THE WALKING DEAD Wanders Around … a Lot
Season 2, episode 1: “What Lies Ahead”
Written by Frank Darabont (Ardeth Bey) and Robert Kirkman
(Based on the graphic novel series of the same name)
Directed by Ernest R. Dickerson and Gwyneth Horder-Payton
A Review By Timothy Harvey, Dustin Adair, and Curtis Smith
Creepy_Curtis Curtis Smith
@scifi4me I Hope this season of The Walking dead has even less zombies
than the first. #thewalkingdead 16 Oct
Timothy: Hi folks! Dustin Adair (Dustin and Molly: Reviews For Humans) and I had a chance to sit down with Curtis Smith and some other friends and watch the season premiere of AMC’s The Walking Dead, and we have a few thoughts on this first episode of the second season. What follows is Dustin and my recap/commentary, punctuated by the tweets Curtis sent out during the show. There be spoilers here, and we make no promises about appropriateness and coherency. You have been warned…
Creepy_Curtis Curtis Smith
Season 2, GOBLINS? @SCIFI4ME #THEWALKINGDEAD 16 Oct
I suppose we should start at the beginning, where we have a series of clips from season1, bringing us up to speed in a nice little video recap, followed by, um… another recap. Rick (Andrew Lincoln), sits atop a building in zombie infested Atlanta, broadcasting on his radio to Morgan (remember him? ALLLLLLL the way back in the first episode), and telling him, well, about what we just watched in the recap. And telling him, and telling him and, good lord, this is going on forever, and it’s awful. The writing is terrible and it’s just dragging on… not the best way to start things…
Creepy_Curtis Curtis Smith
Still no goblins @scifi4me #thewalkingdead 16 Oct
Creepy_Curtis Curtis Smith
First rule of zombie etiquette. Wait for a moment of jubilation and
move in. @scifi4me #thewalkingdead 16 Oct
Dustin: But what are you gonna do? This is TV, and sometimes it sucks. But it doesn’t suck for long as Rick dismounts the roof and joins the rest of the cast under some trees… you know I think the cast as a whole needs a name. Something like Team Zombie or Upset Nation or whatever. Something snappy. Anyway. Rick, his lovely bug-eyed wife Lori, and Adorable Moppet Carl mount up in their SUV with crazy mom Carol and Sophia (more on Sophia later).
Creepy_Curtis Curtis Smith
I’m not sure one Asian guy in the group constitutes racial diversity.
@scifi4me #thewalkingdead #affirmativeaction 16 Oct
Team Zombie heads on down head on down the road. Or the Highway. With Daryl n his Boss Hog; Glenn, T-Dog (really, show? One black character and his name is T-Dog?) Andrea, and the old guy.. I’m thinking his name is… Randy? In the RV and Rick, Lori, Carl, Carol and Sofia in the SUV. Shane is somewhere in there, too. But in my opinion, Shane should have died at the end of last season. So the less said about him, the better.
The exodus from Atlanta goes pretty well until they run into a traffic jam that is Literally dead in the road.
Creepy_Curtis Curtis Smith
If I don’t get a goblin soon, I’m going to start thinking there’s only
zombies in this show. @scifi4me #thewalkingdead 16 Oct
Timothy: Well, I do think you have to note the exchange between Andrea and Shane, sorta bonding over guns, ’cause that will come back later… and the old guy is Dale, driving the RV. Yeah, the traffic jam is a pretty effective visual. It’s something this show does well, giving us dramatic scenes of the devastation left behind by the rise of the Undead. And when the radiator hose blows on the RV, our band of survivors finds themselves in a pretty damn big junk yard, so they set out to find a new hose. They also start searching the abandoned cars for stuff they can use and more gas, although Lori feels like they’re grave-robbing.
Of course, since the show is called “The Walking Dead”, the discovery of water and other useful things is cut short by the appearance of a LOT of zombies, making their way through the wrecked and abandoned cars.
Creepy_Curtis Curtis Smith
Where did he learn to eviscerate stuff? I mean really. @scifi4me #thewalkingdead 16 Oct
Dustin: And by a lot, we mean A LOT. According to The Talking Dead – the talk show hosted by Chris Hardwick, which comes on after The Walking Dead – there were 150 extras in full zombie makeup (and shoes) used in that sequence. Also used in that sequence? Silence. The entire main cast had to find places to hide in the quietest ways possible so under cars they all go. The humans hiding in terrified quiet as the zombies pass literally inches by. It was very powerful.
Creepy_Curtis Curtis Smith
Never mind. Dustin just reminded me the black dude is still with us.
@scifi4me #thewalkingdead #affirmativeaction 16 Oct
The only thing that I had a problem with here was T-Dog. Ugh, every time I write that, I can feel Rosa Parks rolling over in her grave. Anyway … T-Dog, instead of hiding under a car, for some reason, decides to make a run for it. In his convoluted attempt to escape, he ends up cutting his arm pretty badly. SO he limps. Bleeding and pouring blood and bleeding all over the place, and tries to find a place to hide. He is finally saved by formerly racist Daryl, who throws him to the ground, and lumps a dead body on top of him and himself. The zombies shamble by without so much a noticing them.
SO who is getting noticed? Sophia. See, Sophia makes a noise or passes gas or something, I forget, and draws the attention of a couple of zombies. The creatures go after her and end up chasing her off the highway and into the woods.
Creepy_Curtis Curtis Smith
Sophia is sooooo zombie chum. @scifi4me #thewalkingdead 16 Oct
Rick, ever the dutiful hero, heads after her.
Timothy: Zombie shoes. Zombie flip flops… seriously? There’s a zombie in FLIP FLOPS? Anyway… yeah, it’s nice to see Daryl being more than the stereotype he so easily could have been, but it’s been sort of a sudden change, hasn’t it? Not a complaint so much as an observation… maybe it’ll be fleshed out more later.
Meanwhile, back in the RV, Andrea finds herself trapped in the bathroom, disassembled gun in hand, while a zombie tries to get through perhaps the worst door in the world to try and keep anything out. Dale drops a screwdriver down through the skylight, and she does away with it. Lots of blood shooting out of the zombie’s head though, and awfully red blood at that. Shouldn’t it all have pooled to the extremities and be browner? Ah well, it looks cool anyway.
Creepy_Curtis Curtis Smith
The called that group a zombies a herd. Why not hoard? Or a murder of
zombies? @scifi4me #thewalkingdead 16 Oct
Sophia, as it happens, makes the mistake of scooting out from under the car before all the zombies have gone (although I like your version better). Rick hides her down by the river and tells her to head back to the others as he leads the zombies away, but after going all Rambo on them, he returns to find her missing… DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNN!!!!
Creepy_Curtis Curtis Smith
GAWD kids ruin everything. @scifi4me #thewalkingdead 16 Oct
Dustin: So basically the rest of the episode is spent looking for her while Rick wrestles with the guilt of losing her and Crazy Mom Carol blames him. Finally the whole Team Zombie ends up tromping through the woods, looking for Sophia.
Okay I have to stop. Can I just say that this is supposed to be the SEASON PREMIERE!! And they spend 90 minutes wandering around the woods. It’s annoying. This whole episode is superfluous.
Creepy_Curtis Curtis Smith
Where’s your savior now, zombies? #thewalkingdead #atheism 16 Oct
Timothy: Well, I wouldn’t say completely superfluous. We did get a nice bit where Andrea ripped into Dale for basically blackmailing her into living, and Lori got to smack down the gang for expecting Rick to lead them, and then bitching about his decisions all the time. Plus we got a pretty dramatic ending, but yeah, when the majority of the episode is a bunch of people tromping around the woods? Disappointing.
Creepy_Curtis Curtis Smith
Is it that hard to believe that a woman can handle a gun? @scifi4me
#thewalkingdead 16 Oct
But that’s the problem this show had last season too, isn’t it? When it’s good, it’s really good. When it’s not, well, it’s just disappointing. Here’s hoping we get out of the woods, literally and figuratively, next week.
Creepy_Curtis Curtis Smith
The thing that really bugs me about zombies, is that they are ALL
hungry. They’re never horny. @scifi4me #thewalkingdead 16 Oct
Creepy_Curtis Curtis Smith
Take off your hat when talking to zombie jesus. #thewalkingdead #catholosism 16 Oct
Dustin: And we did get the great image of Carl being shot in the woods, which did happen in the comics. If it were up to me, there would be more great moments like that. Stuff that the people who watch this show because of the comics can point to and say “SEE!!” Stuff like Carl being shot help, but I want a little more. I want Andrea to stop being such a whiner all the time and learn to be bad ass. I want Glenn to do more than stand around being adorable. I want Shane to DIE. It’s a simple dream. Maybe this season will provide it.
Creepy_Curtis Curtis Smith
And that’s why I hate deer so much. They kill children. @scifi4me
#thewalkingdead 16 Oct
Creepy_Curtis Curtis Smith
Wouldn’t it be cool if Bill Murray did a cameo as himself in this
show? @scifi4me #thewalkingdead 16 Oct