No doubt about it, this was an awesome episode and a great way to start the new season. I really don't have any major complaints about it. Let's hope they can keep up the good work.
SPOILERS! You've been warned!
• We get new opening credits, listing all the new cast members.
• So it looks like several months have passed since the Season Two finale. Michonne mentions something to Andrea about how they survived the winter. No doubt they wrote in a time jump to help explain Carl's growth spurt. And Lori's belly. And Herschel's hair.
• Team Rick is now quite the well-oiled zombie killing machine. I didn't see a single character do something stupid, unlike last season. Good. It's high time they started writing these characters a bit more intelligently.
• Carl has seemingly gone from Idiot Plot Device to a serious and valuable member of the team. Good. His bone-headed antics last season, which inadvertently resulted in several deaths, was wearing thin. Let's hope they keep up the good work and don't have Carl revert to his old ways.
Lori even managed to not be annoying this episode. And Carol finally seems to have something to do other than look worried. And T-Dog! He had more lines in this episode than he had all last season.
Do you suppose the writers read all the fan complaints on the internet and decided to address the various problems with the show?
• At the end of Season 2, we saw Rick and Co. resting after fleeing Herschel's farm. Then a dramatic crane shot revealed the prison in the distance, seemingly a quarter mile away. Half a mile at the most. Yet somehow the group drove back and forth around the area for several months without seeing it. I suppose it's possible (they made a half-hearted excuse about zombies blocking certain routes), but... it seems unlikely.
Wait a minute! Now that I think about it, they were planning their moves by looking at a road map! Wouldn't a prison be listed on the map?
• Much of the "clearing out the prison" scenes were straight out of the comic book. Pretty awesome to see it come to life like this.
• The infamous prison riot armor even made its appearance! Fans of the comic were no doubt squealing with glee at the sight of it. In the comic Rick, Glenn and Michonne donned the armor in order to safely clear out a nest of zombies. Here they just put on a few select pieces, mostly the bulletproof vests. Odd. If I found a suit of carbon fiber armor in their you can bet I'd be wearing it even in the shower!
• Lori raised some valid- if gruesome- concerns about childbirth in a world crawling with undead.
• Carl seems to be becoming quite a little horn dog, as he was planning on bunking with Blonde Girl until Herschel shooed him away.
• Michonne was nothing short of awesome in this episode (as she always has been in the comic). Strange that they didn't explain her two "bodyguards." Maybe they're saving that for later? For the record, the two jawless and armless zombies Michonne is leading around on a leashes are her former boyfriend and his buddy. She somehow discovered that by having them tag along behind her, most of the other walkers will ignore her. She cut off their jaws and arms so they can't attack her. Hardcore.
• I've said it before, but it bears repeating: Rick Grimes is Herschel Greene's personal Satan. Before Rick came along, Herschel was living a relatively peaceful life with his family and friends on his magically protected farm. Then Rick and his crew show up and in short order Otis is killed, Herschel is forced to confront the unpleasant truth about his dead wife and walkers in general, he falls off the wagon, one of Rick's crew encourages Herschel's daughter to slash her wrists, two of the people under his care are killed, he loses his farm...
And to top it all off, Rick chops off Herschel's leg! If Herschel survives, he would be absolutely justified in putting a bullet in Rick's life-wrecking head.
• So apparently Herschel has become the new Dale. In the comic, Dale was the oldest and wisest member of the group, ended up getting bit on the leg by a walker, and Rick chopped off his leg in order to (successfully) save him. Now that Dale is gone, it seems he's willed his plotlines to Herschel.
• The appearance of the human prisoners at the end is another element straight out of the comic. The older guy who says, "Holy sh*t!"-- I'm betting that was Axel, an inmate who became a big part of the group. There was at least one black inmate standing there-- I wonder if that was Tyreese? In the comic Tyreese was a civilian who joined the group long before they made it to the prison. But introducing him here would be a good way to finally add him to the show. I guess we'll find out next week.
• All in all this was a great episode, but I'm wondering if they can keep it up. Remember the first episode of last season? It started out promising as the group was traveling down the highway and had to hide from the zombie herd. Then they found Herschel's farm, made themselves comfortable and all action stopped for the rest of the season. I'm hoping we don't get a repeat of that this year. Hopefully the prison won't turn out to be another Herschel's farm.
• Lastly I'd like to thank the asshole at mtv.com who wrote a review of the episode with the headline, "Walking Dead Creator Amputates The Season Premeire." I was doing my best to avoid spoilers all day before I could watch the episode, and thanks to you I accidentally saw your idiotic headline and knew someone was going to get something chopped off.
First of all, that headline doesn't make a lick of sense, and second, who writes a fraking SPOILER in their headline? Thanks for ruining the episode.
UPDATE!
According to AMC, this premiere episode scored a whopping 10.9 MILLION viewers. Almost 11 million people! That'a a new all time record for a cable series. Not bad for our little zombie show.
The highest rated network show so far this fall is Modern Family, which pulled in 5.5 million viewers. Half the amount that Walking Dead got.
That pretty much seals it: Network TV is dead, or at least on life support.
Except I didn't go to mtv.com. Yahoo or someone pulled it in and displayed it on their site.
ReplyDeleteI guess from now on I'll just have to avoid the internet altogether until I get a chance to see the episode.
I loved the premiere episode! Our group is looking like a well oiled machine. Rick hacked off Hershel's leg like it was all in a day's work. I had to watch through my fingers. Zombies in riot gear was awesome! I don't think I have seen that before. Hope the rest of the season is as good as the first episode.
ReplyDelete