Review: The Walking Dead – Season 2, Episode 13: “Beside the Dying Fire”

The season finale of “The Walking Dead” was, for lack of a more captivating word,  fantastic. It was beautifully photographed and choreographed packing the right amount of action with solid narrative. It was very reminiscent of the types of episodes we got to see in season 1. In fact, this was the best episode since the pilot.

Iconic Shot Into Atlanta

I couldn’t care for most of the second 2 and its soap opera/love triangle/who is the father of my baby/the jilted ex lover going psycho/Days of Our zombie Lives stagy drama about basically two Alphas being engaged in a “who has the bigger dick” debate.

Or that dumb kid Carl roaming around the farm in the zombie apocalypse unsupervised for no other reason than to move the plot along when convenient; or the trite, oftentimes idiotic and hollow dialogues apparently written by a bunch of college freshmen who still haven’t taken that “Writing 140 for Freshman” class read any literature other than comics it seems; or how the entire season was about those three above mentioned people and their petty problems while the other characters were grossly neglected and in fact were slowly moved to the background becoming mere props and scene fillers while Rick and Shane worked out the question of who exactly has ownership of Lori and Carl.

I didn’t care for any of that and most fans of the show didn’t either. Season two was mostly slow and uneventful with boring episodes interspersed sparsely with real thought and engagement.

But the finale almost made up for all those comatose episodes. This episode was intense, dark, scary, heart-breaking and terrifying – all at once. I was nailed to my seat the whole time, which I can’t say of any of the other episodes in this season really.

A few thoughts:

- Lori has got to go. She is selfish, unreasonable and ungrateful. An overall unlikable character and actress. Totally miscast. She is a terrible mother (she fucking never knows where Carl is),  disloyal wife, lousy friend and she’s always treating Rick like crap.

Even in the pilot, when Rick talks about her and what she said to him in front of their son and when she herself, in flashbacks, talks about her marriage and what she said to Rick, it is evident that she treated him like crap all the time. She slept with Shane a couple of days after her husband was murdered and when the shit hit the fan, she refused to take any responsibility for it and instead hid behind Rick to fix it.

A few episodes ago she pillow talked Rick into getting rid of Shane or doing something about him. Now that he did fix it – and that only in self defense – she is all upset and disgusted and looks at him like he was the worst human being. Urgh. This woman. I cant wait for her to turn into the zombie she really is at heart.

Daryl and Carol

- Carol is meek and annoying. I am tired of her victim, door-mat mentality. She always complains, whines and blames others for not doing stuff for her: whining to Rick, whining to Daryl. She never does anything but clean and cook and whine. Daryl was right “What do you want?” What does she want? She is stabbing Rick in the back for no apparent reason and questioning his dedication and leadership. Rick only treated her with utmost kindness and respect, he never raised his voice on her. And it wasn’t his fault Sophia got out from under the car and ran into the woods and then again moved even though he told her to stay put.

And so what he lied about the virus? That doesnt make him someone “who is capable of anything. “

I thought Carol’s character was interesting at first but I don’t see it going anywhere except for her just instigating hate and making people turn on each other. She strikes me as one of those people from the Salem Witch Trials who just screams “witch” and everyone listens to her because she is quiet and calm otherwise.

I also don’t get what the deal is with Daryl and her. What does Daryl see in her? And what does she want out of him? Love, romance, protection? What?

- I like Maggie. I didn’t at first but she is cool and she finally grew up and she has integrity too.

- I don’t like that they are trying to make Rick sound mean or as some sort of a second Shane. They all looked at him like he was Ted Bundy when all he did was defend himself. I mean, the guy was being led to the woods to be murdered by his best friend who was after his wife and son. And people look at him like it was his fault. Rick gave everything for the group; he has character, integrity and loyalty – which is more than can be said of a lot of people here – yet the first respite they get, they blame him.

- Andrea is a trooper. I love her. She is the only woman who doesn’t act like a stereotype and like she couldn’t take a step without a man telling her or ordering her to – like Lori and Carol and those farm girls (except for Maggie). Lori is an idiot who defines herself based on the men she sleeps with it. Carol is meek, but Andrea, she risked her life to rescue Carol and she made her way out of that terrifying chaos surrounded by Walkers; on foot no less. She kept running and running and the whole time I kept thinking “how does she do that, she is amazing.” She is a fighter to the last minute and she has character and is loyal.

It strikes me as bizarre that everyone is always interested in Lori and Carol and that throughout most of season 2 Andrea’s character was neglected.

Andrea has great leadership potential  and is overall just a great and quite intriguing character. If Rick takes his head out of Lori’s ungrateful ass for once and stops being hung up on making her happy, he will see that and actually work with Andrea as opposed to ordering her around. I think they are all taking her for granted but they know that if push comes to shove, she is “the man”. Remember Rick entrusted her last episode with keeping an eye on Shane. He knew he could count on her and if you noticed, he doesn’t talk to her the way he talks to the other woman. He talks to her like she is one of the guys. She should go out there with Daryl too taking down Walkers – they’d make a great team.

- Glenn is cool. I have always liked his character. He was made to be meek halfway through season 2 but they picked up his character finally.

- Hershel is cool too. I forgive him his references to christ and the bible. He is an old man set in his ways and he views the world from that angle he was indoctrinated into, even though I think he actually has come to terms with the fact that all that christ stuff is nonsense at this juncture.

I sincerely hope the writers don’t venture out into soap territory come season 3 and are able to keep a deft balance between character development and adventure. The slow parts should built up to something like we have seen in this episode. In fact, this episode is great because they have moved away from that petty party that was the farm and the love triangle.

Where to now?

I understand that not all episodes can be about running away, but the focus of the show must shift from soap opera drama into survival and overcoming real life and death challenges as opposed to bickering internally. Confclit is good but it shouldnt hijack the show’s overarching theme.

The Walkers have to also be treated as another character as opposed to the incidental backdrop for these characters to work out their petty quarrels and for the producers to check off their list that they made an appearance for posterity in any given episode.

I also hope they actually use Daryl, Andrea and the other characters more during the next season, develop them and their friendships and roles in the group. It is a shame a lot of them were neglected so badly that the actors playing them (Jeffrey DeMunn and Jon Bernthal) felt the need to quit.

This episode introduced an important character form the comics, Michonne, who is seen in one shot here saving Andrea with two zombies in tow as pets almost. It had a very comic-y feel to it and I am afraid that this might be the direction the show will take on in season 3.

I always thought that one of the strengths of this show was that it depicted a sense of “realism”.  There weren’t any instances of magic guns with unlimited ammo, there weren’t really illogical twists, there was emotion with the death of friends and loved ones, and there was a feeling of doing whatever it takes to survive. In fact, when I was watching season 1, everything made sense and I felt like I had to suspend disbelief minimally. I was totally blown away because that is rare.

But as season 2 rolled along,  making it the disappointment it has been for the most,  I felt that I had ot suspend disbelief quite frequently, which I must says has been a contributing factor of my stark criticism of season 2 thus far.

I still love the finale but eventually all this bad writing and sloppiness has been catching on, such as stealthy zombies, or Daryl saying “I got a tip Sophia is in this direction“, as if there existed some sort of a zombie tip off hotline in the apocalypse, Rick and that horrible woman Lori letting Carl roam around without supervision in the zombie apocalypse, a zombie tearing off a man’s chest cavity with his bare hands, not having a contingency plan or meet up point in case the farm is overrun, risking Glenn getting killed in the well with the dead Walker even though the contamination had already occurred and there was fresh bottled water at the freeway jam, Hershel’s son sitting in the RV with the windows rolled down casually and the door unlocked…you name it.

For most people this is no big deal, but it gnaws at the believability of a show.

Everyone is Infected. Everyone is the Walking Dead

The most unbelievable part of The Walking Dead has been how they treat the infection issue, asserting that this was Jenner’s secret he whispered into Rick’s ear and that the child Lori is pregnant with might possess the immunity in its blood from which antigens can be created to save the survivors.

It is unclear, however, why Jenner would have lied to them about the virus having infected everyone. He had them locked up and tried to convince them to blow themselves up and die. He was having a hard time convincing them and only reluctantly opened the door. Such a revelation would have served beautifully in that capacity. So why did he not say it? And how would they even get the antibodies of that baby to vaccinate everyone. There are no labs left, no equipment, maybe even no scientists. It’s not like you are baking a cake and just need to come up with the ingredients. Making a vaccine is not something you can just do without proper facilities.

In this regard this show doesn’t make sense more often than not and it looks like season 3 will be more of the same, especially now that they will enter comic book characterizations and story lines.

I don’t know what is worse: soap opera story telling when you write about the apocalypse or comic book story telling. I do like comic book villains but not in The Walking Dead. Such fantastic depictions would really take away the show from its powerful origins and realism that has made it so enticing.

If there is one thing I have learned about what makes a great zombie movie, then it is the extent to which the story is truly believable.  The closer to real life the zombie apocalypse is depicted, the more authentic, more sinister and terrifying it appears because it allows the audience to identify with the protagonists and those in peril as opposed to just being the audience watching what happens to others with whom they do not share much. The more you share with movie you are watching, the more authentic and cerebral the experience.  That is what draws you in. Moving The Walking Dead into comic book realm might really work against this goal.

There is a great canvas to work with here and I hope the writers will see that and stop messing up or making this up as they go along. I mean don’t these people rehearse the scripts they write first, wondering whether what they have the actors say makes sense and is something real people, in real situations, would say and do? Just because this is a movie, one should not write a script with the “suspend disbelief” factor as a given or get slopping hoping the audience will either not notice or “understand” because this is a movie after all and you have to suspend disbelief.

Overall, this was a great episode paying homage to some of the best and most exciting zombie moments and greatly enriching the genre.  The best since the pilot.

Review: The Walking Dead – Season 2, Episode 10: “18 Miles Out”

Shane: "Look Rick, I know the world has come to an end and all, but I still feel the need to kill you over a woman". Rick: "Well, that's no good"

There are only three more episodes left on the second season and it has all pretty much taken place on the Farm of Their Discontent and been about Rick, Shane and Lori. That’s pretty bad. I have said this several times with my reviews and I think it is finally dawning on people that this show really is no longer what it started out to be. Gone are the excitement, urgency and somber mood of the first season. Gone is the terrifying setting, the struggle to survive, to find answers, to dig deeper into questions about the human soul and the consequences of days gone by in the zombie apocalypse. The zombies and the apocalypse as such are just purely incidental at this point; a diorama, a facade, a backdrop. They had a perfect angle at the CDC and with Dr. Jenner and they crapped all over it with taking the show in this direction.

The characters have all been facing a slow death, just as the show itself. T-Dog, Daryl, Dale, Carol and Glenn don’t even appear on this episode anymore (that is half the principal cast) which I think is symbolic, more than anything else, as these characters have pretty much stopped mattering a long time ago vis a vis the petty, Lifetime Television for Women problems of the other three. The show has become all about Rick, Shane and Lori and that stagy, soapy love triangle between them.

Rick: "Shane we are not killing him. Let me think about it and we can always execute him later."

Lori: "Andrea, why aren't you doing dishes like the rest of us.", Andrea: "Because I am out there protecting the farm against Walkers...?" Lori: "That's so useless. We don't need that. We got big, strong men for that. A cozy bed your man can come home to is much more important. Isn't it a wonderful world. I get laid on a regular basis and if you did you'd feel as good as me." Andrea: "Um, Lori, you DO realize that the world has come to an end right?" Lori: "I can't think about that right now Andrea; I have several sandwiches to make"

Rick and Shane – in a scene that reeked of Old Spice and balls – pull over on a deserted road 18 miles out (why 18?) where they get to – in a very testosterone loaded way no less – man it up and talk about their feelings and ownership claims over Lori; Lori – an unlikable, selfish and moronic character with no redeeming qualities and someone who has been the cause and source of a lot of misery and grief for a lot of people in this group – especially between Rick and Shane who are willing to kill each other over her. Kill each other.

Rick: "Too bad it isn't Shane lying on top of me. I could totally shoot his brains out from this angle. What's the world come to that two best friends can't even kill each other in peace anymore"

 

In fact, watching these two beat the living hell out of each other 18 miles outside of the farm in some random location ravaged by the APOCALYPSE, as in END OF THE WORLD, over a woman, made me seriously question whether they both still deserve to live. That and the fact that Rick is actually seriously considering whether he should murder the boy. At this point it wouldn’t of course be murder, but an execution. At least when Shane killed Otis, it was on a whim and not because he planned it, like Rick.

Back at the good old homestead, where women know their place in the kitchen, Lori and Andrea have a profound conversation; the kind of conversation misogynist men imagine women should have with one another in an ideal world, which for the writers of this show seems to be the post apocalypse. That entire conversation Lori and Andrea had in the kitchen was cringe worthy and insulting.

It was like two 8th graders had written that lame, ineffective dialogue. It had no power and did not make any point or evoke any kind of intelligent thought. In fact, it made Andrea look bad, which is ridiculous, and from the way they have portrayed her all throughout the show – you know, as a screw up and rebel – we were apparently to side with that idiot Lori. I couldn’t believe Lori, as a woman of the 21st century, was giving Andrea a hard time for not sticking around the house washing clothes and cooking and thus basically for possessing insufficient skills to be dude property.

And I couldnt believe that the writers had seriously nothing better to write about than reciting outdated, Victorian notions about how as a woman Andrea should basically know her place and let the big, strong MEN take care of the important stuff while she devotes her time to knitting and making a comfortable home for said protectors. Really? I mean no…REALLY? R.E.A.L.L.Y??

With the way these people behave, let’s face it, they are unworthy of being the last survivors and pretty much represent the worst of human kind and – along with the writers – deserve to be gutted already and put out of their misery.

It also seems like they are artificially extending the whole “Shane is the villain” story arc to make up for a lack of direction and originality that’s been plaguing the show since the beginning of season 2.

The world has come to an end and Shane and Rick have nothing better to do than drive to an abandoned warehouse, beat the shit out of each other over a woman and draw attention to themselves. I guess they are the reason this extinction event took place

Firing Frank Darabont was a huge mistake. A Hollywood Reporter article was talking about huge budget cuts imposed on the show and how the network repeatedly dumped all over Darabont’s creative vision by imposing things like 50% of the shots occurring outdoors and 50% indoors (indoors being cheaper to film) and another note asked whether or not the audience had to always see the zombies – couldn’t they simply hear them sometimes. It’s been said that Darabont was involved in constant battles with the network to maintain the creative vision that drew so many fans to the series in the first place and that those fights eventually led to him being fired altogether.

Cast members, who were not happy by Darabont’s departure, and especially outraged at the network’s calculated move to fire him right after Comic-con, were also reportedly harassed and warned about making any public comments on this. Afraid to be killed off the show and also pink slipped, they all obliged.

All this would explain why the entire season has taken place on one farm instead of them moving and why there have been a minimal number of new characters – all of which would have greatly contributed to the quality of the show.

Rick "Shane, get out of the bus. I know you tried to kill me just now and want to replace me, but I can't tell the difference between right or wrong anymore and I am totally willing to take you into my warm bosom of brotherly love, until you try to kill me again (why again are we going extinct?)"

Darabont had managed to perfectly convey the mood of a world post apocalypse. The world he imagined, in conjunction with the interesting characters he created and developed, further aided in making that vision a reality, ultimately creating an exciting and thought provoking show. Not so much this season which, for the reasons mentioned, leaves much to be desired.

This season just gives the whole show a bad name, which is a shame because Darabont did an amazing job introducing us into the zombie apocalypse and these characters who were all multidimensional and caught in bad situations when their journey began.

Review: The Walking Dead – Season 2, Episode 9: “Triggerfinger”

Rick (Andrew Lincoln) protecting what is his

With this episode, it becomes clear that Shane’s mask of sanity is lowly slipping and that he has turned almost delusional with regard to Lori and the baby that he thinks is his. Delusional in the Fatal Attraction sort of way. He is starting to think that he and Lori really had something deep and meaningful going on during those couple of weeks where they thought Rick was dead and it looks like confrontation with Rick is going to be inevitable as Shane is slowly losing it. In fact, it looks like Shane is going to mix it up with someone soon and pull the trigger again.

Lori stuck in the car

 

Maybe it is the trauma that ensues from living in a world post apocalypse where everything you have ever known is gone or maybe it is because Shane has always been kind of an unstable, violent asshole and it is all surfacing just now that this thin veneer we call civilization has vanished. Whatever it is, Shane is “falling down” and it becomes increasingly more clear to everyone that they’re gonna have to worry about him just as they have to worry about Walkers. I used to root for Shane because what he said made sense and he had guts, but he has pretty much crossed the line into instability and psychosis and he will be dangerous.

As I write this, I realize how truly ridiculous and boring this show has turned otherwise. I mean, the main point of contention seems to be the love triangle and the otherwise petty quarrels of a bunch of people who seem to have missed the memo that the world has come to an end. As a result, the show has taken on a whiny, cranky soapy tone with zombies thrown in to appear original as soap operas are generally associated with a negative stigma of lameness and chick flick. The apocalypse and asking the tough questions have become secondary, if they haven’t disappeared altogether, to accommodate the Rick, Lori, Shane, Maggie and Glenn’s relationship problems.

At the same time, the remaining characters and their personalities have been moved to the background as we hardly ever hear anything from them anymore. At this point they all seem to be serving in a merely ornamental capacity or to move the storyline along, such as Dale who every now and then serves as a voice of caution to warn others against Shane, just so he can go back to what he was doing (whatever that might be),  or T-Dog whose role has been reduced to that of scene filler at this point. Or Andrea whose character and its agony, which had been so beautifully initiated, have been reduced to some one dimensional “extra” almost, loading dead bodies into trucks or running errands.

Carol and Darrell also always seem to be having the same “conversation” – and with that I mean Darrell throwing a hissy fit like a child who lost his puppy after a week’s search and don’t want loving nobody no more, calling everyone a “bitch” – while Carol gives him teary eyed looks or throws a line at him and walks away, just so they can resume where they left off the next time.

Yes I understand Darrell is hurt that the search for Sofia ended so tragically, but he’s been  just grunting into the camera for the past three episodes.  There is no development in his character.

Carol lost her husband and her daughter and is still seen just lurking around the camp, washing clothes and tidying up or alternately taking Darrell’s abuse. I mean we just saw her daughter turn into a Walker and have her brains blown out in front of her by Rick, and she is going about her business as usual. For whatever reason, she now has made Darrell her project and I still can’t figure out if she is after him in a motherly or romantic way.

“Triggerfinger” is 2 stars tops, mainly because it no longer really seems to be about the undead and a world ravaged by illness and thus the apocalypse. It is about peoples’ petty interpersonal quarrels; short sighted people who fight each other even after the world has gone down, over concepts that don’t mean anything anymore in this new world order (maybe that is the point?). I mean what happened to being worried about survival and finding some answers; what happened to driving through desolate landscapes marred from the apocalypse, encountering the destitution and horror in the aftermath of days gone by?

Glenn and Rick

 

Whereas season 1 and even the beginning of season 2 (i.e. before they landed on the “Farm of our Discontent”) were looking at the problem of a world ravaged by disease and having come to an end (note the flashbacks they had about how it all started), most of season 2 has unfortunately been about the marital problems of Rick and Lori and Shane’s insanity. How the apocalypse began, what Jenner said, the discussions they had about the human soul vis a vis such a horrific disaster, wondering whether this is even a world worth living in or whether there are any last outposts left and just the setting, which after all is one of zombies, have been muted. The show has lost its sinister, mysterious tone and zombie encounters are thrown in in a strategic manner, as if they were fulfilling a requirement and had to run down a checklist of necessary genre elements to put in before they can resume with their melodrama.

Where is the journey, the adventure, the terror, where is the desolate landscape or walking into other people (such as Vatos in season 1), human interaction, tragedy (Amy’s death, leaving Jim behind, Dale talking about his wife), finding abandoned buildings and landmarks.; making a connection with people and each other. I am interested in looking into this disease, asking the tough questions (see Jenner and CDC), not watch people engage in petty personal quarrels amid the damn fucking apocalypse. It’s like these people just don’t get that the world is over and that it really doesn’t matter anymore who is doing whom or who said what and when.

This show was phenomenal in the beginning, because it looked at the theme of the zombie apocalypse in a smart way that was never done before. It balanced drama with action, originality with believable writing and multi dimensional characters; it was tragic but without venturing into soap territory. It was great during season 1 because it struck the perfect balance between the interpersonal (i.e. the characters) and the bigger picture (i.e zombie apocalypse), thus illuminating the grander canvas if their tragedy, instead of looking st it from this narrow lens of interpersonal struggles of the characters.  Now it is all just about these people and their feelings. At this point you could easily replace zombies with the ebola virus or WWIII or a natural disaster or hey, even Melrose Place and nothing would change.

When you reach a point in your story where one of its main premises (i.e. zombie apocalypse) can be easily exchanged with something else (like viral outbreak or flood or nuclear blast) and nothing about the story and the characters within would change, you know you have met a dead end in terms of originality.

People who enjoy this kind of thematic of the Days of our Zombie Lives kind will be just fine and really like where the show has gone. But if you are looking for more depth and originality instead of cliches and predictable story lines, I am afraid you will be disappointed. I don’t care for Lifetime Television for women.

The End of the Light Season

October is the quintessential month of fall, when the leaves turn and the air is cripser, where the colors of orange, red, brown and gold are everywhere and there is a little cold whisper from fall.

Pumpkins, caramel apples, confections of all colors, sizes and shapes, apple bobs, spooky decorations and all those warm brown sugar, vanilla and spice scents linger in the air.

This month represents the end of the light portion of the year and the beginning of its dark season when the days gradually become shorter, and the nights, and along with them darkness, longer and more lasting.

October is also Halloween season, one of the finest holiday inventions of the modern world if you ask me. A lot of it is rooted in folklore and tradition. and as is fitting for an evening intrinsically linked with mystery, the night itself has murky and mystic origins. It has roots in Celtic and Roman traditions, more typically linked to the Celtic festival of Samhain whose original spelling was Samuin. Samuin was  the name of the festival historically kept by the Gaels and celts in the British Isles and the name itself is derived from Old Irish and means roughly “summer’s end”.  

I love learning about the history behind this pagan holiday, its origins and the myths and legends surrounding it. For instance: while pumpkins have become the symbol of Halloween, especially in the form of the jack’o lantern, originally turnips were used as lanterns to honor the souls held in purgatory instead of pumpkins.

Halloween itself is a great season: there are the Halloween parties, masquerades, haunted houses, trick or treating (yes i still think it is fun), watching horror movie marathons, spooky decos, lanterns and lights illuminating  up the darkness, imaginations coming alive – the mysterious, the obscure, the scary and frightening things all surface and we face our demons with humor. It is a moody season filled with mysteries and questions and one of the things that makes the end of summer bearable..

In honor of Halloween I have decided to watch a scary/horror movie every day for the month of October. Having the visualization of your imagination come alive on the screen is one of the best things about Halloween and probably one of the reasons Halloween has become such an integral part of pop culture. Or is it the other way around? Anyway, goodbye season of light, hello season of fright.

By the way, today’s movie is the 1982 classic “Creepshow“: a wonderfully typical Halloween movie containing all the elements we love about Halloween and Halloween flicks.