Walking Dead, Episode 401: "30 Days Without An Accident"
It's a new season of The Walking Dead, YAY! And that means my post-episode "reviews" are back!
Everything under the cut contains spoilers for Episode 401: 30 Days Without An Accident", which aired last night. Do not read further if you haven’t seen the episode!
I wish I could say I loved it, but it felt... underwhelming. While I understand and appreciate that they are laying the foundation for the rest of the season and a longer story arc, the episode itself felt rather stifled by erratic pacing and clunky exposition. I'm super surprised that I feel this way, because it was written by Scott Gimple and I'm normally a huge fan of his work.
Anyhoo, on to the show. And let's start with my fave and yours…
Daryl -- Gonna jump right into the shallow end of the pool and just start off with HOLY SHIT NORMAN LOOKS HOT. Okay, now that that's out of the way…
I really like that he's become a respected member of the community. The newcomers look up to him, and that's something he's never had before. And it makes sense that the guy that provides them with fresh meat and protection gets that kind of respect (especially when you factor in that the Woodburians just got to stroll around and pretend the apocalypse wasn't happening while the Governor was in charge.)
I loved loved LOVED the Daryl/Beth scene. I liked the juxtaposition of the two of them - she's trying to harden herself so that she won't be hurt, while he's learning how to open up and trust people. Yet her first instinct is to hug Daryl when he's upset - and how much do I love that Daryl has become close enough with all these people that she knows she CAN? - and he just literally does not know HOW to accept it. It makes me wonder if Daryl was ever hugged in his whole damn life. How sad is that? And earlier in the scene at the Big Spot, Daryl is able to just joke around and tease with Zach and Michonne, even though he doesn't have that build-up of love and trust for them that he has for the other original camp-survivors. So really, tons of GREAT Daryl moments in this first ep.
And damn, I really liked Beth's Doomed Boyfriend. RIP Zach. (The raining walkers just didn't look frightening to me, though. And I was taken out of the scene with the helicopter crashing through the roof by how bad the CGI was.)
I tried very hard to watch the Daryl & Carol scenes without any bias - something that's hard for me because I just don't like Carol very much. But I tried, I really did… and I found their interactions stilted and awkward. What came across as very natural relaxed conversation in the Daryl/Michonne/Zach and the Daryl/Beth scene sounded forced and labored to me in the Daryl/Carol scene. Maybe that's because we're always thrown into the new aspects of their friendship without any build-up. Because I just can't imagine ANY situation where Carol would decide to call Daryl "Pookie" (I'm assuming this is a long-time nickname and not one that she just decided on.) Ugh, I dunno, I just never see what I think the writers want me to see. I see Daryl treating Carol the same way he treats Glenn or Hershel, you know? And because (to my eyes) he treats her with the same level of respect and friendship that he treats his other friends, all the little terms of endearment sound "off" to me. They don't feel real.
Coming back to Beth, I really hope that there's some kind of consequence to her attempt to stay detached and also to Tyreese's squeamishness.
Also: Glenn and Maggie aren't pregnant (yay), Michonne's obsessed with the Governor, Carl's being good and kind of loves Michonne. And Carol is for some reason hiding that she's training the kids in self defense. Because apparently this would be a problem during a zombie apocalypse. Oh, show.
So. Rick. The pacing really faltered during the loooong scenes with Rick and the Creepy Woods Girl (hereafter known as CWG.) If CWG was being used to illustrate that the apocalypse can drive people to irrational behaviour, well… we've already seen that to varying degrees with Shane, The Governor and Rick himself. And we've had 3 seasons to get to know Rick, so we already know as viewers that he'd have emotional turmoil over the things he's had to do in his past. I just feel that those scenes dragged on with little sense of menace - even though we knew CWG was up to something (my guess was cannibal), we knew she wasn't going to get the upper hand on Rick. Even if CWG turns out to be linked to the health/black-eyed demons walkers/sickness mystery, I think they could have done it more succinctly and with less screen time.
Now. The sickness. Going in unspoiled and only based on the cast saying that there was a new threat, my guess was contaminated water or soil.
So here's what we've got so far: a dead pig (RIP Violet.) A sick boar in the woods. A bleeding eyed walker. Patrick the Nerd getting sick and turning into a black-eyed demon possible walker. CWG.
So what do you think? Is the soil or water contaminated? (And if it wasn't the water before it just might be now that Patrick the Nerd coughed in it. Thanks Patrick.) Is the virus mutating? Was CWG in the first stages of turning into what Patrick got? (But if so, why did he turn so quickly?) Where did Patrick get contaminated? They made a point to have Patrick thank Daryl for the deer - but if the deer was contaminated, everyone should be getting sick. Hmmm. Was there some hidden meaning to Daryl licking his fingers before he shook Patrick's hand? (I don't think so, but ya never know.) Is it possible that Bleeding Eye Walker isn't actually dead?
My guess is a mutating virus -- but how? My fear is that somehow they are leading up to more intelligent walkers. I've been reading and watching zombie movies for a lot of years, and I've rarely seen it done well. So I'm really hoping that's not the direction they're going.
It kind of sounds like I hated this ep. I didn't, I swear! I thought it had some great moments, and it's made me think about what's to come. But for a season opener, I thought it was weak. So much of it - especially CWG - felt like filler, and the big walker attack in the Big Spot didn't scare or thrill me. (Also, I watch on livestream so the quality isn't that great. Maybe once I see the episode again I'll change my mind on some of the action pieces.)
I'm hopeful that now that the groundwork has been laid for where our characters are now in this time jump, that they'll be able to hit the ground running in future eps. I've always liked Scott Gimple's episodes and the cast keeps saying this season is more character-driven, which is what I love. So I'm confident that it only gets better from here.
So what do YOU think? Did you like it, love it, hate it? What do you think is causing dead pigs (RIP Violet) , bleeding walker eyes and Patrick's demise? Lay your speculation on me, flist!
If you want to talk about the ep, feel free to comment! But please, no spoilers for the comic books or unaired episodes. I’m a spoiler-virgin and want to stay that way. :)
.
Everything under the cut contains spoilers for Episode 401: 30 Days Without An Accident", which aired last night. Do not read further if you haven’t seen the episode!
I wish I could say I loved it, but it felt... underwhelming. While I understand and appreciate that they are laying the foundation for the rest of the season and a longer story arc, the episode itself felt rather stifled by erratic pacing and clunky exposition. I'm super surprised that I feel this way, because it was written by Scott Gimple and I'm normally a huge fan of his work.
Anyhoo, on to the show. And let's start with my fave and yours…
Daryl -- Gonna jump right into the shallow end of the pool and just start off with HOLY SHIT NORMAN LOOKS HOT. Okay, now that that's out of the way…
I really like that he's become a respected member of the community. The newcomers look up to him, and that's something he's never had before. And it makes sense that the guy that provides them with fresh meat and protection gets that kind of respect (especially when you factor in that the Woodburians just got to stroll around and pretend the apocalypse wasn't happening while the Governor was in charge.)
I loved loved LOVED the Daryl/Beth scene. I liked the juxtaposition of the two of them - she's trying to harden herself so that she won't be hurt, while he's learning how to open up and trust people. Yet her first instinct is to hug Daryl when he's upset - and how much do I love that Daryl has become close enough with all these people that she knows she CAN? - and he just literally does not know HOW to accept it. It makes me wonder if Daryl was ever hugged in his whole damn life. How sad is that? And earlier in the scene at the Big Spot, Daryl is able to just joke around and tease with Zach and Michonne, even though he doesn't have that build-up of love and trust for them that he has for the other original camp-survivors. So really, tons of GREAT Daryl moments in this first ep.
And damn, I really liked Beth's Doomed Boyfriend. RIP Zach. (The raining walkers just didn't look frightening to me, though. And I was taken out of the scene with the helicopter crashing through the roof by how bad the CGI was.)
I tried very hard to watch the Daryl & Carol scenes without any bias - something that's hard for me because I just don't like Carol very much. But I tried, I really did… and I found their interactions stilted and awkward. What came across as very natural relaxed conversation in the Daryl/Michonne/Zach and the Daryl/Beth scene sounded forced and labored to me in the Daryl/Carol scene. Maybe that's because we're always thrown into the new aspects of their friendship without any build-up. Because I just can't imagine ANY situation where Carol would decide to call Daryl "Pookie" (I'm assuming this is a long-time nickname and not one that she just decided on.) Ugh, I dunno, I just never see what I think the writers want me to see. I see Daryl treating Carol the same way he treats Glenn or Hershel, you know? And because (to my eyes) he treats her with the same level of respect and friendship that he treats his other friends, all the little terms of endearment sound "off" to me. They don't feel real.
Coming back to Beth, I really hope that there's some kind of consequence to her attempt to stay detached and also to Tyreese's squeamishness.
Also: Glenn and Maggie aren't pregnant (yay), Michonne's obsessed with the Governor, Carl's being good and kind of loves Michonne. And Carol is for some reason hiding that she's training the kids in self defense. Because apparently this would be a problem during a zombie apocalypse. Oh, show.
So. Rick. The pacing really faltered during the loooong scenes with Rick and the Creepy Woods Girl (hereafter known as CWG.) If CWG was being used to illustrate that the apocalypse can drive people to irrational behaviour, well… we've already seen that to varying degrees with Shane, The Governor and Rick himself. And we've had 3 seasons to get to know Rick, so we already know as viewers that he'd have emotional turmoil over the things he's had to do in his past. I just feel that those scenes dragged on with little sense of menace - even though we knew CWG was up to something (my guess was cannibal), we knew she wasn't going to get the upper hand on Rick. Even if CWG turns out to be linked to the health/black-eyed demons walkers/sickness mystery, I think they could have done it more succinctly and with less screen time.
Now. The sickness. Going in unspoiled and only based on the cast saying that there was a new threat, my guess was contaminated water or soil.
So here's what we've got so far: a dead pig (RIP Violet.) A sick boar in the woods. A bleeding eyed walker. Patrick the Nerd getting sick and turning into a black-eyed demon possible walker. CWG.
So what do you think? Is the soil or water contaminated? (And if it wasn't the water before it just might be now that Patrick the Nerd coughed in it. Thanks Patrick.) Is the virus mutating? Was CWG in the first stages of turning into what Patrick got? (But if so, why did he turn so quickly?) Where did Patrick get contaminated? They made a point to have Patrick thank Daryl for the deer - but if the deer was contaminated, everyone should be getting sick. Hmmm. Was there some hidden meaning to Daryl licking his fingers before he shook Patrick's hand? (I don't think so, but ya never know.) Is it possible that Bleeding Eye Walker isn't actually dead?
My guess is a mutating virus -- but how? My fear is that somehow they are leading up to more intelligent walkers. I've been reading and watching zombie movies for a lot of years, and I've rarely seen it done well. So I'm really hoping that's not the direction they're going.
It kind of sounds like I hated this ep. I didn't, I swear! I thought it had some great moments, and it's made me think about what's to come. But for a season opener, I thought it was weak. So much of it - especially CWG - felt like filler, and the big walker attack in the Big Spot didn't scare or thrill me. (Also, I watch on livestream so the quality isn't that great. Maybe once I see the episode again I'll change my mind on some of the action pieces.)
I'm hopeful that now that the groundwork has been laid for where our characters are now in this time jump, that they'll be able to hit the ground running in future eps. I've always liked Scott Gimple's episodes and the cast keeps saying this season is more character-driven, which is what I love. So I'm confident that it only gets better from here.
So what do YOU think? Did you like it, love it, hate it? What do you think is causing dead pigs (RIP Violet) , bleeding walker eyes and Patrick's demise? Lay your speculation on me, flist!
If you want to talk about the ep, feel free to comment! But please, no spoilers for the comic books or unaired episodes. I’m a spoiler-virgin and want to stay that way. :)
.