Monday, March 19, 2012

Beside The Dying Fire, THE WALKING DEAD Leaves Viewers Cold

When it comes to television, series season debuts and enders typically draw a much bigger audience than the regular season episodes and the knowledge that many more eyes are upon them during these crucial installments inspire those who toil in the business to bring their A game to them. Can't exactly say it's a surprise but the big, much-hyped season finale of THE WALKING DEAD tonight turned out to be a big bust, its creators' A game distinctly third string. "Beside the Dying Fire" was painfully awful, an embarrassing compendium of everything that has been so very wrong about the series this season.

The pre-credit sequence shows a zombie herd forming over an extended period, marching along, growing as it goes and finally, as it reaches the fence around the Greene farm, it's roughly the size of Napoleon's army. The horde leans against the fence until it collapses and the dastardly ghouls are on the property.

This happened at some point during the day, the day we were shown in last week's episode and that fact, introduced only a few seconds in, already makes the episode extremely problematic. As I've documented at some length here, TWD's writers have proven themselves abjectly incapable of crafting a story featuring a series of events that happen in a set timeline. One has to look to daytime soaps (their model for this season) to find a worse example of allegedly professional episodic television that so openly and blatantly disregards this most basic element of competent narrative construction. Last week, I wrote:

"Hershel's farm has, throughout the season, seemed to feature some sort of magical zombie repellent. Even as two groups of our heroes prowled the forests on the property in different places and for an extended period in search of Randall, they didn't encounter a single zombie except that of Randall himself (reanimated after Shane killed him). But as the shot that dusts zombie Shane rings out, the forests on the farm are suddenly absolutely thick with walkers, perhaps having freshly teleported to the scene, and they all immediately begin to converge on the source of the gun-shot, setting up a big showdown with the dead just in time for the season finale."

With the pre-credit sequence tonight, it's established that a herd of hundreds of walkers was on that property during all that searching. They converged on the farm tonight from every direction, appearing everywhere.

That timeline problem ran smack-dab into another one tonight. We don't know exactly how long the search for Randall continued but it was still daylight when it started and dark at the end. The longer it's said to continue though, the more thorough it becomes and the more ludicrous it is that none of the searchers encountered any zombies. If, on the other hand, it didn't continue for very long after dark, tonight's installment introduced a new problem. The farm is completely overrun. We follow every minute of the action; by the end of it, our heroes are forced to take to their vehicles and flee. They drive all night (in different directions) and at some point the next day, they all end up back at the traffic snarl they encountered at the beginning of this season. The traffic snarl that was established in the second episode as being only 2 miles from the farm.[*] They drove like bats out of hell all night and came to a place that, even at a slow speed, was about two minutes away. How long was that night? There's no answer that doesn't amount to an insult to every viewer of TWD and it's an insult this series offers on a regular basis.

The overrunning of the farm highlighted how bad the writing has been. TWD is supposed to be an ongoing tale of survival horror but for much of this season the writers have, instead--and stop me, if you've heard this one from me before--wallowed in retread soap storylines, while the zombie apocalypse has been relegated to a very distant concern indeed. In "18 Miles Out," Rick suggested they should start using their knives rather than guns to kill zombies. Logically, the group should have been using melee weapons all along, just as in the comics. Such weapons are quiet, effective and never run out of ammo, but Rick's suggestion with regard to knives was the first--and only--time the matter had even been raised in conversation, a full 10 episodes into the 2nd season of the series.[1] Heaven forbid the characters should ever be made to spend any time on dull things like surviving their situation--it would take away from the running-time spent wallowing in love triangle melodrama, baby-daddy melodrama and so on. And why should they be concerned about it anyway when they seem to have a magic zombie-repelling farm and the Ammo Fairy to keep them in bullets?[2] They don't have to worry their little heads about such things until or unless the writers decide to take a break from questioning Rick's worthiness as a father or Lori's essays on how women should stay barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen. Tonight it became an issue. A full-scale zombie invasion of the farm caught them totally unprepared. They had no warning system, no Plan A, no back-up plan, no escape route, no rendezvous point and the only reason the walkers had been on the property undetected in the first place was that they weren't making a practice of patrolling the grounds. In the course of the episode, one of the vehicles ran out of gas; they didn't have any extra (in the previous episode, they'd let the RV sit for so long it wouldn't start). The scenario served to highlight how very far the writing this season has departed from what should be its primary focus.

Without a plan, they initially decided to jump in their vehicles, kill as many zombies as they can then try to lure the rest of the herd away from the farm. A fight against such overwhelming numbers is nothing but a waste of what should be precious ammo so why not skip that and just try to lure them away in the first place? For that matter, all our heroes really had to do was just drive away for a few hours and wait until the herd passed but that would preclude a big, loud Last Stand battle over the farm for the season ender, so, as usual, all of the characters, to serve a metatextual need, get stupid. There was a lot of driving and yelling and shooting and assorted mayhem. To make this possible, the creators of the series took away the increased abilities they've been granting the dead of late, making them once again a slow-shuffling Romeroesque horde, as zombies should be. Jimmy and Patricia, the designated red-shirt non-characters, became Zombie Chow.[3] In the end, everyone fled.[4]

While nearly everything else about TWD remains mired in the poor house of creative bankruptcy, the cinematography at least continues to improve. There were two particularly impressive shots tonight of zombies framed by the barn as it went up in flames (after Rick set it on fire), another visual indicator of the remarkable potential this series had if it had been in more competent hands.

The main action over, the episode devolved into the usual wretched melodrama.

It wouldn't be TWD without mind-numbing repetition, so the different groups that have fled each have a variation on exactly the same cliché'd conversation. Did anyone else make it out? Do we go back for them? Do we leave them? Lots of over-the-top agonizing, determination to find loved ones, long faces.

Hershel, Rick, and Carl flee together and, stopping at the traffic snarl the next day, Hershel is ready to write off the others and tells Rick he should take Carl and leave. Rick snaps at him "You're a man of God--have some faith." With a straight face and in total earnest, Hershel replies:

"Christ promised a resurrection of the dead. I just thought he had something... a little different in mind."

...which probably topples "he talked about the deer" as the best unintentionally hilarious line of this badly-written season.

So the writers could stage a Big Emotional Reunion scene, all of the scattered characters independently decide to go to the traffic snarl and after having them apparently drive all night at high speeds in different directions, the writers decide not to belabor their plight by writing a credible scenario and have them all just coincidentally turn up there at the same time.

The writers' traditional contempt for women kicks in. As usual, Lori gets the worst of it. Rick tells Lori what happened with Shane; how Shane killed Randall in order to lure him away, how Shane planned to kill him and how he ultimately had to kill Shane. Lori seems horrified then poised to throw up then her countenance becomes one of pure, merciless hatred and if looks could kill, Rick would have been one paid-for son of a bitch in that moment. This is her reaction a few episodes after she, herself, told Rick to kill Shane. Rick would have probably been much better off killing her.[5] Rick reveals to the group that, back at the CDC, Jenner told him everyone was infected with the zombie virus and will reanimate when they die. There follows a lot of contrived bitching and moaning about the fact that Rick never shared this information. The info doesn't change anything at all, of course, but how terrible of Rick to keep this from them! All of the women then suggest to their respective cliques that this means they should get the hell away from the others.

The characters prove they haven't learned a thing from what just happened[6] and set up camp in the open forest.[7] They hear a sound near them and almost panic but instead of checking it out, Rick seems to come unhinged and, waving his gun at everyone, makes a nasty "I am your king; bring me your gold" speech, ending by declaring to all present that, if they're staying, this "isn't a democracy anymore." Just call him Il Duce. Charming.

On IMDb's TWD message board this morning, I made a prediction:

"Tonight, the farm will be overrun and this will be greeted with great enthusiasm, merely because everyone--even the show's defenders, who pretend otherwise--is sick to death of it. The farm isn't really the problem, to be sure, but it is something people have come to strongly associate with the shortcomings that have comprised this very bad season. Because of this, if it's wiped out tonight--no matter how badly it may be done--I imagine everyone will cheer."

That remains to be seen, of course, but I'm guessing I've gotten it right and I'm also guessing that enthusiasm may make many more forgiving of this bad, bad episode.

I remain unconvinced.

--j

---

[*] UPDATE (23 Nov., 2012) - One of my obsessively nitpicking detractors on the IMDb's "Walking Dead" board challenged this some months ago. The distance isn't, in fact, as precisely established as what I'd written, there. When, in "Bloodletting," Maggie, on horseback, rides out to the larger group intent on fetching Lori, she gives directions about how to get to the farm from the traffic snarl. "Backtrack to Fairborn Road. Two miles down is our farm." While my detractor sought merely to muddy the waters regarding the traffic snarl being close to the farm as a means of accusing me of inaccuracy, it's clear the traffic snarl is, in fact, quite close to the farm. Carl was shot somewhere in the immediate area and when, earlier in the same episode, Rick is running to the farm with him, the portly Otis, who can't keep up, says the farm is half a mile in a particular direction. Upon coming to the farm, the larger group then spends the next several episodes mounting their search for Sophia from the farm. So while it wasn't strictly accurate to say the snarl was 2 miles from the farm, the snarl is clearly in the immediate vicinity of the farm and there's no basis for any case for it being any real distance from it and particularly not any case that it could be far enough to even remotely account for all those hours of driving. ADDENDUM (17 Jan., 2013) -- Carl, in this very episode, describes the farm as "a mile away" from the traffic snarl.

Yes, it's a silly nitpick and not really worth even addressing but my TWD articles have become fodder for such nitpicking and contrary to what said nitpickers suggest, I do like to keep things accurate, here.

[1] And Rick's suggestion that they use knives was stupid anyway. It's hard to jam a knife into a human head, particularly the head of a creature that is trying to bite you. Better weapons include hatchets, hammers, bats, spears and so on. Even swords would be preferable to a pocket knife.

[2] Tonight, the Ammo Fairy visited Hershel while he tried to make his last stand in front of his house--he stood his ground and heroically blasted away at the encroaching dead with his shotgun, repeatedly popping off several times the gun's capacity before ever reloading. Infinite ammo weapons have long been a common feature of movies and television, but this one was particularly blatant and emblematic of the carelessness that goes into the making of TWD. The sequence was very badly  staged and edited in general. Hershel blasted advancing walkers over and over again yet they would be closer to him in earlier shots than they were in later ones and the zombies he'd already dropped would disappear from the later shots as well (he should have been waist-deep in them toward the end but when the action cut back to him at one point there were none on the ground until he started shooting again).

[3] Jimmy's end was particularly poorly handled--he drove the RV to the barn where Rick and Carl were trapped on the second level, they jumped on the roof and instead of just driving on as soon as his passengers were on board, he comes to a dead stop, gets out of his seat for no possible reason and is attacked and consumed by a gaggle of zombies that get in.

[4] And the idea of returning to the farm after the walkers leave is never discussed. They simply abandon all the supplies they left there and head on up the road.

[5] Even with Shane dead, ludicrously contrived Shane melodrama continues. Brack.

[6] Just as they failed to learn anything from the horrendous attack on their camp in the first season--even after that, they had the same minimal concern with safety and survival measures throughout this season.

[7] Another contrived drama. One of the vehicles ran out of gas and, of course, they were totally unprepared and carrying no extra. When it's suggested that some break off from the group and go fetch some, Rick vetoes the idea on the grounds that they shouldn't split up. Makes sense. The obvious solution is that everyone jump in the remaining vehicles--there's plenty of room--and go for gas together but because the writers want the characters to camp in the open that night and feel uneasy about it, this is never suggested.


[Cross-posted to my comics blog]

40 comments:

  1. What stood out to me regarding Rick's diatribe to Lori is that he admits that he wanted to kill Shane. That's where he put the emphasis. He was tired of Shane's dissenting opinion and judgmental eyes.

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  2. I’m interested in Andrea’s predicament. The shadowy strangers that came upon her look to be an interesting new direction. Guess we’ll have to wait to see if this is a good or bad thing for her. I’m sensing a new character. Perhaps this zombie killing ninja that is set to appear in season 3.
    The ending left a lot to be desired and I thought the mid-season finale was much better. Although that huge piece of architecture they’ve unknowingly camped by was a good close out.

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  3. Is it not somewhat presumptuous to headline the article, "leaves viewers cold?" As both a fan of the comics and the show, I can honestly say that while some of the inexplicable writing/story/character contradictions this season did certainly irk me, I was still left feeling upbeat about the season as a whole and enjoyed it more than loathed it. It's fine and dandy of you didn't enjoy it personally, but to suggest a wider branch of people didn't is completely disingenuous (and no, a cursory poll of imdb posts doesn't constitute a viable sample base of people who hated the ep/season.. every board for every movie/tv show on that site is filled with haters and imdb is a fetid cesspool of negativity for negativity's sake anyway)

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  4. nitpicking at it's finest.

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  5. Though I can agree that the timelines get a little messed up..I still enjoy this show so very much, I'll be wishing the time away for it to come back. I'm a fan that really isn't interested in zombie attacks all the time (though there should be one each episode); I don't mind the interactions of the survivors - obviously that has to exists and I didn't mind the farm. However, I've never read the comics and can not really compare the two. I am looking forwarding to The Governor and Michonne as I've read so much about them on the boards. Though you're entitled to you opinion, don't include me in your "leaves viewers cold"....I'm a viewer and loved it!

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  6. Piss-Poor review. The finale was great.

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  7. The Assassin walking the armless zombie dogs was silly.

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  8. I don't know who this blogger is, but picking apart possible "geography" loopholes, I.E. how far the traffic jam is from the farm house etc., is absolutely absurd.

    I feel for you that geographical gaps prevent you from enjoying a show.

    I stopped reading your review after that.

    Just some advice: research the term "suspension of disbelief". See if that will help you surrender to what is a great show.

    Whenever it's a story about zombies, ufos, vampires, werewolves, etc...you should suspend your disbelief so you can actually enjoy the show.

    Otherwise, don't watch.

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  9. Suspension of disbelief? So if Rick magically grew a pair of angel wings and began balancing a bunch of zombies using wushu kung-fu I suppose this is also very acceptable since we are dealing with fantasy here. The review was well written and highlights some of the major flaws of the series which mostly falls on poor writing and terrible directing.

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  10. I, being one of the biggest bashers of what could have been a great show, will give them the benefit of the doubt on this episode. If for no other reason it finally got them off that damn farm. The Dig is dead on that these guys were woefully unprepared for the walker onslaught. I would think in that situation you wouldn't just be sitting there hoping things just pass you by. They didn't even bother boarding the windows and stocking food until the day of the attack. I would have probably taken care of that on day one. Of course what's the first thing they do? Flee the house they boarded up and abandoned any food they had in the cellar.I would also think walkers would behave like water and would follow the path of least resistance. If they came to a fence I doubt they would continue to pile into each other until the fence broke. Otherwise they would be stuck at every fence in every yard in America. Why did they at least give you the impression that they were siphoning gas from the cars from the traffic jam? That could have been easily explained with a T Dog and Jimmy went down and siphoned gas from the traffic comment. No episode required. Why did Jimmy leave the door unlocked if he knew they were getting on top? How many roads led to the farm? Everyone fled on a different one only to magically appear at the same place at the same time. Andrea gets big points for her escape and evading. It reminded me of the pilot in World War Z making her way through a zombie infested area. Hey it was far from a perfect episode but based on what they served up all year it was the Godfather.

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  11. regrading the timeline: were we watching same episode??? the hoard of zombies is explained in the first sequence of the episode and tied back to the first episode of the season. The zombies respond to sound and were already established to travel in a hoard. Rick was standing at the bottom of the hill so there is no way he can see the zombies until they are close enough to be heard. And, most zombies are in city centers were the most people had lived, not encountering on a big acre farm every second of the day a zombie is completely logical. Besides, this is a drama about people struggling to survive in a zombie apocalypse, if all the characters keep fighting off walkers when we will get any story/character development?
    I will give you the driving off of farm and then ending all up at the same spot in middle of the day. Everything else makes complete sense. Stop nitpicking.

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  12. If the herd was in downtown Atlanta when they heard the helicopter and started following it, they had at least a 3-4 day start on the group. How did the group not pass them at sometime from the original camp sight if they were travelling in the same direction? The herd from episode one of season 2 was coming from the other direction. I find it hard to believe that no other noise distracted tis herd in their trek from the ATL. Why even make it a point to try to show it was the downtown Atlanta herd? Their must be quite a few other walkers out there.

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  13. To the people wanting character development please tell me one thing about T Dog? Nothing has been made of him in two seasons. Last night was the first substantial part he's been given. Merle had more lines in a dream sequence this season than T Dog had.Lori's character switches from one show to the next. Carl has become Damien over the course of an episode. That's not character development. That's lazy writing. T Dog, however, does continue to break his own record for longest time a black man has lived in a horror movie.

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  14. Great review. Just wish you would have commented on Minestrone or Michigone or whatever-the-hell her name is. The one with ninja skillz. Judging from what I've seen, this character will be over the top.

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  15. LOL. You really need to grow up and get a life. I mean seriously, how long did it take you to compose your tirade?

    The funny thing is, I agree with what you say, but those oversights don't really bother me. And even if they did, I wouldn't spend an inordinate amount of time blogging about them and I certainly WOULDN'T KEEP WATCHING THE SHOW.

    I've got news for you, THE SHOW ISN'T ABOUT YOU.

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  16. This blogger gives an astounding and smart review of TWD. I am not a fan of melodrama and soap opera scenes. I do continue to watch TWD even tho I have been sorely dissapointed in the writing this season.The DIG is always on the money in their review of what's wrong with this show and there's plenty.

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  17. Whenever I read a review like this it always makes me laugh. The author is perfectly fine accepting that zombies are running around looking for people food but has a problem with the timeline of events. How does he know that the Zombie battle didn't last most of the night? Oh, sorry, because it was on TV it only lasted an hour right? LOL... Typical clueless blogger. Great series, spectacular finale.. last five minutes terribly important to all but the clueless. Bring on Season 3.

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  18. You have every right to not care for someone's opinion but it's his opinion. If you want reviews where everyone fawns over the show go start a blog and call it Hooray for Everything.

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  19. The people who attack the blogger show how incredibly stupid the majority of TWD fans actually are. I guess AMC knew what it was doing putting Comic Book Men on after this show. Same idiotic demographic .

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  20. I don't think the fence that the zombies crashed was Hershel's fence.

    I think it was intended to show how the zombies are an unstoppable, mindless force, marching forward.

    The fence had a no-trespassing warning on the side OPPOSITE of the zombies, so they were actually LEAVING someone's property, NOT arriving at Hershel's land.

    But I agree with a lot of the rest; there are some serious logical fallacies and a ton of lazy writing in this show, and its only gotten worse.

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  21. I'd be more inclined to give due credit to you and your review if it didn't so smack of desperation on your part. I'm not sure if you know, but a genuine review would, or should, cover both positives and negatives of a show, which you certainly don't do, oh, aside from a casual mention of 1-2 shots you liked. As it stands, this attempt at a review reeks pure anti-TWD, making you no different from every ardent defender of the show, desperate to brow beat down and condescend to those who don't agree, made worse by your inaccurate and misleading headline. Although, granted, you are just a blogger and so shouldn't necessarily be held to the high standards of actual review/ers. You're just some guy with access to the internet and an opinion, one that you feel the need to force on people, one that isn't so well received on TWD imdb boards on which you expediently advertise this blog. People who are criticising you right now don't care that you didn't like the show.. they really don't.. it's the arrogant way with which you present your opinion and condescension you display that people don't like. There's a fine line of professionalism between being a reviewer and being a troll. Go realise it and then write something that people should rightfully notice.

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  22. Wow, it's hard to know where to start. I can't believe the attention that article has gotten. Too bad, too, because I actually think my presentation is pretty weak, and have felt as if I was phoning in these TWD things for a while, now. Yesman, I reject the notion that I should be held to any lower standard. I don't think I even came close to meeting my own standard on this one. I should add, though, that I find no merit in your particular criticism of my criticism.

    The series has established that the Greene farm is surrounded by a fence. It would make absolutely no sense to include a scene of the herd crashing through a fence unless it was meant to be the farm fence, and the scene was meant to show how they got on the property. They break through toward the end of the day--the sun is sinking--and the very next scene is of them on the farm property, hearing the shot. Everything fits. Arguing, in the face of this, that it isn't supposed to be the Greene fence they're crashing reeks of rather extreme fanboyism (or, to use yesman's word, "desperation"). Taking a situation that is entirely logical, as I've outlined it, and making up something completely irrational and out-of-left-field in order to avoid the timeline problems I've outlined.[*]

    It doesn't avoid either the timeline problem or the larger problem it represents, though, which is something that gets lost in the details about the fence (and if I'm partly to blame for that because of the way I wrote it, I'll certainly accept that blame). The zombie herd is enormous, and it's on the property when that shot rings out, just out of sight. That means this army of critters is still scattered through the very forest the characters were just searching at whatever length, and our heroes never saw or heard any of them. How long did they search for Randall? It couldn't have been all night, or even close to it, and if it wasn't, the timing problem I outlined is still just as much a problem. And, as I've documented on this blog, massive timing problems of this sort are a routine occurrence on TWD. Which is the larger problem.

    ---

    [*] And, Eric the Zombie, I don't accuse you of that sort of extreme fanboysism--I just think you may have fallen prey to a notion floated by that particular faction since last night.

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  23. For the Anon who mentioned "suspension of disbelief," you don't really seem to have any grasp of that concept. It isn't a thing one consciously does, and, in fact, if you have to consciously try to "suspend disbelief," that means the filmmakers have entirely failed. The other Anon who touched on this is quite right about it.

    G., you really should read the comics. It will ruin you on the show, but they're much better, and to the extent that the series sometimes includes things from the books, it spoils those things. Of course, reading the books will also spoil these same things from the show, but the show is pre-spoiled; if you have to know some of what's coming, the books are the clear choice.

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  24. Good comment from Anonymous at 2:59 a.m. I totally agree on that. While there was some things that stretched credibility a few times, overall, I liked this season of TWD and I was not "left cold". I was entertained and I liked how the writers tried to wrap up the loose ends. The timeline is off but who cares? We never have any real time line for how long they were on the farm to begin with so why should it matter now? I do agree that the writers spent too much time with the melodrama and should have spent more time on their preparations but there's another season left so let's hope they learn from it.

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  25. "The timeline is off but who cares? We never have any real time line for how long they were on the farm to begin with so why should it matter now?"

    To the contrary, we know exactly how long they were on the farm. As of this week's ep, they'd been on the farm 14 days (the day after it fell was day 15). I don't know why so many people seem confused by the timeline.

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  26. "Leaves viewers cold". Really? The FB page this blog is posted on has exactly 154 likes. That's compared to 7.5 million on TWD FB page where threads draw thousands of comments on how great finale was. This blogger's favorite term is "magical zombie repellent" even though he KNOWS that Hershel was catching zombies and locking them up in the barn. Forget that little fact did we? Apparently, he is upset because hundreds of zombies weren't randomly wondering in the wilderness not to mention the fact that this this entire argument seems rather silly given the final episode when they did finally arrive. His biggest problem seems to be "timelines" because he thinks himself smarter than the writers even though when he suggests they "drove all night" there is absolutely nothing to indicate that to be the case and the battle for the farm could have taken place over many hours. There is nothing to suggest the fence was the farm fence but we must believe it because he "said so". The reason this blogger is posting on the "walking dead sucks" and why he is so upset is that it is straying from his precious comic books. The only people left "cold" are the 154 who for some reason can't help watching something they profess "sucks"

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  27. Probably the worst review for TWD out there. Your opinions are not everyone's opinions. Please shut up.

    Furthermore, stop being such a bad writer. Jesus.

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  28. Yet another misinterpretation of the Rick/Lori scene. Lori's outraged reaction was at the revelation that Carl was involved in Shane's death. Her reaction to the news that Rick killed Shane was shock; and I believe she was fearful at the reality that Rick was actually capable of murdering his best friend. She wasn't horrified or angry until Rick reveals that her son played a hand in killing the man who had protected him and served as more of a father than Rick, even after his return. It's understandable why any mother would be appalled; not to mention terrified for her child's mental state. I don't know why so many viewers choose to see Lori's sudden nausea and resistance towards Rick in that scene as an unjust, angry reaction to Shane being murdered. Watch it again- she clearly didn't fall apart until Rick speaks of Carl.

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  29. Your REVIEW SUCKS!

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  30. I'm struck by the number of juvenile comments posted in response to what is to me a thoughtful review. Folks, if you disagree with the reviewer, that doesn't mean that he "sucks" or that you need to extend sympathy to him for not sharing your level of enthusiasm for the show. Launching a personal attack upon someone for offering an opinion does nothing to advance your own interpretation of the series.

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  31. "thoughtful review" .. is that supposed to be a joke? This guy posts this blog on a site called "walking dead sucks" and you are seriously going to give him credit for a "thoughtful review" as opposed to having some juvenile axe to grind with the series and blogs just to bash it. Give me a break.

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  32. The only thing funnier than this show are the diehard fans who loyally follow it without question. Don't blame the blogger for being smarter than you. Of course judged by your attacks it wouldn't take much to be smarter than you.

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  33. "follow it without question" .. LMAO .. are you for real? It is a show about ZOMBIES !

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  34. "I can't believe the attention that article has gotten."

    You should be happy. You know what they say about "any publicity." I don't suppose you didn't wish for this kind of response when you invited people to read your "reviews" through imdb in the first place?

    And I'm not surprised you find no merit in my criticism, but then again, I didn't come here to post for my own validation. You seem remarkably un-open to what anyone is saying in regards to anything, however valid or invalid their arguments, so trying to convince you of anything seems futile, hence the "desperation." Perhaps I can amend by saying it's the condescension, coupled with your rabid inflexibility, that people aren't responding to? Who knows?

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  35. Your inability to suspend your own disbelief isn't a failure on the part of the writers. More than enough people seem to have no problem doing so. You're holding the show to you own personal standard. It's not the show's fault that is isn't precisely how or what YOU want it to be. You seem to display a basic lack of understanding between what is "objectively true," and what is, "oh, yeah that's what I think," which is what is separating you from being a true reviewer and just some dude. Geez, all you gotta do is chuck an IMO at the end of your sentences. I never would have even thought of the stupid fence if it wasn't for you bringing it up. The zombies just came to a fence, and went through it, like an unstoppable force. That was the point of the scene. That they're strong and in numbers. Booyah. The end. You're welcome.

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  36. "I don't know why so many viewers choose to see Lori's sudden nausea and resistance towards Rick in that scene as an unjust, angry reaction to Shane being murdered. Watch it again- she clearly didn't fall apart until Rick speaks of Carl."

    They read it that way because that's what happened. From the moment he tells her he killed Shane, she lets go of him and starts to back off. She isn't looking sad. She doesn't shed a tear. She's not sympathetic (at a time when Rick needed some sympathy more than he ever has). She is, instead, looking standoffish, as usual--that's the one facial expression Callies has ever brought to Lori on TWD, that ugly, standoffish look. When he reaches out to her, she viciously swats his hand away, stares daggers through him, and angrily stalks off with a near-snarl on her lips. There's no way to read that as an appropriate reaction, or to make any case that those who read it for what it is are misinterpreting it. That's the way Lori is always made to behave on TWD; it's why, on a show made up of nothing but totally unlikeable characters, she is the most hated by its fans and critics alike.

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  37. "She isn't looking sad. She doesn't shed a tear. She's not sympathetic (at a time when Rick needed some sympathy more than he ever has). She is, instead, looking standoffish, as usual--that's the one facial expression Callies has ever brought to Lori on TWD."

    While I admit now that Lori probably does resent Rick for killing Shane (based on Mazzara and Lincoln's views on the scene), I still think Lori only pulled back in fear of who Rick had become (regardless of the fact that she previously told him to do it). It's like it had suddenly hit her that Rick has become this person, at her own doing, and she's horrified at this. Then, when Rick mentions Carl, she becomes angry at her child's involvement.

    I don't understand hate towards Sarah Wayne Callies' portrayal. To the contrary, she's a phenomenal actress, and not one dimensional at all. The fact that viewers hate her is only evidence that she plays her character so well. In real life, she's a giving, kind, intellectual and thoughtful person.
    SWC should not be held responsible for the fact that Lori's character is written so inconsistently and detestable. If you watch behind the scenes footage and interviews of Callies, she is constantly trying to give Lori warmth, remorse and humanity. She tries in vain to treat her as an apologetic and flawed woman- not cold and manipulative. It's the writers who contradict this by failing to write Lori's storylines with fluidity and remorse. I feel sorry for Callies. The temperamental material she's given must frustrate her as much as it does the audience.

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