The Walking Dead Episode 4 Slabtown

Photo: Emily Kinney as Beth in "Slabtown."  From the episode's Wikipedia page.  (Does Kinney look 29 to you?  She is.)

I'm very late getting this entry in--like, almost a week, as the next episode airs in a few hours--so let's get right to it.  And sorry about the delay.

--The hospital is a Marxist Utopia (or, actually, dystopia): Your only worth is what you produce.  Production = worth.  Of course, the hospital is a bastardization of Marx's ideas.  He thought production could also be something abstract, like leadership, or good friendship.  But mostly he preferred physical production.  It's easier to quantify.

--Poll #1: Better leader: Dawn or Gareth?  We don't know enough yet about Dawn to say, but in terms of those they led, I have to say Gareth may have been better.  For everyone else alive, outside of those he led?  Maybe not.  Though they're both dangers to others outside their camp, Dawn at least helped you stay alive.  (These polls, by the way, come from the Talking Dead show afterwards.)

--Who was creepier, Dawn or Gorman?  I'll go with Gorman, though Dawn was more dangerous.  That's my own question, BTW.

--What's Ana Gastmeyer been doing these last many years?

--Poll #2: Yes, in a zombie apocalypse, doctors would be too important to kill.  Though, as we saw in this episode, doctors would be amongst the first to be killed by other doctors.

--Speaking of that, Beth better not tell anyone she has a little medical experience.  (Hershel was a vet, remember?)

--Anyone but me remember Emily Kinney from one episode of last year's The Following?  She was one of the silent followers and got shot dead real fast.

--I'm no prude, but wouldn't Darryl be a little too old for Beth?

--Speaking of Beth's age--which I think on the show is supposed to be early 20s?--the real age of Emily Kinney, who plays her, is 29.  Hard to believe, but true.  She's one of those women who will look 30 when she's 40, and so on.  I'll bet she got carded until she was in her mid-20s.  Maybe she still does, at 29.

--I haven't been carded in a few years now.  I did for a long, long time after I turned 21.  Especially if I was clean-shaven.  No, seriously.  I did.

--And--on the Talking Dead, at least--Kinney turns her head (and blonde ponytail) whiplash fast.  Reminded me of the little girl in the Verizon commercial and the little dog at the end of Coming to America.

--No, I'm not comparing the very pretty Emily Kinney to a little, furry, fluffy dog.  I'm just sayin'.

--Just researched it.  According to her Wikipedia page, Kinney was 25 when she first played 16-year old Beth Greene on this series.  It's possible in the life of the show that Beth is just barely in her early-20s, while Emily Kinney is just barely in her 20s at all.  Now that's messed up.

--I could also play a guy who's 9 years younger than I actually am.

--Or, not.

--Poll #3: Did Carol let herself be caught?  The option never occurred to me until it was offered up on the talkshow afterward, so I'm going to say No.  And I'm guessing she doesn't have any weapons.  I mean, wouldn't they search her, especially if they believe she's unconscious?

--I'm guessing Darryl, in last week's episode, was leading out Noah, who'll tell the Ricktatorship about Beth and the hospital.  And then they'll infiltrate the hospital to get Beth.  And find Carol?

--And all this after the next episode, which is about the D.C. group.

--Being a guest on the Talking Dead is not always the kiss of death--as Beth / Emily Kinney showed--but since two guys from the D.C. group are on the next episode, I'm guessing that at least one of them will get it.

--And I'm guessing it's the "genius," who I think will turn out not to be.

--Or, not. 

The Walking Dead--Strangers--Episode 2

 Photo: from Variety.com

Okay, so a few thoughts about this episode:

--Talking Dead Poll #1: I say Tyreese is retaining his humanity, and is not too kind for his own good.  Chad Coleman, the guy who plays him, agrees with me.

--Though Bob's leg got eaten at the end (a la the first Dawn of the Dead, the one that takes place underground in a shelter), the joke may be on the surviving Sanctuarians.  Cuz Bob got bitten in the food bank and just didn't show anyone.  So if they consume him, they'll be like him.  Otherwise, why was he so depressed, lonely and crying?  Why'd he go outside?

--I haven't read the comics, but from what I saw of Father Gabriel, I couldn't get him far enough away from me.

--Talking Dead Poll #2: Of course Father Gabriel is dangerous.  Very dangerous.

--I haven't heard the phrase "Church lady," this often since Dana Carvey.  And that's been a looooong time.

--Yes.  Maggie should've forgiven Tara.  Twas an episode of forgiveness, after all.  And they were in a church.

--Ditto for Tyreese and Carol.  Especially since she saved all their butts later.  And when he saw what Carol had to do to the blonde girl.

--Anybody know which of these characters, if any, are the core ones in the spinoff?

--Chad Coleman looks smaller in the show.  He's a big, big dude.  Took up half of the Talking Dead's couch.

--Did anybody catch the quote from the Bible in the church, on the arch above the communion table?  It said: "He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood has eternal life."  Perfect for a zombie apocalypse.

--Or, not, depending on your point of view.

--Why was Carol leaving again?  This time, on her own.

--Talking Dead poll #3: Yes, Carol needs to say what happened to the two little sister girls.  I mean, wasn't her fault one had a psychotic break and killed her sister.  Once that happened, what else could you do with her?

--Carl definitely respects Rick more when Rick's in beast mode.  Good call that Carl has become Rick's Jiminy Cricket.

--It is worth going into a basement sewer for food in a zombie apocalypse.  But cover up, especially your cuts and bruises.  Cuz that's a staph infection waiting to happen.

--Movie previews during the episode I want to see: Interstellar and Fury.

--Anybody notice more alcohol commercials during Walking Dead episodes now?  This time: Blue Moon, Dewar's and...something else, I forgot.  I'm just sayin'.

The Walking Dead--Episode 4--Indifference

In case it hasn't been obvious, I jot down quick things while I watch the episode, then type them up and publish them afterwards.  I say this so that nobody thinks that I'm embellishing anything after watching the episode--see the third bullet.  And so, a few short comments:

--Lizzie sort of creeps me out.  Not the least because when I hear "Lizzie," I think "Borden."

--Then again, Carol creeps me out now, too.

--"Indifference" is a fitting title for the beginning of this episode, but by the end, I'll bet someone has to do something because he / she isn't indifferent.

--That was an odd couple up there, throwing down the fruit.  How did they stay away from the pajama-clad walker up there for so long?

--Well, so much for the woman upstairs.  It doesn't pay to be a pretty, 20-something woman the last few episodes.

--But the second she made a point of showing the tattooed leg, you knew she was gone.  It was going to be used to identify her, though I thought she'd last long enough to be another burned body.

--I don't know about Rick telling Carol to get out, and I'm really surprised at how complacently she accepted it.  Why not fight that?

--This whole season could be called "indifferent" so far.  Rick the indifferent farmer.  Lizzie the indifferent blonde who shrugs off boyfriends who die.  (Or was that the other blonde girl?)  Carol the sociopathically indifferent judge of who gets to live and who dies.  When did everyone get so blase?

--Why do I get the feeling that Carol will run into the Governor?  But I wouldn't expect an Andrea-like connection with him.

--Rick will tell the truth to Tyrese about how and why he banished Carol, if for no other reason than that Rick simply doesn't lie.

--Where'd the guy go who was with Ana?  Maybe Carol will run into him, too.  If the Governor does first, this guy's in trouble.

--Good to see that these characters are as desensitized to violence as every other American is.  Looks like things don't change all that much, I guess.

--Next week's episode title: "Yeah, Whatever."

30 Days Without An Accident

Photo: To make it bigger, click on this great shot of Daryl and Michone, from http://entertainment.time.com/2013/10/13/the-walking-dead-watch-30-days-without-an-accident/

Loved the episode almost as much as I love the show (Andrea's exit notwithstanding.  It's the show's biggest strikeout, allowing her to have a casual conversation for so long with a guy who will obviously be a zombie soon.  Still not over that.)  But the title of this episode sounds like something you keep track of after a long and nasty stomach flu.  Maybe a really old person who's been wearing Depends for twenty years, trying to show some optimism.  Or me just being a bit immature.

Well, welcome to my blog about The Walking Dead.  I hope to cover a bit about each episode, so keep coming back if you like the show.  I'll probably include spoilers, so reader beware.

In this first episode of Season Four, we find the prison in a lax state.  They've got a garden, and the old man has a new leg.  Daryl has sort of taken over.  There's a lot of new people, and a lot of kids.  And we even have a library, which you know I like, if you've been reading my main blog at all.

And we've got some new romances.  If you're a diehard romantic like I am, you'll think right away: One of them's gonna get it.  Soon.  And then the nerdy kid shows up, and you know he's quick to go as well.  Sure enough, before you can say So young, yet so cynical, one of the young boys in love gets his neck and face chewed off--after saving someone else, no less--and the nerdy kid gets something nasty in the water (like the pig, probably), and turns while in the shower.  Sleeping cellblock beware, including the blonde girl who's been on the show awhile now, who shrugged her shoulders when told her boyfriend bought the farm.  (I swear that I predicted her reaction to someone as well.  She'd been rather la-de-da towards the kid before he'd left.)

I was about to be disappointed with the episode, with the predictability of it (you even knew the Copter Walkers would crash through the rotted roof soon), when the storyline with the weirdly pretty woods woman took over.  I was wondering if Rick was going to wonder why she was so green (literally; she was quite moldy) and you knew right away it was a mistake for him to give her the knife.  Luckily, she wasn't quite a killer, just a lovestruck and lost (and insanely depressed and starving) woman who just didn't want to go on anymore.  She wanted to serve her husband, you might say, and when she was unable to do that (her effort was rather lackluster), offered up herself instead.  She'll find, as she said, that you can't go back, and I doubt she'll find romance with her husband now that they're both walkers as well.  Look for them soon at the prison fence.

So where's the next episode to go?  You can expect a call for a cleanup in cellblock twelve, once Patrick is through with them.  Rick will regret telling the woods woman that having more people in the jail is a good thing, that there's safety in numbers.  There will be a lot of shambling walkers in the jail, many of whom had been just recently thirsty or sleeping.  Rick may also regret not killing the woods woman a second time before she could turn, and with her husband she will be amongst those who crash the fence.  And the fence will surely come down.  You know this not just because of the constant foreshadowing in the beginning, when all the characters were marveling at how the walkers knew to push at one part of the fence, and not be so spread out like they used to be.  Nope--you know this also because every before- (or was it after-) commercial promo has Rick standing in a section of ruined chain-link jail fence.  And you constantly hear the old man saying that everything they had tried to keep out has now made its way in.  Makes you regret The Governor hadn't won the jail war.

See you next week.