zombies – Page 8 – Simon’s Incoherent Blog

In the Flesh: Series 2, Episode 4

“There’s what I believe – and then there’s you.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

In a week when tribal differences were thrown into sharp relief by the triumph of xenophobic political parties all over Europe, it was another script from writer Fintan Ryan for this week’s In the Flesh. And following on from his poignant vignette of Freddie and Haley last week, this week’s ep foregrounded another of the more minor players in the drama – parish councillor and would be suitor to Amy, Philip Wilson. Not quite as separate a narrative as the Ballad of Freddie and Haley, this still stood apart enough to be a good character piece running alongside the ‘main’ plot.

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In the Flesh: Series 2, Episode 3

“You’re being used by them. What I’m doing is giving you a chance to choose the right side.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

As I said last week, the established dramatic style of In the Flesh is driven by the characters’ secrets; and with the relevant secrets revealed and resolved in the first series, the challenge for this second run is to come up with new secrets. In part, this has been achieved by a stronger focus on the Rising itself, which was rarely questioned in the first series. But the other approach has been to introduce new characters, and delve into the secrets driving them.

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The Walking Dead: Season 4, Episode 16 – A

“We gonna tell them? Everything that’s happened to us, everything we’ve done? We gonna tell them the truth?”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

Well that went… about as well as expected. Let’s face it, if you’ve ever seen any post-apocalyptic drama on TV, you probably could have told Our Heroes that Terminus was not going to be the refuge they were hoping for. If nothing else, Woodbury last season was a pretty good indicator of that. And nothing good has ever come of anything called “Terminus”. But then, maybe these guys aren’t too genre savvy – perhaps they preferred reality shows.

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The Walking Dead: Season 4, Episode 15 – Us

“There ain’t no ‘us’”.

(SPOILER WARNING!)

After the very dark territory of last week’s little side trip, this week’s penultimate ep of The Walking Dead’s fourth season gave us a much more conventional bit of storytelling. You couldn’t exactly say it was light relief, not in this show; but there were no shock twists, and nobody we cared about died. More importantly, after weeks and weeks of angst-ridden soul-baring, this ep suddenly seemed to (finally) get the plot moving again. Question is, where to?

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The Walking Dead: Season 4, Episode 14–The Grove

“Sometimes we have to kill them. I know that. But sometimes we don’t.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

Has The Walking Dead gone too far? It’s always been a show that’s gone to some very dark places, but last night’s ep was probably the darkest of all; so unremittingly grim and bleak in its worldview, and showing us possibly the nastiest conceivable consequences of the post-apocalypse world. It was not easy viewing.

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The Walking Dead: Season 4, Episode 8–Too Far Gone

“I need the prison, that’s all. I got people I need to keep alive. No one needs to die.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

Well, that was upsetting on several different levels. Real drama, with characters we care about in mortal danger, and given the show’s usual style, no guarantee who would get out alive. As the ‘mid-season finale’, this episode packed a punch that was bigger than the actual finale of the otherwise excellent third season. Mostly because it felt like it actually was the finale to the third season, the climax that never really came to the story of the rivalry between Rick and the Governor, and their two communities.

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The Walking Dead: Season 4, episode 7–Dead Weight

“You seem different now. Changed. Are you?”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

It was another Governor-centric episode of The Walking Dead this week, as we followed the ongoing adventures of our favourite baddie and the show continued to tease us as to whether he was a reformed character. More action-packed than last week, it seemed a little more conventional as an episode, though as ever David Morrissey’s performance as the charismatic villain/antihero made up for a lot of shortcomings.

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The Walking Dead: Season 4, episode 6 – Live Bait

“You can lose a lot of soldiers but still win the game.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

If, like a number of people I know, you found last week’s rushed conclusion to the epidemic storyline rather a mixed bag of an episode, this week’s Walking Dead offered something completely different. And, I think, rather more interesting.

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The Walking Dead: Season 4, Episode 5 – Internment

“Life was always a test, Rick.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

Things were sure looking grim at the prison in this week’s instalment of The Walking Dead. As seems to be the style this season, it was a slow-burning plot that built to an action-packed climax; with Daryl’s drug-gathering party still not returned, only Rick, Carl, Maggie and Hershel were well enough to defend the fences against the hordes of slavering undead. And Hershel was unavailable, having quarantined himself in Cell Block A with the sufferers of the mysterious disease.

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The Walking Dead: Season 4, Episode 4–Indifference

“We all change. We all don’t get to be the same way we started.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

A more somber than usual episode of The Walking Dead this week, but not because of the usual bleak apocalyptic scenario. This week’s script, by new comer Matthew Negrete, was a more intimate affair than usual, focusing on the show’s characters; delving deeper into the ones we know, and establishing depth for the new characters too.

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