Walking Dead - Season 4, Episode 6 - Live Bait

I'll be honest.  I wasn't very interested in learning about what The Governor had been up to since we last saw him in season 3.  I like David Morrissey, but I just haven't been impressed with the way his character has been written on the show.  And so the idea of an entire episode devoted to The Governor didn't exactly strike me as a potentially great hour of television.  Walking Dead had an excellent opportunity to prove me wrong in that regard with "Live Bait", but unfortunately the episode failed to do so.  In the end, I felt this sixth episode of the season was just as unnecessary an exercise as I suspected it might be beforehand.  

If the makers of Walking Dead were absolutely set on presenting us with the information we got from "Live Bait" , I would have been fine with starting things where the episode ended: The Governor meeting up with Martinez (a character who I guess isn't going away for some reason).  From that point on, he could have recounted his story himself, in the form of a flashback and in a much more succinct fashion.  That way, we could have kept our Governor-centric episodes down to 1, instead of the 2 that it looks will we get.  Once again, I don't blame David Morrissey for the shortcomings of this story arc.  His role in "Live Bait" is a challenging one, and he actually does a pretty good job given the material he is given.

But the writing on Walking Dead continues to be a weak link, and that fact stands out like a sore in quiet, largely event-less episodes like this one.  The sequences at the beginning, with The Governor shuffling around like a zombie hybrid of Forrest Gump and Snake Plissken, bordered on laughably bad.  And his scenes with the Chambler family aren't much better.  The Chamblers babble away their entire life story shortly after meeting "Brian", obviously providing some needed exposition, but it's unclear why they would be so forthcoming with information given that The Governor doesn't appear to be even a slightly willing conversation partner.  Additionally, there is precious little chemistry between The Governor and his new love interest Lilly.

I understand what the show is trying to do with "Live Bait".  They want to make The Governor into a more sympathetic character, and they succeeded somewhat in doing so.  But I question whether we needed to devote an entire episode to that endeavor.  Especially when the action was just beginning to heat up at the prison.  The result is that the momentum of season 4 has come to a screeching halt just when it should be reaching a fever pitch heading into the mid-season hiatus.  Here is hoping that, next episode, some of our other main characters will pop in to make things more interesting.

Walking Dead - Season 4, Episode 5 - Internment

Scott Wilson is arguably the strongest actor on Walking Dead, so a Hershel-centric episode like "Internment" certainly had lots of promise.  In the end, "Internment" turned out to be a strong episode and a great showcase for Hershel, even if it did provide little in the way of forward progress for the show.  Hershel isn't my one of my favorite characters on the show, largely because I find him a little one-dimensional, but there is no denying the power of his story arc throughout this season.  As good as Wilson has been though, the real star of the show remained the"superflu" that is knocking off prison inhabitants left and right.

Walking Dead is, of course, a show about zombies.  However, it can't be a show only about zombies because, frankly, that wouldn't be very interesting.  In the first season, much of the conflict very much centered around zombies and questions like what are they, how do we stop them, is there a cure etc.  By the start of the second season, though, we were dealing with characters who have become pretty accustomed to living in this zombie-occupied world, and know how to handle themselves accordingly.  Thus, the zombies, while still omnipresent, became somewhat less of a threat.

At that point, obviously, some new conflict had to be created.  Over the intervening seasons, Walking Dead has explored all sorts of conflict from within the group (the endless debate and moralizing of season 2, as well as the various pissing contests between Shane and Rick) and without (most notably with The Governor and Woodbury).  Each of these story lines has had a varying degree of success, but the deadly virus in this season has been one of the very best "antagonists" this show has had.

First of all, there is something very primal, and very real about the threat of a virus in a post-apocalyptic scenario.  Killer diseases have plagued mankind since the beginning of time, and it's only recently with modern medicine and technological innovations have we gained the upper hand in that struggle. But in a world like the one in Walking Dead, all that goes out the window.  A virus or infection that may have been totally innocuous at one time suddenly becomes life threatening.  And there is almost nothing that you can do except hope for the best.  That makes for great drama.

And so I've really enjoyed these last few episodes.  So much so that I hope the virus angle doesn't simply disappear just because  Daryl returned to the prison with some antibiotics.  Yes, the Governor returned this week, but I hope that show doesn't just become "The Governor Hour".  The virus story line is a good one, and it deserves some more time to play out.

As for the return of The Governor, I have mixed feelings.  I found the character promising at the onset of last season, but gradually lost interest.  He is a monumental bastard, but for seemingly no good reason other than that he is written that way. I would definitely like to see a little more depth given to the character this season.  It should be interesting, though, to see how exactly he reveals himself to our heroes, and how much he is responsible, if any, for previous events this season.  Not to mention Carol is still out there somewhere, presumably.  With the midseason hiatus looming, there are a lot of directions Walking Dead could go in, and I'm excited to see what happens next.

Walking Dead - Season 4, Episode 4 - Indifference

Titling an episode "Indifference" is a pretty ballsy move on the part of The Walking Dead.  The show certainly has plenty of detractors, and those individuals will have no problem mocking this episode based on the title.  Luckily, I am, of course, a fan of the show, and I thought this episode was passable, although a title like "Largely unimpressed" would be a more accurate description of my attitude towards it.

Season 4 of Walking Dead has been heavy on scenes intended to effect us (the audience) emotionally. These moments landed well in the previous episode, "Isolated", but "Indifference" is a different story.  The episode opens with an exchange between Carol and her "daughter" that falls a flat.  Child actors are always a little hit and miss, and while Lizzie is better than Carl at his worst, she just isn't a character I can bring myself to care about, despite her ample screen time so far this season.  

"Indifference" is a highly Carol-centric episode in general (unsurprising given the events of "Isolated").  I've enjoyed her character arc this season (and throughout the show in general), and her scenes with Rick here were pretty good.  Andrew Lincoln does a pretty good job of expressing his growing distrust (and perhaps disgust?) of Carol, and there are some wonderful subtle moments between the two (such as Rick's reaction when Carol essentially sends the young couple they randomly meet while scavenging to their death).  But as much as I have enjoyed the Carol story line, this send-off (while likely not a permanent one) for her seemed a little weak.  I hope that she will pop up again soon.

Also in this episode, Daryl and his crew engage in some mostly boring adventures.  There are a few good moments between Daryl and Michonne (and it is very cool to observe their growing chemistry), but Tyreese is a little too one-dimensional "angry black man" in this episode for my tastes, especially given how great Chad Coleman was in the previous episode.  And Bob...well, Bob is the only character I may care about less than Lizzie.  

Overall, "Indifference" could have benefited from some more prison scenes.  Things seemed so dire back there in the last episode, but time must have frozen during the events of this episode, because we got no updates about the mysterious flu situation.  Walking Dead is a show that has shown an unfortunate tendency to get bogged down in the past, and we are dangerously close to having that issue yet again.  The good news is this: Rick will undoubtedly have some explaining to do when he returns to the prison, and that should lead to some much needed conflict (of the non-Bob variety, that is).

Walking Dead - Season 4, Episode 3 - Isolated

"Isolated" may have been my favorite episode of Walking Dead so far this season.  Season 4 has been solid if unspectacular so far, but "Isolated" feels like the best realization (so far) of what I consider to be a new approach for the series.  Walking Dead has moved further into the realm of human drama than ever before this season, and that approach, while arguably a risky one, definitely pays dividends in this episode.  Luckily, the show has quietly assembled a pretty solid cast of actors who, while often suffering from the flimsy characterization and writing that has defined Walking Dead over the years, can actually emote a little when given the chance.  

"Isolated" is indeed a very emotional episode with lots of characters facing a life-threatening illness (and kudos to the show for actually infecting some important characters), and their loved ones dealing with the repercussions of that fact.  Chad Coleman, whose Tyreese is a prominent member of the Michonne-captained "Walking Dead Underdeveloped Character All-Stars", is excellent in this episode, and Scott Wilson (Hershel) is solid as well.  Carol and Rick (among others) also have emotional scenes to slightly less effect, but the overall tone of the episode is nevertheless very good due to some solid performances.

After last season and the Governor experience, it feels a little odd for the show to be lacking a "Big Bad", but the threat of the illness alone is really working for now.  The idea of an epidemic in a post-apocalyptic scenario is a pretty clever one and I can't remember it being explored very much elsewhere.  I'm curious whether thar story line will linger for a while, or if Darryl returning with the antibiotics in the next episode or two will be the end of it. If that is the case, of course, Walking Dead  may have another significant story line to explore revolving around Carol, of all people.

The revelation that Carol murdered Karen is likely to be a controversial one among some people, but I'm actually intrigued by it.  The show did somewhat lessen the impact of that particular "bombshell" by dropping some very unsubtle hints throughout "Isolated", but the way it was eventually handled was pretty pitch perfect (Rick asking Carol if she was responsible, followed by a casual "Yes" from Carol and a fade to black).  Some may find all this a little out of character for Carol, but those people have somehow overlooked the gradual transformation of Carol into one of the coldest characters on Walking Dead.

I'm curious to see how things develop from here (and how our characters handle Carol), but I hope the show doesn't become too mired in the sort of moralizing that bogged everything down in season 2.  If they can avoid that pitfall, it should be interesting to see the fallout from this situation and how it will affect characters such as Tyreese and Darryl in particular.