Too Many Dicks on the Dancefloor (Walking Dead, Ep 1 - SPOILERS)--
I just finished watching the first episode of The Walking Dead (yeah, I know, late, whatever), and I'm kinda... disappointed. The whole thing engendered a giant feeling of "Meh" in me.
Also, the misogyny didn't help.
That first scene, where the two cops sit around bitching about how Women (capital 'w') don't know how to turn off light switches, and all the things the sidekick cop wants to say to his partner but won't because he still wants to fuck the bitch, and how the hero cop grinned and laughed and nodded and went along with it, and then went on a minor tirade about how OMFG, his wife is horrible because she said a horrible thing in front of their son, and that poor child was going to have to go off to school with those horrible words in his poor little head, and how he would never say something so horrible in front of their kid made me immediately start wishing for their swift narrative demises.
I knew the one dude was the hero cop, and he wasn't likely to bite it, but boy did I wish fervently for the other one to go KABLAM. Sadly, no dice. And sadly, this inauspicious start does not really have me sympathizing with hero cop (or learning his name, apparently).
If that was all an elaborate way to set up the regret hero cop may feel about having a fight with his wife before the world went to hell, well, there were less repulsive and more sympathetic ways to do it. If it was also about setting up sidekick cop as an asshole, well, mission accomplished, sirs. Too bad you took a bite out of any sympathy I might have for hero cop at the same time.
I did kinda want to go to Peter's for a cheeseburger and onion rings right after that scene, though. (Mmm, and maybe a chocolate orange shake. Yum.)
And it was kind of glaringly obvious how few women were part of the story from then on in, except as zombies (to be pitied and dispatched), absent mothers (seriously, both married men seemed more focussed on OMFG!Mother-of-My-SON! than Woman-I-Love; and I sure didn't miss that both kids are boys), and briefly visible background characters/secondary sexual prizes to be put in their place after they've hooked up with the current Alpha Male. Blech. Honestly, I could've done without the whole sidekick-cop-is-boning-your-wife subplot that seemed to be the entire fucking point of hero cop's wife still being alive. Like, she was told she was wrong, wrong, wrongity-wrong, then subdued by sexual advances. I'm totally ok with fleshed out female characters who have sex or use sex to obtain particular goals, but that was just... ugh. So terrible, so cliche, so definitely about creating future angst for hero cop (which seems to be the function of every woman mentioned in this series; is it an AMC thing? is this Mad Men With Zombies?)
Moving on from that, the other thing that disappointed me was the 28 Days Later-style discovery for hero cop. Virtually the same damn scenario, which meant I spent most of those scenes not horrified by the slowly unfolding world, but thinking, "Wow, this is a total ripoff. Wow, why won't he put on some clothes? Wow, 28 Days Later did this so much better. ...Man, I fucking love that movie." Then some random musings about how that was the only movie I thought Cillian Murphy was hot in. So, um, yeah.
However, there were a couple bright spots.
I love Lennie James, the actor playing the, uh, other hero dude with the son. I loved him in Human Target, I fucking love him in Hung, and I thought he out-acted the rest of the cast (the, er, two or three other people, that is) in this ep. I think one of the few times I was on the edge of my seat was when he was trying to dispatch his wife. Sadly, I am worried about the lifespan of his character, for obvious cliche reasons.
I also really liked that first overhead shot of the hero cop on the horse on his way into Atlanta. I mean, I kind of laughed at the idea that because he's a cowboy!cop that necessarily means he knows how to ride a horse (it doesn't), but once I got past that, I had to really admire that first shot. I imagine it was supposed to elicit a sense of the hero cop as a Clint Eastwood/Spaghetti Western-type figure, but for some reason, the cast of his shadow across the pavement made me think not of cowboys and westerns, but Picasso's Don Quixote. I think it's the whole heroic quest, the tilting at windmills, and the stark lines of the piece as compared to the stark, monotone shadow the hero cop casts.
Anyway. I really hope it gets better, because so far, eh. It's only 6 eps, so it's no big deal to watch the whole season, but I would like it to up its game significantly.
Also, yes, fine with talking about the ep, but please, please, PLEASE don't spoiler me. I am an extreme spoiler-phobe, and part of the reason I am is because I'm good at picking up clues. I had a conversation with Barb about a month ago about a different story (that I know little to nothing about) that kind of characterizes the problem (paraphrased):
savageseraph: "You should know, though, that it might be a bit triggery."
caras_galadhon: "Triggery? What, do they kill a dog?"
savageseraph: "..."
Bang on the nose. So, yeah.
Also, the misogyny didn't help.
That first scene, where the two cops sit around bitching about how Women (capital 'w') don't know how to turn off light switches, and all the things the sidekick cop wants to say to his partner but won't because he still wants to fuck the bitch, and how the hero cop grinned and laughed and nodded and went along with it, and then went on a minor tirade about how OMFG, his wife is horrible because she said a horrible thing in front of their son, and that poor child was going to have to go off to school with those horrible words in his poor little head, and how he would never say something so horrible in front of their kid made me immediately start wishing for their swift narrative demises.
I knew the one dude was the hero cop, and he wasn't likely to bite it, but boy did I wish fervently for the other one to go KABLAM. Sadly, no dice. And sadly, this inauspicious start does not really have me sympathizing with hero cop (or learning his name, apparently).
If that was all an elaborate way to set up the regret hero cop may feel about having a fight with his wife before the world went to hell, well, there were less repulsive and more sympathetic ways to do it. If it was also about setting up sidekick cop as an asshole, well, mission accomplished, sirs. Too bad you took a bite out of any sympathy I might have for hero cop at the same time.
I did kinda want to go to Peter's for a cheeseburger and onion rings right after that scene, though. (Mmm, and maybe a chocolate orange shake. Yum.)
And it was kind of glaringly obvious how few women were part of the story from then on in, except as zombies (to be pitied and dispatched), absent mothers (seriously, both married men seemed more focussed on OMFG!Mother-of-My-SON! than Woman-I-Love; and I sure didn't miss that both kids are boys), and briefly visible background characters/secondary sexual prizes to be put in their place after they've hooked up with the current Alpha Male. Blech. Honestly, I could've done without the whole sidekick-cop-is-boning-your-wife subplot that seemed to be the entire fucking point of hero cop's wife still being alive. Like, she was told she was wrong, wrong, wrongity-wrong, then subdued by sexual advances. I'm totally ok with fleshed out female characters who have sex or use sex to obtain particular goals, but that was just... ugh. So terrible, so cliche, so definitely about creating future angst for hero cop (which seems to be the function of every woman mentioned in this series; is it an AMC thing? is this Mad Men With Zombies?)
Moving on from that, the other thing that disappointed me was the 28 Days Later-style discovery for hero cop. Virtually the same damn scenario, which meant I spent most of those scenes not horrified by the slowly unfolding world, but thinking, "Wow, this is a total ripoff. Wow, why won't he put on some clothes? Wow, 28 Days Later did this so much better. ...Man, I fucking love that movie." Then some random musings about how that was the only movie I thought Cillian Murphy was hot in. So, um, yeah.
However, there were a couple bright spots.
I love Lennie James, the actor playing the, uh, other hero dude with the son. I loved him in Human Target, I fucking love him in Hung, and I thought he out-acted the rest of the cast (the, er, two or three other people, that is) in this ep. I think one of the few times I was on the edge of my seat was when he was trying to dispatch his wife. Sadly, I am worried about the lifespan of his character, for obvious cliche reasons.
I also really liked that first overhead shot of the hero cop on the horse on his way into Atlanta. I mean, I kind of laughed at the idea that because he's a cowboy!cop that necessarily means he knows how to ride a horse (it doesn't), but once I got past that, I had to really admire that first shot. I imagine it was supposed to elicit a sense of the hero cop as a Clint Eastwood/Spaghetti Western-type figure, but for some reason, the cast of his shadow across the pavement made me think not of cowboys and westerns, but Picasso's Don Quixote. I think it's the whole heroic quest, the tilting at windmills, and the stark lines of the piece as compared to the stark, monotone shadow the hero cop casts.
Anyway. I really hope it gets better, because so far, eh. It's only 6 eps, so it's no big deal to watch the whole season, but I would like it to up its game significantly.
Also, yes, fine with talking about the ep, but please, please, PLEASE don't spoiler me. I am an extreme spoiler-phobe, and part of the reason I am is because I'm good at picking up clues. I had a conversation with Barb about a month ago about a different story (that I know little to nothing about) that kind of characterizes the problem (paraphrased):
savageseraph: "You should know, though, that it might be a bit triggery."
caras_galadhon: "Triggery? What, do they kill a dog?"
savageseraph: "..."
Bang on the nose. So, yeah.