Stunt Granny Conversation: The Walking Dead – Season 4 – After

the-walking-dead-after-carl-rick

Jeremy:  After a few months of anticipation the show seemed incredibly uneven.

Kevin:  I think not having everyone in one spot made it feel uneven. Even when they don’t have major roles, you at least saw more than 3 of the main characters.
Jeremy:  My concern was the Carl arc. His emotions jumped all over and out of the blue. His anger made absolute sense. His arrogance building up as well. Then out of the blue he crumbles? In the span of three days.
Kevin:  I thought he was a justified dick in those situations. But I can see him being a basket case in that short amount of time. No matter what he’s learned, I’m not surprised some suburban white kid is going to turn into a bad ass who doesn’t flip out when his dad or some authority figure isn’t around.
Jeremy:  They showed him as too confident for the transformation to take place. The last image we had was him surveying the land eating pudding. Them he falls apart. It as as if there was another scene removed.
Kevin:  I think all of the bravado led to that moment. He’s trying to put up a facade but he can’t maintain it for that long of a time period. No matter how many people or zombies he’s killed, he could always run back to Rick Michonne, Daryl or Hershel. No back up.
Jeremy:  Yes, I also forget he is barely teenager so his lashing out will come and go. It was also a short time, literally, where he was being taught how to use a gun. You know he was going to get in some trouble on his own. The first round was nice as it showed how easily the slow moving walkers can overtake one person.
Kevin:  I was waiting for Carl to get taken out. I thought maybe he’d be more cautious after the run in with the walkers he lured away from the house. That is the other interesting thing about Carl, he made good decisions to go with the bad. Smart plan to make the noise away from where you’re staying.
Jeremy:  Arrogance for sure. Too young to learn from mistakes right now. Walking backwards never works out well. Where was he taking those two? Was waiting for a mysteriously placed cliff that never appeared.
Kevin:  He didn’t seem like he had a plan for where to stop.
Jeremy:  Yeah no blunt weapons or anything. I was confused. Then Uncle Jesse walker shows up out of blue,which was predictable but it was much better than the second walker encounter.
Kevin:  I was expecting Carl to be trapped under the zombie trio. While the second walker encounter doubled down on the cocky, getting yourself in trouble theme, it was a boring scene.

Jeremy:  There was a significant effort to make it seem like that was it for him. The close shits if the walker very close to biting his ankle. The parts with him constantly fumbling backwards and not standing up were too repetitive. Just get up already or aim for the face to break out its teeth. Who is training him anyway?
Kevin:  Not Carol or else he would have been ready. I did like that he wrote a message on the door keeping the walker in even if it reinforced his undeserved cockiness.
Jeremy:  Which lead to Michonne finding them.
Kevin:  That was the other part of everyone separating that I hope gets addressed. The Governor can wonder all over and then stumble into the prison again but everyone on last night’s show was acting like they’d never see anyone else ever again.
Jeremy:  There is the idea that they do not know who survived.
Kevin:  Ha. I suppose I should consider that. Carl was basically by himself and Michonne was definitely all alone. I’m trying to think of who else was together or if they all scattered. Didn’t a  larger contingent go with the school bus?
Jeremy:  Glen was only one in bus we care about. Tyreese has the two little girls. The rest are together. But no one really knows that. Daryl is with Beth.
Kevin:  I think the last part matters. If their escape plan had gone smoothly, maybe everyone isn’t freaking out so much. It was a crazy battle.
Jeremy:  Exactly. I do enjoy the single small story episodes. Before getting to end, Michonne’s journey and back story were slightly revealed.
Kevin:  Her story was more interesting to me than Carl & Rick. That was interesting seeing her past with her boyfriend.
Jeremy:  I was hoping for more of a straight forward approach. A flashback of exactly what went down. There would have been some seriously messed up stuff there.

Kevin:  They left you wanting more which is cool in some respects but you never know when they’ll get back to that history. I’d rather have more of it right now because I’ll probably forget about that scene by the time they give it more context.
Jeremy:  Cutting cheese with a sword was so silly. Also sounds like a great band name.
Kevin:  But she wasn’t really doing that, right? I figured that was her morph back to the present after day dreaming while walking with the hoard of zombies.
I thought I saw a regular knife in her hands earlier in the scene. I don’t think it was a botched scene edit either.
Jeremy:  Yeah it was regular. It was the beginning if her psychosis. Enjoyed those scenes. Something new from the show.
Kevin:  I wouldn’t mind more background from Tyreese and his sister either. Most of the people’s history has been given orally so seeing it is a different vibe.
Jeremy:  Tyreese has to be explored eventually. Michonne has the tribute going. Funny part about that though is no one bothers with Daryl’s back story. The turn around for Michonne was a relief. Seeing her go the lonely path again was annoying.

Kevin:  They paper over Daryl’s past by saying he was a criminal and leave it at that. I think the lonely path would be interesting because I don’t think they showed much of it before. The time her & Andrea spent together was mostly done during that break in seasons. Which I didn’t think about until now, most half seasons have a time jump from when we left off. No such time traveling last night.
Jeremy:  True but she made progress at the prison finally. She was trusted and an integral part of that society. Her reverting to old habits with her pets was funny.  I hope they explain why they go docile out of the blue. There was a brief mention but that transformation seemed instant.
Kevin:  I never thought about that aspect of their existence. They should try to go after people but not be able to do anything about it. Were you waiting for Michelangelo, Raphael & Donatello to show up when she snapped on the zombies?
Jeremy:  Ha. That scene was magic. Her staring at a walker version of herself, essentially, made me laugh. It wasn’t supposed to but her facial expressions just did me in.
Kevin:  I’ll have to go back and check those out. Nothing stood out to me.
Jeremy:  She was supposed to be annoyed but it came off different for me. One thing that really worked in the episode is that they didn’t drag things out. A few seasons ago Michonne would still be walking and Rick would be in a coma for 8 episodes. I thought the end was very cool.
Kevin:  I was afraid Carl was going to shot Rick. I still don’t understand why he exerted enough energy to come off the couch. I’ve slept that long after doing crazy architecture studio hours so it was good he stayed down for several days. I did Rick telling Carl “It’s for you” when he knew it was a friendly face.
Jeremy:  I am betting Michonne has the shoe as well. Hence how she knew they were there. Her starting to cry and then Rick smiling let the show end on a rare positive.
Kevin:  That’s good because the preview for next week didn’t look to be peaches and cream.

Jeremy:  Not at all. Before we end we need to address the fact The Governor is absolutely dead. Big that was made clear.
Kevin:  Along with Hershel. Both are done.
Jeremy:  Did that seem to be a tad much with Herschel? Sheesh.
Kevin:  They love their special effects budget. Use every blood soaked penny of it.
Jeremy:  That was an animatronic head from a cast. They had it on Talking dead later. Was pretty realiatic.
Kevin:  Very cool. I love that stuff. I’d watch without a good story because the effects are awesome. Luckily, they have a good story too.
Jeremy:  Yeah this weeks effect ts were top notch. They finally got the CGI blood down.
Kevin:  It seems like the easiest thing to get down but judging from many shows, it’s the toughest.
Jeremy:  Yes. CGI overuse is rampant and you would expect it to be perfect by now.
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