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THE WALKING DEAD |
Rick Grimes - Andrew Lincoln Daryl Dixon - Norman Reedus Carl Grimes - Chandler Riggs Michonne - Danai Jekesai Gurira Hershel Greene - Scott Wilson 
OTHER WALKING DEAD SEASONS Season 1 Season 2 Season 3 OTHER SCARY TALES Dead Set Medium Ghost Whisperer Afterlife Haunted 
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30 Days Without An AccidentLife is settling down for the survivors in the prison. The fences are keeping out the walkers, though trips outside remain dangerous. Rick sees what he might have become. Season Four of THE WALKING DEAD comes with a lot of zombies and a little bit of set up. The walkers that arrive at the fence are bloodily slain as has always been the case in the show, but it is the main set piece in the supermarket that makes this episode stand out. Zombies raining through the rotten roof makes for startling imagery, showing that there is still something new for the show to offer its audience. By contrast, Ricks sojourn into the woods and who he meets there is a bit obvious and, though brutal in its honesty, nothing new. It serves to define Rick's character, but not in any way that we weren't already aware of. The character moments are disappointingly blunt and obvious all around, in fact, with at least two speeches about the difference between surviving and living and a young romance destined for failure so obviously from the start that it has no effect whatsoever. The final moments throw up the potential for a new threat for the new season, but as a season opener this is probably the least effective to date. That said, even middling WALKING DEAD is watchable. TopInfectedA dangerous sickness is breaking out inside the prison and the zombies outside are growing so numerous that they threaten to break through the gates. Can Rick recover enough to deal with the situation? It is remarkable fact about the show that the audience is now so tied into the characters and the situation that the death of some pigs, sacrificed to save the prison community, is so significant and almost heartbreaking. Those pigs represented so much to Rick and his decision to do what has to be done is pure character drama, the kind that the show has thrived on from the beginning. There are too many new characters and so it is unsurprising that they are the ones that turn through the sickness and have to be dealt with. That said, there is a climactic moment that suggests trouble yet to come. The deftness with which the show balances its zombie violence with its character stuff is remarkable. One wordless scene involving Michonne and the baby says more than pages and pages and pages of dialogue could have done. This is why we watch the show, not the gore. TopIsolationRick discovers who murdered the sick people and why they did it. Now he is faced with a dilemma between loyalty, doing the right thing and being pragmatic. The pace drops for this episode as the extent of the epidemic is made clear and the threat is spelled out. This needs to happen to make the actions of the killer comprehensible. The show continues to value character development over blood and ultragore, something that is to its credit, even if the pace here is less than many would have hoped, falling off its tightrope balance act just a little. The acting remains top-notch and the change in direction with the threat from within being at least as deadly as the threat from outside shakes things up a bit. TopIndifferenceTwo groups head out for supplies. Neither have an easy time of it. There are two strands to this episode and the quieter of the two is the more interesting. Rick and Carol meet up with a couple of young survivors and have to make a decision as to whether they would be of use to the community in the jail. This leads to a revelation and decision that will change the dynamic of the group for sure. Less interesting is the drug run led by Daryl and Michonne. It focuses on a new character with a drinking problem, but since he is new and we haven't had time to get to know him, the drama here is undermined. That said, this is where all the zombie action takes place and that keeps things moving along there. Not the best episode of the show by a long hop, skip and jump, but with some good stuff in it, as ever. TopInternmentThe people in the sick wing are getting sicker, but Hershel is determined not to give up on any of them. Outside, the besieging zombies break past the fence. Once again, THE WALKING DEAD shows how to mix pure character-driven drama with brutal bloody action. The slow deterioration of the patients inside the sick wing drags Hershel toward actions that he does not want to take, that he has always managed to avoid. It's inevitable, unavoidable and Scott Wilson is easily up to the job of anchoring this episode firmly on his shoulders. When the zombie action finally breaks out, it seriously breaks out with a very high undead body count. The large scale invasion from the outside is nicely contrasted with the intimate nature of the outbreak in the sick wing and both are used to reveal the ongoing changes within the characters caught up in events. Full of zombie head kills it might be, but THE WALKING DEAD is still one of the best character dramas on television. TopLive BaitHis mind damaged by recent events, the Governor wanders lost through the aftermath, until he finds a small family holed up in an apartment block trying to look after a small girl and a dying man. David Morrisey's Governor was one of the most popular characters in Season 3, so it comes as no surprise to see him return. It is a surprise, though, that the whole episode is about him and we make no visit to the prison whatsoever. The setup may be a little artificial, with the surrogate family surviving in their building with virtually no knowledge of how to deal with zombies, but this episode was all about the Governor and his state of mind. David Morrisey gets to play shell-shocked and then slow rehabilitation. This is nicely nuanced and never overdone. He fights against it, doesn't want it and moments that seem obvious turning points (bringing of the food) don't always lead the obvious outcome. In the end, though, his actions become a little bit inevitable. There is an almost obligatory wander through a darkened corridor (in this case an old peoples' home) to give some tension and an encounter in a bathtub to keep the zombies present in a story that they are, to this point, not all that involved in. Then, right at the end, there's a burst of the kind of vicious, gory action that has characterised this show, but with an underpinning to the character. The Governor's back and that's no bad thing. The final moments throw up the potential for a new threat for the new season, but as a season opener this is probably the least effective to date. That said, even middling WALKING DEAD is watchable. TopDead WeightLiving quietly with a new group of people, the Governor kills the man who did him harm. The resultant power vacuum gives him the space he needs to take over the group. His ultimate target, though, is the prison. The series stays with the Governor for the second episode running, showing how fragile his steps toward redemption were, but also how he is almost forced into being the man he no longer wants to be by the circumstances and the way he thinks. In a way, it is surprising to show his redemption just for it to be cut short so soon. There was certainly more play in it. His rise to power is rather less convincing since he is a stranger one day and the man running things the next and nobody sees it necessary to question that. This is certainly a story about the inhumanity of man and what depths people will sink to in order to survive. The zombie action is a bit on the light side, but all the more shocking when it actually comes as a result. TopToo Far GoneThe Governor comes for the prison. He has a tank and a couple of hostages. His terms are simple - leave or die. Are the two sides now too far gone to find a compromise? It's the winter break for THE WALKING DEAD and so a big cliffhanger episode was to be expected, but this was major in terms of incident. In fact, so much happened in just one episode that it all felt a bit rushed and breathless. That said - holy heck! THE WALKING DEAD has been the most brutal show on television for a while. Who lives and who dies is dictated only by the needs of the story. It is clear that things are not going to end well and some of the twists are just a shade predictable, but this is an all-action finale and there is plenty of action to go around. Some of it doesn't make any sense (Rick is injured, but nobody is detailed to just kill him off), some of it is harsh (kids all around) and some of it is kick-ass (Daryl's use of hand grenades). None of that matters whilst it's playing out. When the bullets start flying it's just edge of the seat stuff. That doesn't mean that the character stuff is completely lost. Rick and the Governor's face-off is all about the journey these two men have been on and the different outcomes on their characters, the reactions to at least two deaths are heart-breaking and nobody gets off scot-free on the loss front. Major and minor characters both pay the price and the success of the show is that so many of those deaths mean something to the audience. Perhaps this could have been played out over two episodes to give more time to the Governor's convincing his troops to be the bad guys (they all fall into line after one pretty speech) and ramping up the tension as the negotiations take place, but by the end of the hour you'll know that you got your money's worth. Top |
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