Monday, November 22, 2010

The Walking Dead: No Stereotype Left Unturned

The forth episode, "Vatos", aired last night. At this point, the series could go either way, better or worse. Yeah, it got worse.

Spoilers below the fold. If you're so inclined.


When last we left, the guys were out to rescue Stereotype Racist Merle from the roof when they found him. His hand at least. They followed his blood trail from his stump to where he apparently ran out a fire escape.

So they switched to plan B. Recover the bag of guns Rick left in the street.
Glenn makes the crazy mad dash and grabs the bag (Yeah, I really should have watched the preview from last week before my guess). Then out of nowhere, a low-rider filled with Latino gang-bangers (Like I said, no stereotype left unturned) looking thugs jump out, beat up Glenn and grab him and take off again when they couldn't get the guns. But not before Rick and his group grab one of the Chicos.

After a tense stand off, it turns out the Chicos weren't gang-bangers after all but nurses and care-takers for an abandoned old folks home. At this point the producers turn the Stereotype Latino Gang-Banger into the Politically Correct Enlightened Minority Lecturing The White Man. Rick and the lead Vato reach an agreement and split the guns.

On the trip back, they come back to where the van that brought them into town is now gone. Merle and his one hand.

Back at the camp, they settle in for the night with fish fry. Everyone nice and jovial until the zombies attack all at once.

The group from the city are running back to camp-- passing up the highway full of cars they could have boosted and arrived in time-- and arrived in camp to save the day. Well, except for the couple of people. Most notable Stereotype Wife Beater Ed and the young blond sister (Amy?) were the causalities.

After watching the preview for next week, I'm making a better educated guess for next week. A showdown between Merle and Rick will happen in episode 6, the last episode for the season.

One quibble with sound editing. The *squish* sound effect every time a zombie head shot happens is getting overused. To the point that is all I hear when they take out a zombie. Use it within reason.

5 comments:

  1. I don't think it got worse... I'm still liking it.

    I just wonder how many episodes they can wrench out of zombies vs. survivors... seems like there's a limited number of scenarios.

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  2. Worse indeed. I am surprised they just don't have the muzzies show up and show everyone the "light" in peace and harmony. Frag television.

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  3. There's plenty of material to be mined from..

    The Zombie Apocalypse set back progress roughly a hundred years. So there is plenty of room for pockets of society trying to rebuild and show how tribal it can get.

    But leave the PC out of it. The gang bangers who turn out to be the Noble Savages who are "Not So Different, You And I"

    I've enjoyed the series too but it's gone on a decline since the premier. The Merle character helped to sink it for me.

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  4. Eh... I've come to expect a certain amount of crap from Hollywood, so I've learned to overlook it unless it's *really* egregious.

    For example, I stopped watching Battlestar Galactica when they made an episode about the government negotiation with a freaking UNION in order to keep civilization on track. The union workers were treated as the most noble of humanity.

    And, I only watched a small part of one episode of Caprica because the very first episode excused a terrorist who blew up a train by calling him/her a freedom fighter.

    Compared to those examples, gang-banger caretakers seem pretty tame.

    The more annoying part of this show, to me, is the stupidity of the main characters. Nobody was keeping watch during the fish fry? Rick & Co. couldn't lift a car to get back to camp?

    But, again, a certain amount of nonsense is to be expected. Unfortunately.

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  5. Jana- So do I to a certain point..

    The cars in the highway scene that they passed by multiple times was the catalyst for my rants. :)

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