I’ve been reviewing AMC’s “The Walking Dead” for Multiversity since the first episode of the second season. If you’ve read my reviews in the past, I’m sure you’re aware that for the most part, it’s a show that has frustrated me at the best of times and downright drawn my ire at the worst of times. I’ve never watched a show that I disliked as long as I’ve liked this one, and I’m not the only one.
Grantland’s TV guy Andy Greenwald straight up gave up on it, passing duties off to an array of others before the recaps disappeared altogether. Hitfix’s Alan Sepinwall has been pretty up and down on it. Many others fall somewhere in-between those two, but the New Yorker’s Emily Nussbaum provided the most notable takedown, crushing the show in a piece titled “Utter Rot“. In it, she said:
“The Walking Dead” might have been one of these shows, using a grotesque story to go deep, letting grief and repulsion rile and unsettle us. Instead, it stumbles forward, disguised as prestige TV but devoid of a soul. Give in, and it will eat your brain.”
At the time, which was right near the beginning of the fourth season, I couldn’t have agreed with her more. The second and third seasons were maybe the most trying experiences I’ve ever had watching television, as every single bit of drama came inorganically from characters acting absurdly, and the other characters didn’t really act at all as they were glorified redshirts like T-Dog and poor Sophia. Hell, the show managed to turn Andrea, maybe the comic’s most compelling character, into the Bechdel Test’s greatest nightmare. Her only character trait appeared to be having astonishingly bad taste in men, as she carried on sordid affairs with both Shane and The Governor within the show…when they weren’t plotting Rick’s demise. Characters weren’t people. They were fodder for despair and for death, sometimes simultaneously.
Yet something strange happened after the midseason break in the fourth season. While the first half of the season had some good in it, as it started to finally develop characters – no better time than now, even though it was four years into its run – and someone besides Daryl became worth a damn, the second half wasn’t just intermittently interesting, it was…good? It was actually a quality television show. Some lamented this half, as it was focused on small groups of characters after they were scattered during the assault on the prison, but it was hugely necessary. It became the perfect time to take undercooked archetypes like Maggie, Glenn and Tyreese and make something worth a damn out of them.
Now, as the fifth season marches on after three straight stellar episodes, “The Walking Dead” isn’t just something I tolerate out of some misbegotten loyalty, but an actually well done television show. Like Gareth and his Hunters, I’ve found meat on these bones worth chewing on, and by god, it’s become something delicious. And near as I can tell, there’s one main reason why. Or main person, at least.
His name is Scott M. Gimple.
I’m a big fan of the NFL, and one of my favorite stories over the past several years has been about quarterback Alex Smith and how he went from a cautionary tale of how careful you need to be when making a draft pick at #1 overall, spending years languishing as one of the worst players in football, to a legitimately solid starting QB. Always someone who possessed the physical gifts and mind to succeed at the position, Smith struggled for years on the San Francisco 49ers. No one could figure out why, yet when quarterback whisperer Jim Harbaugh became the head coach of the team and installed a simplified offense, all of a sudden Smith became a playoff game winning QB. It was magic!
Not quite, actually. In his first six seasons, Smith had six different offensive coordinators, meaning he played in six different systems over that span. Quarterbacks and offenses thrive on consistency, and Smith had none to build on. But when Harbaugh came and built a system to fit Smith, he excelled. Harbaugh looked at the strengths and weaknesses of him as a player, and found the right answers for him. I’ve loved seeing it, even if Smith ended up getting traded to the Chiefs where fellow quarterback whisperer Andy Reid aided Smith’s climb up the ranks of QB’s.
Continued belowWhy exactly am I telling you about Alex Smith in an article about “The Walking Dead”, you’re probably wondering. Well, it’s a pretty easy analogy to understand if you’re familiar with what happened on “The Walking Dead”. In its first three seasons, the show axed its first two showrunners – the primary producer who basically sculpts and guides the show on a day-to-day basis – in fairly acrimonious fashion, as Frank Darabont (“The Shawshank Redemption”) was fired (and his presence is still being felt) and Glen Mazzara (“The Shield”) was run off by series creator Robert Kirkman. That led to Gimple, who already had been writing for the show, getting hired on as the showrunner right before the second half of the third season aired. At the time I pitied the guy, and actively compared his impending role to Hogwarts’ Defense of Dark Arts teacher.
He turned that belief on its head quickly.
The fourth season was his first full year running things, and in that span Gimple and his writing team started building the foundation of the show that’s actually quite good today. All of a sudden, Melissa McBride’s Carol went from wilting flower to resident badass, and maybe one of the most riveting characters on television. Supporting character Bob Stookey became the heart of the show in a way. Even Beth and her endlessly frustrating singing became interesting. The characters went from undeveloped zombie bait to relatable and three dimensional characters, and ones that I actually hoped would live rather than die.
With an entire season under his belt, Gimple and his crew were given time to figure out the strengths and weaknesses of the show. Like the characters themselves, sticking to one place in the show is death, and Gimple’s discovered that in a world filled with zombies change is good, especially when it’s natural.
Now drama comes from changing circumstances and the enemies from within and from without, not from poor communication. Team Rick feels like a family, not a group of people waiting to die together. Expectations are used against us, as the writing staff takes what preceded Gimple’s run and uses what we’ve been conditioned to assume to amp up the tension. In reality, he and the rest of the writers have taken what has always been there and refined it. They’ve honed it into something that isn’t just gruel to be eaten by the zombie loving hordes of viewers, but an actual rich and impactful experience.
And really, all it took was time and a little bit of consistency. I have no doubt that Gimple is a super bright guy with the right instincts to tell a story, but given the gift of time that others lacked he’s been able to install the right system, and the show has flowered from there — just like Smith once did.
This show, the one that’s truly good, was always there, just like it was always there in the comic. Maybe the most troubling part of the show’s struggles came from the fact that the comic itself had so many easy to adapt stories, yet it still constantly lost its way. But even the comic has seen its struggles, as for a while there – arguably the entire Washington DC section up until “All Out War” – it felt like it was spinning its wheels, mired in rehashing similar storylines in much the same way the show did.
“All Out War” and the fast forward that followed changed that, particularly the latter. It’s actually become a very, very enjoyable comic again, as Kirkman and Adlard’s look at Rick and his community in peacetime has been fascinating and engaging, and the coming threat might just be the most shocking (yet believable) one yet. I know it’s not cool to say this these days, but somehow, it’s become one of the first comics I read when it comes out.
Like with the show, it just took time. Looking at both of them now, they’re living proof that Bob Stookey’s most enduring sentiment from the show – that nightmares do end – is something that can become a reality in the right people’s hands. For the first time in a long time, “The Walking Dead” is in a good place. I enjoy it once again, even as it tries to tear my heart out with each passing issue and episode.
