The Walking Dead (S5) - First half of season thread

[Stash]

I can understand where you're coming from on that living situation being better.

But I get the mindset that Rick and his group are in. They're not going to force people to be with them, or stay somewhere, and they're not going to trust people who are running a place that does. Rick and his group simply couldn't fit in with such a group, or environment, because they're not going to be ordered around or sit back and watch while old people are bullied and female wards are raped.

Now I could see a reasoning for Rick and his crew to go in and take out all the bad people and take the place over and stay there. That would make sense but I'm guessing since they're trying to follow the comics to a some degree that they simply aren't doing it because then it stops them in a place that isn't where the comic goes.

So much of it makes so little sense to me and reeks of lazy writing.

In my opinion, the greed behind the show is rearing its' ugly head and the quality is suffering for it. Instead of paying a premium for the best story writers they can get, I think they're going the cheaper route and I think it shows.

 

[TellerMorrow34]

So much of it makes so little sense to me and reeks of lazy writing.

In my opinion, the greed behind the show is rearing its' ugly head and the quality is suffering for it. Instead of paying a premium for the best story writers they can get, I think they're going the cheaper route and I think it shows.

Entirely possible. I wouldn't be surprised by that in the least.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

So much of it makes so little sense to me and reeks of lazy writing.

In my opinion, the greed behind the show is rearing its' ugly head and the quality is suffering for it. Instead of paying a premium for the best story writers they can get, I think they're going the cheaper route and I think it shows.

Well the story back between season 1 and season 2 when Darabont quit/fired/resigned was that it was due to the direction of the writing and the cutting of costs.

The level of zombie-action has picked up in seasons 3-5, but the whole telling of the "story" has gotten worse IMO.

 

[Stash]

Well the story back between season 1 and season 2 when Darabont quit/fired/resigned was that it was due to the direction of the writing and the cutting of costs.

The level of zombie-action has picked up in seasons 3-5, but the whole telling of the "story" has gotten worse IMO.

Totally agree.

 

[Stryker44]

Well the story back between season 1 and season 2 when Darabont quit/fired/resigned was that it was due to the direction of the writing and the cutting of costs.

The level of zombie-action has picked up in seasons 3-5, but the whole telling of the "story" has gotten worse IMO.

You'd think they would just re-hire Darabont

 

[MichaelWinicki]

You'd think they would just re-hire Darabont

Well even if we think the story has gotten weak(er), the show is still amazingly popular... I doubt anyone associated with the show or AMC would consider Darabont.

And Darabont is off on his own projects and doubt he would ever consider coming back.

Bottom line is that neither side desires the other.

 

[iceberg]

it seems like they're becoming a victim of their own success. this season was kinda like a buffet with a little something for everyone but no one really got anything "good" or "great" out of it.

we spend 1/2 a season touting terminus. carol rambos her way though it and in a few short episodes, bob has a pretty serious limp and we have a priest having mental issues of being moral and rick kept his promise on what knife he'd use to kill the dude with. to a huge degree this would be classified as "unresolved anticipation" in which they keep pointing to the next evolution of the story then for the most part do nothing with it and throw it away on a gypsy run into the wilderness.

enter tight haired chic trying to run a hospital with a gun, an attitude, and a lot of lies. I never saw so many "police" until the last episode when war was coming so it's pretty amazing to me a dozen armed people don't mind getting punched by a woman with testosterone issues who always looks like she just farted in the other room.

there was simply no real direction or building to a direction this season. we had in all:

1) cannibals who can't live on the outside
2) a priest who is freaking out and we're trying hard to care why
3) 10+ people who bought a fake DC story from a dude with a mullet
4) getting around in Atlanta is much easier than it used to be and falling over chain link fences are very effective in parking lot protection
5) carol killing off terminus and getting wasted by getting hit by a car
6) beth struggling to find relevance in the story as well as her current situation
7) a sister who didn't care about her until she had the opportunity to win the "over the top reactions to a death of a person you've not mentioned in 2+ months" award but to be fair, she'd probably have lost a lung if she tried to be any more dramatic in the sorrow of beths death.

then let's get right down to it. we spend a LOT of time with beth and daryl on their own growing the relationship. some people even wondering if daryl is playing hide the hot dog with her. we had what, 1/2 a season into developing beths character and this is the best they could do? in here we either loved or hated the emotional investment in learning the history, their wants and needs and how they got to where they are today.

I mean this is a zombie show about the people and survival after the fall of mankind. we're *supposed* to get into their own drama. instead we build and plot and put her in situations to grow the character only to have her die in about as meaningless death that anyone would fear as a waste of their entire existence. beth knew a bad cop when she saw one. she also survived in the streets and woods for all these months+ this has all been going on. even the cop said beth was strong and we knew that cause she could take a hairpin and get through 1/2 a dozen zombies with that and a headstomp or two.

yet she can't put a pair of scissors in someones neck while standing face to face.

so we get 1/2 way through a season, lost beth to someone's last minute decision to kill someone off and call it a story, and no real reason to anticipate the 2nd half of the season for the most part.

I understand and appreciate the time and effort it takes and our own investment we make to believe in what we're told for the story. there are times I think the show has come a long long way in character development. then they go off and make Maggie a mourner at an over-reactors convention, kill beth for shock value, kill her killer cause that's how we roll (when we're not rolling into you THEN shooting you) and offer to take a lot of over protected people out into the wild in Atlanta.

where for some reason fires still burn in the city streets.

I'm hopeful the rest of the season will build to something and not just be a quick story for the sake of moving things along to nowhere.

 

[cowboyeric8]

That is so spot on ice that there is no way I could have said any better. I'm to the point that I don't anticipate episodes like I used to, usually it's just something I haven't watched yet on my DVR. I'm not invested in it anymore.

 

[blindzebra]

I am taking the opposite view and here is why.

Early on Rick told Carl he is never safe, take nothing for granted because it can get you killed.

Get too caught up with Sasha and you get bit and lose a leg and die.

Get too used to doing things on your own...remember Beth telling Daryl I am getting good at this and won't need you...and you die a stupid death.

I take the time invested in Beth's growth and her needless death as a statement to the world they live in...take nothing for granted or you will die. Just like Carl last season she was young and stupid and took a risky chance. Carl lost a shoe, Beth brought scissors to a gun fight.

 

[iceberg]

I am taking the opposite view and here is why.

Early on Rick told Carl he is never safe, take nothing for granted because it can get you killed.

Get too caught up with Sasha and you get bit and lose a leg and die.

Get too used to doing things on your own...remember Beth telling Daryl I am getting good at this and won't need you...and you die a stupid death.

I take the time invested in Beth's growth and her needless death as a statement to the world they live in...take nothing for granted or you will die. Just like Carl last season she was young and stupid and took a risky chance. Carl lost a shoe, Beth brought scissors to a gun fight.

not even going to challenge this because in part, I agree. there were holes all over the story. from the talking dead she found out the week before she was getting killed and it really does seem they did it to kill someone, not tell a story. I don't care if she brought a bic lighter, 3 toothpicks and some vasoline, the story was a train wreck in regard to bot continuity and opportunity. almost like they new the 1st half ended weak, do something last minute.

and beth wasn't on her own. when she went and did that both daryl and rick were there along with many more. she was far from alone and for some stupid act of questionable reason she tried to kill someone she helped what, earlier that day? day before?

so much more could have been done and what we were stuck with, to me, was an afterthought, not creative planning.

 

[TellerMorrow34]

The reason is because the story, IMO, is trying to stick to closely to that of the comic in terms of where they're going and what they want to get to. But for a TV show that has to do X amount of shows they have to waste time with things like this season so they're not getting to places before they're ready to.

It's obvious the next important/big part of the story arc is going to be the Hilltop Community/Alexandria Safe Zone. So everything between the end of last season and whenever they finally get to finding that place (Which they hinted at in the previews for the second half of the season when Michione mentioned they're only 100 miles away) is going to be filler.

They put in the cannibals as a filler only because the Cannibals are a short time filler in the comic right after the prison. That story was never going to be more fleshed out and never bigger or more important than what it was. It was simply a small side plot to the lives of the characters.

Quite frankly they completely botched the Eugene reveal. It happened to early and it happened in just a stupid way. He shouldn't have been admitting it there. They shouldn't have divided the groups just to do that. It was obvious when the groups split that they were going to blow the reveal very quickly as it would be the only real way to make the groups comeback together.

Beth...ehhhh....they did what they could. They tried to make her a far more important part of the group and story than she ever was in the comic. As I recall in the comic Hershal's other daughter (Not Maggie obviously) was raped and killed right after they found the prison. She doesn't play a factor in the group or anything at all and they tried to turn her into someone who did matter.

They did the best they could, maybe, with a character that just quite frankly I didn't care about and never had any reason to care about her. She's always just been part of the group who was just there. Her death did nothing. Its just someone dying in a terrible world.