Walking Dead: Wildfire
OK. Finally. Something happened. I was beginning to get pretty annoyed with this show. A bunch of unsympathetic characters doing stupid things. It’s like I was watching some MTV reality show. The characters are just so bone headed. Unfortunately that’s what I almost always hate about horror movies: the main characters are dumb, dumb, dumb. I can handle one or two. But when everyone is an idiot it’s hard not the cheer for the monsters to raise the average IQ of the populace a wee bit. Think of it as evolution in action.
There was still some of that this week. But not as bad as previous weeks. Angela refuses to let anyone finish off her dead sister. She waits until she revives so she can tell her a bunch of stuff before killer her. Huh? You risked getting bit for that? I’ll predict she’s next to go.
We find out that Jim was bitten and Grimes suggests everyone head to the CDC. Which doesn’t sound like such a bad idea to me. We already know their current location will be overrun and no one else seems to be making any plans at all. Now were it me I’d be headed to some sparsely populated agricultural area and hole up until the plague is over. But since the CDC is just on the other side of Atlanta that is probably a good idea. So of course everyone tries to talk him out of it.
In a weird scene Shane and Grimes walk in the forest as Shane tries to talk Grimes out of leaving. They hear something and Grimes goes off to investigate. Shane then puts a bead on him and nearly shoots him. (Foreshadowing anyone?) Clearly Shane resents Grimes return on numerous levels. Dale walks up and sees Shane about to shoot Grimes. Shane gives some cock and bull story and walks off.
There gang finally makes it to the CDC after leaving Jim on the side of the road to turn into a zombie. We are then treated to the perspective of the last remaining CDC researcher working in a lab that I bet resembles no biological lab in existence with some AI computer that no CDC researcher has. Somehow I just doubt there is an automated fire system at the CDC to turn a research lab into an inferno. But hey, it moves the plot along in what I like to call ham fisted foreshadowing. Basically our intrepid researcher is losing it, is the last scientist on earth, and needs fresh specimens. Can you make any educated guesses about what next week’s episode will involve?
Our unlikely band of heros arrives at the CDC at dusk right as the zombies are waking from their stupor. They pound on the doors of the CDC and our researcher, watching them on camera, says, “leave. Just leave.” (Or words to that effect) Of course just as they are about to leave he opens the doors and lets them in.
Other Thoughts:
Why not just give Jim a headshot? Leaving him like that creates one more zombie and consigns him to a fate worse than death. I’d have wanted a headshot. But at least they decided to actually listen to what people want. I guess you can show in gruesome detail pickaxes through heads but not the “good guys” having to shoot someone not about to eat them. (We’ve seen that repeated several times on the show)
Daryl sometimes seems to be the only rational guy on the show. Which makes me think he’s not long for this earth. I hated his brother but Daryl isn’t quite as nutso or racist. He’s still a caricatured racist redneck mind you. But at least he makes some sense.
It’s hard for me to believe I’m going to bother with this show after the finale if things don’t significantly change. If next week turns into the mad scientist capturing wanderers for sinister experiments I’m out of here. It’s possible to take scenes from bad B-movies and string them into something interesting. (Look at Fringe) I can even excuse some of the silliness like the lab ripping off liberally from Andromeda Strain. Once again, look at Fringe for entertaining bad science. I just honestly and sincerely need someone to cheer for. And Grimes just ain’t good enough…
Posted on November 29, 2010, in Television. Bookmark the permalink. 24 Comments.
Steve Evans
RJH
Scott B.
John C.
Susan M
Aaron Brown
ninemoons
arandomjohn
kulturblogadmin
Kyle M
Brad
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MCQ
Wm
Rebecca
Ivan
Geoff J
btdgreg
Clark Goble
Aaron R.
Tim J
Ben
I don’t know if you should let people know that Daryl is the guy you identify with the most.
Again, I mostly liked this episode. It seemed like things that real people would do in this situation. I don’t rationally agree with Andrea’s actions with her sister, or the group’s decision on Jim, but I think it’s understandable and believable that people would behave irrationally in this situation.
I think the decision to leave Jim will come back to…um…bite them.
Oh and why does it matter what equipment the CDC actually has? The only thing that matters is that the CDC could have that stuff. It’s not beyond the realm of possibility. The Andromeda Strain was believable (mostly) and it was written in the 70s. Why couldn’t the CDC have that same stuff now?
An AI?
Leave it to Clark to find some improbable minutiae in a show about walking dead people. (grin)
I thought this was a strong episode. Didn’t understand Shane at all this episode though. First he’s mad at Grimes, then wants to shoot him, until finally agreeing to go? His actions didn’t make any sense this episode.
“I just honestly and sincerely need someone to cheer for. And Grimes just ain’t good enough…”
I’ve grown to like Grimes but I’m with you overall. The show now has an ensemble without any good characters. The CDC scientist seems promising.
One thing that bothers me about this show is that it tries to maintain a certain level of innocence and poignancy while a guy is driving a pick axe thru a dead zombie’s skull. I don’t think the juxtaposition works in this case.
LOL. I don’t know why I can handle it in Fringe but in this one it bugs me. Obviously it was just there to establish that he needs fresh infected tissue. I think they could have come up with a cleverer way of doing it rather than have a computer torch a room.
The CDC scientist would look promising except they are really foreshadowing him being the mad scientist from a 50′s B movie. Hopefully they don’t do that. But mark my words: the cliffhanger next week will be them fighting with the CDC.
I like Rick (Grimes) and I’m cheering for him, so maybe that’s why I like the show more than you do, Clark. I do agree that there are not a lot of appealing characters, and some are not even interesting, but Rick seems like a guy to root for to me.
Clark, I’m not sure what you mean by “an AI.” Obviously, there is a sophisticated computer system being shown at CDC. I’m not sure it qualifies as an AI and I don’t know where you came up with that, but even if it technically qualifies as an AI, I don’t think that alone makes the episode unbelievable. This could be taking place a few years in the furure. I don’t think there’s anything in the series that has said exactly what year this all is happening.
The computer torches the room because there’s a containment breach. Everything in the room is automatically burned to ensure that there is no further spread of organisms. That doesn’t mean the computer has AI, it just means there is an automatic response to a sensor being tripped.
How did it know the people were out of the room? If it wasn’t AI then it was a brain dead system no one in their right mind would install.
But I’ll let it drop. It just really bugged me. As I said they just needed an excuse for the scientist to need new tissue samples. I hated the way they established it. Actually I hated the way they made that video chat too. The direction just really bugged me.
I’ve already thrown in the towel on this show. I just find it boring. I love me a good zombie flick. The problem is this show isn’t that.
Clark, we do currently have technology that determines wheter anyone is in a room and reacts accordingly. My lights and HVAC system in my office come to mind. I assume that the CDC’s system would be more sophisticated than that, but it need not be AI or brain dead to accomplish that feat.
Was it video chat, or was he simply recording his observations as any scientist would do? I think he was required to record everything, and maybe he started sending his daily log out into cyberspace once the whole zombie apocalypse started. At this point he’s questioning whether anyone is listening, but he keeps it up out of habit.
Another question I have (again) is where’s Merle? Didn’t he get out of that handcuff and steal the van? Where did he go?
I honestly thought we’d see Merle by now. I’m surprised.
MCQ, there’s a difference between motion detecting and knowing a room is vacant. If they decided the room was vacant by a motion detector then that’s even more brain dead design.
It wasn’t video chat given the weird picture corruption the editor/director decided to give it. But that’s probably picking even worse. I guess I just got spoiled by Rubicon.
Geoff, I’m nearly there. What’s weird is how popular the show is. Last night got some of the highest ratings ever. Personally I’d have swapped a renewed Rubicon over this thing any day. Maybe someone who cares more about the show should post the recaps in the future.
There’s no question that Rubicon is light years better. But I still find this show entertaining.
I’m still watching, but it hasn’t quite grabbed me the way I’d hoped. But I felt this way about Fringe much of its first season and then it found its way. Ditto Chuck with its first season. So let’s hope that the episodes next summer are better and aren’t quite so slavish to the comic.
“Leave it to Clark to find some improbable minutiae in a show about walking dead people.”
Clark, did you like Lost? Because I’m amazed at the minutiae and stuff that just don’t add up that people can’t seem to put up with on this show after we all watched years of Lost.
“How did it know the people were out of the room? If it wasn’t AI then it was a brain dead system no one in their right mind would install.”
It knew the person had gone through the shower, it said the dude had been disinfected (or whatever language it used).
“I honestly thought we’d see Merle by now. I’m surprised.”
In the comics there is a one-handed man that has a prominent role. I wonder if they’ll use Merle for that part.
I liked the episode. The show isn’t at the same level as Breaking Bad or Rubicon, but I still enjoy it more than most everything else that’s on right now. And amazingly it’s the first Zombie-related show or movie that has held my wife’s interest for more than ten minutes.
My wife and kids can’t stand to watch it because of the blood and gore. I agree that some scenes are pretty bad that way.
I liked the way Zombieland treated that stuff. It had a lot of humor so the blood and killing seemed more cartoonish and funny. This show is so serious and emotional that the blood and killing somehow seem worse. Or maybe they just are worse. You don’t see that many axes and picks to the head in prime time TV that often.
Zombieland is pretty much my ideal zombie show. I wish this show was a little more like that.
I agree that the characters aren’t all acting rational, and that’s usually okay. But the one thing that bothers me is that Grimes wants to find a way to fix the whole zombie apocalypse, at great risk to his family, when he should be fortifying for the future and finding a better location (like Clark says).
The character I like the best is Dale. He isn’t the leader but he might be the sharpest in the group. It takes him just a few seconds to know what Shane is doing when drawing a bead on Rick. Almost like he’s known all along that’s how this would pan out, and he doesn’t buy the “orange vest” excuse from Shane for a second. I just wish he were a little stronger character. The way he waited maybe 24 hours to say ‘Maybe we should listen to what Jim wants.’
JJohnson, I loved Lost. I think they left a lot of minutae unexplained. (I’ve not seen the featurette on the DVDs yet) However with a few minor exceptions I didn’t see egregious errors.
The one thing in Lost that did bug me was why they had to press the button. Why not just program the computer to do it automatically?
MCQ, Zombieland and Shaun of the Dead were indeed two of the great ones. (Other than how Bill Murray died – but we’ve already done that to death) I don’t mind there not being much comedy in Walking although honestly I’d probably be letting lose with a lot of black humor myself in those circumstances.
Cantinflas, I agree Dale is the one sympathetic character but he’s not given enough. That said I think Grimes is still holding out faith there is some government program that will save everything despite all evidence to the contrary.
Interesting: Walking Dead lets go of all its writers. Sounds like they are really going to shake things up. Perhaps my complaints will be heeded? Or is this just Daramont wanting to write them all himself?
Fido, anyone?
Apparently, most of the scripts this season ended up being written or rewritten by Darabont or freelancers anyway, so the decision to let the staff go may just be a response to tha reality. I don’t think it means that there will be a huge shift in approach because the finished product this season was mostly not created by the staff anyway.
Will there be a final episode post, or am I the only one that made it through the last episode? (I just finished it)
I put one up since no one else did.