The Walking Dead, S03E02 – Review

Original air date: October 21, 2012

The Story: “No more prison riot crap!”

The Review:

1. Resolving things quickly – There are so many elements of Season 3 that indicate that showrunner Glen Mazzara “gets it/”  Last week we saw: Less talking, more zombie killing.  In this episode, we see: Let’s wrap this shit up!  There were three separate plots that Frank Darabont would have stretched over 5-6 episodes. One, the drama of Hershel dying and coming back as a zombie.  Two, the drama of the big prisoner who got a zombie-scratch being quarantined in a cell and agonizing over what to do with him.  Three, the issue of what Rick would do about the hostile leader of the prisoners.  You can imagine any of these plotlines getting “The Sophia treatment”, right?  Months of that big prisoner begging to be released from his cell or the prisoners trying to barter for the antibiotics that Carl cleared out of the infirmary…  Or months of Rick doing inner monologues about whether he should kill the leader of the prisoners…

And before anyone says, “But the best thing about the comics is the interpersonal relationships!  They can’t neglect THAT!”  Well, to that I say, “Andrew Lincoln: Casting mistake.  Sarah Wayne Callies: Casting mistake.”  You’ve got Lincoln and Callies as your lead; that is set in stone now.  We’ve already seen this grouping of actors and writers trying to do a slow-burn story (Sophia) and it sucked.  If TWD had the acting and writing talent of Breaking Bad they could slow-burn the HELL out of this show, but the ingredients simply are not there.  If they keep a rapid pace, we won’t see the flaws as much.  The beauty of an apocalypse show like this is that it can be endless and interesting as long as you keep churning the plot.

2. They are trolling us! – Yeesh! That scene where Lori gives Hershel mouth-to-mouth was tense.  For those of you who haven’t seen them, there was a series of webisodes after Season 1 that featured a scene like that during the initial zombie outbreak: lady comes across an “injured” person, tries to give mouth-to-mouth and gets her lips gnawed off.

So, seeing the  hated character Lori almost die was priceless.  That scene shows that the creators understand they have a problem with Lori and that nobody likes her.  And this is after the comment last week about her being attacked by a stillborn baby!  Let’s just get it over with and move on.

3. Taking the right amount of material from the comics. – I love how the show is taking just the right amount of stuff from the comics. The overall themes are there. They find prisoners and they’re kinda like the prisoners from the comics, but there are just enough subtle differences to keep us guessing.  I mean, in both the comics and the show, the leader of the prisoners is hostile and also has a skinny little “friend.”  But, in the comics the leader was a big black dude and in the show he’s Latino.  It’s not a big difference, it’s enough that “we, the comics fans” recognize the similarities and differences and it keeps us on our toes.  Just like last week when Hershel got his leg chopped off. That was both similar and different from the comics.

This is a good thing because the “next thing” I expect to happen is for the weaselly little white prisoner to turn out to be a sicko and behead Beth, because in the comics one of the prisoners beheads a couple of Hershel’s kids.  But, given the differences, it could be something else entirely.  I DO expect a prisoner to kill a member of Rick’s group, but it could just as easily be the big black dude beheading Lori as what I originally anticipated.

Way to keep us on our toes!

4. Good action. – This show never has a weak action scene.  The scenes are well-choreographed and well-shot.  The actors are physically convincing.  The special effects are solid.  And they have a great handle for the horror aspects of the story– i.e. how uncomfortably close to Hershel’s mouth everyone kept getting.  It almost makes me wonder… When this show was getting started, everyone in Hollywood probably heard it was “a zombie show” and because there are few horror shows on TV, it attracted A-list horror talent (writing, cameras, etc.), and this A-list horror talent kinda overwhelmed the drama talent– where the A-listers don’t want to work on “a zombie show…”

5. Weak actors. – There’s some really weak acting on this show.  Sarah Wayne Callies is just awful.  I hate every scene with Lori.  She’s so bad that I almost think she is dragging Andrew Lincoln down.  I mean, he isn’t great, but he’s okay when he’s hanging out with T-Dogg and Darryl.  But put him in a room with Lori and the scene implodes.  Same thing with Chandler Griggs. He’s better when he isn’t whining to his mommy.  And why are they giving actual speaking lines to Beth?  Is it just so we care when she dies in a few weeks?

Conclusion: A pretty solid episode.  That’s two in a row!  The creators understand that keeping the plot humming along is the key to this show.  Slow burn doesn’t work well on TV unless you have A-list talent and this show doesn’t have that luxury.  The writers are still doing just enough to freak me out… Why after an other wise strong episode would you end with a Lori-centric scene?  That’s like farting before leaving the room.

Grade: B+

– Dean Stell