The Walking Dead Episode 3 – Review

What’s Good: Well, all the fanboys howling about last week’s episode can shut up: “The Walking Dead isn’t supposed to be about zombies!  It’s about human relationships, damn it!  This show sucks ass!”  After last week’s intense escape from Atlanta (honestly, would the fanboys have been happier if the gang had thrown a rock down the street and when the zombies looked for the noise, the gang would then just creep out the back door?), this episode focuses squarely on life back in the survivors’ camp outside of town.

Also clear is that this show is not going to be a panel-by-panel retelling of the Kirkman/Moore/Adlard comic series.  In a lot of ways, this show reminds me creatively of True Blood on HBO.  TB is based on the Sookie Stackhouse novels and while TB initially stayed pretty close to the first novel, it would be more accurate to say that it is “inspired by” them, now that we’ve finished a third season.  So, I would expect that TWD is going to have some quasi-major changes and even its own “Lafayette” (a character who was supposed to die, but lives because the actor/actress does a masterful job) OR one of the new characters will end up becoming central.

This episode had one BIG (and I really mean it….B-I-G) moment from the comics that it had to get right: the reunion of Rick with his family.  Nailed it!  Everyone is happy and suitably surprised to see everyone else.  Even Shane seems genuinely happy to see Rick.  Because Rick’s family is central to this entire story, it is nice to see the show nail this particular moment.

We also get to see more of the folks around camp.  Dale especially becomes a co-star in this episode and it is clear that the creators are going to use him as the show’s moral compass.  He’s going to be the older dude who everyone likes who just cuts to the chase on every topic. Pretty close to the comic book Dale.

There were also a few “new” elements that come into the show that I really liked.  One is that they really made an effort to make Shane more likable in this episode, and it worked.  I honestly started to feel kinda bad for the guy (until they revealed that he told Lori that Rick was dead, of course).  In re-reading the comics before the show, Shane was probably one of the worst characters because he was so one-note and hostile.  If events unfold as they do in the comic, it’ll have more impact due to all these scenes of him playing with Carl.

The other new element that I liked is all the redneck folk.  Guess what? When the zombie apocalypse does come, the survivors are going to be rednecks with guns, not a bunch of scrawny urban hipsters.  That’s realism right there!

Finally, it wouldn’t be fair to move on without discussing the central item of the show: What to do about Merle Dixon (the deplorable redneck handcuffed on the top of the building)?  Although the lead-up to “should we go back for him” was a little overdone, it did show Rick’s sense of duty; which is an important element of the story.  Not sure how else they would show that?  To see how the episode ended makes it pretty clear that we haven’t seen the last of Merle.  I even have a speculation about where he’ll show up (a little town called Woodbury, perhaps).

What’s Not So Good: The little things.  The super clean Dodge Charger product placement.  The idea that Glen would drive that noisy ass car up to the camp when they know zombies are attracted by sound.  The fact that the redneck Merle-brother had shot the deer three times and that the arrows were just sticking out out of it.  He seemed like a competent dude, so why are there arrows in the deer’s butt?  And here’s a tip: those arrows fired from a crossbow almost always go right through the animal.  Honestly, has anyone in Hollywood ever handled a weapon?  I humbly offer my services as “consultant” to help them get this stuff right.

I also really don’t like that we have so many characters.  Lots of them are new and we presume will be fed to the zombies, but that hasn’t happened yet.  I don’t think we’ve “seen” a single person get gobbled up yet. What are all the newbies for if they aren’t going to use them.  Maybe we’re headed for a super bloody season finale?

But my biggest problem is the zombies themselves.  After seeing how fast and capable the zombies were last episode, it was a little discouraging to see how hard the one zombie in this episode was to kill.  TWD only works as a story when the zombies are slowish and pretty weak.  Sure, you can get swarmed and eaten, but you can’t explore all the human drama when a zombie can sprint at you and it take 8 guys to beat it down.  You just do the math and 5-6 zombies could overrun this whole camp.  I HOPE they realize this and tone the uber-zombies down in season two.  Come up with some explanation. The fast ones were burning too much energy and died, so now we just have the slow ones.

Conclusion: Not without problems, but the haters really need to chill out.  This isn’t the perfect show, but it is worlds better than 95% of the shows on TV.  Even if you’d rather “watch” Boardwalk Empire, Dexter and Eastbound and Down on Sunday nights, you’re really going to tell me that you wouldn’t rather DVR this and watch it during the week compared to the tripe that the networks shovel our way (The Event??).

Grade: B-

– Dean Stell

Random Thoughts:

You almost feel bad for racist mf Dixon.  I wonder if they wrote script for him in that scene or just said “mumble.”

“Oh boy!  Mommy’s new boyfriend will teach me to catch frogs!  He is awesome!”

That noisy car is probably going to attract zombies.  When you think of noisy cars, think of Dodge, the cleanest cars of the apocalypse!  Also, what about dead batteries?  These cars have been sitting for a month and I didn’t see a trickle charger anywhere.

Think they handled the reunion really well.  Even made Shane look somewhat happy to see Rick.

Yeah!  We have another ignorant redneck and he just wants to stay warm by the fire damn it!  I’ll be glad when the zombies eat some of these extra characters.

Carol was kind of a hottie in the comic.  Not so much here.  Will Tyrese still want her?

They’ve done a good job with Dale’s character it seems.  He’s an important piece of this story for a long time so that bodes well.

Really?  Sleeping in tents?  What was wrong with sleeping in cars like in the comics?  Except I guess this way they can have a scary zombies-ripping-the-tents scene.

Like how Glen is upset about his car getting chopped.

These zombies take a little too much killing.  When they’re that robust AND can do things like scale fences how are people supposed to survive at all?  Kinda messes of the overall survival dynamic of the show.

These Hollywood types need a hunting/weaponry consultant.  How would a deer get shot with three arrows?  They kinda run off after the first one.

As repellent as the rednecks are, it is likely that you’d have a disproportionate number of redneck survivors.

I don’t really like how they have Dale bargaining for loot.  THAT’s out of character.

They certainly are making Shane more likable this episode.  Nice that he isn’t going to be a one-note character.

I have decided that I hate that they call the zombies “geeks.”  Why would you look at zombies and think, “Those look like geeks!”

Like that they lifted the scene from the comics about the women having to do the wash.  And they miss their vibrators.  So sad… In the zombie apocalypse everyone must use their hands.

Whoa!  Shane told Lori that Rick was dead!  That’s kind of a big deal.

Are all the new characters redneck crackers?  Ed, Dixon, Dixon’s brother… Couldn’t they have ONE cowardly lawyer or something?

Yes!  Shane has fractured Ed’s orbital bone!

And he cut off his hand b/c the metal in the handcuffs is harder than the hacksaw.  At least they got that right.  I’m calling it now.  Merle Dixon will reappear as the Governor (or a Gov-like character).