“The Walking Dead” Japanese Blu-ray Set
For the past two weeks, AMC’s The Walking Dead has been heading into serious boredom territory. I did not think it was possible to make the character of Daryl seem dull. But the producers behind Dead pulled it off. Even my (once) favorite character Rick, who really needs to discover a razor and a new shirt, has become my least favorite character. This season seemed to be heading into post-Darabont Season Two territory. That is, until “The Grove.”
The opening scene of episode 14 was creepy as hell. Good sign. Then we realize that this is going to be another “let’s only follow these characters” episode. So no Rick again, which gives him more opportunity to shave. But enough of that. This episode presented something that I never saw coming. And I don’t mean the “burnt walkers” whom looked cool and scary at the same time. “The Grove” introduced us to a new kind of evil. An innocent evil. Lizzie saw this new world of the undead in a whole different light. At first I thought she was trying to become the typical annoying kid of the series. But her reasoning was different. When she is hovering over her sister, I thought to myself, “no way Mika is dead.” But she was and there was no doubt in my mind that Lizzie had to go. But then I thought, “no way they’re going to kill off TWO kids in the same episode. That is unheard of.” But Carol did the deed in true Godfather II style. The episode was intense, scary and brilliantly acted. Special shout out to Chad Coleman, who is just as great here as he was in The Wire.
But I save my biggest applause for how the producers chose to handle the confession. Far too many shows have stretched these predicaments for weeks. Smallville was great at that. I call it the “soap opera approach.” The perfect example of this technique is the film People Like Us. Chris Pine plays a man who discovers he has a sister. Of course instead of just telling her, he decides to get close to her and her kid and drag it out for what seems like a five hour running time. But if he did, I guess there wouldn’t be a terrible movie to torture us with. But getting back to Dead, Carol tells Tyrese the truth about the deaths in the prison and it is settled, even if only temporarily. Kudos for not dragging it out for another eighteen weeks.
With more episodes like this, The Walking Dead might be able to reclaim that Season One glory.
” GREAT REVIEW ”
Cool review, I dig the funny remarks as well as the pure honesty. Nice job!
I really wasn’t expecting anyone reviewing a episode of The Walking Dead………That was new to me and good review. Yeah, that episode really was a tough one to watch for me, but it did tighten some loose ends. I thought the “Beer Nuts/Deer Nuts” joke was funny IMHO.