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I'm so sad at the direction this show has gone, in that it has no direction. The pilot and season one were great but season two was 'look for a girl who is obviously dead for half the season and sit on a farm bitching at each other for the rest' while season three was 'sit around a prison all season while occasionally exchanging angry words with/shooting at a poorly written antagonist'. The problem is they just obviously don't know where to take it - in season one they had the 'goal' of getting to the CDC and while I enjoyed the interpersonal drama it was combined with it kept things fresh and moving. Now they're just sitting around and have been for two seasons, moaning at each other for the same tired old overblown reasons with no real plot to keep things moving along. I get that in a way that's the point - a real post-apocalyptic world would likely be petty and directionless, but that doesn't make it good TV. As it stands it's becoming more a less an occasionally violent, zombie themed soap opera. That might appeal to some people, I guess, but it doesn't to me. The characters are just weirdly inconsistent too - I actually quite like Rick (maybe moreso because the only other thing I've seen the actor in is a mediocre old British schoolteacher sitcom - it's such a huge contrast) but Daryl, enjoyable to watch as he is, just screams fan service. In a show that's supposed to portray a vaguely more realistic post-zombie apocalypse world he's a more or less indestructible, effortlessly cool maverick with a crossbow. It's jarring when you consider the themes in the rest of the show. Carl is just the most frustrating character I have ever seen and I want them to kill him off ASAP even though I know they won't. The Governor might be the worst - they had a huge opportunity to make him a ruthless, merciless pragmatist who did what needed to be done to see his people through. It would have fit right in with the morally grey tone the whole show goes for and they could have written storylines that would have legitimately divided audiences as to whether he was actually an antagonist or not (in a word, the perfect kind of antagonist). Instead, they've just gone for this evil caricature - why is he shooting his own men? Why is he killing people in cold blood for their stuff when he could use the manpower? Why does he have an obvious 'I AM EVIL' lair full of zombie heads? Sure, they went some way towards this route with his daughter and him trying to cure her but it felt very superficial. I never thought I'd say this, but honestly the videogame of the Walking Dead is a better written, more engaging story than the show at the moment.
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Oct 10, 2013 23:11
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warcrimes posted:You absolutely nailed how mis-handled the Governor has been. After a promising start to last season, the show quickly got muddled and tedious. It went from LiveWatch to recorded and I watched the last 6 eps back to back, liberally fast forwarding through most of the literal destruction of potentially the most compelling character, Andrea. She devolved into the worst written character of any show I've watched in recent memory(S2 Lori being the closest competitor[I don't count Carl as child actors artificially amplify bad dialogue]). I did much the same. I tuned in every week religiously for season 1, soldiered through season 2 in the hope it would pick up (it didn't) and then started season 3 in the vague hope they had learned their lesson. They hadn't. I gave up maybe halfway through and then absentmindedly watched the rest in the background while doing other things, powering through them all within a couple of days out of obligation without really enjoying them at all. e: On the topic of bad characters, crazy samurai black lady (I forget her name, says a lot). What even? She's like something a thirteen year old kid would draw if you asked him to design a zombie killing badass. Her and Daryl need a kids spin-off where they just kick rear end in the most overblown ways possible while learning that racism isn't cool and the power of love and friendship surpasses everything.
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Oct 11, 2013 00:58
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justcola posted:I watched the first season of this show and thought it adequate. The first episode of series two seemed to me like a big pile of bullshit. Has it continued on this way? When I watched the pilot it seemed like fun stuff, like I am Legend. As it went on it just seemed like a poo poo camping holiday with your extended family who hate each other. Has it improved since? My television hours are limited these days due to other things, like sitting in cars or pressing buttons. thewalkingdead.txt
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Oct 11, 2013 20:43
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I stopped watching this halfway through season 3 because seriously there's only so long you can sit and moan at each other on a farm/in a prison before it gets dull as poo poo, but I've been lacking things to watch recently so I finally got round to finishing the rest of it. I'm honestly surprised at how good season 4 was compared to two and three. They really seem to have taken some of the tone that made the first season compelling and made use of it again. I found the whole sickness subplot really cool as it explored the gritty day to day Oregon Trail-style dangers of primitive survival that exist completely apart from the zombies/other survivors. I also like that they actually gave the characters a destination after the prison, I think the directionlessness of the previous two seasons was one of the most frustrating things. I'd also really like it if the Terminus folks weren't in fact cannibals and that's just a red herring to cover an even more horrigfic truth. I like the human experimentation angle P_T_S described. Not holding my breath though - I fully expect it to be the standard cannibal plot but just maybe we'll be pleasantly surprised. fake edit: also loved the Mountain Goats being played as Daryl and Beth burned that house. It fit perfectly.
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Jun 12, 2014 03:13
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