Uncovered Spoilers Throughout!
I just got back from a long vacation and watched 3 episodes of WD last night on DVR. I feel the need to talk WD and spew spoilers!
I hope my DVR recorded this... Just bought the little $4.95 iOS game. Hope it is worth it.
It is worth $5.00. I'll probably buy the package.
Yep, this season started off with a bang. The ax scene was definitely brutal. I totally didn't see that coming. I'm not fully understanding why Rick is ticked off at his wife. I know he was upset about her asking him to kill Shane, but after everything Shane did I think even Rick knew that taking him out was necessary.
If you remember at the end of last season, she asked Rick to kill Shane... then when he did, and told her that he killed Shane... she reacted... not as what you would expect when someone asks someone to kill someone and that person actually does what that first someone asked. Wow, hope that made sense.
But yeah, when Rick told her that he had killed Shane... she seemed a little more upset than what one might have expected. If I recall correctly, he even left out Carl's involvement.
So if I were Rick, and that was the way my wife reacted to something she asked for... no, demanded... I might think that perhaps she had more feelings for Shane remaining than I would have hoped.
The show sends mixed messages as compared to the comic. In both cases she was pregnant most likely with Shane's baby, but in the comic, Rick was not ever mad at her (not like in the show), however she was angry at Rick for some of the management decisions he makes once they arrive at the prison.
I hope they stick to the story of the comic. Its so much better. Shane being alive for as long as he was made me feel like I was watching the Butterfly effect part II.
I thought the power struggle between Rick and Shane was an asset to the story.
Some of the comic content is really really brutal. I mean if they didn't want shane to get blown away by the kid within the first couple episodes, I'm not sure if they will take some of the steps that made that arc really really intense.
Which arc are you referring to? The conflict in the woods (comic) escalated rapidly with Shane demanding his right to have Lori back and Carl shooting him before he could shoot Rick. In the comic, Lori had no issues with Shane being dead.
I'm going to navigate the middle here and say that some of the comic book content is better than the TV version, and some of the TV stuff is better.
My critique is that Season 1 is some of the best thriller TV I've ever seen. Season 2 they spent too much time on the farm, which seemed to drag looking for Sophia which the readers of the comic know, never happened. For whatever reason, IMO, Season 2 functions as a bridge to Season 3. She was never missing and did not die at that point. Season 3 has it's mojo back and I'm grovin once again!
My opinion of what has been brilliant in the show:
1. The entire first Season.
2. The sequence Morgan Jones trying to build up the nerve to shoot his wife.
3. The sequence where Andrea lovingly says goodby to Amy as she reanimates as a zombie. It was incredible.
4. The introduction of Daryl into the story. His reluctant acceptance into the group and his survival abilities and the zombie brawl in the woods.
5. The extended conflict between Rick and Shane.
6. Shane shooting Otis to facilitate his escape from zombie pursuit.
I'll probably think of some more.
SPOILERS
Rick shoots them in the yard. I remember that. They aren't even prepared. Its more of a surprise right? Not just hey you threw that zombie my way so its time to die. It was a huge build up to him killing them. Plus they haven't even mentioned the weapon stash yet. I also feel as if the black chick with the katana meets rick before she meets the Governor.
When Rick shoots the prison leader, I like how it was portrayed in comic better. When Rick saves Dexter (comic character name) during a zombie fight, Dexter says "this changes nothing", and magically a stray bullet hits Dexter in temple. It was not so obvious as Rick gunning the man down. I thought it was humorous when Tyreese (a black football player who TDog substitutes for in the show), pulls Rick aside and says "You're gonna have to rethink this You Kill You Die policy" which Rick instituted after a particularly brutal, shocking event occurs in the prison, which has not occurred in the show. I've been waiting for it to pup up.
Spoiler...
I am wondering if the gentleman that lost his hand, was a way the show captured that part of the book. Instead of rick, lets pay homage to the book by taking this guys hand.
I'll point out that it was Merryl who took his own hand to escape the roof top, but I agree, that a hand has been sacrified!
I'm jumping back and forth between the show and the comic. In the comic I've only reached the point where there is a big show down between two groups at the prison. Everything is mixed up as compared to the comic. In the comic Michon saves Otis (who was killed off in Season 2 by Shane) and appears at the prison before Rick meets the Governor. I'm about to reread that part and forget who was with Rick when he meets the governor. In the comic, I don't remember Michon and Andrea meeting him first. Andrea never got separated from the group when they left the farm because in the comic, there was not a zombie swarm, Hershel just kicked them out.
Dale lost his leg in the prison in the book, of course he's not around in the show anymore...
B
Actually it was Alan who lost his leg in the comic. In the show, Alan was the abusive husband of Carol who, as I recall, died in the 1st Season due to zombie bite. In the comic, Alan is a decent person, who lost his wife Donna (not in the show) at Wilshire Estates (not in the show).
Big Spoiler Follows!
Anybody catch tonight's episode???
Holy crap, holy crap, and holy crap!
I was blown away by two main characters dieing in the show tonight. Utterly shocked by Lori. I have no idea if she dies later in the comic because where I have read to, she is still pregant and still alive...
Not to start a flame war here, but I think I'm the only one who finds this show boring as hell and so melodramatic that it ain't funny? I admit the first season was great and showed promise of a great series, but really. It's like Days Of Our Lives now.
IMO, what makes this show great is human interaction and drama, in an adverse survival situation. Just being attacked by and killing or having great zombie battles in itself, is not enough to carry the show.
Big Spoiler Follows!
All the kids in the book (since there have been more of them than in the show) are screwed up in one way or another.
Comic Rick is already a sociopath in many ways, and Comic Carl along with him. (TV Rick is a bit watered down from the books, but maybe they're taking him there a bit slower.) While Comic Carl didn't have to put a bullet in his mom's head, he's certainly done and seen plenty to qualify him for the sociopath label.
B
I don't see Carl as a sociopath at all, at least as far as I've gotten reading (The Prison). In the show, Maggie offered to shoot her, but he felt a sense of responsibility to do what was right, like his Mom told him to. After his Mom died in the show, he could leave her there to turn into an abomination or he could put a bullet in her head and remember her as the loving mother she was. Now as far as Rick being a sociopath, as far as I've gotten in the comics and in the show, Rick is acting like a strong leader, maybe too strong at times, but not a sociopath. If you check out the definition, with sociopath's it's all about them, they have no feelings for anyone else. This is not Rick yet (as far as I have read, the prison).