The Walking Dead Season 2 (AMC) - Page 22

I'm not ready to heap all kinds of praise on Darabont, even if that proposed opening sounds cool. He presided over a pretty shitty first season and is mostly responsible for the crap in the first half of the second season (not sure where his involvement specifically ends).  I'm not even sure the show would be so different if he were still in as showrunner.

AMC are tools, but I'm not expecting cable outlets to start throwing more money at shows when they are already hits at their current budget.  Asking shows to cut budgets is prime douchery, however.

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Originally Posted by Rando 

I'm not ready to heap all kinds of praise on Darabont, even if that proposed opening sounds cool. He presided over a pretty shitty first season and is mostly responsible for the crap in the first half of the second season (not sure where his involvement specifically ends).  I'm not even sure the show would be so different if he were still in as showrunner.

 

AMC are tools, but I'm not expecting cable outlets to start throwing more money at shows when they are already hits at their current budget.  Asking shows to cut budgets is prime douchery, however.

Actually I have to agree with this too. The first season had it's moments, specifically the amazing pilot. However yeah the second half of season 1 and all of season 2 wasn't where it should be. However that season 2 opener would given me a ton of more good will toward the show.

The idea Witwer mentioned does sound pretty neat, although it's kind of odd for a Season 2 premiere? It sounds more like a really good webisode than a strong episode of television.

One thing about Witwer's rant though, most of the regular actors are probably being paid exactly what they deserve by the tight fisted gits at AMC. However, Wilson and Rooker should get at least quadruple whatever they're making right now for their little appearances, just because.

He's clearly talking about more than just the actors. Nicotero and his people are almost certainly working at well below their regular rates, for example.

He was talking about everyone, I was talking about just the actors. The writers suck too though. But the KNB people are doing some of their best work on this show.

AMC expands the Season 3 order to 16 episodes (as opposed to 13).

...But did they expand the budget this time, too?

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Originally Posted by Leto II 

AMC expands the Season 3 order to 16 episodes (as opposed to 13).

 

...But did they expand the budget this time, too?

All this means is that they have three more episodes of time to waste on absolutely nothing.  Pirelli ought to sign on as a sponsor.

Jon Bernthal in talks to join Darabont's new TNT pilot.

Read what Walking Dead implications into that you will.

Hopefully they get Pruitt Taylor Vince to return as a zombie for Shane's big death scene. Can you imagine what KNB could do with his eyes?

This show is ripe for replacing cast on a regular basis. If Bernthal heads out, it's a chance to get a new character into the mix to shake things up. That way we don't have to have another terrible stretch of episodes as we've had....well, throughout the series.

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Originally Posted by Dr Vivisector 

This show is ripe for replacing cast on a regular basis. If Bernthal heads out, it's a chance to get a new character into the mix to shake things up. That way we don't have to have another terrible stretch of episodes as we've had....well, throughout the series.

I tend to agree, but the problem is that Shane is the only remotely interesting character they've got.  

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Originally Posted by fuzzy dunlop 

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I tend to agree, but the problem is that Shane is the only remotely interesting character they've got.  

 

Not to mention....

Daryl could be an interesting character.  The problem is he was interesting for about five episodes, and the the writers quickly turned him into shockingly sensitive redneck guy.  Like that's literally his only note.

Holy shit that ending. Rick goes into complete badass mode....and we're spared a long, dragged out plot of bad seeds invading the farm and our gang.

Keep it coming. I liked this episode quite a bit.

I was all "Cool. New cast members." Then that happened. Ha.

First half of the show was obligatory "dealing with the fallout" type stuff but the second half was keen.

This week's show was so good, I endured the first 15 minutes of fucking Comic Book Men to see the preview for next week's show. Don't you fucking pull that shit again, AMC!

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Originally Posted by MichaelM 

Holy shit that ending. Rick goes into complete badass mode....and we're spared a long, dragged out plot of bad seeds invading the farm and our gang.

 

Keep it coming. I liked this episode quite a bit.

Yeah, I wasn't sure which way that was going to go. It would've been nice for the show to get some new blood, but the new Rick seems to know what he has to be now. 

Still had that problem of "hmmm, perhaps I'll wander off on my own without telling anyone about it...." that the show has. 

I'm kinda glad they're not off the farm quite yet; I think there is still some drama to be had there (though admittedly they did a fer-shit job of doing so last season). 

Thought this was one of the better episodes. The ending, in particular, was electric. The only thing I call BS on is Lori's car-crash. With all of the completely-plausible ways for someone to sustain a life-threatening injury in this universe, having her drive off to fetch Rick when he'd only been gone an hour or two really isn't justifiable.

That scene with Britt from Terriers was awesome throughout. They did a great job of giving the scene such an uneasy vibe, even when he was really just asking "innocent" questions. As great as Rick's final solution to it was, I would have liked see him stick around, as another threat that's always out there.

But yeah, Rick once again walks the walk.

Wait, this episode was decent? .......You know, if me not watching The Walking Dead insures that ya'll have a decent program to watch, I'll stay gone. :D

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Originally Posted by Leto II 

Thought this was one of the better episodes. The ending, in particular, was electric. The only thing I call BS on is Lori's car-crash. With all of the completely-plausible ways for someone to sustain a life-threatening injury in this universe, having her drive off to fetch Rick when he'd only been gone an hour or two really isn't justifiable.

 

After mulling and reading the AV Club's review, I'd have to say that the writers seem to be getting into the strengths they have in the current situation; right now it appears there is no conflict with Hershel, but now that both groups appear to be on the same page, and they are aware there is another group (the Philly guys said as much) in the area, they have to defend what they do have from others. Less annoying than the stasis they were in over the first part of the season. 

The car crash was a big, red fucking siren of a plot device - to say nothing of the logic of "perhaps we should send off two of our more capable people to get OUR ONLY DOCTOR" being questioned, there was the sense of what, exactly, Lori expected she was going to do. Did she think that Rick, Glenn, and Hershel were going to settle things and figure "aw hell it's early, let's stick around for a few more drinks!" She would probably be worse than useless in that situation, in that she's one more person (in addition to Hershel) that falls more on the "debit" than "asset" side of the scale if they run into walkers. 

One last thing - admittedly Glenn didn't have much chance to pull the trigger, but he looked like he didn't want to point a gun at ANYBODY even when they had Rick between them, and he also looked very uncomfortable with how things went down at the end. Curious to see if that has repercussions down the line, or if it's something that could be used to create real drama/conflict that will be forgotten in order to just have people creating drama/conflict by being stupid. 

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Originally Posted by Wayward_Woman 

Wait, this episode was decent? .......You know, if me not watching The Walking Dead insures that ya'll have a decent program to watch, I'll stay gone. :D

Eh, on reflection, it still had some of the old problems - just fewer of them. And a great payoff at the end. 

Maybe its the lowered expectations, or maybe its the time I've been spending on shit like Alcatraz and The River... but that felt like a solid hour of television.  Lori continues to be grating and idiotic, but other than that, I can't find a whole lot to gripe about.  Everything in the bar was aces.   

The best part of the scene in the bar was how they showed Rick on constant guard throughout. Everything he said was a deflection, and his eyes were constantly tracking both men. His reaction to the fat guy pissing on the floor wasn't so much disgust as it was reluctant accpetance. When they moved to surround him, he not only moved his hand to his gun, but he positioned himself so Fat Tony's reflection was visible in the bar mirror. It made his badass double-kill completely believable, as we'd seen him lining up that very shot for 15 seconds or so.

Really well done.

If Lori's car had exploded, I'd call this the best episode yet!

Super happy they finally stopped screwing over Lori's character. Awesome that they let her drive for about 10 seconds without getting into an accident. I hope she requires rescue!

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Originally Posted by Kevin Matchstick 

Super happy they finally stopped screwing over Lori's character. Awesome that they let her drive for about 10 seconds without getting into an accident. I hope she requires rescue!

Woman attempts to do for self, fails epically.

Great to see Rick be a bit of a badass. Good episode, this one felt like it was going somewhere.

When I saw the title of the episode, I was worried it was going to be "Road trip to Nebraska" style episode, instead we got something which kept the premase of "Zombies arent the ones to be afraid of"

Good ep, liked that almost everyone had something to do (even if Lori's "thing to do" was crash a car)

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Originally Posted by fuzzy dunlop 

Maybe its the lowered expectations, or maybe its the time I've been spending on shit like Alcatraz and The River... but that felt like a solid hour of television.  Lori continues to be grating and idiotic, but other than that, I can't find a whole lot to gripe about.  Everything in the bar was aces.   

It's lowered expectations.  The bar scene was good but with all the stupid shit before it as well as a season and a half of garbage, they have to put a few of those scenes together and actually make a solid episode.

Can we kill some of the boring people already?

If they stick around and search for Lori because she's lost that will just be plain stupid.  She just seems to be the Kim Bauer of this show I'm just waiting for the Cougar now.  The best thing that could happen is for her to just be written out and forgotten.

In saying that, I would be interested in them staying at the farm and fighting off others who want it with maybe a big stand off which gets interrupted by a Horde of Walkers and the two sides having to escape together with some members of both groups being killed off to form a new group which we then follow as they try and make their way back to the alpha quadrant...  shit.  There's me thinking of Star Trek fucking Voyager.  But still that could be one way to get a bit of tension going in this series, have the "Farmhands" and the "Philidelphians" at odds for a couple of episodes a stand off which turns into a massacre with a new group resulting in a differing balance. 

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Originally Posted by drunkdrgonzo 

The best thing that could happen is for her to just be written out and forgotten.

No, the best thing would for her to be killed off in a way that dramatically propels the characters and plot forward.

And happens in a way that allows her to argue a completely wrong or meaningless point, as she is actually dying. While making bug eyes. And being called Olive Oil.

I think lowered expecations did play into my liking the episode so much, but I also felt like the tension and power of the ending was earned, more than before. It felt like the episode had purpose and movement, and the triple ending of the showdown in the bar, Lori's accident, and the burning of the walkers slammed home in a really great way.

The bar showdown was so well done. Rick using the mirror, asking questions to keep them offguard, and using a cop's sensibilities and experience to know these two were nothing but trouble and human debris. Glenn's paralysis seemed perfectly in character; he's not a gunman, and we first met him as someone who flees from the walkers, not guns them down. He might've gotten himself killed if he had drawn on the fat guy. 

I do hope they leave the farm soon, though. The show needs movement and action, and unless the character writing picks up dramatically, being stuck in one place only accentuates the weaknesses of the show.

That ending was BADASS. Damn Yankees.

Here's the song used to close the episode out:

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Originally Posted by neaux 

That ending was BADASS. Damn Yankees.

Agreed, that scene won some much needed points for the season for me.  I also really enjoyed the discussion of other rumored safe-havens and how they always turned out to be bullshit.

Missed the preview for the next episode since I dvr'd it though.   Damn them for sticking it in the first commercial break for Comic Book Men.  This had better not become a habit!

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Originally Posted by gobblox 

Missed the preview for the next episode since I dvr'd it though.   Damn them for sticking it in the first commercial break for Comic Book Men.  This had better not become a habit!

If they do place it there on a regular basis, that just means I'll either catch the preview the next day on YT or skip it entirely. CBM was painful. Like having a foley made of sharkskin jammed in your urethra painful.

Dear Show:  Let Lori die.  Please.   You would improve your show by leaps and bounds with that one move.  

I just finished watching Terriers on Netflix, so it was a pleasure to see Michael Raymond James. I thought he was going to be a new cast member, but ... no.  I expected lots of post-Sophia moping (and I got it), but the sequence in the bar was one of the best things the show has done.

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Originally Posted by Ratty 

Dear Show:  Let Lori die.  Please.   You would improve your show by leaps and bounds with that one move.  

I think they need to kill off at least half the group. But yeah - start with Lori.

As an aside, my wife's originally from the Philadelphia area, and Michael Raymond-James got that damn accent down pat.

My favorite part of the bar scene was how Hershel subtly came to Rick's side. First they were having a fundamental argument, then once a greater thread reveals itself, Hershel goes from impartial basket case to standing fast with Rick. For all the horrid writing the show is guilty of, that scene was written and executed beautifully.

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Originally Posted by Deanburger 

 For all the horrid writing the show is guilty of, that scene was written and executed beautifully.

This. While the dialogue between Herschel and Rick wasn't the greatest, overall, the entire scene was scripted wonderfully, with a LOT of nonverbal shit going on and not ridiculously spoon-fed to the viewer.

More of this, please!

Also, another exciting development:  T-Dogg had lines and did stuff.  

I'd like to nominate Michael Raymond James for the part of Larry Underwood should Ben Affleck ever get around to making The Stand.

If you're talking about the thin guy at the bar who did most of the talking, I'd like to nominate him for best impression of Mickey Rourke from two decades ago.

Not a bad episode, thanks to the bar stuff. Laughed out loud when DeMunn went on his rant about Shane, warning Lori that more people are going to die. He's basically the Crazy Old Man from Friday the 13th now. And congrats to KNB for Laurie Holden's horrifyingly realistic Stallonesque forearm veins at the start.

The bar scene was, of course, great, so long as we're not too bothered by Rick and Glenn figuring that letting Hershel continue to drink himself stupid made more sense than immediately throwing him in the car to save his daughter's life. And Rick's badass moment is slightly undercut by the fact that they're now pinned down by the rest of the Philly gang when they could (should) have been on their way back to the farm before the first two even showed up.

Lori in the car... you know, at first, I thought her decision to go after Rick and Glenn was incredibly stupid, but in retrospect, it all makes sense: she knew that her husband and his pal would waste precious time while Hershel knocked back a few, and had to go drag 'em home.

And considering the specificty of Dale's psychic powers (he not only knows that Shane abandoned Otis, he specifically knows that he shot him and left him as walker-bait), the guy's abilities are woefully underused.

I really want to cut the show as much slack as I can, since this kind of genre material is so rarely presented in any kind of serious fashion on TV, but sometimes they make it awfully hard.

Yeah, despite the bar scene, there were still moments that brought the guffaws: Lori leaving the farm without telling anybody to go save the guys, then wrecking for the sake of plot convenience; Dale psychically knowing exactly how the Shane/Otis thing went down; Daryl coining the nickname "Olive Oyl" for Lori as he fulfills his destiny of becoming Sawyer Lite, etc.

Regarding Dale's psychic abilities - didn't Shane pretty much tell him how it went down with Otis when he was bullying Dale into giving him the guns?  I don't remember any specifics, but I thought that's when he concocted his little theory.  Still, DeMunn has been such a waste of space the first half of this season, and it doesn't look like there's any change of momentum on that front.  

Rick taking his time to talk to Hershel at the bar may have been stupid, but it was perfectly within character. (Admittedly, Rick's done some really stupid things.) He's the peacemaker and really prefers harmony and empathy. Maybe he should've hurried...but him not forcing Hershel to come along immediately was very consistent with what we've seen of him.

And I don't think Dale was being psychic. He's a smart, observant guy, and he has more than enough puzzle pieces to fill in a likely scenario re: Shane and Otis. I don't think the scene was particularly well written, but it didn't set off red flags regarding what Dale knows or guesses.

Lori getting into an accident was nothing but plot device. Her being stupid was also consistent, though. 

So, the pattern established in the "mid-season finale" or whatever and now this new episode seems to be "who cares if the episode is slow and stupid, as long as we have a great last scene?" They're trying my patience, damn them.