“Guts” will feature Rick Grimes as he unknowingly causes a group of survivors to be trapped by walkers. The group dynamic devolves from accusations to violence, as Rick must confront an enemy far more dangerous than the undead.
In the second episode of AMC’s “The Walking Dead,” viewers are given the opportunity to meet a slew of new characters (both to fans of the comic and non-fans) as Rick tries to get out of downtown Atlanta as soon as possible. With so many new characters, how does the story hold up in the second episode?
Find out after the jump.
As a huge fan of the comic version of “The Walking Dead” as well as a huge fan of the medium of television drama, it’s really hard for me to look at each aspect individually. How does one watch the TV show version of “The Walking Dead” without thinking of the comic? It’s difficult, but one has to try, as two episodes in and we’re having near constant reminders that this show is not following the book as well as some would hope.
With that said, that isn’t bothering me. Most things that are different from the book in this episode make a fair amount of sense, namely the fact that Glenn goes into the city with a pack of people rather than by himself. This change actually works in the scope of the story, as logically speaking, more people can carry more supplies. The more supplies, the better off the survivors are. That this successfully introduces us to comic stalwarts like Glenn and Andrea makes it even more exciting, and Steven Yeun and Laurie Holden are very solid as those characters respectively – namely Yeun, who brings a lot of life to this episode.
The other characters in their crew ingratiate themselves a little more slowly outside of Michael Rooker as the psychotic Merle Dixon, as none of them really stand out and all of them are a little weaker in terms of acting. They all sort of have the feeling of red shirts, and to be honest, after the performance of the man who plays T-Dog, I’m already excited about his death.
Rooker’s Merle stands out more, but at the same time, he feels like a complete wild card who doesn’t make sense logically. Flipping out and beating members of his own crew randomly makes little sense, especially when you think of the fact that the home team probably sent him out because he was somewhat reliable previously. It doesn’t make a ton of sense.
Thankfully, Andrew Lincoln does a pretty superb job as Rick once again. While the acting is a bit uneven so far, Lincoln manages to make moments like the one where he gives a mini-eulogy for the man who’s body they were about to mince up touching. I always said before they cast this show that if they nailed Rick, they nail the show. Well, they nailed it. Lincoln kills scenes left and right in this episode, and when he’s telling Merle about how all that is left is “dark meat and white meat” you can see the fire in his eyes that will eventually make Rick the uneven but inspiring leader of the survivors.
Another moment torn straight from the book was when Glenn and Rick took zombie guts and went out to try and find a way out for the lot of them. Sure, it wasn’t exactly how it went down in the book, but the way they executed it was very clever and led to one of the two highlights of the episode (Glenn’s speedy departure down the completely empty highway, with the other being Rick’s escape from the tank).
I have to take a moment to say this: I think so far the show is completely mishandling the Shane and Lori romance. Leaving it up to viewers to decide if something is happening allows them to also decide if they think Lori and Shane are horrible people for doing what they did. The way they do it here just makes it seem like Rick went to the hospital and the two of them immediately jumped in bed together. This makes both of them seem like conniving and like they’ve completely abandoned their morals. With so much of the drama from Kirkman’s stories coming from the fine line everyone walks with every day morality, having such a major point being all in from the very beginning feels like it will eventually negate any potential drama their could be.
Continued belowWith such a huge story to contend with though, I’d say that Team Walking Dead has done a solid job of fashioning it into something both those who are familiar with the book and those who are not can be very entertained by. Even when going through familiar tropes of the genre, the strong lead performance, sharp plotting, and the sparse, atmospheric score from Bear McCreary manage to make the show as a whole work.
Not only that, but next week looks like it will really start building on everything as Rick and the rest make it back to the campsite and everything really starts to escalate. I for one can’t wait for that.
Final Verdict: 8.0
