Zombies create a quite a unique setting for a drama. Undead humans, moaning, walking, attacking violently trying to satisfy an eternal hunger by eating anything they can get their decaying hands on. The modern concept created by George Romero in his Night of the Living Dead has seen several waves of popularity over the years; but there's been a resurgence in the past few years. Zombies are everywhere. I don't believe that there's any other genre that allows you to examine what makes up a fictional character on a very basic physical, emotional, mental and spiritual level and that does so so simply and effortlessly. Put a bunch of survivors in the middle of a zombie apocalyptic wasteland and watch how they adapt to their new lives. From a literary aspect, it's great material for following and analyzing character transformation. For the casual watcher, there's plenty of violence and WTF moments to keep them entertained. And I don't feel any other zombie project (except World War Z - seriously get the book on Amazon or from Audible.com. Great story in there) does this as well as AMC's The Walking Dead.
(SPOILERS AHEAD if you're not caught up to Season 5 episode 4)
We're four episodes into the fifth season and this is honestly the best it has ever been. I'm a big fan of the show and I'll tell you that aside from a few classic episodes, everything since they got to Herschel's farm in season 2 has ranged from mediocre to shite. The show slowed to a snail's pace for long periods during seasons 2-4. Herschel tried to turn our protagonist, Rick, into a farmer, Carl and Lori were nuisances. Andrea was a monumental idiot and The Governor long overstayed his welcome.
Season 4 (which was divided into two parts) ended up being a long journey even though it moved in the right direction. The first part was largely forgettable, but the second part was where the show finally started to come into its own again. The gang was separated into smaller factions and things were fairly quiet. This gave writers an opportunity to flesh out the lesser-known characters and give the stars stronger backgrounds... I mean we saw Daryl cry. Relationships were fostered between different members of the band like Daryl and Beth or Michonne and Carl and new characters from the graphic novel were introduced to push the story forward. It was slow, but it was needed. This should have been done in Season 2, but better late than never. Then we got the best finale the show had had to date.
For me, "A" was better than Season 2's finale "Beside The Dying Fire" for one reason. In the Season 2 finale, Rick said he was going to be a leader, and it was his way or the highway, and he was going to do whatever it took blah blah blah. He lied to us.
Season 4's finale and these first few episodes have been all about action as opposed to dialogue. The question "Is Rick a farmer or a warrior" was finally done with when his only living relative was being threatened with rape and murder. The shot that rang next to Rick's ear left a whining noise that symbolized a complete shift across the spectrum that left us with a Rick Grimes character that was ready to do anything to protect his son. Season 2 left us with a long, crazy speech (rant) given by Rick. Season 4 had Rick biting a dude's throat out and stabbing a guy over and over again.
A theme has been found and the writers are clearly going to push it to its limits. "What kind of monster does one have to be in order to survive?". One thing Kirkman got about the zombie genre in his graphic novel, and that the show has finally understood is that it's not about the zombies. Yeah walkers are cool and gross and all but you seen one zombie, you seen em all. It's about the survivors. The characters. Who were they before the zombies came? What was life like? How have they survived so long in this post-apocalyptic world? How have they changed since? How much of one's humanity can really be preserved while trying to protect themselves and the people they love? Herschel and Dale preached peace and humanity during these dark times. They're also both dead, which in itself is a testimony against their proposed ways of thinking in the new world. Taken by the new dangers in the form of walker and human alike. The sad (really depressing) part about The Walking Dead is that it's only right that the longer the story goes on any new survivors that are met are going to be some f*cked-up-in-the-head people. You don't survive that long without getting dirty. I mean, look at Rick's shirt. And there's no end in sight.
The Walking Dead is a story about Rick's life in this post-zombie world and how he has dealt with the tragedies that has befallen him. Ultimately, the Rick we have now, on a very fundamental level, only cares about his children Carl and Judith. Everyone else (Michonne, Daryl, Glenn) is a close second. He won't admit it yet and maybe he never will, but I'm sure the writers will give us a better glimpse at that in the future. This Rick doesn't have mercy in his veins anymore. There are no niceties about this guy. Look how quickly things changed when him and Abraham had that standoff about taking the bus. That was the tensest 10 seconds of TV I've watched since Walter and Skyler White decided to settle their domestic issues with a kitchen knife.
You can go back and watch the first few seasons of this show. Follow the way he thinks and reacts to the problems back then. I remember in Season 2 when that kid from a random group got captured, and there was a HUGE, boring debate between the survivors about whether to keep him alive or not. The Rick we have today would shoot him in the head and keep on trucking. Back then he had Lori, Dale and Herschel were relied on as voices of reason. Now all he has are echoes of past mistakes and the voices of the dead ringing in his head. Come back to this season and look at the way he dealt with Gareth and the cannibals. The Rick from Season 1 is gone. So is Carl. Daryl and Michonne have been shown to have softer sides. And who would have thought Beth would be interesting enough to carry a whole episode by herself? This Rick refuses to make mistakes. He acts. Threats must be dealt with immediately, as evidenced by his wanting to go back to Terminus and make sure everyone was killed. Being reunited with Judith calmed him down enough to forget but in this world, we can see how that turned around and almost bit them in the ass (there's a joke in there about walkers or cannibals taking a bite out of Bob but it's 4am and I can't see it).
The Walking Dead has really come a long way from the formulaic episodes in its early days. Minor plot progression, walker fight, big conversation about morals, Lori gets mad, more walkers, Herschel plants some veggies while dropping wisdom, more walkers, episode ends. It's become really hard to predict. The themes are more resounding and carry more weight. Characters are more relatable than they have ever been. And on a less analytical level; Rick is just an old-fashioned badass. Maybe it's the beard. Either way, I trust him now more as a leader of this group than I ever did (considering that last season I found myself wishing Shane was still alive and that's saying a lot).
Side-note before the other random notes: I wonder when we're going to get our signature "Coooooral" scream from Rick.
Random Notes:
For me, "A" was better than Season 2's finale "Beside The Dying Fire" for one reason. In the Season 2 finale, Rick said he was going to be a leader, and it was his way or the highway, and he was going to do whatever it took blah blah blah. He lied to us.
Season 4's finale and these first few episodes have been all about action as opposed to dialogue. The question "Is Rick a farmer or a warrior" was finally done with when his only living relative was being threatened with rape and murder. The shot that rang next to Rick's ear left a whining noise that symbolized a complete shift across the spectrum that left us with a Rick Grimes character that was ready to do anything to protect his son. Season 2 left us with a long, crazy speech (rant) given by Rick. Season 4 had Rick biting a dude's throat out and stabbing a guy over and over again.
A theme has been found and the writers are clearly going to push it to its limits. "What kind of monster does one have to be in order to survive?". One thing Kirkman got about the zombie genre in his graphic novel, and that the show has finally understood is that it's not about the zombies. Yeah walkers are cool and gross and all but you seen one zombie, you seen em all. It's about the survivors. The characters. Who were they before the zombies came? What was life like? How have they survived so long in this post-apocalyptic world? How have they changed since? How much of one's humanity can really be preserved while trying to protect themselves and the people they love? Herschel and Dale preached peace and humanity during these dark times. They're also both dead, which in itself is a testimony against their proposed ways of thinking in the new world. Taken by the new dangers in the form of walker and human alike. The sad (really depressing) part about The Walking Dead is that it's only right that the longer the story goes on any new survivors that are met are going to be some f*cked-up-in-the-head people. You don't survive that long without getting dirty. I mean, look at Rick's shirt. And there's no end in sight.
The Walking Dead is a story about Rick's life in this post-zombie world and how he has dealt with the tragedies that has befallen him. Ultimately, the Rick we have now, on a very fundamental level, only cares about his children Carl and Judith. Everyone else (Michonne, Daryl, Glenn) is a close second. He won't admit it yet and maybe he never will, but I'm sure the writers will give us a better glimpse at that in the future. This Rick doesn't have mercy in his veins anymore. There are no niceties about this guy. Look how quickly things changed when him and Abraham had that standoff about taking the bus. That was the tensest 10 seconds of TV I've watched since Walter and Skyler White decided to settle their domestic issues with a kitchen knife.
You can go back and watch the first few seasons of this show. Follow the way he thinks and reacts to the problems back then. I remember in Season 2 when that kid from a random group got captured, and there was a HUGE, boring debate between the survivors about whether to keep him alive or not. The Rick we have today would shoot him in the head and keep on trucking. Back then he had Lori, Dale and Herschel were relied on as voices of reason. Now all he has are echoes of past mistakes and the voices of the dead ringing in his head. Come back to this season and look at the way he dealt with Gareth and the cannibals. The Rick from Season 1 is gone. So is Carl. Daryl and Michonne have been shown to have softer sides. And who would have thought Beth would be interesting enough to carry a whole episode by herself? This Rick refuses to make mistakes. He acts. Threats must be dealt with immediately, as evidenced by his wanting to go back to Terminus and make sure everyone was killed. Being reunited with Judith calmed him down enough to forget but in this world, we can see how that turned around and almost bit them in the ass (there's a joke in there about walkers or cannibals taking a bite out of Bob but it's 4am and I can't see it).
The Walking Dead has really come a long way from the formulaic episodes in its early days. Minor plot progression, walker fight, big conversation about morals, Lori gets mad, more walkers, Herschel plants some veggies while dropping wisdom, more walkers, episode ends. It's become really hard to predict. The themes are more resounding and carry more weight. Characters are more relatable than they have ever been. And on a less analytical level; Rick is just an old-fashioned badass. Maybe it's the beard. Either way, I trust him now more as a leader of this group than I ever did (considering that last season I found myself wishing Shane was still alive and that's saying a lot).
Side-note before the other random notes: I wonder when we're going to get our signature "Coooooral" scream from Rick.
Random Notes:
- TAINTED MEAT!
- "We didn't want to waste the bullets."
- Tyreese's face after Rick, Abraham and Michonne beat/mutilate the cannibals in the church was priceless.
- Gareth the cannibal, was a pretty good villain. He'd have been awesome with more episodes but Rick said no. Farewell Gareth.
- Dawn, the leader of the hospital in Slabtown, is just as terrible a villain as the governor. I was over her after about 10 minutes. And she needs to stop hitting Beth.
- Still surprised Beth could carry a whole episode by herself... With help from Everybody Hates Chris.
- On the subject of cameos, I need more actors from The Wire on this show. They just seem to fit in so well. I mean... Baltimore and post-apocalyptic zombie world are pretty close in nature right? Just give me Bubbles, Marlo, Wee-Bey or Snoop. Just keep em coming.
- Wonder who the next major character to die's gonna be... I mean. Season 5 is usually where dramas throw some haymakers. Glenn can't hide forever. The writers know we all love him.
- In case you liked the opening song to last week's episode "Slabtown".
- "How can you trust a man with a mullet?" as a friend of mine aptly put it.
- The Walking Dead is nearing Lost quality with the way their reunions hit the audience. Carol and Daryl was especially touching then Rick and Carl saw Judith.
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