The Walking Dead: Episode 6

So my overall impression of the first season is this: I liked the show; I did not love it. I felt that it could have done a better job of building toward some kind of crescendo, so that the very real moment at the end would have been more, I don't know, meaningful.

Don't get me wrong, I think the show did some great things over the course of the last six episodes, but the whole of the CDC sequence seemed tacked-on or unsatisfying in some way. I was actually even excited about them leaving camp and heading out, but I'm not sure this was the best way to handle it.

Maybe next season will be (A) longer and (B) more even. Last week's episode felt more like a season-ender than this one, honestly. I'm going to give it some time, and I hope that the staff find their legs, because the material for a knockout show is there. A six episode arc without the arc barely even scratches the surface of what a long-term zombie project could turn out to be.

10:57 - Hmmm.

10:50 - So far, this has been an anticlimactic episode, and I'm not hoping for too much in the next, oh, nine minutes. Personally, I don't really care about them getting out of the CDC. It's only been a thing for the last few minutes anyway, and it only seems to falsely add tension to what seems to be a middling episode of the show.

If Rick Grimes is Jack Shepard, then Dale is John Locke.

Well, we are getting a separation here. Andrea's threatening to stay behind, and I guess Dale is trying to talk some sense into her.

10:46 - Um, okay, so maybe the writers aren't so very concerned with depicting Shane as a conflicted dude. All he's done this episode is sulk, fight, scream, and shoot things. He's basically a screaming, yelling plot device, an enraged means to an end.

10:44 - The Quizno's 543 commercials are just as creepy as anything else on television.

10:39 - "What happens in 28 minutes?" The doc makes a good point about not wanting to let dangerous viruses, etc. out. I mean, who would want people getting sick? That would be a catastrophe. Imagine the millions upon millions of people...who'd...erm...die. We'll, not air-tight logic, I suppose. But he's a scientist, and, like Patton Oswalt says, "Science is all about coulda, not about shoulda."

10:36 - I don't know how I feel about any of what's going on right now.

10:34 - Lori seems to be lying to Carl, though the reason isn't clear. I wonder just how long keeping up pretense would actually last in a similar situation.

10:33 - I'm loving the fact that one of the local commercials is for an Army supply store. How utterly fitting.

10:29 - I don't want to draw too many similarities to L O S T, but the clock countdown and the grizzled insider character and the potential for a split in the factions, all of these things point to a L O S T influence.

Of course they existed superficially in the comic books, but the way the show has branched off from the comics points to an influence from something else entirely. It could just be Darabont's hand guiding the series, which is likely, given the fact that AMC shows are largely unaffected by the need to perform on the level of mainstream network shows.

10:28 - I'm digging the "science" here. It's gibberish, but at least they're creating an internal logic. If this show is going to have legs, they're going to have time to flesh out this kind of stuff (no pun intended).

10:23 - for some reason, they just let the thing about Shane's neck go. Certainly any person in their collective situation would be a bit more skeptical about flesh wounds. Right?

I'm already anticipating what sort of ending they're going for tonight, given the fact that they've shifted the entire operation to the CDC. There's no way all the loose ends can get tied up in a significant way tonight, not even one that will set up the next season.

On a similar note, Frank Darabont recently fired TWD's entire writing staff.

10:16 - the show's writers are going a long way in order to vindicate Shane, but they're making Lori react in a such a way as to make him unsympathetic. It's odd. I guess they're driving at the guilt and personal torment she feels over it. She obviously wants to believe Shane but can't let herself.

10:12 - What usually happens in situations like the present one is that the characters explore the new environment, waiting for the shit to hit the fan. They (and we) are lulled into a false sense of comfort (not hope), and it will all amount to naught in a matter of time. It's something (surprise, surprise) Stephen King does very well. The Stand jumps to mind.

10:09 - We're getting an explanation of what went down early on in the zombpocalypse, but can it be trusted?

10:08 - I've got some shenanigans going on with my computer, but I'll try to do my best with the liveblog.

10:08 - False hope and alcohol: never a good combination.

10:01 - Looks like we're starting with a flashback, way back in the onset of the zombie apocalypse. Obviously that's what's going on, because Rick is in a coma...

Episode 6: TS-19