 

Solid episode.

 

Even the most sensible people make stupid mistakes. Especially when their minds are elsewhere... like Sasha's.

 

the "be stupid so I can escape" moment was frustratingly predictable, but I enjoyed the episode overall. I liked the split between the groups as their stories reconverge. or at least I hope Glen's group reconverges.

 

Can't wait for Rick to kick some cop ass.

 

It isn't a Walking Dead episode if it doesn't have characters doing stupid things.

 

I stopped watching about a month ago. Some one let me know when the writers learn to exercise independent thought and make it interesting again.

 

No, I'm not going to do the hard work for you. If you want to know when the writers learn to exercise independent thought and make it interesting again you're going to have to watch it like the rest of us.

 

Street walkers. lol

 

Kirkman sez Maggie too busy / thinks Beth is dead anyway. I buy it. Enough. Kinda. I guess.

 

Spoiler

I should have figured that when Michonne told Maggie that Beth was alive that she'd be a goner.

 

You *******s, you made Daryl cry! Not cool.

 

That ending was heartbreaking

Plus

Spoiler

MORGAN again!

 

This show is such crap. Started fairly strong, but then meandered into essentially nothingness as the mid-season finale. If they keep this stuff up next half season they'l have lost me as a viewer.