Original Air Date: October 13, 2013
Review (with SPOILERS): You know what, this was a pretty good episode. It wasn’t excellent and I really don’t think this indicates that the series has turned the corner creatively; not with a 30+ episode track record of mediocrity… But we’ll take it when we can get it.
A lot of the success of this episode is due to what DIDN’T happen. There was no Governor yahooing around with his thugs and eyepatch. There was no Andrea being Andrea. There was no Michonne glowering at people. There was no Dale moaning about everyone’s humanity. There was no Maggie wringing her hands about having to take her top down in front of the bad guys. There was no Rick acting like a dick. And best of all, there was no Beth campfire singalong.
Honestly, if the creators of this TV show can just focus on removing the annoying elements of the show, the path to success is pretty easy: A few zombie set-pieces and forward-momentum on the plotlines.
Let’s rattle off a few of the noteworthy events from this episode:
1. Time passes, communities grow: It seems like we’ve jumped ahead several months at least. Amazingly, the gang has renovated the jail into a pretty solid fort. Taking a note from the comics, they’ve got crops growing and livestock. They’re fixing things and improving gates. Carol’s doing illicit kiddie knife training. It just seems like the group has this zombie apocalypse thing figured out. Heck, the people actually seem to be familiar with and enjoy each other’s company, there’s even romance blossoming everywhere. One of the problems that a story like TWD can have is when everything is dark, it’s hard to get invested in the story. You’ve gotta have hope somewhere or the whole thing is nothing but a big death pool. Who had Beth’s boyfriend dying on October 13, 2013? Life needs to go on.
2. Crazy lady: In contrast to Happy Jail, Rick runs into a crazy lady in the forest who is at the end of her rope. You just know that things won’t end well, but it’s still a little upsetting to see how unglued this lady was. I loved the little wrinkle that she and her husband were stuck in the airport when the apocalypse happened. You have some modicum of control if you’re at home when emergencies happen, but being on the road means you’re really up the creek without a paddle. You can really see how a person could slowly come unglued to the point where they’re keeping their zombified loved one in a burlap sack. You wonder what would have happened if Rick had found this lady a week sooner? Could she have been saved?
3. Great set piece: I loved the zombie fight in the old discount store. You could just see how this gang thinks they have it down to a science: set up a radio to draw the zombies away from the store, stay in formation, protect the escape routes, follow the plan, etc. And that works great, until zombies start falling through the ceiling. Suddenly, there is no clear path to escape and everyone has zombies all around them. Seeing the zombies falling through the ceiling reminded me of that great scene in Aliens.
4. Overlook the plot flaws: When the show delivers and gives us a sense of forward movement, you can overlook the flaws in the plot. Like, I find it highly implausible that the crazy lady was living in a (very clean looking) tent all this time. I mean, that just doesn’t make sense. Tents went out of style in Season 1. Couldn’t she find a house or shed? Similarly, it would be easy to call bullshit on the zombies falling through the ceiling. Didn’t the zombies wander around on the roof for months? Why are they only now falling through? And I would be ripping the show for these mistakes if the actress who played the crazy lady wasn’t so good OR if the discount store scene wasn’t so taut. Last season, they would have probably put me in a bad mood by having Rick talk about the rules or the Governor doing something stupid. This review could have all been about how stupid it is that Rick checks the snares alone. How was he going to carry all that meat home by himself?
5. New characters: I liked all the new folks (Yay for more alumni from The Wire). One of the central problems for this show is that the central characters just aren’t great actors. They remind me of relief pitchers in baseball– they’ve got a really great fastball, but their breaking ball is kinda so-so and they can’t through a change-up for a strike. They can get the batters out once through the lineup, but the second time around, the batters know what is coming and things get ugly. That’s kinda the case with most of these actors; they do one or two things well, but you cannot have them on screen for more than a scene or two. Keep bringing in the newbies, build up the characters so we care when they die.
6. Danger for next week: Even if it was unclear what they heck made Carl’s nerdy friend so sick (swine flu?), the prison has a big problem for next week. This isn’t a new concept at all. The idea of a person zombifying INSIDE the safe zone… But it’s a good way to shake things up in the Penitentiary of Paradise. One does wonder why the group doesn’t have a plan for dealing with this situation yet?
I really don’t have a lot of nit-picks. I’m a little unclear why someone thought Tyrese needed to be sissified. He doesn’t like to kill zombies on the fence and he doesn’t like to go on runs either. Geez! I’m also very nervous about Michonne’s quest to find the Governor. She has to be the only person in the world (real life or fictional) who wants to find that dude. Let’s just pretend the it was the Governor in the crazy lady’s writhing burlap sack… I also thought it was odd that nobody has scratched off the SS on Darryl’s white power motorcycle. I mean, Darryl is on “The Council” now with a black lady and an Asian man. Time to put away the symbols of racism. Is he going to start flying a Confederate flag over the prison next?
The recipe for this show is simple. Avoid annoying character moments that your cast cannot deliver upon. Gosh, I just had a thought. Imagine if you could recast Bryan Cranston as the Governor and John Hamm as Rick. How much better would this show be? That’s the thing though… The writers have to make due with David Morrissey and Andrew Lincoln. So, don’t write scenes that Lincoln can’t handle and keep the action moving forward. It doesn’t always have to be zombie attacks. Keep the “what happens next?” atmosphere of a show like 24, and TWD will be better for it.
Conclusion: A pretty error-free return for TWD. Almost all of the annoyances from last season are missing and there was a kick-ass zombie set-piece to boot. I’m not sure the show is capable of pulling a Breaking Bad quality morality play, so I’ll settle for an absence of annoyance.
Grade: B+
-Dean Stell
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