Episode Two: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Of all the times to be pursuing a heated romance, during a zombie apocalypse would be the worst.  Yet, Shane and Lori are bone-headed enough to do just that.  Maybe they should be doing something a little more essential like, I don't know, surviving?  Such behavior makes me feel even sorrier for Rick, especially in light of his continuing commitment to his wife and child, even though he does not know they are still alive, despite his nearly-instantaneous connection with Andrea.  Instead of giving into his feelings, he sticks to his duty.  Rick embodies strength and loyalty, making him my favorite character thus far.

Then enters a truly phenomenal zombie-slayer—Glenn!  Can I just take a moment to say that I love Glenn?  He's one of those people that no one would predict to survive, yet he does it anyhow.  He's extremely intelligent, witty, yet sensitive and just so human.  And the last scene where he drives away in a sports car.  Simply priceless.  For some reason or another, the blog won't let me embed this YouTube video straight into the page, but click here for my favorite snippet from the episode.

Next, we have the ugliest character I can imagine—Merle Dixon.  Redneck, racist, and just all-out disgusting in both appearance and attitude.  He's a coward who holds a bit of power and sway over the others by violence.  And we see Rick, once again, coming to the rescue and overpowering Merle through justice and a true persona of authority.

I briefly mentioned that I noticed a connection between Rick and Andrea.  Yes, their first impressions of one another could not have gone worse.  But it seems like threatening someone with a gun in your first encounter might not ensure the status of enemies for life.  Take note, ladies: Men seem to think a woman pointing a gun at their head is kinda sexy.  Andrea and Rick volunteer to keep an eye on the walkers outside the glass doors while Glenn and T-Dog look for an escape route.  We see the two begin to form a bond when Rick allows Andrea to "steal" a piece of jewelry for her sister.

Glenn and T-Dog find that there is no escape route, encountering a zombie in the sewer (that part scared the crap out of me).  Then Rick comes up with a crazy plan—smear zombie guts all over himself and Glenn, play undead, and commandeer an escape vehicle to save the whole crew.  The scene in which the group hacks a walker to pieces presents quite the conundrum, in my opinion.  They take a moment to remember that this creature they are about to obliterate was once a human yet continue to completely desecrate the body.  I don't think a real situation like this would sit well with any feeling person, but let me bring up a couple points for consideration.  First: Scientists did dissect human corpses in order to advance medicine.  A large majority of the things we know about human anatomy and biology comes from dishonoring human bodies after death, given, not as brutally as presented in this episode, but it was done, nonetheless.  That would make it seem okay, right?  Well, let me add this in there just to twist your philosophical, ethical minds a bit.  Consider that the zombies are sick humans.  They suffer from a debilitating entanglement of mental, social, emotional, and physical handicaps.  The remaining humans act as the more evolved species which escaped such a terrible illness, but instead of trying to help the less fortunate, they kill them (albeit, in self-defense) and destroy their corpses.  Remind you of anyone?  Maybe Hitler?  Like I said, just food for thought.  It could also be viewed from the converse perspective.

And just when you think it can't get any worse—stumbling through a city chock-full of zombies covered in blood and guts—it rains.  Here, we see Rick's leadership and last-minute planning skills come into play as he directs the timid Glenn to distract the walkers with a noisy sports car.  The final minutes of the episode are heart-poundingly intense as the group escapes the city with hardly a scratch.  Oh wait, Merle got left behind!  Oh well.  In all seriousness, though, that scene really mortified me.  I wouldn't want to leave even someone I hated to die of dehydration, exposure, hunger, or (worst of all) ripped limb-from-limb and eaten by the undead.  However, if it was my life against my enemy's, I think we all would do as T-Dog did and run for our lives, not attempt to rescue a jerk like Merle at the risk of our own lives.  I did read a short over-view of episode 3, and it seems as though Rick might go back for Merle.  If so, Rick has become even more of an amazing character in my eyes.  But anyway, hope you all enjoyed this little post, and I'll update you when I watch episode 3!

Episode One: Mr. Attractive Beard in a Toga

Well, it's your typical Sunday afternoon.  It's just one of those lazy days where you want to take a nap and eat pie.  Or, in my case, start watching The Walking Dead on Netflix.  And per my friend Rachel's urging, I've also decided to start a blog to chronicle my thoughts on the show.  Just as a note, I know essentially nothing about this show and this blog will just be about some things I noticed watching the show for the first time.

So, to start off, I just want to comment on the character Rick [Andrew Lincoln] looks strikingly similar to both Viggo Mortensen and Kirk Cameron.

Kirk Cameron

Viggo Mortensen

Andrew Lincoln

Just because of this, I was immediately drawn into the episode.  I'm a huge fan of Viggo, especially in the Lord of the Rings trilogy and Hidalgo (the only animal movie I can tolerate).  But I would like to point out the very cheap and thoughtless costume designs for Rick throughout most of the first episode.  Yes, the policeman uniform was quite nice, but he wore that for approximately one-fifth of the first episode.  After that, we get to see him stumbling through a seemingly-abandoned hospital in a pair of hideously too-short shorts and a useless, papery gown draped around his shoulders.  I suppose this could be over-looked.  After all, we must be realistic; people waking up from a comatose state in the hospital would be wearing hospital clothing.  However, Rick then goes into the home of Morgan Jones, but instead of giving Rick some normal clothing (surely he had some to spare), he allows him to traipse about the house in a blanket.  A blanket.  Sure, I'll dress your wound for you, but normal clothes, no way.  Finally about half an hour into the episode, we find Rick donning a pair of jeans and t-shirt.  However, mere moments later, those clothes are replaced by a towel, and Rick's very exceptionally well-groomed beard has been shaven.  I could tolerate Rick's crappy costume designs while he had such a nice beard, but once it was gone, he had to at least get a nice uniform to bring out his manliness.  And apparently the show's writers thought so too, because once Rick's beard disappears, he wears normal clothes and keeps them on.

But enough on Rick's wardrobe (I'm really not a fashionista).  The show begins with the shooting of a little zombie girl, a walker.  I had heard the show was a bit gruesome, but, in all honesty, I was not really expecting that.  Throughout the show, the violence did tend towards the heavy side, but I found it sort of easy to overlook, especially in the gunshot-wound sequences because it was so obviously animated.  That being said, the most gut-wrenchingly violent scene for me was when the walkers started to eat Rick's new-found horsey friend.  I thought that faithful beastie could have had a nice, long career on the show, but apparently the only animals appreciated in The Walking Dead are dead ones.  Or creepy crows and vultures.

When the show cut to Shane, Lori, and the others who are surviving on the outskirts of Atlanta, I had to admit, I was pretty dang excited that Shane survived.  He seemed to be a pretty great guy, and I wanted to see Rick and Shane's friendship play out.  But now that it seems Lori and Shane have been in an affair for at least a little while, I'm joining Team Rick (if there is a Team Rick, and if not, there needs to be).  My question is, have Lori and Shane been like this for a while, even before Rick went into a coma in the hospital?  Or did Shane feel the need to protect his friend's widow and fall in love with her in the process?  Only time will tell.  And with that, I close.  On to Episode Two.

Sorry—just one more thing.  I was also interested to see that the zombies in The Walking Dead are very different from the zombie-creatures on I Am Legend.  I believe that it would be much more difficult to survive an I Am Legend scenario because those creatures are faster, stronger, and smarter than humans.  Their only weakness is daylight.  However, Walking Dead zombies are slow, weak (on their own), and stupid.  Their strength comes in numbers, and their weakness is, of course, their head.  Aim for the brain, my friends.