I love it.

With actors and crews they onnly get so much time to 'use' them so the story is constrained by that too.

This way they can flesh out the whole world and not be constrained by stuff like that or the comic books rails.

Whole heartedly agree there.

For those still catching up like me - the last season is now up on Netflix in advance of the new season starting in a couple weeks.

I was thinking of an idea for the spinoff earlier today.

Starts off with the survivors of the government/military in an island off the east coast. A small military unit is forced to return to the mainland to search for a MacGuffin or maybe just a scouting mission. Once on the mainland, they hear over the a radio that the island they just left has been overrun. Now stranded and on their own they slowly run out of supplies and ammo. By the end of the first season, they are just as bad off as the group we are already familiar with in the original series. The immediate goal of the group is to get to another camp that they know is another government base of operations (maybe on the west coast, or somewhere where it will take some time to get to). Which should keep them on the move, instead of the hunkering down approach that the current show has maintained the last 2 years.

Might be too clichéd. It almost has a falling skies feel to it, which is probably why the idea was fresh in my mind. I also think that the idea of new sets every week would probably be a no go in the budget department.

Rick's such a stupid fuck and a dumb asshole - I want him to get bit.

Always making stupid stubborn decisions based on principles without considering the reality of the situation.

Super rude also.

Some great casting news:

Michael Cudlitz, who was terrific in SouthLand, has just been cast as Abraham Ford and appeared in character at NY Comic Con. Josh McDermitt, who I'm not familiar with, has been cast as Dr. Eugene Porter.

'Walking Dead' Casts 'Southland's' Michael Cudlitz, Josh McDermitt as Abraham and Eugene

Cudlitz will be great, loved him in Southland.

And "Rosita" (the third member of that trio) will be played by Christiana Serratos. Arguably best known for her role as the best friend from Twilight but more likely better known to some of us here as Susie Crabgrass from Ned's Declassified ....

Looks like pretty good casting for those three.

I just hope they don't move to them too quickly. Even though I like the new direction of the show, it feels like they are skipping over a lot of cool source content.

+/- 2 story arcs I think, right?

Enjoyed it but not sure why they spent so much time on the woman in the woods.

Enjoyed the "It's raining Men" sequence at the Big Spit!

Got a feeling that Nathan Fillion is right in his guess - I think we're in for some sort of airbone mutation, hence the dead pig and the sick kid who zombiefied after coughing into the water supply.

One that will surely require a "cure" or else everybody is going to be a zombie by episode 5.

Her final words were the key part of all that I believe.

It was basically giving voice to Rick's big fear (and could influence his actions - specifically with regard to Carl I suspect - going forward).

yeah, if this is a water air issue they might as well call and end to the show soon unless there's a cure that starts to reveal itself.

Did anyone watch the sneak peek of next week's episode on the Talking Dead? I actually thought that provided a pretty big clue to what was happening.

Yes, and I agree.

What?

Assuming you are responding to what I wrote, I will spoiler it for those who don't like to watch the sneak peek of the next episode on Talking Dead...

Well if that hypothesis (in CR's spoiler) is correct, I definitely have a prime suspect ... if they don't die inside the prison first anyhow.

Who?

I really liked the first episode. Some solid, interesting new characters. I like the direction they're taking things. Good stuff.

The show continues to be a ratings juggernaut:

TV Ratings: 'The Walking Dead' Surges Again, Hits Record 16.1 Million Viewers

Thanks, didn't think of her but sounds like a good suspect.

The scene with the crazy woman was kind of tedious. It was more than made up for by ZOMBIE RAIN.

[quote=Chief Rum;2864683]Assuming you are responding to what I wrote, I will spoiler it for those who don't like to watch the sneak peek of the next episode on Talking Dead...

Interesting, I missed that.

I can't help but think that maybe having a special effects guru as the new showrunner is having a visual impact on this season's The Walking Dead. #EyeSeeYou

Yeah, I enjoyed the episode ... but I'm expecting there to be grumbling about it in the cyberverse.

No major complaints at this point from me, I've liked both of the first two episodes, In general, I'm very happy with the direction all the major characters are all going right now (I mean that generically... I'm not trying to be that picky about specific storylines, I mean that there is nothing happening with main characters right now that make me cringe every time they show up on screen, or reach for my remote to fast forward, which happened a lot with Andrea, Lori and Shane in the past).

One slight nagging thing, I'll spoiler it:

I thought these first two episodes have been very solid as well. So far, so good for this season.

The biggest issue I had was after Woodbury went down they showed a lot of old people & children boarding the bus. What happened to all of them? This was taken from an episode recap

The episode ends with Rick's group returning to the prison, leading a school bus filled with the noncombatant children, elderly, and infirm residents of Woodbury who had remained behind (as well as Tyreese, Sasha, and Karen), much to Carl's dismay. Rick looks at the catwalk where he had seen Lori before, but the hallucination is gone. Meanwhile, The Governor, Martinez, and Shumpert remain at large.

One thing I'm noticing is that the core cast is all too nice to each other right now. It's missing that tension/friction from being a small band with intertwined dramatic conflict while on the run from zombies. It's now "them vs. the new people" and nobody cares about the new people. Hell, the after-show exclaimed that 14 of the 45 residents of the prison died in this episode and my only thought was, "Well, that's a start."

Still enjoying it, but I feel like it needs to move away from this policing/admin state and back into the wild. They gotta leave this prison soon, hopefully and see what's happened to the rest of the world.

They said that they took in other people other than the Woodbury folk, so I suppose that's who the healthy guys are.

It's implied, at least to me, that the population of the prison is larger than what we've seen even so far.

And there's definitely more than the Woodburians, re "from the Decatur group" reference tonight.

Enough time passes between seasons to present us with a changed group dynamic at the beginning of each season. I'm just fine with assuming that lots of those people, especially the weaker ones, from Woodbury have died and its just part of the losses that the main cast have experienced. Earlier in the series I might have had a problem with it, but I'm just fine with it now. Its certainly preferable to the thought of having to deal with a bunch of old people who aren't Herschel.

Some producer/writer/director dude after the show said there 30 people left in the prison. Sounds right to me...I dunno...

I think the "too nice" comment above plays into the whole malaise, comfortable level the prison has gotten too which will lead to an explosion. That complacency is playing out very well IMO w/ how easily Rick left the walls and met the girl, how the kids are going up near the outer fences, the farming etc. I feel like we're being lulled in which is cool.

Pretty much my thoughts too, you just know that something is going to happen and implode their paradise. I think Rick strapping the gun back on is a sign he knows it is coming.

They need to get out of the prison and back on the road. I remember season 2 seeming to stall out as they ended up spending too much time at Hershel's. I stopped reading the comics during the governor story arc, so I'm not aware of what's to come...but I hope they will move on soon.

So far, these first two episodes have been pretty great.

They've managed to flesh out the characters, giving them depth and nuance, while still having plenty of zombie action.

They've done a good job with Michonne - it did take a while, but ever since the Michonne-Rick-Carl adventure, she's really come around. I like that they've maintained the Carl-Michonne bond so far this season and it was pretty devastating to see her with Lil' Ass-Kicker.

They've even started to give Beth some depth.

I like what they did with Rick. He really looked beaten down and haggered. He sort of played out the old story of the world weary gun-fighter/lawman trying to put his pistols down, lead a simpler life, only to realize that such a path is not his... The whole last part of the episode was a mix of sadness and resignation over this fact.

I am looking forward to Tyrese coming into his own. They've set him up pretty nicely so far.

It will be great if they're able to maintain this level throughout the season. It's nice to have moved on from Rick/Lori, Andrea/Governor and the other older plots that dragged on for too long.


I love the themes they’re exploring. You need to teach the children to defend themselves, but how far is too far? How much of their childhood do you need to strip away? Does it even have a place in this world? For the record, I think calling a ten-year old child “weak” because she balks at driving steel through her dead father’s skull is over the line. Self-defense is critical; “going hard” is asking too much. Carol seems to realize this at the end of the episode at least.

This may just be my favorite season so far. Given it’s early, but the themes just hit home for me. I also like that we’ve mostly deviated from the plot of the books. Feels like virgin territory, and I actually prefer these character-driven plot arcs over the bombastic ones (like the Governor). I was personally getting sick of the Governor storyline, though much of that came from She Who Must Not Be Named. This actually feels more like what life would actually be like in a zombie apocalypse, rather than the entertaining-but-sometimes-Hollywood Governor arc. Imagine the grind. Wake up. Kill zombies on the fence. Find something to eat. Kill more zombies. Remove corpses. Clean up human filth. Do a run for toilet paper (almost seems like a vacation). No wonder Rick prefers farming—at least you’re feeding people. Must feel nice to keep people alive by feeding them instead of by making brutal, thankless decisions and by slaughtering undead.

I do hope they can maintain the quality. The show has always been pretty uneven. Sometimes it's episode to episode, but largely I thought the first half of the second season was pretty weak, whereas the second half was stronger. The opposite was true for season three, with the first half being quite strong and the second being pretty weak.

Is there a way to read the comics that's affordable?

Check your local library? A friend of mine read a lot this way.

The first Compendium is available on Amazon for $32. It collects issues 1-48, so that just 66 cents an issue, which seems pretty affordable to me.

Not sure how much the other Compendiums cost.

How many issues have there been?

Good thought. Will check library site and online.

Looks like my library network has the first two compendiums, the second of which was just published last year...

Boom. Placed request, but 11/12 copies are out, one is damaged, and there's a person ahead of me in line.

Of the new/minor character moments, I actually thought the line delivered to Carol last night by the kid sister of (probably now former) Miss-Zombies-Are-People-Too was pretty awesome.

Just go to BN, get a cup of coffee and read the comics. It'll take you a while to catch up (I think they are up to 18 or 19 now).

So, do we think that Miss-Zombies-Are-People-Too was the one feeding the zombies the rats?

I originally did (that was my spoilered guess after last week's ep) but I'm more 50-50 about it now. I still haven't ruled her out, and I still believe she's a villain of some sort.

And now she has a knife and the skillz to use it!

But Carl is armed again, so I ain't too worried long term ;)

Plus, he's good at killing kids.

It's why I have so much confidence in him to do the right thing.

Talking Dead had gotten better, Talking Bad was downright really good at times.

Tonight's return to celebrity stunt casting felt like a bad idea to me, took less than a minute for me to be convinced I was right about that :(

Not too bad tonight, but one of those that I could have used an extra half hour or so to get my fill.

Minor graphic novel spoilers below (I'll try to be vague):

Tyreese establishing himself as a badass with the hammer versus a horde was a nice tip of the cap to the graphic novel.

I watched episodes 2 and 3 back to back tonight (was out of town last week) and am getting a pretty bad vibe from the older sister. I think one of two story lines from the graphic novel might come into play with the introduction of those two. Either would be pretty sizable events, I would think.

Still not sure what to make of Bob Stookey.

Him surviving there given the way they showed it was pretty hard to believe.

Going from what I remember in the comics, it was hard to believe there as well.

Probably even more so in the comics. Loved the tip of the cap there though, either way.

Yeah, not surprisingly this episode was written by Kirkman himself, which is why, I think, you had the nod to that scene as well as the fight between Rick and Tyrese (which is even more extreme in the comic).

A solid episode. Not as good as the first two, but the first three episodes of this season have been really strong.

Oooh, good call, H_B - I had forgot about that from the comics too.

I (a non-comic book reader) would not have guessed Carol.

Very interested to see where that goes.

I don't believe that was in the comics. I, for one, saw it all the way

This whole super flu plot is not at all in the comics.

The whole prison/Woodbury arc ends very differently in the comic.

Me neither, but I'm glad that it was. I was really worried it would be someone from Woodbury whose name we didn't even know and take all the teeth out of the story. This is great though.

One thing I'm not sure about... did they show us how Rick figured out that it was her? When he was looking at the door and at the "crime scene" did they show anything? Or are we supposed to be thinking that this was just intuition on Rick's part after seeing Carol stupidly risk her life to go clean the hose by herself?

there was a bloody hand print, I believe, presumably Carol's. but how he linked that to Carol I'm not sure.

I think the question we should ask ourselves is "what did Rick figure out?"

I think he saw the size of the handprint and deduced that it was a woman/child ... which would have narrowed the list of people to consider.

From there, who would be able to drag the bodies, light them on fire, etc from a physical standpoint? Probably not too big a list of candidates once you get to that point.

Yeah, when he asked Carol if she did it, I was trying to remember if there was something they had shown us to physically link it to her that I'd missed.


So Rick saw Carol going out into danger alone to handle a problem that Rick wanted to put off, and Rick knows that she is teaching the kids about weapons without telling anyone else. Carol is looking like someone who is willing to face realities that most others are not. Given her background (abusive husband/lost her daughter), it makes enough sense to me. And I *think* Rick knows enough to at least reasonably ask Carol the question, so that makes sense enough to me as well to be ok with all of it to this point.


Between the interactions with Carl/Herschel, Maggie/Beth, Rick/Carol and Tyrese/lots of people, I was pretty impressed again that they were able to keep my interest at a high level without overloading things with zombie action.

both of the Carl / Herschel scenes were...odd. the first one was so odd that I wonder if they had changed something and had had to add that in after the fact. It just didn't seem right at all

I think they are trying to build on the scene from last season where Carl was out in the woods with Hershel and some other folks and he shot that kid who refused to drop the shotgun.

That's my only explanation for it.

Also, Lady H_B suggested that Carl and Arya Stark should get together. They seem to share similar world views.

Great suggestion for crossover!! Well played Lady H_B!!!!

That sick, uneasy feeling in my stomach just won't go away when I watch this show. The feeling that, no matter how good these current episodes are, the whole show goes back in the shitter when they decide to bring back the governor.

I think the smart move would be to kill off that arc ASAP. Bring him back as a zombie and move on. It's like waiting for the other shit-caked boot to fall.

probably waiting for the opportunity to have him come back and jump over 25 zombies in a motorcycle

If handled correct, the return of the Governor could be good.

His presence has sort of lingered without every coming up. Darryl and Michonne have talked about him without mentioning him.

I thought the Governor was great in the first half of season 3, but things took a turn for the worse in the second half, especially that one episode when he was stalking Andrea through that shattered factory like some sort of villain from a slasher flick.

I am curious to know how far the medicine fetching group was away from the prison when they ran into the wall of zombies. Any chance that wall is headed toward the prison, and how would they possibly defend themselves against that.

.... and why with 4 people in the car, is the driver the one changing the radio stations? Don't you know that as soon as you look down at the radio, you are going to run into a wall of zombies???

Along the lines of the things I nitpick about the show....

Why do they take a car like that on these runs? Why wouldnt you drive something made for a bit more offroading? That car would be lucky to run 1 zombie over without it pulling the transmission with it.

IDK...maybe its my inner hillbilly coming out...but in a zombie apocalypse I'm not getting my muffler stuck on a pile of zombies when I need to run a bunch of them over.

That herd was awesome. I want more of that kind of stuff.

Yeah, you would think they could find a better vehicle for that. Besides the fact that I would want something that could offroad, I would think you would want something that is easily repairable. Like the RV they had in season 1. I am not a car guy, but I would think it would be a lot easier to fix something pre-1990 if you could find it.

Because Dodge is a sponsor of the show? :)

Yes I feel like the writers could have pulled off a better way to run into the herd of Zombies than playing with the radio. Couple of ideas...

1) Car backfires causing group of zombies to come from behind. Then while they are messing with car the huge herd comes from the other side.

2) Tire blows out. However since I think they may have to get back in the car at some point next epiosode I guess I could see why this would be a bad angle.

Radio just seems cliche which this show is pretty good at avoiding.

I think it wasn't so much the radio, but that they heard a voice/distress signal or something. That's what drew everyone's attention.

They should have been driving a GM vehicle. That shit would never happened if they were.

Also, in a move that surprises no one, the show has been renewed for a 5th season. In a somewhat surprising move, they won't be replacing the show runner, so that Gimple guy (or whatever his name is) will still have the reins come next season.

5th season :)

But yes - very excited, especially that Gimple will be able to stick around. Hope that gives the show a little bit of stability over the next two years.

Not sure if I missed it somewhere, but did they explain how Old Man Herschel got his leg back?

He still has his peg leg. That's why he's always kind of limping around when he walks (sometimes more than others). He just wears long pants and they affix a shoe to the peg, apparently.

Yeah - they showed a shot of it at some point where it looks like they basically made him a prosthetic leg type thing. Shoe on the end of the peg, and almost like a metal boot around the peg too i thought.

The hand print moment at the door was odd since they made it out to be the "aha!" moment of Rick's half-assed investigation especially since all he had to do was ask.

What I don't like about the whole prison thing is that all they have prison cells that would keep them safe if they just locked the frickin' doors. Carol didn't need to kill those 2. Just lock them in a cell and kill them if/when they turn. It was already too late to worry about infection since the germs were already all over. I understand it makes a nice little conflict but I think Carol would have waited.

Why doesn't everyone lock their cell doors at night?

This was my first thought as well. Seriously...lock your damn cell door at night and keep a supply of canned goods/h2o and a blade in each one and you're basically safe as can be in the medium-term.

I guess we're supposed to believe that they're all so happy to be somewhere where they don't have to that they don't, but IMO if they're not taking that simple and obvious precaution then they deserve to die.

Also - since they know the virus is in everybody and you don't have to be bit to turn you'd think they'd have guards posted inside even when people were sleeping/wouldn't let people go places alone.

There is a theory floating around about that handprint. I'm not sure I buy it completely but it's a fair possibility IMO.

That kinda makes sense Jon...

the theory does make some sense

Hmm... okay, so in this proposed theory...

If they were sleeping?

Makes sense but this show isn't exactly the deep, plot twist kind of show. (And I mean that as a compliment as it's one of the my favorite shows on right now) Rick looking at the door and asking Carol if she burned the bodies most likely means that Carol burned the bodies.

I don't buy it at all, I feel nearly 100% certain that its Carol. Part of that may be bias though, because I *want* it to be Carol. A scenario where they put pressure on a main cast member who we've gotten to know for 3 years only to relieve it with a twist revealing its actually this new character who we've seen in like 3 scenes would feel like a massive letdown to me.

I'll give you my own two cents on the theory (which I first saw popping up within minutes of the end of Sunday's episode)

RE: Herschel's leg - I think it was Scott Gimple or someone on Talking Dead that said they found a prosthetic on one of their runs and he is using that. Or maybe I am just making that up...but I think that is right :)

Sounds sensible at least PF.

Or already dead and not yet turned.

Interesting...