Walking Dead Season Two

[Moonshadow]

I liked this episode a bit more than the last two but it still felt repetitive - let's give Carl a blood transfusion; let's go look for Sophia; let's deal with the zombies at the school. Same thing we had last week. However there seems to be some possibilities with the expanded cast. I guess one positive is, they've diverged so much from the comics, I really can't tell where things will go next.

[Count_Zirock]

And now we see the result of Frank Darabont getting kicked to the curb as show runner. AMC, "Money matters more than story, here."

[marsattacks666]

I think Shane is one the most selfish person(s) on the series. Definitely a jerk, for
what he did to that man(Otis). Plus I just blown away with Carl situation.

[Moonshadow]

Shane's a survivor. What he did to Otis was horrible, no doubt, but it demonstrates he will do whatever he needs to to make it out alive. Was he  motivated by the desire to save Carl? I'm sure that was a part of it, but I think in the main Shane is about Shane. This is what makes he and Rick so different; Rick's always thinking about how to save everyone -at least at this point he is. The thing is, Rick thinks Shane is just like him. It should be interesting to see how he reacts when he figures out that's not true.

[Bruzilla]

I see a lot of parallels between Walking Dead and Lost as well, which is why I like Walking Dead so much. The issue with Lost was it was written from the beginning to last four seasons. The writers wrote the story from start to finish, sectioned each story line into about 100 pieces and formed a puzzle that wouldn't be fully solved until the last episode. The problem was the ratings were so high after season 2 that ABC wanted at least two more years, which meant more episodes that had never been part of the original story had to be thought up. That's why the show went to Hell starting in season 3 as some storylines were original and many were filler.

What I'm liking about Walking Dead is the writers are following the same formula, i.e., not telling a constant, linear, story and instead making the story disjointed. Like with Lost, you see a lot of scenes that seem like they are slow and dragging, but you find out later what you thought were throwaway scenes are actually very important later on.  My guess is a lot of you who are saying the shows are slow or underfunded now will be saying "wow!" in a few weeks when you find out what all those slow scenes really meant.

[Sean]

The Carl still recovering/ Sophie still lost things are getting stale.  The lady with the pregnancy kit needs to be thrown in a well.  Nothing but drama.  Not good for the survival of a group.

[Moonshadow]

What I'm liking about Walking Dead is the writers are following the same formula, i.e., not telling a constant, linear, story and instead making the story disjointed. Like with Lost, you see a lot of scenes that seem like they are slow and dragging, but you find out later what you thought were throwaway scenes are actually very important later on.  My guess is a lot of you who are saying the shows are slow or underfunded now will be saying "wow!" in a few weeks when you find out what all those slow scenes really meant.

I watched Lost too. I never felt it was slow and dragging, but I agree that it was purposefully non-linear, and for the most part, that worked.

I don't think that's what's happening with Walking Dead. Sure, as a continuing drama, things that happen will be built upon. For example, the item Lori got from the pharmacy (trying to avoid spoilers here) will clearly have repercussions for the characters. But my complaint with the show is dragging scenes out or covering the same ground over and over again, without any progress. It feels like padding, like filler. The whole plot with Sophia for instance - they are sapping the drama from it. Whatever her fate turns out to be, by the time we see it, it will almost definitely be a letdown. I seriously doubt I'll be saying 'wow' about it when that is resolved. I think what I will 'find out' is that they were padding out scenes to put enough episodes together for a season. I'm not trying to be snarky here -I just don't think there is any meaning behind these long, drawn out, repetitive scenes.

I'm glad you are enjoying the show, and I'm still interested enough to keep watching for a bit longer. But they need to have a little more substance to each episode or I will probably wind up passing on it.

[Mitchellmania]

I'm not gonna pick the show apart, I only enjoy a couple and this is one of them. Hell on Wheels is pretty good also!

[Bruzilla]

I watched Lost too. I never felt it was slow and dragging, but I agree that it was purposefully non-linear, and for the most part, that worked.

I don't think that's what's happening with Walking Dead. Sure, as a continuing drama, things that happen will be built upon.

If you go back to Lost season 1 and 2... back when it was good... remember the Jin and Sun storyline. First you thought Jin was a bad guy because he went out and beat up some other guy. Then later on you see more of the story and find out the reason he did it was because Sun's father forced him to do it. Then later on you find out that the dog you at first thought he took from the guy was actually a gift from the guy thanking him for not beating him up. That's the same way Walking Dead is being staged. First you think Lori and Shane are both low-lifes and had been having an affair, then you find out Lori thought Rick was dead and Shane had abandoned his friend and lied to Lori and just Shane is a low-life, then you find out Shane risked his life to save Rick and honestly thought he was dead.  Just like with Lost, they give you a small piece of the story and allow you to get taken down the wrong path.

Now we're seeing Herschel telling Rick that his life hasn't been untouched by the crisis, then we see him telling Rick there are things about their life he won't discuss while the barn looms large in the background, then last night we see what's in that bard.  Same thing as we saw with Lost.

[Moonshadow]

If you go back to Lost season 1 and 2... back when it was good... remember the Jin and Sun storyline. First you thought Jin was a bad guy because he went out and beat up some other guy. Then later on you see more of the story and find out the reason he did it was because Sun's father forced him to do it. Then later on you find out that the dog you at first thought he took from the guy was actually a gift from the guy thanking him for not beating him up. That's the same way Walking Dead is being staged. First you think Lori and Shane are both low-lifes and had been having an affair, then you find out Lori thought Rick was dead and Shane had abandoned his friend and lied to Lori and just Shane is a low-life, then you find out Shane risked his life to save Rick and honestly thought he was dead.  Just like with Lost, they give you a small piece of the story and allow you to get taken down the wrong path.

Now we're seeing Herschel telling Rick that his life hasn't been untouched by the crisis, then we see him telling Rick there are things about their life he won't discuss while the barn looms large in the background, then last night we see what's in that bard.  Same thing as we saw with Lost.

But that's just basic rules of story-telling. It's not like Lost invented foreshadowing or mis-direction. What I don't like about the show is the fact that we have so very many scenes which do little to move the plot forward. Look at the flashback in last night's episode (which I actually thought was better than the last couple of episodes, btw). That flashback does nothing to move things forward. It doesn't reveal anything about Shane or Lori that we didn't already know. So they saw Atlanta firebombed? What does that achieve? Was it supposed to help us understand how complicated the relationship is between Shane and Lori? We get that, we've been shown that before. Was it supposed to show what terrible things they've been through? We get that too. Honestly, I think it was just thrown in there so they could have a bit of excitement at the beginning of the episode.

There are many ways to reveal layers of character that are not tedious or repetitive. Lost idid handle that very well. But I don't think TWD is nearly as good at doing that.

[Bruzilla]

You have absolutely no idea what the flashback revealed.   As for scenes not moving the story forward, lots of people are missing what's going on. For example, I keep hearing from people whining about how the Sophia storyline is dragging on too long, but they're missing that there's a reason for it. In the comics, Shane gets killed before the survivors leave camp, so the fact he's still alive throws a big unknown into the story.

Right now, Shane is coming more and more unhinged by his decision to sacrifice Otis, and he's pushing Rick to forget Sophia for the good of the group which would help ease his own guilt. The longer Rick does the right thing, the more that's increasing the guilt Shane feels and is going to drive a pretty interesting conflict pretty soon.

Like with Lost, scenes that seem like they are filler usually had a lot of meaning, and I suspect you're going to find that scene on the road where Lori and Shane are watching the helicopters napalm Atlanta will play a major role in the future.

[Moonshadow]

At this point, I think we're going to have to agree to disagree. Telling someone they "don't understand," or they have "no idea" what something means when they don't agree with you  is easy to do. Look, I've read the comics. I realize Shane did not survive past the first story arc. I also understand that they want to show how Shane and Rick, who are like two sides of the same coin, are diverging from one another. I get that, and that the search scene from the last episode was supposed to do that. I had no problems with that scene, as it served an actual purpose and did progress the story by setting up real seeds of conflict.  However, there have been a number of times when they've shown us essentially the same thing from one episode to the next, where the story was not advanced a bit. They are hitting us over the head again and again with points they've already made. To some, this may be great story-telling. To me, it is padding.

[Sean]

As for scenes not moving the story forward, lots of people are missing what's going on. For example, I keep hearing from people whining about how the Sophia storyline is dragging on too long, but they're missing that there's a reason for it.

Is whining about whining... whining?   I don't have a problem that they haven't found Sophia yet------but more that 'looking for Sophia' became the show for a few episodes with really nothing else happening.  At least with the last episode SOMETHING is going to happen next week other than 'looking for Sophia'.

[Sean]

At this point, I think we're going to have to agree to disagree. Telling someone they "don't understand," or they have "no idea" what something means when they don't agree with you  is easy to do. Look, I've read the comics. I realize Shane did not survive past the first story arc. I also understand that they want to show how Shane and Rick, who are like two sides of the same coin, are diverging from one another. I get that, and that the search scene from the last episode was supposed to do that. I had no problems with that scene, as it served an actual purpose and did progress the story by setting up real seeds of conflict.  However, there have been a number of times when they've shown us essentially the same thing from one episode to the next, where the story was not advanced a bit. They are hitting us over the head again and again with points they've already made. To some, this may be great story-telling. To me, it is padding.

Can you and I agree to AGREE?

[Count_Zirock]

What we're seeing is the result of Frank Darabont's exit from the series and the per-episode budget cuts. The show isn't as good as last year, after the 90-minute season two premiere that was the last episode with Darabont's fingerprints on it (before AMC ripped it out of his hands). Take the idiotic "Talking Dead" off and funnel that money (however little it may be) back into the show.