RIP Patrice O’Neal
Today’s article was originally an ode to the gushing fire hydrant of failure that The Walking Dead has become. I made several attempts at completing it, but my mind couldn’t […]
A year ago, I wrote this piece on not understanding why people enjoyed The Walking Dead. It seemed like yet another pedestrian foray into zombie apocalypse genre and the hype surrounding it totally escaped me. Fast forward 10 months, and, after viewing season 1 on Netflix (you could put scat porn on Netflix and I’d eventually watch it), I understood why the show had been such a hit. The abandoned, silent Atlanta cityscape was a haunting setting. More than that, the show used its premise to ask a deep philosophical question: What would you do in a world that offered so little to live for? To say that I was champing at the bit for the arrival of the first half of season 2 (the second half premieres February, 2012) would be an overstatement, but I was definitely looking forward to continuing the story of all of my favorite characters: Rick, his breastless whore wife Lori, Asian Guy, Old Man Eyebrows and Boondock Saint.
It’d take some balls on my part to say that season 2 of The Walking Dead has been a massive disappointment thus far considering I watched season 1 about four days before season 2’s premire, but I’m here to be an asshole, so you know what? Season 2 is shaping up to be worse than The Godfather: Part III. Hyperbolic enough for ya? With that out of the way, let me get into the reasons season 2 has failed to click.
Foremost to me was the presence of what reeked of extensive budget cuts. Season 1 of The Walking Dead, as previously mentioned, featured sets involving massive skyscrapers, abandoned military outposts and a cavernous underground building. It was visually dizzying, a constant reminder of how empty and tomblike man’s creations become without his presence within them. Season 2’s first half…was set on a farm. A sprawling, pastoral, cheap-to-shoot farm, with the occasional zombie popping up to remind us that we weren’t watching a commercial for Country Time Lemonade. Do you know why a farm would fail as a set to make the viewer marvel at the new, empty world that these characters inhabit? BECAUSE FARMS ARE GODDAMN EMPTY AND DEVOID OF PEOPLE TO BEGIN WITH! There’s no contrast between the new world and old world when you show me two people walking around the porch of a flapping their gums to pass the time. By farm standards, that’s a mob scene.
And speaking of gum-flapping, was it just me, or has the second season of The Walking Dead featured roughly 10,000% more dialog than season 1? Which would be tolerable except that none of the actors on the show are particularly good. They’re not bad mind you, just not good enough that their conversations are going to make for compelling viewing. Anyone is watchable when they’re firing a shotgun through the back of a corpse’s skull. But if you have a ten-minute monologue prattling on about some existential crisis and your name isn’t Marlon Brando, shut the fuck up, already.
I could go on. The scope of the show’s plot has shrunk like my penis hitting ice water, from potentially saving the world in season 1 to searching for a lost girl who I barely remembered was missing to begin with in season 2. There were extraneous characters whose scant lines and screen time could have been cut entirely to flesh out the members of our party who mean something so that maybe I’ll actually care when said people eventually meet their grisly demise. Just…get ’em off that fucking farm, already. The more time these dolts spend alone in the wilderness talking about their personal alliances, the more The Walking Dead descends into self-parody, like a sketch about a zombie-themed episode of Survivor.
smokehalo on December 2, 2011
Part of the hype surrounding the start of the show was, at least to me, the fact that it’s an actual series with the zombie apocalypse as the backdrop, not just a 90-minute splatterfest (although those are fine, don’t get me wrong — I’ve been a big fan of zombie escapades for a long time). Having a story long enough to work in some character development makes it more interesting to me — and this is what’s happening in season 2.
Sure, I get itchy for some gore, and it’s been providing it in small doses. But there’s also something to be said for exploring some of the stuff that people rarely think about — the moral and ethical changes that come over people when put into situations that test their resolve, their lives, and their sanity. Shane’s a great example. Are the things he’s done justified? Are they more horrifying than the zombies themselves, or less? Has Shane actually changed at all, or is he just turning out to be the person he’s been all along?
I have no idea why they’ve gone this route, or where they’re going next, or why. Maybe it is budget cuts. Or maybe they’re reserving a bunch of the budget for something really stunning toward the end of the season. Personally, I hope that’s the case — we’re talking zombies here, who wouldn’t love a massive undead siege and a bullet-filled breakout by the heroes? Toss in a flamethrower too, or a few molotov cocktails, and watch the human candles dance around. But regardless of the reasons behind what they’re doing, what they’re doing is still pretty damn good television.
Steeb2er on December 2, 2011
Give it time. I don’t disagree that it’s been slower, but if you’ve read the comics, it makes more sense. The farm isn’t a product of the budget cuts, it’s a result of the comics. The first season followed the first 6 books (except Shane’s demise); This half of the 2nd season has roughly followed the next 6; I expect that pattern would continue. If it does, they’ll find and move into a prison – along with a few inmates – and things will get back to being cavernous. I think they’ve rightly saved some budget for the 2nd half of this season. Maybe they’ll be able to ask for more, as ratings have grown significantly.
Brian on December 2, 2011
I was hoping you were going to reference Hershel as some sort of Jerry Sandusky figure.