Season Two Spoilers:
If I had known the world was ending, I would have brought better books. -Dale
You know what I love the most in literature and cinema? Character development. It almost infuriates me when a good concept has none. Remember that guy who directed the 6th Sense? Yeah I won’t even speak his name anymore for what he did to the Last Airbender series… that’s how much I love character development- I think it’s a borderline sin to deprive people of it.
With this being said, sometimes shit gets a little boring when we develop characters. But I didn’t understand all of the bitches and complaints people were launching against the Walking Dead and its “slow” start to the second season.
Apparently the mindless masses just wanted zombies to horde rush and rage on our survivors for seven episodes… give us action and explosions- say, is Michael Bay available to direct? Give me a break… I realize a large part of the fan boys were upset about Darabont’s departure (as was I) but that didn’t mean I was going to go into the second season wanting to hate it.
The complaints I saw from facebook and twitter friends summed up to “oh my god this season is SO slow!” “where are all the zombies?!?!” and “six episodes of looking for a little girl?!”
Yeah… it’s called building drama, decent plot lines and character development. It’s like everyone forgets they should be challenged and watch a good show for once. First off I didn’t get the complaint that there weren’t enough zombies… there were… it was just spread out. They interacted with zombies in every episode- it just wasn’t Atlanta where the undead masses congregate like Westboro Baptist Church, ready to eat you (and your heathen ways).
Too slow? I suppose breaking into a Walker infested school, getting cornered, running, shooting a perfectly cool jolly fat dude to get away is way slow… Carl got shot, Sophia got lost and went all zombie, Daryl found himself (and got shot), Carol was sadsies and doing laundry, Andrea bounced back and forth between total idiot and semi useful armed chick who doesn’t want to be babysat, Shane and Andrea got it on, Dale got jelly of Shane, Lori found out she was pregnant, tried to ghetto abort that shit before Rick found out, Rick found out anyway (by the way Glenn can’t keep a secret to save his ass), realized she had a thing with Shane- who was like “lolz that baby is totes mine,” T-Dog was hanging out- being black and stuff, Hershel was hiding a ton of zombies in his barn, and Glen got laid… like twice! AND made a Portal reference! Fuck… what more did you want? Iron man to blast in and save the day? Actually that would have been cool…
Third- the little girl… yeah… I was a little irritated that no one could find her but then I realized what they were doing. They were building up to something- and since I’m a graphic novel reader and knew what the fuck was in the barn- I figured the writers were up to no good. Drama. You have to build it up. Takes awhile but as you can CLEARLY see, in the end it’s worth it.
I knew the writers wouldn’t make the barn scene go as it did in the comic- first off Hershel has a shit ton more kids and half of his children get bitten in the barn scene (because the zombies aren’t let out- they break out)… not only that but Hershel forces himself to kill them once he realizes they are bitten… not exactly fitted for television but what would be the next best thing? Let’s put this kid they’ve been looking for this WHOLE time in there… that’ll teach our fans not to fucking doubt us. Walking Dead 1 – Negative Nancy Fans 0 » by the way… admit you cried at the end of last night’s episode.
Yes I’m invested in this show because I love zombies, I’ve read the comics and I love anything AMC puts out. I don’t hold it up to shows like Breaking Bad because it’s NOT Breaking Bad. Totally different… unless Shane and Carl start a meth lab out of their new barn… which judging from Shane’s Neo Nazi makeover could very well happen.
Bottom line is this show is fucking amazing. For what it’s worth, it’s well written, I like all the characters because I can complain, talk, discuss about ALL of them. like when John decides to voice Shane… tearing up the trailer “Where the hell are my Fruit Loops?!?! Raaawwrrr!”
Today’s water cooler discussion is about how Rick is getting great at shooting little girls in the face (with a GUN, pervs!), and Shane spent the entire episode pacing around the barn like a deranged lunatic and Lori is still an idiot… I enjoy discussing this show but I need you to come at me with more than “it’s too slow.” Because that’s a stupid statement and you should expand your mind beyond that… Rick battles with morality every day, Shane is on a downward spiral into becoming the darkest character and the rest of them have purpose, story lines, interesting personalities (not all great- but all interesting)… etc. See beyond the zombies, people… this show’s main focus isn’t a zombie apocalypse… it’s about humanity.
I can’t wait for February.
