Remember all that stuff I’ve been complaining about most of the season? Well, “Chupacabra” was a full hour of all the worst bits of the show. Granted, there were some cliffhangers of gut-wrenching proportions (and Daryl is made of win), but those were flickers of light in a silly, insipid world. The Walking Dead wants desperately to be a great show (and, if you go by the ratings, there are many people who believe it’s the next best thing to M*A*S*H), but it’s a long way from “great.”
I have very little patience for cold open time jumps. Most of the time they serve as filler and don’t actually add to the plot or characters (see “Save the Last One” as a prime example). While we didn’t exactly need this episode’s flashback (the scene would’ve better served season 1), it doled out some decent back story on how Shane and Lori were pushed together and why they’d even bother going off with Carol’s family. Side note: if that was supposed to be Atlanta the helicopters napalmed, why didn’t we see the bombed-out results?
It’s a bad sign when every time the camera pans to someone other than Daryl or Glenn I immediately lose interest. It’s an even worse sign when I find myself wanting to smack one of the only two characters I can tolerate when the writers ruin him by falling back on tired gender stereotypes. Seriously, Glenn? PMS? Because Maggie isn’t up for round two she’s automatically on her period? She couldn’t just, oh, I don’t know, not want to have sex again? Glenn is smarter than that. And that cocky lean against the pillar as he shows off his over masculine sexuality was so caveman douchebag it retroactively tainted my good opinion of him. (Also, dude, c’mon, if Lori’s preggo, how the hell can she be hormonal from PMS?) Speaking of awful stereotypes, Tarzan hunt missing girl, Jane stay home make food and do laundry. Listening to Shane and Rick recount their sexual exploits is just as pleasant as listening them talk about chicks, man, in the patrol car during the pilot.
Apparently Shane reverted back to being the village tool. And to top it all off, he’s taken over Lori’s role as Debbie frakking Downer. He’s not just depressing, he’s an ass. The only thing he’s capable of is pushing Rick’s buttons in his own personal pissing contest. Rick may be president of their idiotic little gang, but Shane is intent on needling him every step of the way. Yes, I get why he’s behaving that way, and no, I don’t know why I keep expecting the writers to be more subtle in shifts in character dynamics. Shane is back to being a shouting machine with nothing useful to contribute.
Lori popped in to remind us she’s still carrying a secret baby, Dale for whatever reason thinks Hershel’s feelings are more important than Maggie’s, Carol acted like a 1950s housewife, some other people did stuff, and Hershel’s true colors began to bleed through. Last week I said he was a deep river, and tonight we saw some of those swirling depths. His father left more of an impression than he would care to admit. Hershel’s quite the little dictator, in life and in death. He rules his farm with an iron fist in a velvet glove and if Rick continues to poke the bear in the zoo he will get bit, either by Hershel or his pet walkers.
The best part of every episode this season has been Daryl, and he continues to win in “Chupacabra.” His story line this week is exactly the kind of stuff I hoped this show would be. What happens to him isn’t due to stupidity (probably should’ve asked first about that horse, though) like every other situation his companions have stumbled into (anyone feel like hoisting a zombie out of a well?), but just something crappy that happened. Instead of overreacting or panicking, Daryl went a teensy bit cuckoo bananas and dug out of his own grave.
I went into TWD expecting Breaking Bad plus zombies, a high quality show about a group of if not likable then at least interesting characters struggling their way through the end of civilization. Instead we ended up with True Blood that thinks it’s Breaking Bad, a low quality show with ridiculous characters, sitcom-level dialogue, and cul-de-sac plots that thinks it’s better than it really is. With a lot less sexy vampire sex. Plus zombies. The cake is a blood-encrusted lie. I was promised great drama and got pulp fiction instead.
Final Thoughts
- “They’re dropping napalm in the streets.”
- “My son and I are not your problem anymore. Or your excuse.”
- “People in hell want slurpees.”
- “You see eleven condoms, I see eleven minutes of my life I’m never getting back.”
- “Keep it simple. I’ll control my people, you control yours.”
- “It’s a wonder you people have survived this long.”
- “I shot Daryl.” “Don’t be too hard on yourself. We’ve all wanted to shoot Daryl.”
- I don’t know about you, but when all my girlfriends and I get our periods at the exact same time we all turn into raging hormonal bitches.
- Hell on Wheels isn’t nearly as heavy metal awesome as the commercials make it out to be.
- I know I say this every ep., but Daryl is soooooo cool. If Norman Reedus doesn’t win an Emmy I’m gonna be mighty pissed.
- Couldn’t concentrate during Daryl’s Merle hallucination. TWD needs to hire a new continuity person, because whoever is supervising now totally screwed up that scene. Now he has mud on his chin, now he doesn’t!
- That zombie ear necklace, while a sexy little accessory, cannot be sanitary. Also, how cute was it when Daryl covered up for modesty when Carol brought him dinner.
- Shane thinks barking orders is authoritative, but Rick’s diplomacy and ability to pick his battles is what makes him a leader.
- Someone take that gun away from Andrea before I hit her with it.
- Now that the show is veering back toward the comics, make sure you preface your spoilery comments for the virgins.
Alex Brown is an archivist by passion, reference librarian by profession, writer by moonlight, and all around geek who watches entirely too much TV. She is prone to collecting out-of-print copies of books by Evelyn Waugh, Jane Austen, and Douglas Adams, probably knows far too much about pop culture than is healthy, and thinks her rats Hywel and Odd are the cutest things ever to exist in the whole of eternity. You can follow her on Twitter if you dare.
I’ve enjoyed the series so far but mostly because I liked the novels so much. The disspointment for me is not sticking with the original story and creating extra characters. I’m almost expecting Liv Tyler to appear.
I found ep.4 to be the best so far this season.
I agree with you to a large extent. Daryl is a strong character. I was very dubious about the device they used to get him talking during his little odyssey, but in the end it worked because they, remarkably, stayed true to his character. I agree that Reedus is giving a superlative performance.
I think they also screwed with Glenn’s character. I can understand that he MIGHT respond too stupidly to Maggie after their first tryst, but the rest was just idiotic. It seems that, if he has no scavenging to do, they have no clue what to do with him. And that is part of the problem with extending both the search for Sophia and their time at Herschel’s; they’ve hit a plot dead-end that they are trying to milk for drama and it is in large measure failing. Without impending danger and without something happening to raise the stakes, it’s just soap opera.
We find the characters’. . . well, character when they face their plight straight up. That is what the show needs to focus on and for the most part they aren’t doing that. I was hoping that last night’s big reveal might move things along, but the sneak peek I just saw for next week seems completely disconnected from that.
And what is it with Andrea and guns?!?!?!? Why is this a continuing, painfully-gendered sideplot? ARGH!!!
If you’re going to criticize the series, criticize it for what it is, not what you want or expect it to be.
If you think you can write it better, do up a few scenes and send them into the producers. I bet you they’d like to read your ideas/thoughts.
Similarly, each show (less commercials) is only 40-some odd minutes long. You really can’t get good character development in that amount of time AND also develop plot. Character development (a la M.A.S.H.) takes time and patience. Once plot has been established and character development has caught up, then you can really criticize the show for what it is or is not. Until then, you have to take it for what it is. In the short, it’s much easier for show creators to work on metaphor and imagery – which, actually is pretty good. The climb by Daryl is a pretty good example of that.
Finally, I don’t think the writers, director and producers had you specifically in mind when they wrote the show. Perhaps your expectations (Breaking Bad + Zombies) need to be re-examined???
Couple things:
“Listening to Shane and Rick recount their sexual exploits is just as pleasant as listening them talk about chicks, man, in the patrol car during the pilot.”
Their conversation wasn’t all that unrealistic. Rick knows there is something wrong and he is trying to get him talking by talking about the past. Also, men talk like that sometimes (especially) when they’ve been friends all their lives.
“Seriously, Glenn? PMS? Because Maggie isn’t up for round two she’s automatically on her period? She couldn’t just, oh, I don’t know, not want to have sex again? Glenn is smarter than that. And that cocky lean against the pillar as he shows off his over masculine sexuality was so caveman douchebag it retroactively tainted my good opinion of him.”
Come on… the geeky kid got lucky and it’s got his brain all screwy. Add the end of the world into the equation and from his view she may be the last woman in the world round about his age. He’s just trying to figure the situation out. (I will admit this could have been written better though)
They really do need to improve on the pacing of this series. I swear to god that it feels like I am watching this show in real time.
hah. I caught the mud on the chin thing too and it rankled me for the rest of the episode. I don’t know about everybody else, but I am soooooo tired of this whole Sophia story line. I mean seriously, we’ve had four episodes (that’s a month in veiwer years…) now of, “Sophia is dead!” No wait….”Sophia is alive!” No…….”We can’t give up!” No……..”What if we find her, but she’s a zombie?!” What little emotion I had for the girl is long gone by now and they really, really need to wrap that up and move the fuck on. The only upside about the whole thing is that we get to see Daryl roaming the countryside alone eating squirrels and picking flowers and being totally badass 24/7.
I really, really had high expectations for this show and I will probably keep watching because I want shows “like” it to be made in the future, but it really hasn’t lived up to the “hype” that it was given at Comic-con a couple years ago.
@stubborn: The original stories in the graphic novels weren’t really all that earth-shattering. A lot of the gender issues the show suffers from were present in the books. A show can’t simply reproduce the books, and for that I’m grateful. But to each her own.
@erudite: I agree exactly about the dead-end with Sophia and the boredom with Hershel. The walkers in the barn should’ve shown up 2 episodes ago.
@JBH: My expectations were Breaking Bad + zombies becaue that is what AMC was promoting it as. Same problem they had with The Killing and the audience backlash. They advertise one thing and deliver another. Besides, I’m not criticizing it for what I want it to be, but what it is failing to be. TWD has such an awesome premise and they’ve continued to suck at doing anything with it. And apparently you haven’t been watching quality television in the last 50 years because it is very possible to have good character and plot development in one 40 minute period. Heck, TWD pilot is a good example of that. You can’t lean back on patience when we’re halfway into the second season and nothing has happened with characters or plots except for a few fitful spurts. Finally, I’m not sure where you’ve picked up any metaphors. The writers are way too heavy-handed to be metaphorical.
@JFK: I like slow pacing if it’s done well. Treme‘s pacing makes glaciers look like race cars, but it’s one of my favorite things on television. But TWD is just killing time, and that annoys me. And yeah, I get that men talk about boobs as a bonding mechanism, but if Shane and Rick aren’t bickering about who’s on top then they’re talking chicks. They don’t have any other conversational skills, and this far into the game it seems pointless to me. And I was willing to cut Glenn some slack for pulling those stupid moves on Maggie. After all, just look at the male role models he has to guide his behavior. But the crap he pulled against Lori and Andrea was horrid. Glenn never confronts anyone and yet he decided to bitch on Lori? What was the point of that conversation except to remind the audience that she is still preggo and still doesn’t know who the father is. And, really, it took, what, a whole frakking day for him to connect the dots between the pregnancy test and Lori’s pregnancy? And if he figured it out earlier why not say something to her then? Why choose that moment to attack her?
@nrich: “The only upside about the whole thing is that we get to see Daryl roaming the countryside alone eating squirrels and picking flowers and being totally badass 24/7.” – Truer words. And yes to the hype stuff, especially from Comic-Con 2010.
@Milo1313 – I don’t mind slow pacing either. I just want them to be at least going somewhere with the plot. Sometimes it seems we are treading water for 35 minutes and BOOM we get action in the last five minutes.
I like the show and I am going to stick with it but it seems to be flirting with soap opera level of pacing. :-/
I don’t understand the criticism. People don’t act one way in real life. Glenn and Maggie’s relationship s complicated and Glenn is confused by it. Because he asks Dale what he does doesn’t mean he believes it. He was JOKING! Which does kind of match how he was first introduced… He wants to be this macho, bad ass dude but fails from time to time… He’s not Darryl. When people act in character ala Andrea you complain, when they don’t you complain. I don’t get it. And on Carol, I think she’s a fairly strong character that you keep putting down because she’s not a feminist (not that there’s anything wrong with that). Please Tor please find someone else to review this show!
@JFK: I suspect they’re having trouble figuring out what to do with a full slate season. The past season of Torchwood on Starz suffered the same problem. Both shows flowed better with a restricted timeline, and both shows buckled under the weight of too much time and not enough plot with full seasons. Given my knowledge of the comics and how much projecting the writers have been doing, I have a notion of where the midseason finale will end up, and I think (read: I hope) the next two eps should have much tidier pacing.
@Dead: Couple of things:
1) Don’t know where you got the joking thing from. Nothing in his attitude suggested that, and Dale certainly didn’t react to it as if it were a joke, off-color or otherwise. It’s cute to see Glenn try to be macho, but acting uber-masculine doesn’t automatically mean acting like a sexist pig. And this wasn’t the first time TWD has fallen back on misogynist stereotypes. The show (and the comics) have pretty serious gender problems.
2) I’m not mad about Andrea’s behavior tonight. She did act in character: she was rash and impulsive, acting without considering the consequences. At the worst she could’ve accidentally killed Rick and the gang BECAUSE SHE COULDN’T EVEN SEE HER TARGET, and at the best the loud boom of the gun could’ve attracted a passing herd of walkers. I was pissed because she almost killed Daryl, and he is hands down the best thing on the show. I still haven’t gotten over Ianto, and killing off Daryl would’ve broken my heart.
3) As for Carol, her ONLY defining trait is that she’s a pushover. I’m not putting her down because she isn’t an Amazon, I’m annoyed with her because she doesn’t do anything else except submit to cavemen. It’s her daughter who’s missing. Why the frak isn’t she out there looking for her? Since when is laundry more important than your own child?
4) Sorry you’re so upset with my reviews. As I’ve said a million times, I do actually like the show. It’s nowhere near my favorite thing on tv, but even if I weren’t reviewing it I’d still be watching. But that doesn’t mean I can’t be frustrated with it. There’s enough good in the show to outweigh the crap, but that doesn’t mean I lose the right to complain about the crap.
@deadjack: Just because YOU cannot understand the criticism, it doesn’t make it any less valid. I think a majority of the posts in this thread alone prove that this show is not all that it has been hyped up to be and that quite a few people are disappointed with the way it’s been heading. A person can still be a fan and question the choices that the creators are making.
Well, I wrote a nice long response, and Firefox crashed. Doh.
But, to sum up: People can act in different ways, but they rarely act in WILDLY different ways. Glenn went well past his usual ways of dealing with people. My thought now is that the writers are trying to show his response to just waiting around and not feeling useful, but that creates zero drama. The problem I see is that characters act unevenly because the writers are stuck in this plot-grotto and do not know what to do with some of the characters.
Daryl and Andrea are good examples of characters that are consistent but that do not respond the same way every time. Daryl is turning into a very memorable character with increasing depth, even though he is still flippant and insensitive. Andrea’s character has a lot of potential, and I really liked the way her character dealt with Amy’s dying and rebirth. But she gets bogged down by this increasingly ridiculous gun issue. What I mean by that is, the writers are I think trying to use guns as a symbol of power, and Andrea wants power over her own life more than anything. This world is hellbent on taking her agency away, even the power to choose her own death, and this has a lot of potential to be fascinating, but by revolving this around the gun issue, it becomes a nigh-parodic and stereotypically-gendered loop that resolves nothing about her character and does not advance the story.
Carol is also consistent, but crushingly so. I’m not sure what role she serves in the story, other than to be someone who needs saving. Certainly she has led a life where she needed to be passive and accepting, but that ship has sailed (and been eaten alive). What I want from this character is a reason for her to be here as more than just a potential future victim.
@erudite: My sentiments exactly. Very, um, erudite.
I disagree that AMC isn’t ready to show some the really dark stuff – I think they’ve done a good job of a lot of it so far, and really, they haven’t been tested yet, because the stuff that happens (in the comics) after Herschel’s farm are so far above the darkness of what happened prior, that they could still be just getting us warmed up for what will happen this season.
SPOILERS:
I have thoughts that Merle is going to end up being the AMC’s replacement for the Governor. It really fits. He had to cut off his hand because of Rick, so he will take Rick’s hand (if the TV show follows the comics even that closely).
@Milo1313 (Alex): Thanks!
@TankSpill: I think the same thing re: Merle.
@Tank and erudite: ***SPOILERS***
I’ve been thinking that as well. And Sophia is the right age for a Penny replacement. Would explain two completely pointless, dead-end characters, especially since both disappeared under mysterious circumstances. It would be really striking if Rick and co. showed up at Woodbury only to find Sophia already turned and locked in the Governor’s closet. Depending on how the midseason finale plays out, we could see the Governor within a few episodes of the return.
***MAYBE SPOILERY***
@Milo1313 (Alex): Ooh. . . had not thought of that re: Sophia. But that just makes the search even more pointless, I feel. The writers have tried to milk some drama out of Rick’s decision, but it seems rather anemic. Certainly Carl’s need to recover keeps them here, but that could have been sped up and we could have gotten to. . . other things that will test the characters much more powerfully. The only really good things to come out of this part of the series are character development for Daryl and Glenn meeting Maggie. And also, to a much lesser extent, Rick becoming more of a leader struggling with a moral compass that no longer has a magnetic north to true it.
Personally, I thought the opening was a good jump off. I liked seeing these characters earlier, I loved the visuals, and I liked that sense of desperation. But the show giveth and the show taketh away, and so I too was thinking, well, it would make sense that was Atlanta, but how come we didn’t see the effects of all that napalm? Sigh. I actually wouldn’t mind seeing more flashbacks to see how these people got to where they are. But, I have to confess, part of that is my thinking it has to in some ways be better than spending time with some of them in the present.
Speaking of giving and taking away. Glenn. Ugh. Such a good character—why would you do that to him? I’m going to chalk up those truly horrible scenes with him this episode to what has been a running issue with the show—difficulty in dealing with things in subtle or understated fashion. The idea was there; the execution not so much.
The same goes for Andrea. Yes, I think guns are the stand-in for control/power (including the power to off oneself). But it’s done so over the top. (It would also help matters to hear some of the men complaining about not getting guns) Do I buy for a second that she’d be shooting “past” a group of her own people to try and kill a walker that poses no threat? Not for a moment. And especially not when you show me her squinting and obviously having a hard time seeing. Impulsive? Yes. Unthinking? Yes. But not on to that degree. Not everything has to be the nth degree. Just have her shoot him before anyone even heads out there.
Carol. OK, I get we’re creatures of habit and of our environment. But can we see her at least struggle with mixed feelings about not being out there? Can we see someone wondering why she isn’t out there?
I said in an earlier post that the Rick-Lori deal was one of those typical film/TV “relationships” where we’re supposed to just accept they’re together because we’re told so even though everything we see screams they would never be together. I’m beginning to think the same about Rick-Shane. Their conversation did little to disabuse me of that feeling.
As always, send more Daryl.
As for pace, I’ve got no problem with slow. Give me engrossing characters, good dialogue, and I’ll happily watch an entire episode or two of them putting up their tents. The problem though is the characters and dialogue so far can’t overcome the pace or plot weaknesses, and the plot can’t overcome the weakness of character and dialogue. The gap isn’t huge—assigning someone as “subtlety editor” to dial things down two notches in each scene would help—and I’m happy to still give them time to feel their way to meshing and sharpening character, writing, and plot. It’s still relatively early after all. I’m just hoping they’re seeing the same issues and problems.
@bill: They’re in the middle of shooting the back half of season 2, so we can only hope that they’re paying as much attention to the critical comments as they are to the ratings. I have yet to read any review that’s overwhelmingly positive, but, then again, The Killing was completely tone-deaf to the collective groan of its audience so who knows how AMC will address the structural problems – if at all. Maybe the issues are part of why Darabont quit/fired/forced out last summer? I know some of it had to do with the reduced budget, but the man was responsible for Shawshank Redemption for Zeus’ sake, so I can’t imagine he was too thrilled with the looming changes.
So why does everyone have such big expectations for this show? Because of the hype? How often does the real thing live up to the hype? And what reason is there to expect greatness for this show over any other? The amazing budget? The greatly experienced writers? The A-list cast? You said previously that you gave it a B- as a grade well in my opinion that’s a pretty good accomplishment considering what the show has to work with.
The Sophia storyline is being dragged on. I wouldn’t be surprised if the main reason was that the producers didn’t want to work with children so they tried to have them written out for as many episodes as possible. One little correction the pilot was an hour and a half with commercials.
I like Darryl too, and he’s finally getting some development. Before the last couple of episodes all he was was a redneck who can really kill zombies. He’s a badass but needed more to be a truly strong character. He’s getting that more. Also, the Rick/Shane conversation. Men don’t communicate as well as women. They top two conversations are women and pissing contests, even among long-time friends (my ex gf who is a research psycologist told me this about 100 times) so that makes it pretty realistic.
Overall I guess I’m saying don’t expect greatness just because someone says they are great.
i feel a lot of tor’s bloggers are very feminist. but i dunno, mayb that is the target market for this company? TWD i think has a lot going for it, but sadly what it is now is also tettering back to the safe zone of stereotypes for the sake of ratings. the central drama/conflict will always be a caucasian grouping with side plots of minorities doing their thing. i understand that was the premise set by the books, yet the show is taking away what realistic actions these “minorities” have done. but again, zombies…. so.
Really, other than Andrea and Laurie just being stupid, stupid exploitation-style female tropes, I think the hate on the show here is a little harsh. Any time THEY’RE is on screen, I get angry and hope a zombie bites them immediately. Last night didn’t change that feeling.
But the rest? Glenn acts like a lovestruck young guy, switching between lack of confidence and male posturing…. Kind of like a young, geekish guy who has no experience with women would! I find his whole thing with the girl just fine, and a nice little positive in a show full of dread and depression. Did you expect Glenn to be a casanova?
Shane is acting weird and making little twists and turns–he also just murdered a guy for the first time (except in the line of duty, I assume) so expect that. His juvinile talk with Rick in the woods is exactly how two old buddies since high school would talk. Especially redneck ones.
If you don’t like the way male characters have been portrayed so far in TWD, you need to watch some crap like Twilight instead.
To me, TWD has a weird dichotomy that makes it really awesome to watch, and really hard all at the same time. On the one hand, you have the awful, teeth-grindingly annoying female characters that piss off modern female viewers, and also bother men. Laurie’s a complete nutbar who thinks letting her son die is a good thing, and keeps switching between hating and loving Shane like she changes underwear… Andrea is equal parts nutbar, obsessed with shooting things and making every possible decision the wrong one… Carol is also a nutbar, but at least she has an excuse, being a battered wife… But even then, I grow tired of her whining. It was nice to see her sort of wake up from her doldrums when Daryl gave her the flower… Maybe we’re seeing some character development there.
So far Maggie’s the only interesting female character!
But then on the other side you have the men. Yes, some are stereotypical, but they’re certainly TRUE stereotypes. The sherriff takes control, tries his best to hold things together and make tough decisions, questioning them every way. His fellow cop butts heads with him a lot, and is slowly turning towards the side of a “villian-who-thinks-he’s-doing-what’s best”. Daryl’s the badass who secretly worries the group will shun him, but is also hiding a good heart and is trying to escape Merl’s shadow… Glenn is a goofy sort-of nerd, never had much of a life before the world ended, so he’s lost when it comes to social situations… Dale’s the old, supposedly wise man who doles out advice and keeps the motor home running… They all seem to hold their place and, for the most part, do things that are IN character for them. Shane, Glenn and Daryl are the most interesting characters on the show. T-Dog’s the only one that doesn’t belong and is completely useless (and it’s a shame the only black guy on the show is useless and barely written into the scripts, only when he’s injuring himself…)
I haven’t read the comic but intend to… Are the female characters this bad in it too?
Also: as soon as Rick pointed at the barn a few episodes go and Herschel said “no”, I knew “he’s holding zombies in there for some reason.” Nailed it!
@dhawkin: At this point I’m more or less resigned to a lack of greatness, but I’m still not willing to settle for mediocrity. The show is better than that.
@joe: Well, yes, I am a feminist, but feminism doesn’t control the market on not being a sexist douche canoe. It’s not that they only hire feminists, it’s that they tend to hire people who don’t like degrading other people based on sex, gender, race, ethnicity, creed, orientation, etc., and who disregard hurtful stereotypes. Feminism is about equality for ALL, not about women emasculating men.
But that’s not really the point. It’s 2011. There’s absolutely no excuse for “tettering back to the safe zone of stereotypes for the sake of ratings.” Plenty of shows have been huge successes while bucking stereotypes, nowadays moreso than ever. I don’t care that the core group is white, brown, hot pink polka dots, chicks, dudes, trans, non-gendered, whatever. I care that one group isn’t being singled out and constantly pushed into a second-class status. Why aren’t any of the women out looking for Sophia, especially her mother? If Glenn has time to hit on Maggie in the crudest way possible, he has time to wash some damn laundry. Andrea’s all gung-ho to kill things, so why not let her go out tramping in the woods for a bit? Nonsense like that is too tired and outmoded to be really offensive and leave me screaming about A Handmaid’s Tale coming true, but just noticaeble (and illogical) to be grating.
@tiger: You make some interesting points, but I refer you back to my previously made comments as a response to your frustration with the “hate.” (I also think you’re mistaking hate for criticism. I like TWD, but I’m also not blind to its many flaws.) In regards to gender issues in the comics, yes, they’re pretty much just as frustrating there as here.
@@@@@Milo1313
Well, Carol isn’t out looking because she’s a hopeless battered wife who can barely keep it together. Her character is MEANT to be the “sit around and be the crying wife” type. I would hope that, maybe toward the end of the season, we see glimpses of her coming OUT of that shell and gaining some strength, but we need to remember this is only, in the show what, a few weeks removed from her husband being eaten? We can’t expect her to suddenly sling a gunbelt over her shoulder and trek off into the woods.
But that doesn’t excuse the show NOT having at least one strong female character. Why shouldn’t there be? Maggie looks like she is, and I kind of hope she sticks around if/when the gang leaves the ranch.
Oops… Dunno how that came out all Bold. Sorry.
I certainly have no issues with the feminist bent I see here on the site. I don’t like seeing feminism thrown around aggressively in situations that it doesn’t seem warranted, as that bothers me almost as much as sexism, but I almost always see it extraordinarily well handled here. And let’s face it – this show in particular is just asking for it.
As for the comics, in my opinion they’re better at this, but still not perfect. Andrea in particular was a much more positive figure, but while Lori wasn’t the harpy she is here, she still didn’t exist much outside of her relationships to the men in her life.
@tiger: I’ll admit, until I read your comment below I thought you were yelling at me, and I was very confused :) But yes, I also hope Maggie is going to stick around. Not only does she pair off nicely with Glenn (when he’s not being Shane 2.0), but she’s proven herself in her own right.
@Zeta: YES, Andrea was soooo much better in the comics. And I never really cared much for Lori, comics or otherwise.
I hate it when someone points out that someone’s criticism is just as meaningful as anyone else’s. I never said criticism of this show isn’t valid in any way. I’m just sick of seeing the show torn down and then someone turning around and saying they like the show. Sorry, doesn’t come across that way to me.
Glenn wasn’t out of character going to Dale in the way he did and saying what he did. He was very much in character. He called Rick a “dumbass” in the first episode he was introduced… He was trying to kid around with Dale in his confusion about why the women were acting the way they do. Guys like Glenn do that all the time (and some of us that aren’t like him from time to time). And guess what? We’re not all male chauvinist pigs.
I have some criticism for this show too. I feel the Sophia thing is going on too long. But I don’t think it’s pointless. I thought the whole Daryl bad assert was a tad overdone with the second fall and climb. I felt it was drawn out a bit too much and the Merle thing is a little contrived even though I kind of like the idea…
So, when I say I don’t understand the criticism understand that it’s coming from a point of view that sees things differently. I don’t see these characters acting so much out of character for them. And then when they do they get criticized for that as well (Carol, for one). That’s all.