Chad Coleman as Tyreese and Tyler James Williams as Noah in 'The Walking Dead'
This is one of the most popular series on television at the moment. So much so, AMC is
readying a spin-off for those that want more zombie apocalypse. But while watching
The Walking Dead, I sometimes wonder what the audience ultimately wants for the series. This is not a series, like
Lost, in which we're supposed to be building to some great revelation. Questions about the origin of the "walkers," the state of the rest of the world, or even if there might really be a possibility for a cure are largely on the periphery and irrelevant to most of the episodes.
What the viewer is left with, beyond Rick (Andrew Lincoln) going through periods of self-doubt and Daryl (Norman Reedus) killing squirrels and shooting a crossbow, is the struggle of a group of characters to live and die in a world that's gone to shit. And that can get pretty damn bleak, as well as sometimes a tad repetitive. Sunday's premiere of Season 5's second half has some great acting moments and a story that reinforced one of the show's central themes. But it in some ways pointed to one of the weaknesses of the series.
Follow beneath the fold for more.
Fair warning to everyone reading this, but after this point the review will discuss everything up to the latest episode of the series. So, if you're not caught up and don't want to be spoiled, you might want to stop right here.
Don't go in there!
During the Cold War, many built bomb shelters, and stockpiled them with food and supplies to get ready for World War III. But a lot of these people didn't stop to think about whether you would want to keep on living in a world after a nuclear holocaust. Would life be worth it? If every morning, it meant waking up to a ruined world where there was no safety and the rarity of a full belly is a luxury beyond reach, would you want to go on fighting?
As The Walking Dead returns, it's a show wallowing in misery, and pushes its audience to see how much misery they can take. No one can ever fault this show for not being afraid to kill characters. Probably the show's greatest strength is that the viewer gets the feeling almost anyone can die at any time. Beth (Emily Kinney) is dead, Bob (Lawrence Gilliard, Jr.) is dead, Hershel (Scott Wilson) is dead, the girls are dead, the hope of Eugene's (Josh McDermitt) cure is gone, and the group is without a home. But this gets back to my question of what the audience expects to get out of the show. Are we just watching a bunch of characters stumble around in the woods until they die in a myriad of ways from either the actions of assholes, fools, or undead monsters? This is a series that beats you over the head with how dire the situation feels, and any embers of hope are fleeting things that tempt you into believing and caring, but will hurt just that much more when they die out.
"It's okay, Tyreese. You gotta know that now."
The latest episode, "What Happened and What's Going On," written by Scott M. Gimple and directed by Greg Nicotero, puts the group on a new path towards Washington, D.C., but is largely about the loss of Tyreese and his mental reverberations as he lets go of life. But before that happens, the larger picture is one of the group still recovering from the death of Beth and deciding to head towards Noah's home of Richmond, Virginia. Noah promises it will be safe, but we know that can't be true, and there's never really any expectation it will be true. Because nowhere is safe, and every option available to the characters seems to be varying degrees of bad. And when Noah kneels in horror at the sight of his home laid to waste, you knew another shoe had to drop.
The Walking Dead, like Game of Thrones, tends to crush hope and punish characters that exhibit mercy and decency. Tyreese, like Beth, has been one of the most likable characters in the cast, and watching him have his "life flash before his eyes" after being bitten really opened the question in my mind of whether surviving was "better" in any way. As Tyreese hallucinates characters that have died previously, from Beth, the girls, the Governor (David Morrissey), he contemplates his choices, his motives, and whether things could have been different. It's meant to show us that, with Tyreese, humanity is not lost. And Chad Coleman sells the performance really well. Even in a world of zombies, even in the face of death itself, a good man can still stand strong. But it makes the world of the series the audience is left with just that much darker.
The Governor is back ... sorta.
However, I do wonder how long the show can sustain this formula.
The Walking Dead has basically fit itself into a groove where the survivors travel somewhere, think it might be safe, things go to shit, someone dies (during a season premiere or finale), they pick up some new stragglers, and the characters move on to repeat everything over again. Lather, rinse, repeat. Moreover, I really do think the series has to find a reason for these character to keep fighting. That could be adversity against a new threat or the real promise of something better beyond a nebulous hope of safety. If it's just to wander around the woods and stab some walkers in the head, I think it will eventually get old.
- They've finally escaped from Georgia: It was kind of shocking to see the show basically time jump a trip of over 500 miles to Richmond. We've spent years watching these people have trouble just getting to the outskirts of Atlanta, and they seem to have had no trouble getting into Virginia.
- Beautiful visuals, but it also bordered on a clip show: The intercutting of disparate images that starts the episode, which we eventually learn is from Tyreese's perspective as he's dying, is done really well. It's disorienting, but gets across the feeling of someone both trying to hold on to moments, while also letting go of it all. But I also thought the latter half of the episode came close to being a self-indulgent clip show. All of the returning characters let the show replay different moments from past episodes, and that got close to "remember when this bad-ass thing happened?!?"
- Rick, Glenn and Michonne: The conversation between these characters is interesting in how it positions them as characters. Rick has shifted more and more to being a darker character for whom murder and leaving behind the old rules have become easier. But Rick argues they had to come to Richmond, if only to honor Beth. Glenn mentions that after everything that's happened, he's not sure if he would have still done the "right thing" at Terminus. Michonne wants at first to build up defenses around the subdivision, so they can "stop" and get off the road. But when she realizes it's infeasible Michonne argues to keep moving toward Washington, D.C. for the hope of just "one more day." All of the characters seem to realize their humanity is withering away.
- The radio broadcasts: Right after he's bitten and when Tyreese is down to his last moments in the truck, he hears radio broadcasts about "gropers" attacking in a coastal district. At first, I thought he was remembering the broadcasts from when the original outbreak occurred. But if you listen carefully, Tyreese is actually imagining what a BBC News-like report about the group would sound like, since the broadcasts describe details that match events from the series.
- The truck with cut up walker bodies: While trying to escape the subdivision, Rick crashes into a truck that was full of armless and legless zombies. Who put them there? And for what purpose? I have a feeling that little bit wasn't just for a freak out moment, and it's going to be significant going forward.