Monday, November 15, 2010
Television "The Walking Dead" Episode 3
Posted by Marc Schultz on Mon, Nov 15, 2010 at 7:05 PM
- AMC
- No zombies to wail on? Try a redneck!
We begin with Merle Dixon, the bug-eyed racist left for dead on an Atlanta rooftop with a snarl of zombies just out of reach. Also out of reach: the hacksaw that could set him free. His crazed giggling over the past turns suddenly to spitting anger as he considers his predicament and the likely outcome—while back at Camp False Sense of Security, the same thing is about to unfold in slow motion.
As the ATL Raiding Party happily reunites with their survivor counterparts, a series of meaningful glances among Officer Rick, Mrs. Rick, little Carl, and Officer Shane let us know that things are about to get awkward. Later, Shane puts on his sad face while watching the Grimes tent a-rockin. Fortunately for Shane and the cuckolding Lori, our man Rick doesn’t wonder why Lori’s so sure their son won’t make up while they get it on. He’s done enough policing for one day, and there’ll be time enough to find out who the wife’s been boning after he gets himself laid.
Or will there? In the Zombie Apocalypse, every day brings a new moral dilemma, which we were helpfully reminded of during that cold open: Merle is still on that rooftop, and it’s all Officer Rick’s fault. After some moral wrangling, and with the motivating influence of Merle’s crazy brother Darryl (who helpfully introduces the clan to Zombieland Rule #2: The Double-Tap), Officer Rick fills out Mission Racist Recovery with two unlikely members: Asian kid Glen, the only survivor crafty enough to get them into and out of Atlanta, and black guy T-Dog, who made sure Merle wouldn’t wind up geek meat, and would instead die slowly of exposure and starvation.
Lori has major problems with that mission, but she has major problems with a lot—for instance, Shane teaching Carl how to catch frogs. Now that her husband’s back, Lori wants Shane to stay away from her family—totally harsh, but also understandable seeing as A) it was Shane who convinced her that Rick was dead, and B) the closer Shane gets to her family, the more likely her husband will find out they’ve been carrying on. And so Shane, who just the day before was acting leader of this ragtag outfit and playing house with the last smoking-hot MILF on Earth, is suddenly left with nothing—except for a raging case of PTSD and a convenient target in wife-beating layabout Ed. His subsequent beat-down of Ed, in full view of Ed’s wife and almost every other woman in camp, is even more brutal than the earlier group beat-down of an errant zombie found wandering too close to camp (at least up until the beheading).
If this Lord of the Flies idea—humanity’s ugliest aspects rising to the surface in the wake of society’s disintegration—becomes a major theme of the series, as it certainly seems to be (what with the racist on the roof and the misogynist bleeding out into the quarry), we may be in for a show-down between Officers Rick and Shane that, once again, recalls our dearly beloved Lost—instead of a magical island to keep our heroes on their toes, we’ve got a magical plague of the undead. If the show continues to give as good as it has, this could be the adventure series that finally lives up to the Lost standard of deeply human characters and top-notch pulp-fiction thrills.
Dig that awesome cliff-hanger ending—in which our rescue mission finds that Merle is gone, but his right hand isn’t—and tell me I’m wrong.
Comments (3)
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Best summary I could find. I still found that the episode didn't have enough brain-bashing in it (and so did my violence hating family). Next week's episode look's to bring back all of the gore from Episode 2. Can't wait!
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I find that as the episode count builds, the quality of the character development decreases. The "redneck" characters are laughably embarrassing; just over the top. Michael Rooker is a better actor than this, but here he's reduced to standard one-dimensional kloset klansman - kind of a riff on his guy in Mississippi Burning actually.
I will say that I'm enjoying the way the story is unfolding though. Going back to Atlanta is a bad move, of course, but it's making for some good tension & most likely some more zombie encounters (in the next episode).
This Episode was a complete dud in every way, I was so much looking forward to the tension of the Wife and Lover with the Husband coming back and it was only mildly dealt with, 2 subtle times and in one scene (the look over the shoulder when he returned and the love scene in the tent where she is somewhat aloof) and of course the climax at the bottom of the quarry, which was OK, but any further material on this will not be sufficient for me as the tension has already been dissipated. Good luck building that back up, but I cant see how it could be done in a non cliche way with the other cop becoming alienated from the group and agitaged (heck, he already punched out the redneck wifebeater!), possibly dying later to save the child or wife, something like that, if that happens my TV goes CLICK, I've worked far too hard on my ass groove to let that shit slip through!. This episode overall has really cooled me on the whole show right now, it has used bad mix-tape theory, kick it off with some rocking tunes, but they scaled it down too soon with back to back Air Supply ballads. anyway, still love anything Zombie on Tv, so kudos for cashing in AMC.
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