The Walking Dead

[BrentS]

So I downloaded the Compendium Vol 1 on iTunes over the weekend and I've been reading through it.   I'm taking my time and reading the equivalent of a couple issues each day - I'm somewhere around 250 pages (out of the 1000) through the first compendia The one thing that has really surprised me so far was the general "pace" of the stories.  If feels like they are rushing through things very quickly compared to the "plodding" that seems to happen on the TV series.   So far at least, I find the TV series much more compelling.  I just don't feel like I'm able to feel the aingst of the characters in the books (at least so far).   I'm also shocked at some of the abruptness of the characters (again compared to the television interpretations), especially in the parts around the groups introduction to the farm and Hershel and his family.

[CloneF13Y35]

yeah that is one thing about the comic series vs the tv series I wish they'd find a happy medium. THe TV series can seem rushed at times while the comics seem to take forever, like some of the LotR movies
But so far with season 4 half way done, I think the pace was much more even than the past two seasons.

[Matt]

New episode tomorrow night, but it's available right now for free on Xbox Video. Just watched it on my 360.

[BillCable]

How'd you like the way they killed off Daryl?  Gruesome!





(j/k... I don't own an xbox)

[Matt]

There's no Daryl in this episode, but there is pudding.

Lots of pudding.

[CloneF13Y35]

I read that was a MAJOR spoiler by showing tonight's NEW 4.9 episode on xbox yesterday so of course I read a few spoilers about it!
Sounds like it'll be a 'killer' episode!

[McMetal]

I'm ready!

As long as we get some quality time with Daryll, Beth, Maggie, Glenn, and Tyreese, I'll be happy.

And hoping Carl will be patient and sympathetic with Rick after getting brutalized by the late Gov.


 

[Tracy]

I'm ready!

As long as we get some quality time with Daryll, Beth, Maggie, Glenn, and Tyreese, I'll be happy.

And hoping Carl will be patient and sympathetic with Rick after getting brutalized by the late Gov.


 

So........I'm thinking you are 1) not happy; and 2) disappointed in Carl.   

[Jesse James]

Lolz

Turned into basically a Carl's Personal Growth episode...

That shot on the roof?  Meme-errific.

[McMetal]

So........I'm thinking you are 1) not happy; and 2) disappointed in Carl.   

LOL, yeah, they kinda went the other way, didn't they?

It was still terrific I thought, I'm fine with the other characters getting their spotlight next week. I just wonder how they will rotate through the various storylines for the rest of this season.

Carl was pretty frustrating most of the episode, but I think everything ended up in a good place by the end. Rick gave him his due calling him a man, and Carl realized he's not quite the ultimate bad-ass he thought himself to be and maybe his dad is worth something to him after all. I guess the zombie apocalypse doesn't preclude teenagers from acting like, well, teenagers.

Still think it was super-crappy thing to throw Shane in Rick's face like that though. Ouch.

Loved the Michonne stuff, although it was a little less obvious what was going on with her. Nice to see the pre-Walker pets. Great mini-herd slaughterama too. Glad she got the happy ending she deserved there at the close.

TD was excellent with Greg Nicotero and Danai. I'm a little worried about next week though: surprise cast member guest? Uh-oh. Don't die yet, Beth!!! 

[Tracy]

Michonne needs to keep Carl on a leash..........

[JediJman]

That was one of my least favorite episodes yet.  Great for Carl to get schooled and mature a little by the end, and I liked the suspense of what has happened to Rick up to the end.  But the Michonne part of the story was ridiculous.  How does she just walk along, bare armed with hoardes of zombies and they can't sense her?  I assumed she did that before at some distance - it's not like zombies following someone makes other zombies uninterested.  Case in point, in the exact same episode there's a third zombie coming for Carl.  If she had some zombie guts on her or was a little further away I could see it, but they way overplayed the zombie-pet card. 

And how are the two zombies she's walking so domesticated already?  I thought her first two eventually settled down after a long period of time, but these guys just automatically stop going after her because they have no teeth or arms?  Hunh?  Do the zombies "realize" they can't hurt her and are therefore thinking at some level?  The two actors playing those zombies were ridiculously bad as well.  They just stroll along like they're walking through the mall.  Almost every other zombie is staggering, limping...at least some hint of disablement and base instinct.  These two guys looked like they were just out for a nice walk around the neighborhood.

Super sloppy writing and acting, and unacceptable give it's a mid-season premiere.  I'm going to be hugely disappointed if they continue to half-ass this going forward.

[GrandMoffNick]

I struggle with the "pet" zombie thing too. I understood that her first pets took some time to be docile and that they made it so zombies were less attracted to her. I didn't think the instant you chopped limbs and jaws off that they became totally docile and you could walk around without a care. Why would walking with them on ropes be any different that just walking with two zombies and that wouldn't stop others.

Having said that, I really liked what was going on with Michone and watching her going back to her old ways and then realizing she wanted to be with people she cared about again.

[Jesse James]

I didn't mind their lack of over-zombification, as it were, since they are fairly recent kills...  Perhaps they're a little more spry, and mobile?  Not sure on the time it took them to mellow out...  I couldn't really see them enough to know how mellow or not they are, I guess.

I thought it was neat she took Governor guys as her new pets as a dig though.

She also walked the old pets right past other zombies, with Andrea, and they weren't gut covered, so the precedent is there I guess, and it just didn't bug me much.

I liked the note about the big guy in the biker bar...  Someone cared about him and Carl was just disgusted they couldn't do it.  Kind of funny then when he can't (thankfully) put his father down.

Totally agree with you Tracy...  He needs a hand other than his dad's, and Michonne is that hand.  She's the person he's going to become more like...  He really needs to, to survive.  His Dad can't teach him that kind of stuff.  Really though everyone could add something to him being the most well-rounded, survivable person in the zombie apocalypse.  All the main group's best characteristics put into one sort of a Super Zombie Survivor.    A Rick/Shane/Michonne/Darryl/Herschell/Glenn ball of badassery.  Jack of All Trades, and a master of them all as well.

[Morgbug]

Totally agree with you Tracy...  He needs a hand other than his dad's, and Michonne is that hand.  She's the person he's going to become more like...  He really needs to, to survive.  His Dad can't teach him that kind of stuff. 

I think the producers pretty much stated that's her role for Carl when Rick sits down on the couch and says "it's for you".