After last week’s god awful abomination of an episode, the show is back and hopefully on a better track after the midseason premiere. Does it follow through on my hopes, or is it another move in the wrong direction? Let’s find out.
As per usual, if you have not watched the show yet, don’t read this. Plot points will be discussed.
1. We are the Walking Dead
First off, I wrote that headline for #1 within 5 minutes of the episode starting. Not because it was obvious that the line was coming – which it seemed like it was – but because that was basically the entire episode. But by the end, Rick dropped the line – one of the most famous lines from the entire comic series, and one of its most powerful moments – and it was a complete betrayal of everything that line represented. Not only did it completely disregard what comic Rick meant with the line, it also was turned into a miniature rallying cry when it’s clearly the most depressing line ever for a person in a zombie show to say. It was completely asinine, and if that was the moment they were saving the line for, well…way to save your ammunition for a completely ineffective moment.
Why I originally wrote that line down though was more to do with the fact that whoever wrote and directed this episode (I blacked out during the credits, apparently) was about as subtle as a hammer to the face with the imagery that implied that in this episode. Between Sasha, Daryl and Maggie’s faces that seem near dead anyways (not in thickness, as every single one of the characters looks like they’re still eating regularly even though they’re “starving”) and the perpetual imagery of the cast shuffling down the street with zombies off in the distance, it was abundantly clear that they wanted to draw a parallel with neon signs that THESE PEOPLE ARE LIKE THE ZOMBIES THAT ARE FOLLOWING THEM. That’s right, they are more similar than anyone realizes. So subtle. Yeesh.
This show is hardly ever something I’d call nuanced, but good lord, this episode was more of a disaster at that than ever.
2. Lighten Up
I know it’s pretty hard to lighten up the apocalypse, but is it just me, or does the show need to find something to hope for? Show runners need to give viewers to pull for, if not the characters, as we’re in this dark, desperate place where everything is horrible and even strangers with gifts are brought down into the darkness. Sure, they’ve been taught that they can’t always trust people, but when the only thing the group welcomes is a superstorm (that comes on unlike any storm I’ve ever seen), then you know you’re a dark place.
Every once in a while, this show can be funny. Can we do something funny, or something not horrible, maybe ever? Maybe once? Is that so much to ask? I know Beth died recently, but so many of the cast members being upset about that feels so disingenuous when they didn’t care when she was captured to begin with. It’s completely ridiculous, and I really, truly hope that the show can move on going forward. For its own sake.
3. Team Building Exercise
I want to lead with the team keeping the zombies out of the barn during the storm scene was probably the dumbest scene in the entirety of the show’s run. Of course Daryl was the one who found the zombies that were coming. Of course Sasha and Maggie were the first ones to see him doing that. Of course they had to decide they wanted to live once and for all, and then and only then could the rest of the cast join them in blocking the door. Whatever planet Drax was from in “Guardians of the Galaxy”, Scott Gimple is from the opposite of that planet. He only understands metaphors, clearly, like the storm that chose to kill the zombies and not Team Rick.
That’s without even mentioning the fact that apparently all you have to do is hold the door’s shut for a bit and then the zombies give up so you can take a nap, but whatever. What’s the point of mentioning how stupid this show can be when it has no interest hiding it?
Continued below4. Aaron
By far the best thing to happen in this episode was the appearance of Aaron at the end. I’d read he was coming, but he can’t be anything but a boon for the show. He comes from the community outside of DC that, in the comic, the group ends up at for a significant span of time in the comic (they’re still there presently), and Aaron doesn’t just represent hope for the cast and for viewers, but hope for forward movement. It feels like forever ago when I was writing positive things about the show towards the middle of the first half of this season, but Aaron is genuinely the first thing that feels like good things could be coming in these first two weeks. I really, really hope that is the case. I guess we’ll find out next week.
5. Balance
Now, I’m not running the show, nor have I ever. But in terms of pacing and handling of the show, I have some advice for the people who are running the show: maybe don’t have two horribly dark and slow paced episodes in a row? I’m not one who tries to go out of my way to pick at a show’s weaknesses (insert comments below disagreeing) deliberately, but these first two episodes were glacially paced to the point that it makes it hard to imagine anyone who happened to jump in randomly to the show with these episodes would ever want to watch the show again (or live another day really).
It seems like things might start moving forward from here, but it’s hard not to think the show wouldn’t have been better off pacing things better.
