Watch me and Roth’s review of the season 1 finale of AMC’s The Walking Dead and hear our thoughts on when we think season 2 will come back.
Let us know your thoughts on the final episode of season1 and the series in general, thanks!
- Dennis
8 Responses to “‘The Walking Dead’ Season Finale “TS-19″ Episode 6 (VIDEO REVIEW)”
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I think Roth got it right in that the long turn around shouldn't hurt the show's momentum if AMC continues to keep the show in the public's consciousness during the long wait.
I can definitely see Darabont and crew having something ready in terms of what we can expect for Season 2 for WonderCon this spring then probably a teaser reel for San Diego Con this July.
I wouldn't be surprised if AMC and Image Comics starts a major push for people new to the franchise to read the comic book source.
As for the episode itself it left me with the sense that this season shouldn't even be called season 1 but a mini-series. It played out almost like the BSG reboot mini-series where we get the basic plot for the show laid out for the audience then a proper full season gets the show really up and running.
The one character outside of the Love Trio who seem to have gained some depth is Daryl Dixon. Yeah, he came off as the redneck racist (though I still think he's less a racist and just angry all the time) when he appears in episode 3 but he has since showed some layers to his character. The brief interaction between him and Glenn during the celebratory dinner wasn't made out to be mean on Daryl's part but almost like a big brother teasing a younger one.
Of the new characters added to the series it's Daryl who I think may end up staying for a longer run. He's still a hothead and a wildcard but has begun to look at Rick as the leader without even being told. I think Daryl and Rick will never truly trust the other and vice versa, but can see the two working closely together to keep the group safe.
I think Season 2 will focus on the group on the road a lot with a mid-season arc at a farmhouse before moving on to find the haven that should take up the bulk of seasons 3 and 4: The Prison.
Great review guys!
I'm still on the fence about this episode. Though it was necessary, it felt like a lot of exposition and almost throw away. I am not sure how I would have handled it, maybe finding the doctor outside despondent and suicidal with a flashback of him watching the change on screen and in the room(?), but that was a really nice set and some decent effects for just one episode.
I guess you could say not even the sets are safe on The Walking Dead.
Overall, the show has rocked so far and I'm anxiously awaiting Season 2.
I have no concern about AMC's ability to promote it's own shows; I don't really even think that can be questioned. Like Starz and Showtime,self promotion is something AMC has and probably always will excel at.
I'm also not going to comment on how the show has completely divorced itself from the source material in the last two episodes (something that began in the abysmal Senior Care Center episode), and how annoyed I am that they didn't just use the comic as a storyboard for the series.
What I am going to comment on is how inane, soulless, and vapid the final episode of season 1 was, since this article seems primarily concerned with reviewing that episode. For reasons beyond understanding, the producers/writers/whoever was responsible in the end felt the need to give us a (frankly needless) scientific overview on what was going on. Now, I realize that people without a shred of neurobiology under their belts probably had no clue as to what was going on in the minds of the walkers, I contend that – wait for it – ANY SUCH INFORMATION IS POINTLESS, DETRACTS FROM THE HORROR OF THE EVENT, AND DISTRACTS FROM THE VERY HUMAN STORY OF A ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE. You know, I think that's the first time I've felt passionate enough about something to use my caps lock key.
The thing about the series Walking Dead is that it's at its strongest when it's following the source material closely, but using the media of video to elaborate on already extant events in the original narrative. The first episode of the series, for instance, was magnificent – almost on par with the seminal work in the genre (Night of the Living Dead, of course). It actually improved on the first few atmospheric episodes of the comic. For instance, the scene with the child zombie, absent from the comics, was a brilliant addition. It spoke of hopelessness in a way that the comic took multiple volumes to reach, and was one of the more powerful scenes I've ever witnessed on television.
Meanwhile, whenever the series goes completely off the script it sucks so hard that the Hoover company should be worried about patent infringement.
My sincere hope is that the firing of the writing staff for the Walking Dead will result in either a return to the original source material for the remainder of the show, or a substantial improvement in the original material the show is adding. I don't need pointless diatribes on how racism is stupid in a World War Z world. I don't need moral-high-ground beatings of wife-beating assholes.
And, more than anything else I've ever wanted from any series ever, I don't need any more portrayals of cowardly people of high education. All the doctors at the senior center ran away? None of them were killed by zombies trying to defend their patients? The only researcher left in the Atlanta CDC was only interested in mass suicide because the world was now too horrible for him to deal with?
Educated people aren't any more prone to cowardice or immorality than the uneducated, and I can't begin to state how sick I am of folks with a PhD being portrayed as jerks, arrogant asses, hopeless cowards, or immoral Frankenstienesque researchers. And, for the record, I never quite finished my A.A. degree. I'll admit to being a bit of an autodidact, but I'm not officially much more educated than a high school graduate. I just hate the obvious prejudice.
I agree with Student_20 in most of that.
I felt the episode was completely shallow. Mostly pointless. And entirely rushed. It had all of the feel of: "oh shit, we're out of time and money; screwed ourselves on the story, let's throw in another tired self destruct sequence to save our asses." Because you know. . . as Start Trek (and every incarnation of it) proved. . . audiences LOVE self destruct sequences. Especially bad CGI ones. I wish TV shows with poor budgets (or not enough budget left) would move away from blowing up big things they can't really blow up.
Premise of the first 6 episodes was so laden with potential. I felt it executed only 30% of it properly.
I will say that despite the atrocious writing I felt that nearly the entire cast was excellent! I felt that the casting was done great because I really could relate or connect or understand all of the characters. I really cannot lay any fault at the cast's feet, but I feel like the writing was just tired and shallow . . . and I haven't even ever read the comics.
I for one will not be waiting around for the next batch of episodes. By that time I'm sure there will be something else worth the bandwidth to download the episodes.
As a first-issue fan of the comics one would think I would have a major issue with deviating from the source material. I actually don't mind it since it brings in a sense of the unknown and unpredictability. If I wanted a panel-by-panel, page-by-page adaptation of the comics I would rather just take them off my shelves and re-read them.
I will admit that the writing has been uneven for this 6-episode starter (I refuse to call it season 1), but even some of the geekiest shows beloved by many started quite uneven and slow. Whether it was Lost, The X-Files and all the Joss Whedon shows, they all took near to half to 2/3 a real season to find their footing.
I didn't mind "Vatos" because it does lay down the groundwork for future story-arcs which shows Rick's ability to lead into question not just from those in his group but him as well. The "Vatos" episode pretty much shows how Rick can be so intractable about his principles that he would get into a gunfight not to break them. A lot of the six-episodes shows Rick in his "white hat" trying to stay in the moral path, but as we've seen in the comics that "white hat" gets tarnished in time.
The detour into the CDC didn't need to happen, but it wasn't as bad a change as fans make it out to be. It did one thing for the group that sets-up Season 2 and beyond. It gave the group hope and the false sense of security that they've found a safe haven. To have that ripped from them without even a full day of rest and relaxation and to find out that there really is no safe haven out there makes for a compelling turn of events.
Even people's complaints about the TS-19 demo is somewhat unfounded since the scientist admitted it himself that no one knew what caused the infection. When Jacqui commented that maybe it was the wrath of God, Jenner didn't disagree. The episode also does away with the one question many fans of the show have been asking since the beginning: how did it start and is there a cure?
Well, the episode answered both and the answers are no ones knows and no there's no cure. Now, the show's writers don't need to re-visit that particular question and just concentrate on the group's attempt to survive out on the road.
I agree with Student_20 that educated people are not immoral, cowards and the like. But I have to say that extreme situations will make even the bravest and most moral individual act in ways contrary to their beliefs. I wouldn't say the doctors at the Senior Center and at the CDC were cowards. They were just people who wanted to be with their families. If those same doctors stayed and allowed their families to die outside then I think we'd be hearing the same condemnations from the very same people.
As I've mentioned in my own blog's review I cannot judge this show based on 6-episodes. Now if the show continues to remain uneven by Season 2's finale then something is definitely rotten in Georgia.
Well, I can't deny that you make some good points (except the "All of Whedon's shows thing" – Firefly was awesome from episode one, and is one of the most strongly written shows in television history, IMHO). And I didn't mean to indicate that I am against departing from the comic. While seeing a live action version of the exact comic I love would be awesome, I'm not against exploring different avenues of approach and alternate story lines within the context of the world. I'm a Smallville fan, after all.
That being said, the point I was trying to make was not that I minded the changes from the original. The point I wanted to make was that the changes weren't for the better, or even equal in their effect, and that the show seems to have its strongest moments when it's closest to, but not exactly duplicating, the comic. My best example comes from the very first issue and episode of the respective Walking Deads. The cafeteria scene in the original doesn't compare to the TV show – the TV show's forbidding warning on the door and creepy atmosphere trumps the original scene hands down.
As far as "Vatos" (sorry – should have used the episode name instead of being snide) goes, it was just plain bad writing. It's not that I don't see what you're getting at… but I can't help but think Rick deserved to keep his untarnished white hat a little longer… like, say, until series 2 at least. Beyond that, what we're expected to believe is that the only people at the senior center who cared enough about the patients to stay were a janitor whose grandmother was there and a nurse.
So… what? Literally every doctor associated with this end of life center had family they just had to be with? And the characterization of those that fled wasn't of familial responsibility, but of cowardice. The impression given by the (and I'm being intentionally insulting, here) moron running the place was that the doctors and more experienced nurses had better things to do. He spoke of them with contempt, not the understanding you would give someone who went to take care of his/her family. The way he talked about it, you'd think they left because they were late for tee off.
The next well educated person we meet is suicidal – homicidally so. Although literally everyone in the event has lost someone or experienced true horror, this guy – who has been locked up away from most of the horror – has decided that the thing to do is not just go out in a literal blaze of glory, but to, without telling them, take down men, women, and freaking children who came to him for succor with him. The man was a sociopathic coward of the first order.
But that would have been acceptable. I could have gone with it. Except the episode added nothing to the story.
The fact that the virus-or-whatever had no known origin? Well, we didn't know one before, so no big revelation there. The whatever it is revives motor function? Well duh. No one has found a cure? Wow – big revelation, except… well, frankly, why bother telling us? Does it change anything? No. Does it effect the motives or actions of the Survivors? No. So why bother? The last known holdout was in France? Like, on the other side of the Atlantic? Give me a break – you couldn't have given a more attainable location, so that there could be some consideration of trying to get there? So, hey – cool – the French were onto something, but it has no impact whatever on us so… again, why bother?
As a finale, it added nothing to the story, wasted time, and exposed a character who (SPOILER ALERT) should be dead by now as a potential rapist, in addition to being violently opposed to wifebeating (I suppose the two aren't mutually exclusive, but c'mon, man!).
They would have been better off ending on Episode 5, with the door opening to brilliant white light, and spending the next six moths coming up with something more compelling.
Wow i am review reader and I have never seen such a passionated reviewers. I said it before and i said again, two words True Blood.
I did not read the comic, but I did enjoyed the show enough that I now plan on getting them. I'm hoping that the zombification is a result of a military experiment to develop non kill-able soldiers. Though, I am probably completely wrong on that. The only other theory I have is the whisper at the end of this episode. I believe Rick was told that his wife is pregnant. If this plays out as a storyline it will make for a great dynamic between the two friends. How do you deal with their worldly situation as well as their personal one. Like I said though, it's just another theory.